this is the tut i’ve been most excited for. thanks!

hummmmmmm……..

Let me Try

hay Richard Tap, do i have to but ExpressionEngine for every single domain – i don’t get it or is it simply buy one and live with ?

- is it subscription method ?
- do i have to buy for every domain ?
- how many time i can use the files ?

Intriguing, but why does it cost money where other CMS’es like Drupal, Wordpress and Joomla are free?

It would be worth mentioning that although you pay for Expression Engine ($99 or $250 is a relatively small amount if a client is spending $1500 upwards on a website) you also get excellent technical support from the guys at Ellis Lab. The forums are always busy and there is always someone from Ellis Lab willing to help out with any problems, plus the very helpful and knowledgeable community are always active on the forums. The forums are locked to paying license holders so are kept clear of spam and re-posts etc.

Again, as you pay for the product this means it has a dedicated team behind it updating and refining the product, something you perhaps won’t find with most open source/free Content Management Systems.

If a client has a problem with their site that needs fixing ASAP and it is beyond your scope then you can get a quick response from the guys who actually built the system as oppose to waiting on an empty forum for some random to reply.

All in all a fantastic product and service.

Yay finally some EE tuts!

I played around with it for a while and after realizing how powerful/flexible it is I just felt a bit sorry for Wordpress even though I use Wordpress myself.

Just to hopefully clear up WHY ExpressionEngine is a paid product before it all gets out of hand, the reason is support.

You are primarily paying for full developer support of which the ExpressionEngine developers are some of the best you will find anywhere.

Yes there are plenty of CMS systems out there which are free and there are loads and loads of modules that are developed 3rd party for free too (ExpressionEngine has loads of these too) but the main point is that you are getting a product that is supported and developed and has exceptional rock solid security.

I have used literally hundreds of CMS systems over the years and can safely say that I have ended up paying out more trying to get them to be really secure.

With ExpressionEngine not only is the security of the system fantastic but also the whole method of working with it too. The templating system is just the best I have ever come across in any system and let’s not forget the support of the forums too. These are forums where you regularly have the main developers of the product (ExpressionEngine) popping in to help out with problems. Most other systems will have people helping out who do a good job but to actually have the developers of the product regularly helping out is a major plus.

Then there’s the community based part of ExpressionEngine. I literally believe the forums there to be the friendliest forums I’ve come across in my entire life. I’ve been through so many forums where people are just flaming other people and to tell the truth I was getting sick of it. In the ExpressionEngine forums there is generally none of that at all. You get great support from both the moderators and the users alike which is worth the cost of the product in itself.

Just my two pennies worth though.

Looking forward to the rest of this series.

Best wishes,

Mark

I’m with Kevin Quillen… not really sure why I’d use Expression Engine over the free (as in beer and as in speech) alternatives. I guess that’s what the next few tuts will be for, though Looking forward to it.

I think of the cost in terms of how many hours I’m going to waste hacking away at Wordpress or another free CMS to get it to do what EE usually handles out of the box. Think of $250 as 2-3 hours of your development time charged to the client. That’s pocket change for most projects, and it’ll save you time and frustration down the road.

And as Mark said, the community and support is top notch. Rarely does a question go unanswered in the forums. That to me is worth a few dollars.

have been waiting for a good introduction to expression engine, looking forward to the next installment

I work at a church and we are currently rebuilding our site in EE. Can’t wait for the rest of this series.

I look forward to reading the up and coming articles with EE been looking at it for while and it could prove to step up my web design projects with an all built cms system to help assist my Design and XHTML/CSS code

Why use EE when there are cheaper or free alternatives? …Such a strange quesiton. I’ll bet there are cheaper versions of the computer you’re using right now. So why did you splurge for that one? Because it was better suited to your needs. There are cheap alternatives for everything.

I use EE exclusively for my work, and I’ve found that its value more than makes up for its cost.

Expression Engine also has a MSM (multi site manager) module that effectively lets you run 3 of your own sites from one license installation and a substantial discount on further site add ons. Also from a client perspective they offer volume discount’s that you can build up over time, which works out well from a freelancer’s perspective.

Volume Discount Milestones:

3+ purchases, 10% off
6+ purchases, 15% off
10+ purchases, 20% off
15+ purchases, 25% off
20+ purchases, 30% off
30+ purchases, 40% off
40+ purchases, 50% off

I really think people make a mountain out of a mole hill with the price issue. I haven’t had a client even question the $249.95 price tag.

If it is out of you or your clients budget then simply go for a free CMS! Simple.

It’s not that its out of budget.

Can you modify their code? Can you extend on it? What if a client wants features EE cannot provide after its installed?

I guess its more of a in-theory discussion than what is posted here, somewhat off topic.

There’s absolutely *no way* I’d pay for this kind of software, no matter how sophisticated or powerful it is. Proprietary code for a CMS/ blog? You got to be kidding!

Nettuts should keep on track and focus on real-life scenarios.

That’s *so* funny.. and odd… I just installed EE for the first time to try it out on a test site, not more than a half hour ago. Then I saw the tweet to this article.

Anyway. I think Veerle’s Blog uses EE. So does one of Obama’s sites. I think as developers we would be remiss to not at least give it a try.

Thanks for the introduction !

But I think I’ll stick to Wordpress for a while,
as said there are so many free Cms’s that
can do so many things if you got the patience…

The support may be the reason to give it a try, tho..

EE is really one of the best cms…I have it on my homeserver installed for testing purposes. I’ll give it a try on one of the next projects, if a client wants too

Paying for a CMS doesn’t seem like that great of an idea at first mention. Though essentially what that means is that there is an experienced team of people who are going to ensure that the product is worth the money required to attain it.

The old saying goes “you get what you pay for”, and the internet has proven this isn’t ALWAYS true, but if you are paying for a product you can at least be assured that it will be quality, and any troubles you have with the product can be resolved by the (paid) development team.

I haven’t used EE yet, but I will look into with this article. It seems like an overall quality CMS. Security is always good.

I happen to really like Expression Engine…i paid for the personal license although i feel it was OVER PRICED!! It was the perfect CMS solution for the project i was working on. It heavily documented and offer great tech support so i guess the $99 was worth it.

Very happy with this series. I will be anxious for the next 4 days

So what if it is commercial, the cost can easily be passed on to the client, it is up to them. The open source alternatives are pretty awesome as well (as in MODx) which is why I am not able to commit to EE. As for cost = development issue, that argument can go both ways. There are several fantastic ‘free’ options that provide continuous development. And i have also recently seen CMS that were commercial go the way of ‘free’ in order to have a larger acceptance. I mean just imagine the chunk of the market that EE would own if it was ‘free’.

in any case i am looking forward for this tutorial.

Sadly, I won’t pay for a CMS. The free version of EE looks good but I just can’t afford the $200+ for the commercial.

I will stick with WordPress & Modx.

Good job though, looks like a great tut.

I would need to try EE first before judging it

My opinion on the free vs. non-free CMS debate is this:

Free CMSes tend to have a lot of bugs, lots of things that you have to work around or build yourself. They don’t (usually) have the same kind of manpower/money behind them that CMSes like Expression Engine have behind them, nor the customer support.

That being said, this isn’t really a problem for me. I have the time, energy, and drive to figure those things out myself, et cetera. For instance, I love Wordpress, and I’m beginning to work with Drupal and loving it as well. (Wordpress is easier to find support for, but Drupal is MUCH more powerful, in my experience)

Non-free CMSes obviously have the advantage of having considerably larger amounts of money behind them, having paid support teams, paid developers, et cetera. They are VERY good for recommending to clients without dedicated staff to maintain the website and check dependencies and update plugins and all that.

Essentially, they’re good for people that don’t have the time, energy, or drive to figure those things out themselves and make the fixes themselves.

Long story short: Free CMSes are great for personal use, Non-free CMSes are good for commercial use. (Surprise, surprise)

I’m really excited for these articles. I have the core version installed for my personal site and have been wanting to learn more about EE. The ease of use along with the power that it gives you really impresses me. I definitely prefer it to Drupal, which is what my company is starting to use for their sites.

Try it out before you bash it. It comes highly recommended by pretty much everybody I’ve ever known who has used it, including myself.

I was of the same mindset as everyone else that has commented. NOT FREE?? Then it’s not for me. I finally decided to give it a try after a year or so of using (and failing) with other CMS’s like TextPattern and I can tell you that I wouldn’t trade ExpressionEngine for anything now. It just seems to make the most sense of any CMS that I’ve used and in the grand scheme of things, the license fee is extremely cheap for what the software can do. The whole free vs. not-free debate ALWAYS comes up when ExpressionEngine is discussed and for whatever reason, people fail to realize that ExpressionEngine does in fact offer a free version (Core) but it does not come with paid Tech Support. You are still free to ask questions in the “Core” tech support forums and with such a great community you’ll generally receive an answer quickly.

Tech support is the biggest issue for me, whether paying for Expression Engine, Basecamp or reseller hosting. I need to know that if there is a problem I can’t fix myself then I can get real help within the day and fix the problem for my client. If I can’t fix it in a reasonable amount of time, this reflects badly on my business and could potentially lose me future recommendations for work. The small initial cost’s I pay for upfront are more then easily recouped financially and also through peace of mind.

Charging a client for x amount of hours to fix a bug in Wordpress etc probably works out at roughly the same cost to just buy EE from the offset.

Swings and roundabouts really

I’ve heard good things about EE. My hang up is this though:

Before I would develop in EE for a client I would have to try it out, style around it, play with their templating system, modules, etc. I know there is a free version, which I have downloaded and installed on a subdomain for play. But, the reasons I would want to use EE engine are the features that you get when you purchase a license.

Is it expensive when the cost is passed on to the client? Nope. However, is it expensive if I’m just experimenting with the modules in order to implement the product on future projects? You betcha. If you make enough money where you look at a hundred or so bucks as disposable income then I’m happy for you. Me though, not there quite yet. I’ll continue to use opensource alternatives, not because I look at them as being equal, but because they’re much cheaper to learn about.

I am really happy to see EE coming to nettuts ^__^

As a graphic designer trying to do websites (…), EE is the most simple, intuitive and powerful tool I have ever tried.

It allows you to do things the way you want to, it even helps to organize and structure information, I just love it ^__^

And the support is amazing. If you have one problem, one question, you get an immediate answer from a kind and skilled person.

It is not free? So what? I am not free either… and my clients are certainly more willing to pay me hours for doing my designer job than spending silly hours to fix bugs or try adapting an abscure feature from a free cms.

Blimey! Quite a lot of debate so far, and as can be expected, it’s mainly to do with the fact that EE isn’t free. Thank you all for your comments either for or against EE – the intention of this series is to initially introduce a CMS to people who may not have heard of it, or not given it the time of day because it isn’t free. This certainly isn’t an EE vs WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal kind of thing (there’s plenty of those available with a quick Google) – we’ll be going through, from scratch, how to create quality sites using this most flexible of Content Management Systems. As for whether you or your clients should pay for a CMS…that’s a decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

You need to weigh up if a free CMS can perform precisely what you want and still leave you looking and feeling professional – if that’s the case, then sure, go for the freebie. However, I honestly believe there’s a pretty damn good reason why several very high profile sites use EE as their CMS of choice – flexibility, security and the outstanding levels of service provided in the forums and elsewhere are 3 that spring to mind…the choice tho’ at the end of the day, is yours.

Thanks again for the comments, keep them coming

Hmh, i’ve tested many many many content management systems, not even one of them (includig EE) can do what i need. Either they are too difficult to use or have to be extremely modified.

So i decided to make my own cms, think thats the best way to get what you wish, especially if you want to know all about the code of the cms. Maybe i release it someday to public as opensource in two versions (free and commercial) if it’s finished… But only maybe, because i spend much time on it, it has a bunch of features (and i’m not finished yet), which other (free) cms will never have.

In my opinion, the price of EE is trivial, any client unwilling to pay the modest amount for a commercial license is a client you don’t want or need. Those who balk at the price, try the free Core version which gives you taste of what EE can do.

I have built dozens of sites with EE (and have significant experience with Wordpress and Textpattern as well) and can truly say it’s one of the best (if not THE best) system out there to build dynamic websites, free or otherwise.

It’s extremely configurable, adapts to your design (not the other way around), expandable (loads of good quality plugins, extensions and modules), stable on a variety of server environments and fast. You can build a site without knowing a shred of php or use php in your templates and go to town with them. The documentation is clear and there are plenty of good resources for learning to work with EE.

The community around it is second to none and always willing to help out and share resources and knowledge.

Did I mention the upcoming 2.0 version will be based on the open-source CodeIgniter framework, making extending EE’s base functionality even more interesting?

this is just a advertise-article right?

Hate seeing this turn into a flame war. Just don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. I’ve tried MODx, Wordpress, and Drupal, and I always go back to EE if its my choice. Those other CMS’s don’t have any killer features that EE doesn’t already have, and it’s much less frustrating to work with. Small price is worth it for me and my clients.

Hopefully some of the people here will try the FREE core version and then post their opinions. If there is a feature you need not built into EE, then there will most likely be an add-on, so search the message boards. If you still can’t find it, there is great documentation on how to write your own add-ons. I just recently completed my first two, and if you know PHP, then it’ll be a piece of cake.

It never ceases to amaze me that people question the cost of EE. I come from a background of enterprise CMS implementations, where an installed CMS will run in the several $100,000 range (often times in the $millions). On the cheap end of the spectrum you have tools like Ektron CMS, which will run in the tens of thousands. EE’s price is laughable and the tremendous value will bring you to tears.

Now from the perspective of the custom design shop for the small to medium sized business…I have never once had a client question the purchase of a product in the ~$250 range. For the professionals that take issue with this price tag…how do you value your personal services? Do you give your hours away for free? Seriously, $250 represents a purchase equating to about 2 hours of development time with my firm, and one that will save TONS of hours on the backend…I can see the cost of EE being an issue on a $1,500 project, but if you are selling professional websites for that cheap then you are either leaving a ton of cash on the table, have zero sales & marketing skills or are just a fool with no confidence in yourself.

For a data driven website (not a pure blog, not a social network) EE will deploy faster than other CMS like Drupal or Wordpress which saves a lot more hours than the $250 accounts for. Our EE projects ALWAYS cost less than our Drupal projects.

Perhaps the real question is this…for those of you that complain about EEs price tag…are you professional web developers and if so, what do you charge hourly for graphic design and web development?

Certainly, I won’t read any comment here!
But I think it’s cool this EE, but I think I won’t stop using Wordpress for a while.
Thanks a lot!

I personally still would never pay for a CMS. WordPress is free and extremely powerful. I can convert a simple web site from static HTML and CSS to dynamic web site with a blog in about 2 hours. Not to mention all the plugins that take less than 5 minutes to install and configure. I think EE is way over priced when there are free alternatives.

SilverStripe is also a great choice and free. It’s still a little buggy, but by the end of this year I can see it out of the buggy phase as it already has fixed a lot of bugs over the last year.

I can’t wait for the next episode. Please, hurry it up.

i was looking for a begineer tutorial for this CMS, beacuse this CMS seems have some special feature. I like the security have this CMS, and i guess there are plenty other reasons/stuff/features really cool, that i have to know!

I’m definitely looking to get into EE – it seems very clean indeed.

Thanks for the overview.

I’ve personally been using the core version of EE for more than a year. I’m very happy with what Im getting. the support is great even for core. I have yet to find a better alternative than EE. I’m just waiting for 2.0 to go commercial.

Hey people at EllisLab, if you’re reading this:

I’ve tried to get started with ExpressionEngine multiple times, but I can’t find a good resource on how to get started. It’s always very general and vague info. I’d love to see a tutorial on how you can port an existing static site over to EE…and preferably something not obvious (blog)….perhaps a product oriented website…or a sports team…or a band…or an event.

EllisLab is a small & lean company. Producing tutorials in either screencast or written form can be quite time-intensive and the EE programmers are currently saturated trying to get EE 2 out the door.

In the meantime people like Ryan Ireland of the PragProg series and myself (through Train-ee.com) have been filling the need for EE learning materials. I have two complete site builds documented on Train-ee – a Small Business site and a Church Site.

No offense to the EE staff (I know them quite well and consider them friends) — but I think this arrangement is best as the learning materials are being produced by people who actually have CMS-dirt under their fingernails yet from doing client implementations on it.

I am looking forward to this. I installed the core version a couple of months ago but have not had a chance to get stuck in so this is just the excuse and info I need! Thank you nettuts… again!

Really looking forward to the EE tuts!

I spend most of my time with Wordpress and Drupal. I am interested to see how EE differs.

Thanks!

Can you tell me how Core and Personal or Commercial are different?

I might try it myself

This is gold.

Thanks for another great tutorial. I’m a huge Drupal fan so not likely to change however its still nice to get info on other software and how they might compare.

To those who are questioning the wisdom of paying for a CMS; how many of you use Macs (for example)? We do, and whilst the entry cost is (arguably) more up front, they more than make up for it in financial and other ways going forward.

We’ve been looking at Expression Engine with interest, but are yet to take it for a test drive. Drupal and Joomla tend to work against the designer/developer in our experience (although both are highly extensible from a functionality perspective).

Our open source CMS of choice at present is SilverStripe (http://silverstripe.org). The designers/developers love it, and although it is young it is fast developing a strong following. Professional support is also available through the parent company (http://silverstripe.com) if that is required.

If Expression Engine lives up to the hype, it looks like EE and SS will be our CMSs of choice.

Just include the price of ExpressionEngine in your fee to the client. They don’t have to buy it. Honestly $250 is a drop in the bucket when it comes to the cost of developing a big site.

Additionally it’s the support that makes EE worth it. Try getting support on WordPress forums is difficult – the few times I did it took forever to get an answer if I got one at all.

In anycase you use what is best for the project at hand, for me that is going to be ExpressionEngine 95% of the time.

Sorry but what I see is that there is too much spoken about the costs of the CMS and about EllisLab.

I´m interested on things like:

Whats the difference to other (free or payable) CMS ?
What are the main purposes?
How flexible is it, what can be done with it and what´s not?

The article is very interesting but at the moment it looks more than a paid article. Why? There are no information about the CMS itself. You just give a link to the publisher (modules?) and much reasons why EE costs something. You dont need.

Information and tutorials like this is shows the benefits of it and bring much more into it than explain why it costs money. So bring in more “distance” ^^

Looking forward to read the other articles…

Just a quick note: Not all ‘free’ communities are hard to get help from a few are very responsive. Several open source CMS provide commercial support and skilled developers are easy to find. And finally, commercial support is not always that good, regardless of the price tag. It’s ultimately a gamble either way.

I use an open source CMS; would I have used it to begin with if it was commercial: NO. Would I pay for it now after seeing how great it is and using it for several projects: YES. It is not an easy business decision.

I am very happy at this tutorial series so that i can see more about the EE differential

Please write some more tutorial on how to make site with codeigniter.

“Sorry but what I see is that there is too much spoken about the costs of the CMS and about EllisLab.

I´m interested on things like: (…)”

Same here. I’m mostly interested in the question of EEs real-world flexibility.

Some of you people already mentioned that other CMSs might stand in the way of the designer, while EE is considered to adapt to one’s design. How is this achieved? Am I completely free to use EE’s dynamic framework for almost any type of site or is it more focused on blog functionality?

Thanks a lot for the informative article though.

EE doesn’t offer built-in file locking, a basic rich text editor, or file management for uploads so your secretary down the hall could use it. Yes there are third party plug-ins that try to do this (not all for free) but for the cost of the product, basic items like this should be built in.

I started using EE last year for a couple of client projects and I have to say that the price is worth it. I have built websites with Drupal, TextPattern, WordPress and other more obscure open-source CMS’s, all of which are amazing for free products. But EE is truly different in two important ways:

1. It’s easy to set up complex backend edit and publish pages. This is huge. You can have a nice, client-friendly publish page set up in minutes with EE. There is no PHP necessary, and it doesn’t look like hacked blog software on the backend (No excuses or explanations to client necessary).

2. As others have mentioned, the documentation and support will get you through any crunch. I have received *useful* responses within minutes. Try that with Drupal.

I love expression engine, but it costs a little to much for some of the smaller firms, like the one i work in… Especially when you need to purchase a new license every time youre selling a new site (even with the discount).

I swear by Expression Engine and really hate going back to Wordpress like I have to sometimes, but often the price of a commericial license just can’t be justified for the client.

Being an introduction this article didn’t teach me anything new but looking forward to the coming ones to see if I can pick up any techniques I’ve missed while using EE.

For those of you who say that you’d never pay for a CMS from the outset, you just aren’t EllisLab’s audience, and that is okay. Its not for everyone, and that is okay, too. Honda’s aren’t for everyone and neither is Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

To those who want to give it a whirl, download the free Core version and dive into the documentation and forums on the ExpressionEngine site. This is how I got started 2.5 years ago when I needed a CMS. I could have just as easily ended up at Joomla or Drupal that day, but I am so glad I ended up at EE, and it has completely changed the way I do business.

If you are doing client work, really, you owe it to yourself to take a couple of late nights and play with the system. It truly is amazing and flexible.

A few points:

- You can hack the core all you want.
- You can build modules, extensions and plugins that extend the core without sacrificing your upgrade-ability by hacking the core.
- There are hundreds and hundreds of existing add-ons that are available from a tight knit community of developers who care about building good software for their own needs and those of their fellow developers.
- You’ll find amazing support from the outset, both from the EE team and the community on the forums.
- EE doesn’t tie you into any pre-built templates. We build every site from scratch for our clients, and they turn out looking exactly as the graphic designer had intended.
- EE is young, and small. Its growing FAST- you’d be smart to jump on the bandwagon and learn it. Yes, Veerle’s site is on EE, as was change.org and A List Apart is in the process of converting over. Just 3 of thousands.

Below is an excerpt of my comments on a post on EE Insider along the same lines.

—–

Both excellent arguments. As an EE CMS developer I may be biased here, but not even Drupal can have every piece of functionality you want for every site. The question becomes: how hard is it to find well-built add-on functionality when you need it?

I share an office with a crew of Joomla devs. They fight with dozens of add-ons that all do the same thing trying to find one that works reliably and has the features they need. I hear it every week. They spend, probably, an entire day of work trying to find the right add-on. That is about $1000 of my billable time. I pay my $90 and move on with programming because I know what to expect from the User add-on from Solspace. I don’t have that kind of time to give up wondering if I found the right solution.

EE’s flexibility allows people like Solspace to create functionality that helps us all. If they decide to charge for their add-ons, that is certainly their prerogative. I know Mitchell at Solspace and he and his code is top shelf- you get everything you pay for.

We may have different client sets, but the bulk of my estimates for clients fall in the $8000 – $20000 range. I build the cost of EE and any modules I anticipate needing into the estimate, which usually results in a software cost of $500 or less. If a client has a problem with that, for all we get in service, support and community with EE, they are not my client.

Taking that a little further… I always say that the hosting environment for a client isn’t something they should worry – or even care – about. Hosting should fulfill the needs of the software that the site is being built with and it should be up to the developer to make the decision as to what host will serve the client’s website needs the best (with exceptions of course).

I see recommending EE the same way. “What do you want your website to do for you?“. Once I know the true answers to that question, I can determine if EE is right for them. Sometimes it is not. Usually, due to its flexibility, and the ability to rely on solid add-ons, and building my own add-ons when required, EE can handle anything I throw at it. And that is worth worlds more than $249 in my book. If you are staying away due to that, perhaps you should look at your choices from another angle.

I am not saying I am right and you are wrong, there are thousands of ways to build a site. Just sharing why EE is usually a no brainer for my business decisions.

—-

VERY excited to see all this as it posts. Been wanting to learn the major CMS/Blog platforms but always thought they were too confusing. I am starting to think I was just generalizing without really taking the time. I have tons of WordPress learning materials and now I can start with EE as well.

Hopefully this will increase my skillset and offer more option to my clients.

Sigh, the whole ‘free’ argument is so tired. Don’t want to pay? Move on. Want something more for your money, like dedicated support and FINISHED modules and plugins? Then pay.

By the way. For everyone complaining about the cost, how much do you charge for your services? What???!!! Damn, that’s a lot… why isn’t it free?

Ahem…

After reading perhaps half of all the above comments, I didn’t find two key points that are of interest to me.

1. The Showcase
http://expressionengine.com/showcase/
Due to the inherent nature of many free CMS platforms (WP is NOT a CMS … FLAME-ON!) haha Due to the inherent nature of many free CMS platforms, designers/developers are confined to using segments, sections, blocks, rows, columns, sections, modules, etc. of code. Many of them appear ’stacked’ and result in ‘This Site Looks Like That Site’ syndrome.
You have to admit, it takes aLOT of effort and experience and knowing the guts of many CMS platforms to make it look a certain way, to break away from the ‘This Site Looks Like That Site’ syndrome.
Take a look at the Showcase over on EE site. You simply have to know HTML/XHTML and CSS and maybe even some JavaScript to have a custom site.

2. Corporate Identity
Many ExpressionEngine sites are custom tailored solutions for corporate sites. There are so many large companies and corporations that use EE for their online presence. Privacy and legal matters prevent that information from being disclosed.
Why won’t you find WP being used like that? Or Drupal or Modx?
True they can be tamed to do some extraordinary things, but after how many hours and at what price?

(yes, i am biased and Lovee mee somee EE)

“OK I’m Sold…Let’s Get a Rockin’”

Uh-uh. I don’t think so mister. It can’t beat Drupal.

Wow! This is mad exciting! Let me jump in and give my $0.20 cents.

First off, Wordpress is a blogging tool, not a Content Management System. For goodness sakes it even says it in the first paragraph on it’s about page: http://wordpress.org/about/ !

Secondly, if your scared to fork over a mere $250 for a client site, then I’d begin to question if you understand the true value of your work. I’ve worked with a corporate CMS that costs $15,000 and it cant compare to EE on any level.

So, its not about cost, its about understanding the value it brings to you. This is Business 101, folks. But if web design/development is just a hobby, then stick with the free unsecured unsupported stuff.

Thirdly, since I switched from WP to EE, the value I can now give my clients went from charging $1,500 for a site to up to $5K – $10K for sites.

@James – Ellis Labs does have how to videos to get you started. http://expressionengine.com/tutorials/

@bill – you’ve obviously haven’t built any sites with EE. You’ve must have just looked at the feature list or something. It does all of that, save the rich text editor, out of the box. However, its easily added with a simple FREE extension.

This so-called tutorial was allready doomed to fail even before it got written, simply because the writer have a so obvious agenda. There’s nothing wrong having an agenda, but when selling a service or software is the primary focus then the result is going to smell sh**. I’m here to find high standard tutorials, and this was not even close to it.

Actually, there are some introductory videos at least. I just installed the core version and have to admit, that it looks quite interesting. Definitely worth delving a little deeper into it.

Sorry, wrong link in my last post. Free tutorial videos straight from the developer´s site.

When a company pays on full-time developer $20 to $30 or more an hour laying down $250 is insignificant if the time spent to customize the other free CMS would take longer. Now Im not a fan of the current pre 2.0 EE, but when EE 2.0 comes out built on top of the CodeIgniter Framework, I would pay $500 to get a copy. Cause I guarantee Ill save much more money starting out with it than any other free CMS

Ahh the heated cost vs no cost debate. I would like to point out that no CMS is free it is just a difference of who pays for it.

Automattic releases Wordpress for free but still is a for profit company.

Joomla is GPL but it’s developer’s make loads of money by being recognized in the commercial world as experts in the Joomla CMS and PHP.

I can’t speak to Drupal as I have not tried it.

It is not evil to make money making software anymore than it is evil to make money making websites. And I don’t know about you but as for me and my business we try and show a profit

Each of the CMSs have their pluses and minuses. Depending on the type of work that you do may slant you towards a particular CMS. But to suggest that Mr. Tape had an agenda… well certainly he did. And so does an author that is writing about any of the other CMSs. Why is there so much discord over this topic? Can’t we all just get along? Can’t we recognize each CMS for what it is good for instead of stepping on the other guy?

EE is a good CMS. Just like Wordpress is a great blog and Joomla is great at the User interface EE is highly flexible and great for designers that want to bend a CMS to their will. Give it a try. You won’t be disappointed…

Again, rude people throwing stones to someone who talks about commercial software.

Some companies still not jump in the Open Source side because as users of open source, we becoming in a bunch of weird people fighting each other in how “Y” es better than “X”, and declare the war to any commercial software or people that “sells his soul” to the software author.

What a shame.

I’m sorry, but EE isn’t any better than Wordpress. I’ve tried EE for a few months, and I’ve learned to skin it and everything, but I still didn’t like it. The first reason I didn’t like it was that I couldn’t even create pages without the (paid version-only) pages module. Wordpress comes with that ability built in, for free. Also, EE’s administration panel needs a LOT of work. It’s cluttered, unorganized, and table-based. It took me quite a while to configure simple things, because of the super-cluttered “settings” page. Wordpress does pretty much everything EE does, and more.. for free! Top that.

Will try EE out, just to see what it can do. For my personal development purposes, however, paying for a CMS is currently not an option. Regarding the whole “obvious agenda”, I agree. If you have no agenda, other than trying to teach people about this product, why are you so obviously defending it or selling it in the first section?

“the features are both extensive and impressive”
“there are 22 add-on modules and over 100 plugins”
“[...] are attracted to the incredible security features”

If i was to write a tutorial on how to use a product, with no intention of promoting it other than the fact that people are getting to know about it, a better approach would be something more along the lines of:

“While X is not free, there are situations where the more advanced features can come in handy. Also, X is not widely known and a little hard to get started on. This tutorial will teach you how to use X”.

That should be all, right? If you are not promoting it, why are you telling us why it is so good, over and over. If your sole purpose was to inform, that piece serves no purpose.

Apart from the bias in the article (which I don’t mind really, I was just surprised to see ut), I enjoyed it and will be looking forward to reading more on this CMS.

EE is just ok, it’s no better than modex or wordpress. I haven’t seen any site made with EE that you couldn’t make with modex or wordpress. Also, a lot of the site in EE showcase look like blogs. All of those CMS/ blogs software are easy to use once you learn how to use them. I have use EE, and it just ok. Too many people on here are trying to convince people to use EE. It was nice when it came out, but now it no better than modex or wordpress. I use EE when it was calling pmachine and have use the new version. I like EE, but it just ok.

Thanks a lot for the information.

EE is a commercial CMS. That much we all now know! I’m not about to go down the road of saying how its worth it, and how $250 is a drop in the ocean, etc etc. EE is a great system and I don’t begrudge a company who decides to charge for their excellent product. However, it should be noted and appreciated that for some projects (even commercial ones), a paid-for CMS can still seem unattractive.

$250 is not cheap if you are just starting out and have no money coming in yet. Its also a hefty chunk of a $1000-$1500 site, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to use EE for a site that has a small budget, why wouldn’t you, its a great CMS.

If I could I would use EE for every site that I do, and I know a lot of people who do this already. However, I can’t always afford, or justify doing that. The problem is, I have tried many of the free CMS’s and they just don’t do enough when compared to EE. Also, much as I would like to learn multiple CMS’s for different scenarios, I don’t have the time or headspace to do this.

So I keep coming back to EE. Ideally it is what I want to use for every site. I just can’t always afford to do so.

I just wanted to put a slightly different point across about the Free vs Paid argument.

I’m REALLY looking forward to the coming EE tutorials. Thanks for taking the time to write them!

what a crappy cms same security holes as any other + you pay money for that you have to develop some simple modules that you might need in any day use.
Drupal is like 100 miles in-front.

If your argument is that it has clean and cool UI then you are too lazy to make your own.

Reminds me of the argument of open source PHP vs. ASP.

In talks I’ve heard and articles I have read, open source products tend to have loads of support while paid for products tend to have a much smaller, core team working on a product.

Or how Linux is open source and Windows is paid for, yet many people claim windows is much less stable and that it freezes often.

The main difference here is that open source products seem to have much more stability and add-ons due to so many developers.

A product is not bad because it needs to be paid for. It is bad when dollar signs are recognized instead of great user experience (not that charging is a bad thing, you do have bills to pay after all). Sometimes paying for something is better than not paying for it, example being a free host versus a paid host. I will never go back to free hosting, never.

What product works for you depends on your needs and the needs of the audience you intend to cater to. I often find systems that work with models to be tougher than working with systems like WP. Which it is very like why much more people seem to like WP over Joomla/Drupal because it is “easier” to get started.

I’d love this check this baby out, really. It looks highly engaging in what it can do but I don’t have the cash for it now.

Wordpress is initially a blog. But add-ons and extended functionality give it the capabilities to transform into basically anything. I’ve seen websites that looked like regular websites…and you would never know wordpress made it unless you looked under the hood (source code). Fact is wordpress is one of the most versatile systems I’ve seen, much more so than any cms because those cms likely aren’t capable of being the blogs that wordpress are. Sometimes you need an adaptable system, other times you require a more solid solution.

When it comes to clients, wordpress can create many things so sometimes it can cover other things other than ‘blogs.’ Learn the technology that suits the needs of you and your AUDIENCE. Unless you solely plan on making something for yourself, in which case that wouldn’t bring you profit. In in the end it is about great user experience and pleasing clients.

Hi,

I cant understand some of the comments. First of all $99 is pocket change. Especially considering that you get to try out the core functions for free which will prove its power to you. Second, those saying “I can’t afford $200 for a commercial license, what commercial value does your business then have? Maybe it’s time find a new business?

With that said, you can’t really compare WP and EE. Although WP can be used as a CMS it is and remains a bloging tool… not a true CMS.

EE truly lests you design and develop a three tier structure separating logic, design and content. There is no “must modify the core files to accomplish this design”. You don’t have to mess with php. Although the EE templates allows you to insert php the power comes from the EE “logical markup” tags, allowing you to use your HTML markup and simply insert the logic.

Writing this I realize it’s really hard to explain how it works. I encourage you to try the free core version and you will realize what I am talking about.

My very personal opinion is that this is the best and most flexible CMS there is (if you don’t develop for .NET that is) and WP is the best “out of the box” bloging tol.

You can see a small example of an EE multi language site following my URL.

/Patrik

Great tutorial, looking forward to the next installments.

When will i see the next series?
I am about to learn EE.
Are they any Video Tutorials out there

I’ve been meaning to try Expression Engine for months and this tutorial made it official! No more excuses!

I can’t wait for the next part of the series — it looks exciting.

My thoughts are with commercial software, what if the company ceases trading? You are attached to the fact that a commercial software business will continue trading and providing you updates forever. Where are your updates going to come from then?

With Opensource gpl, bsd licensed software etc, if the cms is good the software will just keep on going forever as there are thousands of people keeping it alive

I have noticed modxcms mentioned a few times, this is my favorite cms and is amazingly flexible, I look forward to the upcoming new modxcms revolution release

OK! So when do we get to be a EE superstar?

OK! So when do we get to be an EE superstar?

Hey great post… I look foward to future posts too.

For those that don’t see why you pay… download core and try it. I can’t recommend EE enough, and it’s worth every penny. I’d happily pay the price even for a 3 page site (ok slight overkill).

In a nut-shell the support you get is fantastic and the flexibility you have with your markup is only limited by your imagination.

Don’t forget there’s a whole host of plugins, extensions and modules out there. A lot of which as free and from experience 99% of the time if it doesn’t do what you want and it’s a valid request the developers in question send you a new plugin within days.

You’re also buying into the community, which is one of the best I ever experienced. Again if you have problems they are normally resolved within 24 hours.

In 18 months+ I’ve been running EE there’s been a few stressful challenges but 99% of the time there’s a solution.

I haven’t experiences this with any other CMS, that what I love and will continue to pay for EE.

Shouldn’t this post have a “sponsored by” link at the top?

It seems like a lot of the EE defenders are working from the same talking points…

“This programme made possible by EllisLabs.”

I bet nobody reading this post will ever use every feature of EE. Just sayin’.

Great post! Amazing start for newcomers

It’s a great post. Thanks for this. By the way, i’ve another EE tutorial for extremely newbie, here is it
http://kodegeek.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/expressionengine-tutorial-for-newbie/

May be this will helpful!

EE is very nice. I researched 100s of CMSes, narrowed it down to 10 or so and then tried each of those for a commercial site I built some time ago – EE was my final choice. For all round support, ease of build and ease of admin for clients it’s very good. There are a few shortfalls (lack of preview, some db export bugs, form handling) but it seems to have the least issues of anything else I could find.

What skills are required to start with EE? Is xhtml/css enough?

Good stuff, Richard. Well written and very informative. Cheers.

thanks for the link.

I’d think it would be in the best interest of EllisLab to offer videos such as that at no cost. Maybe it’s in the works (or maybe I’m just dense and need that much hand holding )

James

The EE team is working on a huge undertaking of releasing of their new 2.0 software which involves rewriting the entire system to be able to use the CodeIgnitor PHP Framework. Ryan’s video screencast might set you back a few $ but are well worth it.

@James – Ellis Labs does have how to videos to get you started. http://expressionengine.com/tutorials/

You’d better not get these guys going on paying for screencasts on how to use a CMS that they have to pay for! LOL FIRE AND BRIMSTONE!