Item: ExpressionEngine
Rating: 10
Author: Mike Dupre

Overall Satisfaction

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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.

Pros and Cons

Pros

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!

Cons

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.

Return on Investment

ExpressionEngine is a terrific CMS! It allowed us to build, affordable, flexible sites quickly!
Our clients loved that they could easily update their own content! Happy clients leads to more work :)
Because EE is fairly easy to learn, just about anyone can help maintain it!

Alternatives Considered

DotNetNuke,WordPress,Drupal

Flexibility, community support, well maintained, tons of add-ons and terrific documentation help ExpressionEngine stand out among a tough (CMS) crowd. I can't imagine a small shop using anything else to design/develop websites and even small online apps with. If you follow the documentation, EE is easy to install with little or no experience.

Likelihood to Renew

I would use ExpressionEngine again because of its excellent history and it should continue to evolve as an innovative CMS product. It's difficult to have a successful product without a strong support system... I can't stress enough how great the EE community is, and the support that they provide. Other CMS products can be unstable and provide little support.

Likelihood to Recommend

ExpressionEngine works best on Apache server. It will work on IIS with a bit more work. You get what you pay for... be sure to purchase the appropriate web hosting package and company! Keep in mind that if you modify any of the core code or add-ons that upgrading becomes a bit more difficult. Also, the more complicated your site is the more you'll have to pay. It's always good to start simple and build in functionality as you go. But, be honest and tell your design/development team what you have in mind. That way your team can help you plan appropriately for the future.

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ExpressionEngine: Flexible & Robust!

Software Version

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