EE - The Peak of CMS Functionality.
We use ExpressionEngine to create bespoke, powerful, and secure websites for our clientele. It allows us to create highly extensible sites …
Starting at $299 One Time Fee
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What is ExpressionEngine?
ExpressionEngine is a content management system from EllisLab in 2002, a successor to pMachine Pro, a blogging system, which is written in object-oriented PHP and uses MySQL for data storage. ExpressionEngine is their flagship Content Delivery Platform.
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- Role-based user permissions (33)10.0100%
- Code quality / cleanliness (32)10.0100%
- Admin section (32)10.0100%
- Availability / breadth of extensions (32)8.080%
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Solspace's Calendar Add-on for ExpressionEngine
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What is ExpressionEngine?
ExpressionEngine is an open source content
management system developed by EllisLab in 2002 as a successor to pMachine
Pro, a blogging system, which is written in object-oriented PHP and uses MySQL
for data storage. EllisLab closed in 2018, but ExpressionEngine is still available, as an open source CMS.
With CodeIgniter, an agile, open-source framework, web professionals can use ExpressionEngine to build websites and applications. The software is meant to be useful for companies of any size and private individuals as well, and to that end it is highly customizable, and implementation may vary. Like many content management systems, various add-ons will determine what the system does, though the core features are somewhat broader than similarly classed free offerings. The Multiple Site Manager allows a user to create and manage multiple sites from a single ExpressionEngine installation. Nexcess (a partner) provides a hosting environment for an ExpressionEngine-powered website.
With CodeIgniter, an agile, open-source framework, web professionals can use ExpressionEngine to build websites and applications. The software is meant to be useful for companies of any size and private individuals as well, and to that end it is highly customizable, and implementation may vary. Like many content management systems, various add-ons will determine what the system does, though the core features are somewhat broader than similarly classed free offerings. The Multiple Site Manager allows a user to create and manage multiple sites from a single ExpressionEngine installation. Nexcess (a partner) provides a hosting environment for an ExpressionEngine-powered website.
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ExpressionEngine Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
ExpressionEngine is a content management system from EllisLab in 2002, a successor to pMachine Pro, a blogging system, which is written in object-oriented PHP and uses MySQL for data storage. ExpressionEngine is their flagship Content Delivery Platform.
Reviewers rate Role-based user permissions and WYSIWYG editor and Code quality / cleanliness highest, with a score of 10.
The most common users of ExpressionEngine are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Reliable Performance: Many users have praised the product for its reliable performance. Several reviewers mentioned that the product consistently meets their expectations and performs well in various scenarios. Ease of Use: The ease of use is a common pro mentioned by several customers. Users appreciate how intuitive and user-friendly the product is, making it easy to navigate and operate without any hassle or confusion. Great Customer Support: Some users have expressed their satisfaction with the great customer support provided by the company. They have found the support team to be responsive, helpful, and efficient in resolving any issues or inquiries they had.
Cons:
- Quality Issues: Some users have experienced quality issues with the product, including defects and malfunctions. Several reviewers have mentioned receiving damaged items or products that broke shortly after purchase.
- Lack of Customer Support: Many customers have expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of responsive customer support. Several users have reported difficulties in contacting the company for assistance or resolving issues related to their purchase.
- Limited Features/Functionality: Some users feel that the product lacks certain features or functionalities they expected. Reviewers have mentioned specific features missing from the product, such as advanced customization options or compatibility with other devices, which have impacted their overall experience.
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ExpressionEngine is recommended by many users as a great and promising update in the CMS market. It is praised for being free, open-source, and supported by a helpful developer community. Users suggest exploring extensions in the market to enhance its capabilities.
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Improvement is needed in areas such as help and support, as well as managing SEO. Those concerned about security should consider alternative solutions. Reading the developer documentation thoroughly is advised, along with using EE Harbor extensions.
3.ExpressionEngine is suitable for creating different channels and effectively managing website content. It is favored by confident HTML and PHP developers seeking customization options. The platform is considered user-friendly and secure, with the ability to handle large data or databases through proper caching.
While some express concerns about the direction and progress of ExpressionEngine, many still regard it as a leading commercial offering. It is advised to carefully consider project requirements and customization needs when choosing between ExpressionEngine and other CMS platforms like WordPress or Drupal. The value of the EE support plan and the helpfulness of the community are also mentioned as factors to consider for web agencies.
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March 15, 2018
ExpressionEngine - the CMS of Choice
I worked at an advertising agency that used ExpressionEngine for all their client websites; it was their CMS of choice. All of the developers installed it, set up custom fields and made it meet the client's requests, each site is fully customized for the client. We had a boilerplate set up that enabled us to set up a new install quickly.
- ExpressionEngine manages content and users extremely well and with ease.
- ExpressionEngine is reliable and scales for small websites to enterprise websites.
- ExpressionEngine has a large community following and many reliable plugins.
- ExpressionEngine makes a ton of calls to the database, so caching is extremely important.
- ExpressionEngine has a learning curve when learning to set up templates properly.
December 28, 2015
Get ready to commit some time!
ExpressionEngine was used by the marketing department who is the business unit responsible for the company's web presence. The only users in the organization were myself and a few others in the marketing department. The others had access only to post and edit entries in certain areas of the site, where I had access to, and was in charge of all areas of the site and further development. It was used regularly for news releases and updating content.
- It has very specific user-access controls. You can create custom categories of user access and assign users to any of them. It has the capability to grant very specific access to virtually any area of the site. Assigning new users and deleting old users is very easy as well.
- The ability to customize the CMS is probably the most robust feature. No site is exactly the same and the live version shouldn't feel like a template. ExpressionEngine makes sure you are in charge of exactly what you need.
- More and more, there are developers creating great new modules that add higher functionality and customization. Installing and removing modules is very easy.
- Its no secret that ExpressionEngine is not for beginners in CMS's. While there is certainly a vast network of support available online, EllisLabs does little to help the average/new user. You get the feeling that you more or less need a coding background to understand how to use ExpressionEngine.
- My particular experience with the install on my company's server had always been 'glitchy'. Whether or not it had to do with our hosting or something else, I will never know. But I think compatibility with different server types is something that EllisLabs could address.
- It seems to me that on some level, ExpressionEngine could certainly automate template building. Building templates relies heavily on the user to code everything. The user must manually create their own templates, which is one of the better capabilities of ExpressionEngine, but on some level, there could be shortcuts to automating/generating ExpressionEngine code. This would be especially helpful for newer users to adapt to template building.
August 29, 2015
ExpressionEngine can do it all... For a price.
Satdaya is a creative services firm that includes web development among our services. We recommend and use ExpressionEngine to our clients when their projects and IT needs require more flexibility than what most other content management systems can offer. D&D Technologies is one of those clients, and they have been with us and using Expression Engine since version 1.x! We have also built our firm's project management system with ExpressionEngine, and our software as a service venture, Eventida, also uses it.
ExpressionEngine is unique in that it allows you to build your own content structure to fit, manipulate, and output your information exactly the way you want. Its template structure is like a blank canvas - any HTML, any CSS, any Javascript, any PHP can be used within the templates any way you'd like. Therefore, it is a viable solution to many business problems that require managing and displaying information online.
- Content structuring. You can set up channels and fields to hold just about any kind of information imaginable; text, images, videos, numbers, code, etc. You can structure this information any way you want and in any order. You literally create your own information database just the way you want it using a clear, easy online interface.
- Template system. Utter freedom. Need I say more?
- Exensible. There are a lot of add-ons, extensions, and other external modules that extend the core functionality of ExpressionEngine. Need a user management system? Check out the User module at http://solspace.com.
- Big learning curve! In my opinion, ExpressionEngine is not really for the inexperienced, be it users or developers. Clients who aren't web-savvy have a hard time picking up the backend, and end up paying more for a custom front-end control panel to fit their project needs. Developers have to learn the templating language. It's not that complicated for someone who is experienced with HTML/CSS, at least, let alone a programmer, but still expect to spend weeks, if not months, learning all the ins and outs.
- It's not free or cheap. A license for the core ExpressionEngine software is currently $299 a pop. Premium add-ons can average between $20-$200 for their licenses, but there are also many add-ons that are free. https://devot-ee.com/ is the premier marketplace for ExpressionEngine add-ons.
- A relatively small user/developer community = above-average contractor rates. ExpressionEngine experts hard to find and do not come cheap, and understandably so. ExpressionEngine is a highly specialized and advanced CMS. Due to the price barrier, ExpressionEngine is nowhere near as popular as free WordPress or Joomla!.
- Poor software updating system. ExpressionEngine is NOT WordPress where you get pushed core and add-on update notifications, and apply them with a few clicks. Updating ExpressionEngine requires a developer who can manually go in, backup everything, upload specific files, and otherwise follow specific procedures that require time and expertise. Due to the changing and hazardous nature of the Internet, it's imperative to keep your software updated - so this makes ExpressionEngine not ideal for projects with small budgets.
620 Studio uses ExpressionEngine for both the company website and is the default content management system we use when building websites for other companies. It allows us the ability to design and build websites without any limitations to pre-existing templates or requiring us to build our HTML files just to take them apart again to fit into PHP templates; our code and designs stay completely intact. ExpressionEngine has the flexibility to create any type of website from the ground up; it's a giant box of sand with an arsenal of tools and I can build any type of castle I want for us and our client.
- First-party and Community Support - ExpressionEngine has a large support base both from EllisLab, the maker of ExpressionEngine, and the vast community of users. Any challenges that arise during a project, there is either a third-party plugin or a solution already posted on a discussion forum.
- End-User Experience - Every website we build is custom from the ground up; no two are alike. Each install of ExpressionEngine is built and organized to fit that specific client. With the use of custom fields, our clients can easily update and maintain their website while keeping the styling intact. Many systems will give one large WYSIWYG box and it's up to the user to ensure the styling of the content matches the page and branding. ExpressionEngine allows us to create a entry form guiding them through the process of creating or editing a web page. We can decide how strict or loose the content areas are based on the technical expertise of the client or website administrators.
- Templates - The templates built into ExpressionEngine use native HTML for rendering. Within the HTML, we're able to inject their tags into our code to process the functionality. This makes moving our front-end code into the back-end quick and seamless. This is incredibly helpful for maintenance purposes as we find reading HTML is far quicker and easier to read and diagnose than PHP code.
- Third-party Plugins - ExpressionEngine has a large community of module, extension and plugin developers to help solve any challenge. Custom fieldtypes can be easily installed for better user experience. Powerful add-ons for eCommerce and site searches developed by well-known and highly reputable companies ensure support is always available. ExpressionEngine does not suffer from an over-abundance of third-party plugins questioning the level of support especially with ExpressionEngine system updates.
- License - ExpressionEngine is a licensed product and has a license fee that comes with each install. Most of the additional first-party functionality that is available outside of the core ExpressionEngine install has a license attached. For large websites with a lot of functionality, software licenses for ExpressionEngine and third-party plugins as well can cause the price to exceed the budget of a client.
- Third-party Plugins Required - EllisLabs has been making strives in adding native functionality into ExpressionEngine that would have required third-party plugins in previous versions. They tread carefully not to punish plugin developers who are selling their plugins by building it into the system at no additional charge, however certain functionality like page organization for site navigation should be already included and more streamlined for the client.
- System Updates - Compared to other content management systems, ExpressionEngine is not the easiest when updating to newer versions. Its a manual process of copying, uploading and moving files. There is no "push-button" approach without purchasing a commercial add-on by a third-party developer. With the requirement of third-party plugins to be added for user experience, each system update will require a proactive approach by the plugin developers and the admin updating the system to ensure the plugins will work on future versions. Most admins will wait several months to ensure plugins and minor bugs are ironed out prior to updating.
We use ExpressionEngine as a CMS for our public website, http://bacterin.com. The biggest issue I have with ExpressionEngine is the lack of current documentation and third party module/plugin support. I find WordPress to be a much more simple solution to CMS with a much larger community. I do like how clean ExpressionEngine code is, but that simply can't outweigh the cons of the product.
- Clean Code Output
- Straight-forward CMS input
- Simple page management
- Session timeout/cookies suck
- Needs much more community
- Needs more current documentation.
July 07, 2015
ExpressionEngine - a CMS for all seasons
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use ExpressionEngine as a tool in my arsenal to provide web design and development services to clients. I've found that it is an extremely flexible and scalable CMS solution for a large number of web application needs. ExpressionEngine is a blank canvas upon which my clients can build their web-based marketing and business solutions.
- Flexible templating engine - ExpressionEngine makes no assumptions about what type of website or application you want to create. It does a good job of separating data from data presentation, allowing you to choose the front-end framework that works best for your/your client's needs.
- Robust community support - The ExpressionEngine community is very helpful. There are many resources for third-party add-ons and technical support answers.
- Forward-thinking architecture - Built on CodeIgniter, ExpressionEngine uses a well-documented and proven PHP architecture that is scalable and powerful.
- Third-party AddOns - ExpressionEngine's flexibility is also a drawback. Because it makes no assumptions about your web project, it doesn't offer every feature under the sun. Expect to increase your budget to accommodate the variety of third-party AddOns that really make it shine. Not everything is done well, and some functionality is best left for dedicated third-party solutions.
- Configuration - ExpressionEngine requires time and expertise to get an installation really dialed in before you can hit the ground running. There are a lot of configuration options, and adding third-party AddOns to the mix increases the amount of configuration. However, this is a good example of the power of the software. You have a lot of options and can really dial in security settings, software behavior, administrative access and so forth.
July 07, 2015
Is ExpressionEngine the best form of expression?
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
The job was for the site Monumentsmen.com, a marketing site to advertise the upcoming feature film directed by and starring George Clooney, as well as advertise the book The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel as well as his follow up book Saving Italy. The site was also set to feature a vast amount of historic information as well as a subscription restricted access section featuring lesson plans for University art programs. I was also given a deadline of two weeks to develop a stable release.
ExpressionEngine was also used as the CMS for a corporate presence site for a well known cloud storage company.
ExpressionEngine was also used as the CMS for a corporate presence site for a well known cloud storage company.
- What you're given is a CMS with a strong database schema to group and deliver contextual data with fantastic ease of development. Accessing data from a table is an easy scripting language in which the results read like English language sentences yet still powerful enough to adapt to infinite design needs.
- No need to amend a template system. Build the templates on the fly and let ExpressionEngine deliver them. This resulted in an easy front end development with no learning curve. It was like having a blank slate in which the CMS would exist to mainly feed the data to the front end.
- ExpressionEngine can deploys the entire site as flat files for an extremely fast loading product which also pleases the SEO nerds.
- At it's base, all of the site, HTML, CSS, javascript, data, etc... , are stored in a sql database. If you have a site that needs to be dynamic: IE a site that has a blog, or comments, or customer contributions, you'll find that each and every page load would result in thousands of database calls. Queries to a database is some of the slowest transactions a page load can have. If the entire site is loaded through said transactions you'll find it's impossible to break any speed records. ExpressionEngine would not be my choice if those are a requirement. Though there are work-arounds. As of 2.5.5 there was no option to render part of the site as flat file and part of the site as dynamic.
- Because the development of the site is saved entirely in the database it became somewhat cumbersome save versions of the site to a git repository. The only difference between one install of ExpressionEngine and another is the database itself. You could make a SQL dump from one site and load it into another and have completely migrated the site. This sounds great if you need to migrate sites all the time, but backing up versions of an existing site meant backing up sql dumps.
- In EE v.2.8.1 you can now export template files to flat files so that database connections will be reduced. This addition will help the CMS greatly.
- This is actually in part and parcel with the last point. Being that git repository back up is difficult, collaborate development would also be a challenge. I was lucky to be the sole developer on my projects, but if you have multiple developers working on one product and they have branching code sets, the merging of this code would be time consuming, being that the developers would have to manually add the code to the same install rather than an easy deploy script. Why would this be? Because until the product is rendered to flat files it's all in the database. Of course this could all be overcome by having a dev environment that is shared by all developers. Then deploying to staging or production would just be the act of dumping then loading SQL files. But that is not the current work flow that developers have grown to appreciate.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I recommend ExpressionEngine as a CMS platform for my clients' websites when their content management requirements align with its core features or when EE's core features can easily be extended with the integration of third-party add-ons to achieve the clients' content management goals.
EE is supported by a team of developers and support professionals at EllisLab and the online documentation is easy to read, thorough and extensive.
The developer/user community is extremely helpful and there are many online community support channels including EllisLab support forums, the ExpressionEngine Answers channel at Stack Exchange. And there are tons of third-party training resources, tutorials and blogs related to ExpressionEngine.
There's also an official marketplace where third-party add-on developers offer their modules, plugins and extensions for sale or free download.
I personally love the platform because I can usually meet all of my clients' requirements with EE core and a few third-party commercial add-ons. And EE's modular architecture allows me to create my own custom add-ons if I need to.
EE is supported by a team of developers and support professionals at EllisLab and the online documentation is easy to read, thorough and extensive.
The developer/user community is extremely helpful and there are many online community support channels including EllisLab support forums, the ExpressionEngine Answers channel at Stack Exchange. And there are tons of third-party training resources, tutorials and blogs related to ExpressionEngine.
There's also an official marketplace where third-party add-on developers offer their modules, plugins and extensions for sale or free download.
I personally love the platform because I can usually meet all of my clients' requirements with EE core and a few third-party commercial add-ons. And EE's modular architecture allows me to create my own custom add-ons if I need to.
- Custom data modeling - you define your own content structure with custom fields and "channels" to hold your pages, blog entries, portfolio items, etc.
- Separation of presentation from content - you have complete control over how your data is displayed
- Product support - official support channels, community resources and helpful user/developer community
- Templating syntax is a little quirky for beginners
- Steep learning curve for creating custom add-ons
- Keeping docs updated, especially for add-on development
November 26, 2014
Expression of Awesomeness with ExpressionEngine
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
EE is used for nearly all of the websites we build. We are a web development shop and have used EE for everything from small brochure sites to sites with product description or ordering for hundreds of products. The control panel is able to be customized to make the user experience more enjoyable than what users experience from CMS products like WordPress or Drupal.
- Control Panel customization. With the ability to install addons in mere minutes to help with tweaking the UI for the user, it removes much of the learning curve so even those not versed with a CMS can learn quickly.
- Flexibility. Not just for blogs! EE has the power to run full-featured blogs without a blink or make short work of forum websites, but that power can be used for any number of situations easily (simple pages, product lines, listings, etc.)
- Extendability. For those developers that like to get their hands deep into PHP coding, EE allows for easy extension of classes and creation of your own custom modules to do tasks that the core system doesn't already do.
- Community. If you don't opt for the official support (which is very good in my experience), there is a community of users that are available to answer questions you may have. There is also a great repository of add-ons (both free and commercial) to help you customize your project easily.
- Documentation. Some of the documentation on the website lacks clear information. However, support and community make up for this if you can afford to wait for an answer.
May 02, 2014
Easy to use; difficult to develop
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
ExpressionEngine is being used by our entire office, which houses five separate sub-offices and a handful of initiatives. Each of these requires its own web presence, but still operating under our office domain name. ExpressionEngine helped give us an easy to use solution for allowing each department to take some of the responsibility over their own content.
- Easy to use. We can train up new employees on how to use the system to perform all basic tasks in under 30 minutes.
- Effective interface design. The interface is surprisingly uncluttered and makes navigation easy. Additionally, they provide easy ways to customize the navigation and options available to each user.
- Secure. There are far less vulnerabilities using ExpressionEngine than the other CMSs we considered, such as WordPress or Drupal. We have never had an issue with security on our site.
- Convoluted development. Starting developed is a bit tricky, as the idea of channels, fields, field groups, etc. is not very intuitive. Takes building a site and then rebuilding to fully get the hang of.
- Poor support. Since there are many free alternatives, ExpressionEngine often lacks documentation that you'd expect it to have since there is not as large of an online community.
- Lacking default features. ExpressionEngine allows you to customize and expand it a lot, but out-of-the-box it has a lacking set of features. It is usually better to install plugins to help meet your needs. For instance, Structure is an almost required module if you plan on having to manage many pages.
May 01, 2014
ExpressionEngine Evaluation
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using ExpressionEngine as the CMS for our organization's main website. Multiple personnel across our organization use this CMS. EE allows us to create and reuse module functionality quickly and efficiently.
- ExpressionEngine (EE) is highly customizable and flexible.
- EE allows you, the developer, to drive the decisions about the architecture of your site/blog rather than having those decisions made for you by the CMS.
- EE syntax is dynamic, easy to learn, and has a good amount of functionality built in.
- If you are new to web development, EE has a greater learning curve than some other popular CMSs like WordPress.
- Because it does not make architecture decisions for you, getting an initial site created will take longer than other CMSs. (You, the developer, will have to create the channels, choose form fields, and code the HTML/EE templates yourself)
- EE is based on an open source codebase, but you have to pay for the product itself.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use EE for our public facing marketing websites to communicate company service offerings, news and industry insights. As the central comms department, we recommend it for other departments throughout the organization as well as our spin-off companies as a good platform on which to get their feet wet on the web.
- Secure. Built on CodeIgniter, EE has very few vulnerabilities compared to similar content management systems (e.g., WordPress, Drupal and Joomla).
- Flexible. The system is as strong or as weak as you make it.
- Easy to use. I've found that little training is needed to get team members and clients up and running in the system. I can set and forget it.
- Learning curve. The ideas behind EE can be confusing to some starting out building websites. And even for those who are used to using other CMS's, the terminology can be strange.
- Navigation. Native EE functionality doesn't support navigation very well. I'm always hunting for add-ons to help. Structure works in some instances. Taxonomy works in others. And then in some instances, I end up just using the template/snippet system which isn't ideal for clients who need to edit.
- Workflow and preview. Better Workflow as an add-on is really the only way to implement workflow in EE. It would be great if it could be natively supported at some point.
April 22, 2014
Thoughts on ExpressionEngine from a small-time developer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
When I worked as a web developer, I used ExpressionEngine (EE) to build custom websites for various clients. EE was a platform that was used company-wide on several projects, because it offers some distinct advantages compared to other platforms. EE is an extremely robust platform that offers solutions to all kinds of business problems. Most notably, it offers extensive customization both in form and function, has a substantial development community behind it, and handles social networking and custom content better than its competitors.
- The user interface is extremely well designed. It's clean and super easy to navigate—this is so valuable for training clients and for regular use. I haven't seen any content management systems that have a better UI.
- From a programming standpoint, the EE markup is amazing. It is SO clean and simple! Your code will look marvelous. The markup is intuitive and responsive. It saves so much time and effort.
- We used EE largely because of how it handles social networking and custom content types. There are literally no limits to how you can categorize your content. No more "posts" and "pages" ... everything is customizable based on the content you're working with and the goals of the project. This is such a great value for clients/users/developers.
- Most people point to the licensing cost as a point of friction. While $299 seems steep compared to free, open source alternatives like WordPress, I will say that the investment is worth it. I'd still like to see the cost of the license come down, though. It would make this platform more accessible.
- With a proprietary platform like EE, training resources are a must—since there are a lot of nuances within the platform that are unique to EE. These things need to be explained clearly in a way that "mere mortals" will understand. While EE does have a ton of documentation (i.e. User Guide) and learning materials, I would say that even more learning materials would be nice. Video tutorials, walkthroughs, etc. Give us more!
- So EllisLab (the creator of EE) has decided to sell its open source CodeIgniter framework (CodeIgniter is the framework EE is built on). This is alarming to many EE developers, who at this point are not sure whether CodeIgniter will remain the backbone of EE, or if that will change in the near future. So this is an important development that has some negative potential impact.
April 18, 2014
ExpressionEngine Excels.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
ExpressionEngine is used to run our entire website. It's used across the whole organization with various people submitting articles, for blog postings, news updates, etc. For us, ExpressionEngine shines in its flexibility. Right out of the box, ExpressionEngine doesn't assume you want your website structured in any specific way, unlike other Content Management Systems, and allows us to build out our website as we see fit.
- Flexibility out of the box.
- Offers considerable add-on capabilities through its use of modules and plug-ins.
- Low entry price compared to others (such as Sitecore and Ektron), for all it offers and enables you to do.
- Updating - We purchased a module to take care of this (only 15 dollars), but easy updating should be built in
- Relationships - again, something that can be purchased but should be available.
- Default Admin color scheme. Nit-picky for sure, but shades of grey with hot pink highlights doesn't say professional. Again, something you can change.
April 16, 2014
Past Experience with ExpressionEngine
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I am not presently utilizing ExpressionEngine with my current job. However, I did use it to update the website for my former employer, the Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA). I shared the responsibility with my colleague in the Development department. At times, I did have to refer to a manual that the web designers created. One problem that arose was not knowing where a coding error was. I have some basic knowledge of this type of tech language from an intro level computer science class I took in college. However, we needed the assistance of an IT technician to pinpoint the exact location of the formatting error, as the text was very long to review.
- ExpressionEngine allows users to plug information into forms, which then updates the corresponding webpages with ease. I have a basic knowledge of web coding, so this format makes it easy for most people to update their website hassle-free.
- I particularly like the way ExpressionEngine links registration pages with Eventbrite, another web platform that MOBIA uses to promote events.
- ExpressionEngine works well with listing prices for Membership and items in the Bookshop, successfully linking to MOBIA's online storefront via Shopify.
- ExpressionEngine should provide a manual for new users. The folks that redesigned MOBIA's website back in 2009 had to write one to successfully train the staff so they could make future updates to the site.
- I often times had problems creating slideshows to highlight works of art in the temporary exhibitions.
- Some edits could easily be made by re-accessing the different forms that comprise of the software, but others can only be changed by rewriting code. I would recommend sticking to the former for the sake of ease and consistency.
April 11, 2014
Expressions on ExpressionEngine
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
ExpressionEngine was used as a CMS option for clients of the business. We would take sites from concept to completion, utilizing the best CMS for each clients needs. ExpressionEngine was used for medium to large e-commerce web sites that required much more user interaction than a traditional e-commerce store front.
- User Management -
- Robust user management system that allows for a very flexible account configuration.
- Content Management -
- Extremely customizable content management, with a very in-depth configuration. This can be done by a non-technical person with very little training, but with more technical knowledge, a more robust system can be developed.
- Front-End Templating -
- The templating system that ExpressionEngine has is by far one of the best out there. Very straight forward tags and logic, but with the ability to be very robust.
- Module Development -
- There are third-party modules for ExpressionEngine that can really take this CMS to the next level. Built on top of this very solid core, the modules are only limited by the developers skill level.
- Software Updating -
- To update the core files in ExpressionEngine, it takes a lot of manual work and time. There are a lot of moving parts, and it can be very nerve wracking to update the system.
- Content Building Error Checking -
- Right now, ExpressionEngine does not have anyway to let you know when you are missing a piece when it comes to building the actual content management piece. It would be nice if there was a more stepped approach to this, and with visible error messages to let administrators know where things might be wrong.