Flexible and Secure Web Content Management System
Rating: 10 out of 10
June 25, 2024
TC
Vetted Review
Verified User
15 years of experience
- Reduced costs for clients
- Security and reliability
- Easy to use
Starting at $299 One Time Fee
View Pricing Overview
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.
Learn from top reviewers
Flexible and Secure Web Content Management System
Rating: 10 out of 10
June 25, 2024We use ExpressionEngine as the web content management system for the majority of our website projects. We do work with other platforms from time-to-time, but ExpressionEngine ...
Tim Carter
Executive - Information Technology
Web Developer
Pedrera Web Development
15 years of experienceGreat Product, Getting Better All The Time...
Rating: 10 out of 10
June 18, 2024ExpressionEngine is our go to solution for building custom websites. The native template engine uses a syntax that is simple to learn and comprehend, which allows our develope...
Verified user
Engineer
8 years of experienceEE - The Peak of CMS Functionality.
Rating: 10 out of 10
January 10, 2024We use ExpressionEngine to create bespoke, powerful, and secure websites for our clientele. It allows us to create highly extensible sites that focus on the client's content, ...
Doug Black
C-Level Executive - Corporate
CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
tripleNERDscore
6 years of experienceWebsite development that's simplified and streamlined
Rating: 9 out of 10
January 18, 2020ExpressionEngine has completely transformed the way we manage our website. This is our first CMS and it has been a life-saver when it comes to making instant updates or creati...
Verified user
Employee
1 year of experienceExpressionEngine. One CMS to rule them all!
Rating: 8 out of 10
June 7, 2019ExpressionEngine is taking care of the day-to-day content input and delivery from several departments within the organization. I recommended ExpressionEngine as an alternate/r...
Robert Bruce Goggins
Professional - Professional Services
Digital Designer
Digital Methods
5 years of experienceSolid, more flexible alternative to WordPress
Rating: 6 out of 10
June 21, 2018I 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...
ExpressionEngine - the CMS of Choice
Rating: 9 out of 10
March 15, 2018I 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 field...
Verified user
Employee
4 years of experienceExpressionEngine, not the worst but not my favorite
Rating: 4 out of 10
February 20, 2016My husband and I are software developers. We work for companies with websites built in Drupal, ExpressionEngine, Wordpress or any php based platform. There is one company usin...
Claudia Lorena Aguilar Ayala
Consultant - Engineering
Software Developer - Drupal, Rails, JQuery, ExpressionEngine, PHP, Coldfusion, MySQL, Rubymotion
Eaglepeak Consulting
4 years of experienceGreat For Novices
Rating: 2 out of 10
February 19, 2016We 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 uplo...
EE Above the Rest for Client UX.
Rating: 8 out of 10
February 19, 2016We used ExpressionEngine as our primary CMS for building web client solutions. Most of these solutions were created with fairly large data architectures, giving full control t...
Verified user
Former Employee
4 years of experienceExpressionEngine, Affordable Comercial CMS
Rating: 10 out of 10
February 19, 2016We use ExpressionEngine as our enterprise CMS solution for the entire university. We host over 10,000 pages, support over 75 departments, train and manage over 200 editors, an...
Get ready to commit some time!
Rating: 3 out of 10
December 28, 2015ExpressionEngine 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...
Verified user
Employee
2 years of experienceExpressionEngine: A CMS Worth Checking Out
Rating: 5 out of 10
November 11, 2015We 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 want...
ExpressionEngine is dream of any developer.
Rating: 10 out of 10
September 30, 2015The software's administrative features include admin logs, site membership, searchable (and search-and-replace) content forums, data export, a blacklist/whitelist module, SQL ...
Hercules Schonfeldt
Manager - Marketing
Sr. Manager Digital Technology
The Jewish Federations of North America
3 years of experienceExpressionEngine can do it all... For a price.
Rating: 5 out of 10
August 29, 2015Satdaya 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 req...
Log in with LinkedIn to see content from your network
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
License
$299.00
Cloud
One Time Fee
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
Entry Analytics EEDPX Demo
YouTube
EE Harbor's Transcribe Add-on Demo
YouTube
ExpressionEngine Demo of a Staff Section
YouTube
ExpressionEngine demo door Kees™ Internetbureau
YouTube
DevDemon's Channel Forms add-on for ExpressionEngine
YouTube
Solspace's Calendar Add-on for ExpressionEngine
YouTube
Features
Return to navigation
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
- FAQs
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 Code quality / cleanliness and Content taxonomy highest, with a score of 10.
The most common users of ExpressionEngine are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(88)
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Reviews
(1-25 of 63)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Great Product, Getting Better All The Time...
Rating: 10 out of 10
June 18, 2024
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
8 years of experience
- Faster website development due to the simple template syntax
EE - The Peak of CMS Functionality.
Rating: 10 out of 10
January 10, 2024
DB
Vetted Review
Verified User
6 years of experience
- Allowed us to move quickly to build powerful sites.
- Gave our clients the ability to customize their experience.
Website development that's simplified and streamlined
Rating: 9 out of 10
January 18, 2020
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
1 year of experience
- Our website traffic has gone up massively since the new site infrastructure was rolled out.
- The site is considerably more customer-friendly and has received a number of compliments from visitors who had trouble locating information on the previous version of the website. Customers who are happy with their overall user experience are much more likely to continue giving us their business.
ExpressionEngine. One CMS to rule them all!
Rating: 8 out of 10
June 07, 2019
RB
Vetted Review
Verified User
5 years of experience
- The turnaround time of content delivery is increased tenfold.
- Employee satisfaction in working with the CMS has increased due to the user-friendly interface.
- As an admin and developer, I can truly listen to requests for features from colleagues, and accurately provide options and/or feedback on the possibility of implementing the requests.
- The monthly cost of official support can get expensive.
Solid, more flexible alternative to WordPress
Rating: 6 out of 10
June 21, 2018
BS
Vetted Review
Verified User
12 years of experience
- ExpressionEngine has been our agency's bread and butter for about 10 years, allowing us to create custom sites for a wide range of clients.
ExpressionEngine - the CMS of Choice
Rating: 9 out of 10
March 15, 2018
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
4 years of experience
- ExpressionEngine has a positive impact on our business, as we were allowed to build websites quickly and meet tight deadlines.
- ExpressionEngine has a learning curve, however, can be learned in a relatively small amount of time.
- Because ExpressionEngine scales well our Junior Developers were able to work on the Enterprise website as if it were a smaller website.
ExpressionEngine, not the worst but not my favorite
Rating: 4 out of 10
February 20, 2016
CL
Vetted Review
Verified User
4 years of experience
- Big clients use it.
Great For Novices
Rating: 2 out of 10
February 19, 2016
LM
Vetted Review
Verified User
2 years of experience
- It allowed us to launch a new site very quickly.
- It was tedious to make changes to functionality that wasn't module/plugin based.
EE Above the Rest for Client UX.
Rating: 8 out of 10
February 19, 2016
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
4 years of experience
- For clients, EE made all the difference in giving them expansive options of creating content and customizing how they display it on their site.
ExpressionEngine, Affordable Comercial CMS
Rating: 10 out of 10
February 19, 2016
JW
Vetted Review
Verified User
9 years of experience
- Has allowed us to spend money on people, conferences, and education rather than software licenses.
- Allows quick turn arounds due to its flexibility when requests from marketing roll in at the last minute.
- There is now a solid, flexible web management system that we can manage, extend, and will continue to serve us for many years to come.
Get ready to commit some time!
Rating: 3 out of 10
December 28, 2015
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
2 years of experience
- It should be said that a smaller business probably will not be happy with ExpressionEngine. Unless the dev work is done by a vendor, this is not right for them. The learning curve is too much for an in-house developer to grasp and have a working website up quickly. Whereas almost every other platform can be up and running within a day or two.
- The investment cost really is the time. There had been several situations where the ExpressionEngine development had taken twice as long as originally planned. This is due to the lack of skilled developers available to code ExpressionEngine. We were lucky to have contracted one of the best ExpressionEngine devs in the country, but he was the only one and had other responsibilities at his agency.
- Once ExpressionEngine was up and running, making updates was smooth and easy. It was easy to train new individuals to use the CMS and easy to manage content. The WYSIWYG editors are very robust.
ExpressionEngine: A CMS Worth Checking Out
Rating: 5 out of 10
November 11, 2015
MG
Vetted Review
Verified User
4 years of experience
- We were able to bring in a team of publishers and editors and more efficiently get our content online.
ExpressionEngine is dream of any developer.
Rating: 10 out of 10
September 30, 2015
HS
Vetted Review
Verified User
3 years of experience
- If you’re not completely sold on the software itself, then you can visit their website to see a comprehensive showcase of popular websites that were created using this content management system software.
- SEO friendly URLs are one of the best features of EE.
ExpressionEngine can do it all... For a price.
Rating: 5 out of 10
August 29, 2015
LW
Vetted Review
10 years of experience
- ExpressionEngine has been positive in that we were able to use it to develop complicated IT solutions that my firm and clients needed. These solutions, such as our internal project management system and Eventida, have been absolutely invaluable to my firm.
- On the flip side, many of our clients have found ExpressionEngine development and management to be cost-prohibitive to their businesses. ExpressionEngine IS expensive to develop and maintain, and we do our best to warn our clients in advance.
Free yourself from convoluted CMS markup with ExpressionEngine
Rating: 10 out of 10
August 25, 2015
BS
Vetted Review
Verified User
6 years of experience
- I'm able to build easy to maintain sites quickly and easily, dramatically reducing my turnaround time.
- With the help a few plugins, I can easily turn the site over to the client for content management with minimal training.
- ExpressionEngine's templating system allows me to easily take advantage of frameworks like Foundation and Bootstrap, further increasing development speed.
Powerhouse CMS great for ecommerce and large sites
Rating: 4 out of 10
August 19, 2015
RR
Vetted Review
Verified User
2 years of experience
- More time to focus on design, most functionality is ready to go out of the box
- Create custom interfaces for clients to manage web content
- Better customer service provided to clients due to familiarity with product and great available resources
ExpressionEngine and why you should choose it as your next CMS
Rating: 10 out of 10
July 27, 2015
JT
Vetted Review
Verified User
6 years of experience
- ExpressionEngine is able to save me a vast amount of time which equals cost savings by allowing me to schedule different aspects of my site to go live when I want them to without me having to be there.
- I am able to provide better quality and faster service for my clients because of how powerful ExpressionEngine is for them.
- ExpressionEngine helps me provide better customer service to my clients as I built a custom ticketing system for my clients to submit work request and track them.
Beginner!
Rating: 6 out of 10
July 21, 2015
KL
Vetted Review
Verified User
4 years of experience
- We work with a third party on this and it's tied to our web site. I'm not sure the differences since I have not used any other service. To me it seems very organized and easy to use.
There's a Lot to LovEE about ExpressionEngine!
Rating: 9 out of 10
July 20, 2015
TR
Vetted Review
Verified User
6 years of experience
- Definitely increased efficiency by employees for updating and managing the website.
- A huge improvement in the features that we have been able to provide on our membership website.
ExpressionEngine: The Flexible Content Management System.
Rating: 9 out of 10
July 17, 2015
JD
Vetted Review
Verified User
4 years of experience
- Quicker turnaround for new features and/or micro-sites.
- Quicker content updates now that managers can update their own content.
ExpressionEngine review
Rating: 10 out of 10
July 17, 2015
SK
Vetted Review
Verified User
8 years of experience
- Being able to be recognized as a leader within the ExpressionEngine development community has led to us being sought out by those customers seeking expert guidance.
- We tend to specialize in using ExpressionEngine for our customers, so it has been easier to ramp new resources up on our development process, as well as be able to seek out independent experts to use as sub contractors or freelancers.
- As we have been using ExpressionEngine almost exclusively for a number of years, we have built a reusable repository of proprietary code that makes our development process much more efficient and decreases the effort required for our projects.
ExpressionEngine has potential
Rating: 4 out of 10
July 17, 2015
CL
Vetted Review
Verified User
3 years of experience
- I'm unsure how to answer this as I'm just a developer :)
ExpressionEngine - the Content Management System for Designers and Developers
Rating: 9 out of 10
July 09, 2015
SG
Vetted Review
6 years of experience
- Our main goal for our company is to design, build and launch a website that the client loves and is proud of. ExpressionEngine gives us that luxury while making it as customizable as possible. We can design and build a site quicker and easier as we have fine-tuned our process of modulating certain aspects of the sites that are included by default.
- With the wide array of plugins available, we have been able to solve any challenge quickly and easily with the great support from EllisLab and the third-party developers.
- With the speed that we can convert our front-end code into the system's back-end, we are able to simplify and decrease what was the more time-consuming stages of a project.
ExpressionEngine is clean, easy to use, and easy to learn
Rating: 8 out of 10
July 07, 2015
RS
Vetted Review
Verified User
2 years of experience
- Simpler, faster communication between team members and clients
- Quick website maintenance turn around