ExpressionEngine Reviews & Product Details

ExpressionEngine is a and secure open-source content management system (CMS) designed to empower developers and content creators to build and manage dynamic websites with ease. Its flexible architecture allows users to organize content into customizable channels, facilitating the creation of diverse content types such as blogs, news articles, product descriptions, and more. With a user-friendly interface, ExpressionEngine enables seamless content editing directly from the front end, eliminating the need to navigate complex control panels. The platform's robust templating system supports the integration of HTML, JavaScript, PHP, and ExpressionEngine tags, providing developers with the tools to craft unique and engaging web experiences. Key Features and Functionality: - Flexible Content Channels: Organize and manage various content types through customizable channels, allowing for tailored content structures. - Front-End Editing: Edit content directly on the live site, streamlining the content management process without accessing the backend. - Comprehensive Templating System: Utilize a powerful templating engine that supports multiple programming languages and ExpressionEngine tags for dynamic content rendering. - Custom Fieldtypes: Choose from over 20 different field types to capture and display content in ways that best suit your website's needs. - Entry Cloning: Duplicate existing entries with a single click to expedite content creation and maintain consistency. - User Management: Efficiently manage different types of members and user roles to control access and permissions. - Multi-Site Management: Administer multiple websites from a single control panel, with the option to share design elements, content, and user data across sites. - Live Preview: Preview content changes in real-time within the site's design before publishing, ensuring accuracy and visual appeal. - Add-On Prolets: Extend site functionality by integrating add-ons that can be accessed directly from the front end. - Robust Security: Benefit from a proven track record of rock-solid security, with no serious security issues reported in its 15-year history. Primary Value and Solutions Provided: ExpressionEngine offers a comprehensive solution for building and managing websites that require flexibility, security, and ease of use. Its customizable content channels and templating system allow developers to create unique web experiences without being constrained by rigid structures. The front-end editing capabilities and live preview features enhance the efficiency of content management, enabling users to make real-time updates with confidence. Additionally, the platform's strong security measures and active community support provide peace of mind for users, ensuring that their websites remain secure and up-to-date. Whether for small personal blogs or large-scale enterprise sites, ExpressionEngine delivers the tools and flexibility needed to bring any web project to life.

Seller

EllisLab

Discussions

ExpressionEngine Community

Overview by

Tom Jaeger

Value at a Glance

Averages based on real user reviews.

Time to Implement

2 months

Return on Investment

10 months

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ExpressionEngine

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Verified User in Internet

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4/23/2020

"Fullstack developer"

3/5

What do you like best about ExpressionEngine?

Easy to use cms. It’s cleary one of the best on the market Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ExpressionEngine?

Most of The plugins available are no longer maintained or they were built for an older version of ee Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Computer & Network Security

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

3/26/2020

"One of the best CMS I know"

5/5

What do you like best about ExpressionEngine?

I'm using this CMS more than 15 years, that time it had another name: pmachine. One of the best CMS in my option. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ExpressionEngine?

What I don't like that some modules and extentions aren't free, hopefully they'll have such community as WP Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Computer Software

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

3/31/2020

"Meh."

2.5/5

What do you like best about ExpressionEngine?

Clean cut, older so it loaded faster than most. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ExpressionEngine?

Clunky and not intuitive. Difficult to use, cloogey widget plug ins. I'm glad we moved away from it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Information Technology and Services

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

3/29/2020

"Best secure flexible CMS"

5/5

What do you like best about ExpressionEngine?

Easy to use, customize, create unlimited templates and fields Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ExpressionEngine?

I see we dont have must support and community groups for discussion online Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

J.P. B.

Creative Director

Marketing and Advertising

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

12/19/2018

"Flexible, Extendable, Easy to Learn, in short - Terrific!"

5/5

What do you like best about ExpressionEngine?

Our favorite features of this content management system are 1) The high level of security and 2) the ability to bring in any customized design or framework and have it work flawlessly and unencumbered by the CMS. 3) ExpressionEngine allows our clients to own their data, contentand design and to take it with them wherever they go in terms of hosting and ongoing maintenance and upgrades. 4) ExpressionEngine can be simple for non-developers use and maintain if setup correctly with the client's needs and desires in mind. 5) The control panel is fast and flexible in terms of layout. You can customize it to suit your needs making it fast to use and greatly reduces the amount of clicks between sections compared to other CMS we've used. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ExpressionEngine?

There is not much to dislike about ExpressionEngine. I guess our biggest issue would be the poor documentation of some 3rd-party addons when needed to complete a project. Since ExpressionEngine just changed to an open-source product, I imagine this issue will be resolved as more developers jump in to addon development. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is ExpressionEngine solving and how is that benefiting you?

EE has helped us solve issues related to customized event management solutions, Easy site updates and maintenance on the client side, and has brought us the ability to truly customize both front and back-end of websites we develop. Additionally we have found that regular website and database management is quicker with EE which allows us to provide those services at lower costs to our clients. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Marketing and Advertising

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

9/7/2019

"Archaic and limiting"

1/5

What do you like best about ExpressionEngine?

Makes it easy to manage users, clean code output Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ExpressionEngine?

I dislike almost everything about Expression Engine. The UX is deplorable and we constantly get signed out and lose changes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Robin C.

Author

Marketing and Advertising

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

6/28/2018

"User Friendly"

4/5

What do you like best about ExpressionEngine?

I love the easy interface to update our sites. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ExpressionEngine?

Sometimes it can be a little "chunky" and slow Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering ExpressionEngine:

Once the system is in place, our tech team was able to "train" us no-techie people to update the system fairly easily. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is ExpressionEngine solving and how is that benefiting you?

Utilize EE for our business website as well as for our event registration system. It has allowed us to take on some of the design elements to free up our actual tech team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Loren S.

Marketing Coordinator

Machinery

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

11/16/2017

"Powerful Content Management System"

4.5/5

What do you like best about ExpressionEngine?

ExpressionEngine is very user friendly! It has all the essentials you need for a CMS with zero clutter of junk. This was the first CMS I worked with at my job, which shows you that it was very easy to teach myself the ends and outs of EE. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ExpressionEngine?

Sometimes creating forms on EE can be cumbersome. I had to have our website developer step in to help in this regard. Also we had to add captchas to our forms to stop spamming. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Information Technology and Services

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

1/23/2018

"Terrible CMS"

0.5/5

What do you like best about ExpressionEngine?

I honestly don't like anything about this platform. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ExpressionEngine?

Literally everything. The UI, the UX, the actual platform itself. Nothing is easy about using our navigating EE. When recently went through n EE upgrade that was originally supposed to take 1 week. It ended up taking 4 months. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering ExpressionEngine:

Do not use it. Build in wordpress or any other CMS. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is ExpressionEngine solving and how is that benefiting you?

Allows us to publish content to our website(blog). There really are no advantages to using this platform. It seems to be the lowest form of content management platform on the market, and even consultants who work on implementing it can't fix the issues that arise in it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Lauren N.

Director of Marketing & eCommerce

Marketing and Advertising

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

6/1/2017

"Not recommended for Small Business "

1.5/5

What do you like best about ExpressionEngine?

The platform is somewhere in the middle of Wordpress and Larger platforms as far as ease of use is concerned. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ExpressionEngine?

Most page and template changes, as well as cart changes are all code. Costs a lot of money to maintain and update this site. As a non developer I prefer something more user friendly to a non coder. Doing basic marketing functions on this site, like adding Landing pages, banners, pop ups, add-ons, etc are very challenging. Doesn't have a lot of basic stuff built in. Again, can be added but it's all code. Blog posts are hard to customize compared to other platforms I've used. Seems like it's missing a lot of basic stuff for a CMS. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering ExpressionEngine:

Unless you have a website budget in the $20k's + I'd steer clear. It takes a lot of development to set this up and get it running properly. We regret not using Shopify after only 6 months on this, because every change costs more money, and we're still not getting all the features available right out of the box with Shopify. We run another branded website on Shopify so it's easy to compare and contrast the two. EE is such an unknown platform that most people aren't developing integrations for it, so we're very limited in what we can even use as an add on. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is ExpressionEngine solving and how is that benefiting you?

Using this with Carthrob to run our eCommerce website. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.