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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$299.00
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ExpressionEngine Demo of a Staff Section
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ExpressionEngine demo door Keesâ„¢ Internetbureau
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DevDemon's Channel Forms add-on for ExpressionEngine
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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.
ExpressionEngine Video
10-Minute ExpressionEngine Primer
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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(86)
Community Insights
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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Reviews
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June 21, 2018
Solid, more flexible alternative to WordPress
I run a web agency which uses ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS for our small business and organization clients. Both are more refined, flexible, and powerful alternatives to the default to WordPress. Both allow development of custom, non-theme-based websites to fit clients' specific business requirements.
- Wide range of fields types - allows collection and display of different types of information (date, image, multi-relation, etc.)
- Security. Excellent security record, does not face hacking risk like WordPress.
- HTML-agnostic templating system. Write whatever HTML, JS, CSS you want, and then integrate it into ExpressionEngine's templates.
- UI is still inferior to Craft CMS.
- Third-party add-ons are required for certain features that ought to be built in to the product.
- Vendor has fumbled support for its developer network.
February 19, 2016
Great For Novices
We used ExpressionEngine to manage the CMS of one of our smaller sites. It was to be used by a team of writers to collaborate on various topics. They needed to be able to upload images and edit in an efficient manner. We needed a quick way to get a site up that had a built in blog tool and user management.
- The blog tool was decent.
- Managing users was easy.
- It was difficult to alter functionality in the admin section. For example, we needed multiple-file uploading and in order to do this the templates had to be directly altered. This direct manipulation of templates makes it hard to upgrade the version without losing custom changes. Same goes for implementing custom file storage.
November 11, 2015
ExpressionEngine: A CMS Worth Checking Out
We used ExpressionEngine to run our news website. We took advantage of the CMS tools that ExpressionEngine offered and used many add-ons and modules to accomplish what we wanted to do. The entire organization was based around the development of the website that was powered by ExpressionEngine. Without the CMS tools, we would not have been able to easily publish our content.
- ExpressionEngine offers a customizable publishing tool. Each channel can be customized for its specific needs.
- ExpressionEngine offers simple APIs that allows for many add-ons to be developed.
- ExpressionEngine's short codes make it easy to accomplish advanced coding tasks.
- PHP parsing was always an issue when creating templates.
- Upgrading ExpressionEngine was a difficult task. Many times I had to run the install more than once or recover from a backup.
- Disabling add-ons and modules sometimes resulted in major issues with the database.
I use ExpressionEngine to build websites for several clients. For anything other than a very simple blog site, I recommend ExpressionEngine. With a few essential plugins, it's easy to train clients to use; the documentation is great and once you get the hang of the templating syntax, it's very easy to crank out custom sites quickly.
- ExpressionEngine does a fantastic job in separating the content from the code, allowing you to build custom templates using only your own code and markup.
- ExpressionEngine has great documentation. It's easy to find clear and concise explanation of all of the core features.
- ExpressionEngine has a great module community. Many of the modules require a license, which will seem different from WordPress or Drupal, but many of these module developers also provide great customer service and support.
- I always seem to use a core set of modules (Structure, Matrix, Playa) when I build an ExpressionEngine site. It'd be nice if they were included in the core feature set. However, I'd hate to stop supporting the developers of these great plugins.
- As a new ExpressionEngine developer it was a little tricky to figure out the ExpressionEngine way of doing things. Coming from Drupal and WordPress, where the display was more married to the content, it took me a while to really get how ExpressionEngine handled everything. I haven't been a new ExpressionEngine developer for some time, so their documentation may well have changed in the past six years.
- I'd love to see an easier upgrade process. While upgrades aren't terribly difficult, they're enough of a hassle that I find myself wanting to put them off.
August 19, 2015
Powerhouse CMS great for ecommerce and large sites
My company uses ExpressionEngine as an engine for our larger web development projects. It allows for a very custom experience and has an extensive library of modules and add-ons, making almost anything possible. We have quite a bit of experience using the product, so development generally goes quickly and we trust the product to deliver for our clients.
- Large community base provides excellent support when needed
- Extensive catalog of modules to expand capabilities as needed
- Built in management of member profiles and permissions saves time
- Can be too cumbersome for smaller projects, takes time to pair down the built in functionality so our clients have to sift through unused features
- Large queries take significant processing power, recommended use of a cache module to store this data and speed up page load
- Backend can be overwhelming for clients, lots of things to manage in the control panel
- No way to repeat custom page fields or groups of fields, meaning page layout must be pretty established and not customizable from the control panel
ExpressionEngine powers our college's main web site as well as online training modules, event and ancillary sites. ExpressionEngine's flexibility allows us to publish a variety of content types and designs to our web site and other internal systems. User control and access to manage, update, and approve content changes is also a great benefit.
- ExpressionEngine has no preconceived ideas about how your content should look or what code is generated.
- A robust template engine makes integrating designs and content a breeze.
- The control panel can be customized to control what content managers have access to.
- The upgrade process can be tedious if your site uses more than a couple of add-ons.
- Back ups must be managed manually or by a third party system/add-on.
July 17, 2015
ExpressionEngine review
eHouse Studio is a digital marketing agency that specializes in medium to large web site design and development. ExpressionEngine is our content management system of choice for these sites due to its ease of use, flexibility, and extensibility.
- Extensibility: ExpressionEngine's core is extensible, allowing for third-party code to be modularized and installed. ExpressionEngine's community has a number of highly talented add-on developers that contribute to its pool of add-ons.
- Flexibility: ExpressionEngine is tremendously flexible, allowing for a single installation to manage everything from static pages, to blogs, to full fledged eCommerce platforms.
- Ease of Use: ExpressionEngine's control panel can be themed and its publish layouts customized, allowing for a very pleasant experience for our clients. This increases the likelihood of them actually using the platform which reduces the number of support hours we must provide.
- Query bloat: ExpressionEngine tends to run an excessive number of queries to generate content. This is due, in large part, to an inefficient database schema.
- Lack of third-party add on reviews: ExpressionEngine's extensibility is also a curse, due to a lack of official reviews of add ons. This can introduce bugs in the system that are difficult, at best, to squash.
- Reliance on outdated technology: While newer versions of ExpressionEngine have started to move away from CodeIgniter (almost entirely at this point), older installations still rely on the outdated framework resulting in a code base that does not take advantage of updated server software.
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.
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.
ExpressionEngine allows us to design the best solution for our clients with complete freedom. We can craft the best visual experience for the site's users without being confined to the CMS way of doing things. Ultimate flexibility.
It's reliable, extendable, and has been a core part of our business for years.
It's reliable, extendable, and has been a core part of our business for years.
- You design what is best for your client, and then build the dynamic features in. Other CMS products approach this backwards.
- It's easy for our clients to manage their sites, even on complex builds.
- It has a strong, helpful community of users and developers.
- Developing is fast and straight forward.
- Having common field sets that are independent of content channels would be a welcome change.
- It's control panel could use some streamlining and design updating.
- The process of updating the system needs over hauling.
June 30, 2015
ExpressionEngine - A highly recommended CMS.
We use ExpressionEngine for our main website at the University System of Georgia and 70+ sites throughout the organization. It allows our content owners to publish and edit their own content throughout the site. ExpressionEngine is very customizable on the backend and allows us to fine tune what our users see and have access to. This makes the backend much more user friendly for our content owners.
- Allows our content owners to easily edit and publish their content.
- ExpressionEngine has a large amount of community provided add-ons allowing you add the needed functionality you need to your website.
- The user base is large and very helpful. You can usually find your answer to a question quickly in the Ellislab forums.
- Upgrading ExpressionEngine can be a hassle especially when you have MSM sites.
- Add functionality to be able to easily export and import your MSM sites.
February 25, 2015
An honest review of ExpressionEngine
I use ExpressionEngine for several websites that I have developed for clients and I have taken a couple of projects for existing EE driven websites that needed a front-end design refresh.
- It has an extremely flexible front-end templating system, unlike most of the other CMSs that I have used.
- The community is very helpful and supportive. You can almost always get an answer through the Stack Exchange or Ellislab discussion forums.
- The third party add-on developer are very talented and you can find an add-on for just about anything you would need.
- Since it is a licensed product and not open source, it is not as widely used as other CMSs. I believe this is a benefit because it creates a niche for the developer.
- It's also more secure because it's not targeted by hackers and malicious scripts as much as the more popular CMSs.
- Pricing - At $300 per site, I feel like EE should come with a certain level of built in support from Ellislab. They just recently made support tickets a separate membership cost ranging from $50 to $2000 per month, it simply not an option for me. I've had to seek support from the Stack Exchange community instead.
- There are some built in features that and enhancements that I feel are missing in EE. I almost always have to install a third party add-on like Structure to help with building and maintaining pages and navigation throughout the site. This should be a core feature of any CMS.
- The built in search function is not very robust. I usually have to buy a third party add-on to enhance this function.
- The pagination function needs improvement. It just doesn't work well and it's very limited in the options and styles that can be applied.
- A responsive back-end would be helpful. Many other CMSs have adopted this approach in the last few years.
- It's really difficult to update the core system and plugins with ExpressionEngine. There are third party plugins that make this process easier like DevDemon's Updater, but I feel like EE could follow the lead from Wordpress and make updates and installs a built-in system feature.
January 16, 2015
A great CMS if you have a budget for development and support
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I've published a community news site, Coastsider.com, since 2004, using Expression Engine and its predecessor, pmachine. I built all the site's templates, managed the data, upgraded the software, and produced the vast majority of the content.
This was basically a one-user part-time business, but it gave me pretty broad experience with the product.
This was basically a one-user part-time business, but it gave me pretty broad experience with the product.
- The template language is powerful and easy to use
- The user management and access controls are very good
- The back end control panel is very good
- The community and support is not as strong as it used to be
- Software updates are difficult and risky
- Most applications will require additional commercial add-ons
November 18, 2014
ExpressionEngine: Ellislab's side project.
Our Agency has used EE in the past as the primary CMS for the majority of our projects. Unfortunately the implementation historically was done in a way that suits Developers. This is poor because the platform had Designers in mind when it was built.
This fact is important to remember because it's fundamental to how you implement and use it long term.
A few things to note:
We migrated to Drupal and WordPress.
The community of EE has dwindled in recent months and with the announcement that the core framework is up for sale, it looks like the product is on its last legs.
It is still good for:
* All of this is based on my experience with the product, my interactions with other developers with extensive experience, people that I respect and encounters in the field.
This fact is important to remember because it's fundamental to how you implement and use it long term.
A few things to note:
- Copy and Paste development is actually expected.
- Versioning can be difficult.
- Upgrading IS difficult.
We migrated to Drupal and WordPress.
The community of EE has dwindled in recent months and with the announcement that the core framework is up for sale, it looks like the product is on its last legs.
It is still good for:
- Design Shops.
- People not maintaining it themselves.
- Small companies.
* All of this is based on my experience with the product, my interactions with other developers with extensive experience, people that I respect and encounters in the field.
- Once you understand the "ExpressionEngine way" of things -- it does what it set out to do, very well.
- It's not widely used, so one COULD consider that to be a security strength. (Note: we have seen it hacked before.)
- It's a common brand with design shops, so it's an easy recommendations as a solution to them.
- The community, is just no longer there. With most projects, this is one of the most important areas.
- Maintenance, upgrades, versioning, etc is a nightmare.
- It is NOT for developers. Thinking that will set you up for failure.
May 21, 2014
ExpressionEngine, It's awesome. But it's not as flexible as Drupal with User Management.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
ExpressionEngine was the CMS for our intranet, it was being used by an organization of 200+ users. It gave a flexible, yet easy use solution for people to manage their own content. But I feel it fell short with user management.
- Templating
- Conditional Comments
- Content Management
- Member (User) Management
- Easier Update Process
- Free Support
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I used ExpressionEngine as a student worker in the IT deparment while attending college. I worked as a Web Developers Assistant running ExpressionEngine from the IT perspective as well as all the other departments on campus. I learned ExpressionEngine and then started training others across campus. It was a really interesting experience. I would work on projects for people in the different departments as well as try and help them learn it so they could be independent with the software as well.
- Very user friendly for both IT as well as other departments using the software.
- Has everything necessary for running a website for a University.
- Laid out in a way that it's easy to describe to someone through email or over the phone how to do something.
- Making the icons a little bit better to understand, bigger.
- Copy and paste functionality a little bit better.
- A bigger section to write in so you don't have to scroll as much.
April 30, 2014
EE CMS Overview
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We leverage Expression Engine to build customer friendly CMS websites to spec. Expression Engine offers a vast arsenal of plugins that work with each other, and allow a creative developer to build custom publish and edit forms that make sense to the end users who are often not so web-saavy.
- Bends around website design instead of the other way around.
- Good solution for large customers with different permission groups of users.
- Excellent for managing multiple websites under the same 'hood'.
- Be sure to discuss maintenance options with your customers - the update process is not difficult, but can take a bit of effort.
April 23, 2014
A Happy Designer With Happy Clients, The CMS That Works
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use ExpressionEngine as a CMS (Content Management Platform) for clients seeking small to medium sized marketing websites. ExpressionEngine is a cost-effective solution for most clients seeking an easy way to manage content of their website in-house. ExpressionEngine is primarily used by our User Experience Design department when a custom software solution is not needed on a project, which sometimes may be part of a larger digital product.
- Easy to use: ExpressionEngine is a platform that takes little to no training with my clients, regardless of their technical proficiency.
- Easy to manage: ExpressionEngine can be easily hosted and updated at very little cost.
- Well supported: We choose ExpressionEngine because it's a commercial product. Our clients have purchased a license (an affordable one at that) and have a company they can contact for support or to report issues or ask questions (though issues are rare).
- Robust: ExpressionEngine has an impressive amount of functionality as-is, which solves the majority of a company's needs for their website. This sets it above other open source platforms that require a variety of third-party add ons in to get the desired functionality (leading to difficulty in updating and managing the website). If a third-party add on is needed they tend to be commercially supported as well.
- Potentially Limiting: This isn't a flaw, but eventually a company may outgrow the needs of a CMS website and need something with robust functionality, especially in regards to e-commerce.
- Two-way communication: ExpressionEngine as a CMS does not implement user-interaction well. If a company wants a way for their audience to interact with or manage content on their website ExpressionEngine will struggle. This doesn't reflect the ease our clients have from updating the site content from the ExpressionEngine administration.
- Lagging technology stack: ExpressionEngine lacks some of the more robust features for updating a codebase. Larger updates to a website may require downtime or "content locks" where our clients cannot add or edit content on their websites. Modern websites should be able to add larger updates seamlessly with a live website. Minor updates aren't a problem.
April 12, 2014
ExpressionEngine? Hmm... Only if you like making your job easier and your clients happy.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
ExpressionEngine has been chosen as the primary CMS of use for our company when we begin a new project here at Black Belt Designs. If the customer comes to us with a previously existing base, we will evaluate it and determine if a change is either one, necessary, or two, feasible. So far, each client has been extremely happy with the change over to ExpressionEngine if they were previously using another CMS.
- If you know HTML and CSS, you can begin using ExpressionEngine. Unlike other CMS products out there, you don't necessarily need to know PHP, C#, .NET, or any other language.
- If you DO know PHP, you can extend ExpressionEngine to limitless usages. The 'hooks' provided within the code base allow you to further stretch ExpressionEngine's capabilities to whatever needs you might have. You can think of ExpressionEngine as a 'development environment' that allows you to define the needs.
- ExpressionEngine allows you, the developer, to establish guidelines for your clients during the development process. There are no boundaries or limitations that bind you to specific realms.
- ExpressionEngine's control panel is clean, simple, and allows users to create, edit, and find their entries with ease.
- Maybe not a weakness per se, but one thing that tends to 'get' people in the beginning is the understanding of the parsing order. There are many thing that ExpressionEngine can do. One thing you will find yourself questioning is "Why aren't my variables rendering properly?". Many times it is due to a parsing order issue. One thing that can help with this is properly mapping out your development prior to beginning your code.
- The use of third party addons is a great extension to ExpressionEngine. However, you definitely want to keep a development version of your project on ice for any updates to, not only your addons, but ExpressionEngine yourself. There is not a good way to 'roll back' your project once you update your version.
- Multiple environment development scenarios can prove to be problematic. This is to be somewhat understood though due to the reliance of the database driven nature of the CMS itself.
April 12, 2014
ExpressionEngine: Flexible & Robust!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We used ExpressionEngine to build small to large marketing websites for clients who wanted to easily update the content themselves. ExpressionEngine is easy for a novice to manage but robust and flexible enough to allow for modifications. The documentation and community support is amazing. There is an add-on solution that will solve most of your development problems or you can build one to fit your needs.
- ExpressionEngine does not modify your html.
- The template system is one of the best I have ever seen.
- It is flexible but robust enough to handle small and large sites.
- The community support is amazing.
- Tons of add-ons!
- Over the years the control panel has not been the best user experience but it has improved immensely with version 2.x.
- With flexibility, comes great responsibility. Be sure to choose a good team to design, develop and support your ExpressionEngine website, or it could get messy!
- Probably not a great solution for an enterprise level website.
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.
April 08, 2014
What I think of ExpressionEngine
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
ExpressionEngine is used by myself and by a number of my clients to make managing the company website dead simple.
- Accommodates any custom design
- Ease of use for non-technical clients
- Scalability and flexibility for future growth
- Third party modules aren't always up to date with current version.
- Updating process is a bit cumbersome.