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ExpressionEngine

Score8 out of 10

88 Reviews and Ratings

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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.

Categories & Use Cases

Key Features

Learn about the best (and worst!) features ExpressionEngine has to offer, as determined by TrustRadius' reviewers.
Based on 88 ratings of ExpressionEngine's features
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Top Performing Features

  • Role-based user permissions

    Permissions to perform actions or access or modify data are assigned to roles, which are then assigned to users, reducing complexity of administration.

    Category average: 8.3

  • Code quality / cleanliness

    Code generated by WYSIWYG editor is clean and validates according to W3C standards.

    Category average: 8

  • Content taxonomy

    Users can create multiple levels and types of content categories including tags.

    Category average: 7.9

Areas for Improvement

  • Page templates

    The CMS has standard webpage templates or types of web pages (e.g. homepage, article page, interior page, blog page, etc.); users can also build custom templates.

    Category average: 7.9

  • Availability / breadth of extensions

    There is a broad library of extensions, plug-ins, modules or add-ons that allow users to easily customize their websites without building custom code.

    Category average: 7.5

  • Library of website themes

    A library of website frameworks or themes is available as a starting point for building a website.

    Category average: 7.2

Reviews

What users are saying about ExpressionEngine.
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Flexible and Secure Web Content Management System

Tim Carter
Web Developer in Information Technology at Pedrera Web Development (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We 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 is our "go to". We like the flexibility to implement any design without a "default theme". We also love ExpressionEngine's longstanding track record on security. This gives us and our clients peace-of-mind after launch.

Pros

  • Excellent security
  • Flexible and customizable
  • Easy for our clients to use

Cons

  • There are misperceptions about ExpressionEngine being "for developers". Better demos of websites might help

Return on Investment

  • Reduced costs for clients
  • Security and reliability
  • Easy to use

Alternatives Considered

WordPress

Other Software Used

Ubuntu, Slack, WordPress, Microsoft SharePoint

Great Product, Getting Better All The Time...

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

ExpressionEngine 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 developers to stand up sites faster, and easily maintain them over the long haul. ExpressionEngine includes a comprehensive set of fieldtypes that will meet the majority of needs for simple to complex content models. If not, there is an addon store with plenty of options to add functionality to a site.

Pros

  • Easy to learn
  • Enables rapid development
  • Secure by default

Cons

  • In my opinion, mediocre support for block type page builders (Bloqs addon is the best option currently)
  • Doesn't use a PHP framework under the hood (and no Composer support)
  • Lacking database migration support

Return on Investment

  • Faster website development due to the simple template syntax

EE - The Peak of CMS Functionality.

Incentivized
Doug BlackView profile
CEO (Chief Executive Officer) in Corporate at tripleNERDscore (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We 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, the functionality that the client needs, and the direct business requirements for each client, all while providing a beautiful user experience (for both front-end and backend users) and the most secure CMS on the market.

Pros

  • Highly flexible content management system.
  • Incredible extensibility to provide any functionality needed.
  • The best CMS experience on the market.

Cons

  • Little challenging to get started for non-developers.
  • Highly reliant on knowledge of the content structure beforehand.

Return on Investment

  • Allowed us to move quickly to build powerful sites.
  • Gave our clients the ability to customize their experience.

Alternatives Considered

WordPress, Squarespace and Wix

ExpressionEngine. One CMS to rule them all!

Incentivized
Robert Bruce GogginsView profile
Digital Designer in Professional Services at Digital Methods (1-10 employees employees)

Pros

  • Content is not constrained or controlled by set templates, unlike other CMS.
  • Gives you total control over the look and feel. You decide the design direction and what your visitors will see.
  • The UI is sublime. It's a pleasure to configure and work with.
  • The expandability, flexibility, and customization of the entire system is unsurpassed.

Cons

  • The only issue I have with ExpressionEngine is the cost of official support.

Return on Investment

  • 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.

Alternatives Considered

WordPress

Other Software Used

Adobe Illustrator CC, Slack, MODX, Adobe Premiere Pro

Solid, more flexible alternative to WordPress

Incentivized
Ben SeigelView profile
Principal in Marketing at Versa Studio LLC (1-10 employees employees)

Pros

  • 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.

Cons

  • 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.

Return on Investment

  • 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.

Alternatives Considered

WordPress

Other Software Used

Craft, Wufoo, Adobe Photoshop