Is ExpressionEngine Worth Paying For?
If you follow Internet ramblings, you may have stumbled across this little war of words between some of the guys from Wordpress and Movable Type. All of this started with an announcement from Movable Type (here) that MT would be getting some upgrades. A shot was then fired back by Matt Mullenweg from Wordpress, and so the volley begins. The two products do the same things (basically) but one is free, the other offers paid licenses. Both sides have their fans, but usually in the end, the conversation/argument goes to, “why should I pay for MT when I can get the same things from Wordpress for free?”
Anytime there are “free” options, some people have trouble paying for an alternative. I’m not here to debate the differences between Wordpress and Movable Type, but I believe that this directly applies to ExpressionEngine.
There are a lot of free content managers. A lot. Does that mean its a good choice though? Maybe, maybe not. Here are some of the things that I’ve found with free content managers and how its different when you use a paid system such as ExpressionEngine.
1. Support. I have built many sites using free software only to hear the very loud chirping of crickets when I needed help most. The “sorry dude, I don’t know” responses are just as painful. If you are a coding god, then this may not be that big of an issue, but for everyone else, this is important. With a paid solution such as ExpressionEngine, I found a great support team and a killer forum that is quick to help. The forum is free, so one could argue that the ExpressionEngine user base is just more helpful, but, is that such a bad thing? Paying for software is what makes the official support happen. If you want to use Wordpress and you back yourself into a corner that you don’t know how to get out of, don’t think that just because they have such a huge user base that someone will have had your problem, know how to fix your problem, be willing to help you and do it.
2. Upgrades. While upgrading shouldn’t be a requirement, it also should not screw up your site when you do it. With free software, I don’t think a developer goes into it with the idea that he wants to screw up everyone’s sites. Silly developer, that would be foolish. He/they do their best to make it work for everyone. But what happens when it doesn’t? Maybe this leans back on the support issue, but you may be completely on your own for figuring it out. Didn’t do a backup before the simple 3 click upgrade? Now you are sunk. A paid solution is typically a much more controlled environment giving you better results. Have trouble with your upgrade? Contact support and get some help and avoid the, “RTF Readme n00b!!1!” replies that plague some of the free programs.
3. Features. With free software, you get features that may or may or not be good and may or may not be useful. With a paid solution, whether or not the developer’s children get to eat is determined by people buying their software. So, they obviously have a strong reason to include the best, most usable features that they can so that people will want to buy their product.
There are probably other some other great ones that I am leaving out, but these are some that I have dealt with personally. Obviously everyone has a budget so you need to do what works for your budget, but before you rule out a paid solution because there is a “free” alternative, you need to make sure that you consider the real cost of free.
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Well said, while other CMS sure are free, they are far from being pain free. EE is a nice combo of predefined database structure and hooks that that are non-intrusive to plain old HTML design.
For those hungry for php and hand coding beyond HTML can easily turn pages into php project.
In other words, worth every cent if your a client(end user), admin, webdesigner or die hard programmer.
MT has a free option, even for commercial use, in the MT Open Source project. Even though the software is free though, you can opt to buy a support package. This places it in a middle ground position between WP and EE in regards to pricing model.
That said, initial pricing is only a part of the Total Cost of Ownership picture.
MT is definetly nice but you may want to read their licence agreement one more time as well as check their pricing. There is no such a thing as free comercial licence.
Total Cost of Ownership is a great topic but I think it really depends on your project and who will be maintaining the site after the initial launch.
Open Source is great if you can afford the time to code and never really call your project done and love finding security wholes on your own.
MT is one of the better Open Source platforms but I am curious to see Code Igniter and EE merged in EE 2.0.
Cost scale should read WP EE MT
Good post, I couldn’t agree with you more. I’ve used Joomla, Wordpress to develop websites. Lets just say I no longer use Joomla. It might be free, but the headaches involved with it are not worth it for me. I would never develop client sites using Joomla.
Wordpress is good, but to get the most out of it you need to be able to maniplulate the templates which is not that difficult, but creating a simple navigation bar for your site is not easy to do.
I’ve just started to play with Drupal, which is very powerful and very useful and infinitely flexible, problem is with great power comes a huge learning curve. I looked at Drupal 2 or so years ago and chose Joomla simply because it seemed easier, Drupal however was the better system looking back, but usability was the issue that kept me from exploring further.
I’ve also been looking into EE recently, I really like it. The website is extremely user friendly, everything is documented very well and the features and extensions are fantastic. Ellislabs even wrote their own php framework to cater to it. I think its superb software and I have been asking many questions on the forums and when my budget permits I’ll probably purchase a commercial license.
If I develop client websites it will be with EE - nothing else! For my own websites it will either be Drupal or EE depending on my needs but as far as I’m concerned they are the two best sytems on the market.
Having had a trial installation of every single cms/blogging platform I can get my sticky fingers on EE does come towards the top. However, there is an absolute clear winner in my book - Textpattern. Logic personified and incredibly flexible. The forum may not be as lively nowadays, but you can do pretty much anything with it. It’s free as in beer, so worth asking the odd question on the forum for - that hasn’t stopped me donating though. Plus there is xPattern around the corner.
Hey David, I’ve heard good things about text pattern, but does it have features such as integrated forum / wiki’s / blogs and image galleries?
Many Open Source system offer this but often it involves bridging and other headaches.
EE is great because all the extensions are commercially supported. At a price, yes but its piece of mind to me.
I’ve not used Text Pattern, but other than creating a blog can you build a community with it?
Yes, all those things are available to Txp, some as ‘plugins’, some integration. Granted EE has a nice overall integrated ‘package’ feel, but I found it much harder to use as a cms and frankly was just stumped in some areas when I couldn’t get it to work.
If you want a blog, I’d be happier with just plain old Blogger, maybe Habari or WordPress. Txp is a more rounded tool that is ‘obvious’ to use, but if I were running just a blog, I wouldn’t be using Txp. A good example of Txp is http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/ - which is full of handy hints.
Actually looking at Symphony at the moment 
I’m using EE for quite some time now, and I feel it’s a great piece of software. I am an user of the core program and so I can’t use all things. Doesn’t matter the core version does what it needs to do. I never regret that I left Wordpress and MT for what they are worth.
I bought the commercial license for EE after reading your post here. I used pmachine for years and have been able to understand the “system” relatively quickly. However, I’ve had countless frustrations learning EE, even though people on the forums are very nice and helpful with responding, the learning curve is so steep for me that I’m now considering “the cost of $250 PLUS learning curve” versus “cost of free” (ex. wordpress, which I have also used for years).
The default template that comes with the site is really ugly, and I finally figured out how to customize the page to look like my other websites, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to create a member log in page and a member content area.
Again I’ve used pmachine and wordpress for numerous sites over the years, and I’m finding that EE is really NOT intuitive.
Such interesting read and information, thanks for sharing this post, I’ve already bookmarked your blog.
I agree with you Lebisol. The advantage is for admins, web designers, clients and programmers.
yeah, since they handle more information at the same time, this works perfect for them.
Nice post! This is really advantageous for web designers like me.
This is a nice read - support really is the difference here. I’ve been using wordpress for years, and am actually concerned with the learning curve and the theming issue. I am very familiar with the wordpress templates and have invested quite a bit of time learning the ins and outs of wordpress.
How does the theming compare? How does a wordpress user/developer make the transition - and is it worth it, in the end?
If I were to sell a client on expression enging, I would HAVE to charge them more, because it would take me more time to develop. Why would I do that, if there is a cheaper solution?
Mac offers clear advantages over PC’s - they even offer transitioning classes. Other than support and commercially supported, does EE offer any clear advantages for the developer?
so if the advantage is for admins, web designers, clients and programmers, what about the rest of people??
@prada - You raise a very good point - though I’m not entirely sure there are significant differences for site visitors and users.
However - when we talk about the user experience, what are the assumptions we are making? There has to be a positive user experience for EVERY user, including admins (which may very well be clients)
Though the main advantage is for admins, web designers, and programmers, CLIENTS are also one of those who got the advantages.
-M from Mexico
I just get my head around in regards of all the cms stuff. Now I am trying EE and I have to say, I am impressed. Easy to install, easy administration and no code challanges (I am defenitely not a html freak).
One very important point: EE has a direction and a dedicated team which cares about EE. There are loads of cms around which rely on a few guys who do some coding in the spare time or where users are forced to go techie when it comes to understand modules and that kind of stuff.
MT vs Wordpress… MT has now an open source and a free license (for single blogger). Wordpress (which I used) seems to go the way from open source to “undisclosed” source (leaving several developers unhappy).
In the end I have to say: I think it’s right when IT guys get payed for programming great stuff… so I am willing to pay in case of need and budget period.
Such interesting read and information, thanks for sharing this post, I’ve already bookmarked your blog.
regards,
car hifi
However - when we talk about the user experience, what are the assumptions we are making? There has to be a positive user experience for EVERY user, including admins (which may very well be clients)
thanks..
regards,
gel nails
For those hungry for php and hand coding beyond HTML can easily turn pages into php project.
In other words, worth every cent if your a client(end user), admin, webdesigner or die hard programmer.
thnaks..
wishes from,
juice cayenne pepper diet
Open Source is great if you can afford the time to code and never really call your project done and love finding security wholes on your own…
thanks..
regards,
BMW
One very important point: EE has a direction and a dedicated team which cares about EE. There are loads of cms around which rely on a few guys who do some coding in the spare time or where users are forced to go techie when it comes to understand modules and that kind of stuff.
thanks to eedesign..
regards,
bear hunting
How does the theming compare? How does a wordpress user/developer make the transition - and is it worth it, in the end?
Fanamation
I bought the commercial license for EE after reading your post here. I used pmachine for years and have been able to understand the “system” relatively quickly.
I have made an Website which can find IP Address for any location.. Please let me know can i use this express engine on the ip finding script??
