March 7, 2009
Why we like ExpressionEngine for content management
by Mark J. Reeves
We certainly aren't the first firm to write about why we've decided to make ExpressionEngine our preferred platform for web sites, and we certainly won't be the last.
Why do we like ExpressionEngine so much?
A few reasons:
- Flexibility. Your web site's pages and templates should be built to support the compelling design we create for you and be optimized for search engines. They should be built with only those considerations in mind and your Content Management System should support them without imposing any constraints. ExpressionEngine does that for us and its templating language was what first attracted us to it. It lets us do our jobs.
- It's powerful. Just look at this list of features. That's what EE supports out of the box. Add to that over 330* add-ons, plug-ins, modules and other enhancements and you have a platform that is extensible to any project's requirement. If your project poses a unique challenge, add-on development is very manageable; EE's architecture is designed to support it.
- It works (nearly) everywhere Unless you're looking to use a Windows server, which isn't impossible but would likely preclude us working with you, ExpressionEngine can be launched on most every typical LAMP hosting environment. We've even launched an EE site on GoDaddy.
- Security. We recently launched a site for Fidelity on ExpressionEngine. 'Nuff said.
- Community. Those 330+ add-ons? Many of them come from an incredibly enthusiastic and dedicated network of developers who have adopted ExpressionEngine as their platform of choice. They extend EE's support team and not only contribute to a huge pool of resources, but also make EE a pleasant product to work with.
That said, sometimes we're asked to compare ExpressionEngine to an open source platform. There are two reasons for this:
- Open source is free. That's true. But we're not putting a $10,000 Microsoft solution in front of our clients. ExpressionEngine costs $249.95** for a license. Put that up against a project budget and it's pretty close to free. And that $249.95 gets us as developers and our clients as license holders access to one of the most responsive, friendly and genuinely helpful support teams I have ever encountered in all my years of development. They're worth it.
- What if ExpressionEngine goes away? Who says your open source platform won't go away? If it loses appeal, if its community dries up, who supports your site? The same person that would support your ExpressionEngine site if they went away. An ExpressionEngine server installation is a MySQL database and a collection of PHP files. Your license allows you to do whatever you want with those files, modifying the application to any length for your own use. It's a powerful, modifiable web site platform. And based on its current adoption rate and enthusiastic, ever-growing developer community, it's not going anywhere.
ExpressionEngine's our recommendation. If a client or prospect comes to us with another platform as a requirement and we think we're equipped to make that project a success, we're not ideologues who will rule that out. We build custom applications and platforms where appropriate as well. If you're looking for our choice on a robust platform that can be tailored to your needs with a modest amount of effort, EE's our answer.
We've launched a lot of solid web sites and helped write our share of success stories. That we've adopted ExpressionEngine as our recommendation for content management and banked our business's success on its ability to deliver now and in years to come says a lot about its robustness and longetivity. We are excited and fortunate to work with this product on each project that presents the opportunity to and hope we're successfully conveying that to all our clients and prospects.
ExpressionEngine 2.0 is in development this year and we're looking forward to its release. It's going to take a great product and propel it even further, leveraging EllisLab's CodeIgniter framework for development.
Here's a helpful 2007 article comparing ExpressionEngine to MovableType.
* http://devot-ee.com/news/item/where-its-at-the-state-of-devotee/
** $249.95 for Commercial License. $99.95 for Non-profit license. $39.95/$19.95 per yearly subscription to access product updates, though for many clients whose site has launched, we don't consider that necessary.