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Become an Expression Engine Superstar in 5 Days

on Apr 13th 2009 with 144 comments

ExpressionEngine claims to be “the most flexible web publishing system you’ll ever meet” – it’s also the most oft-used CMS in the professional web design community that you’ve never given the time of day to. It’s time to change that and find out precisely why all of the ‘free’ alternatives should sit up and take note.

Expression-What-Now?

ExpressionEngine, from EllisLab, isn’t just any old CMS. To start with, it isn’t free. Whoa there Nelly, don’t go running for the hills just yet – EE‘s core is free to download (for personal use) and it comes with a whole host of features already built in, such as modules(more on those later) for comments, RSS Feeds, Site-search, Statistics and trackbacks. This is the point where you start telling me that there are several other CMS’s that provide these particular features (and many more) all for free, and, of course, you’re absolutely right.

The ExpressionEngine homepage

I’m Still Not Getting This Whole “Pay” Thing…

OK, we need to get past this. The bottom line is, EE will cost some spondoolies – whether it’s going to cost you or your clients, someone is going to have to fork over the cash. The Personal and Commercial licenses ($99.95 and $249.95, respectively) both give you access to extra modules – from ‘Tell-a-friend’ to mailing lists and simple eCommerce. The full list can be found on the pricing page of the EE site.

EE Pricing

OK, so now we’ve gotten over the fact that EE isn’t free…let’s find out precisely why. The features of EE are both extensive and impressive. You’re able to maintain several blogs at the same time – from the same Control Panel – that’s a biggy. The template engine is second-to-none – it is completely abstracted from the rest of the code allowing you complete control of your design and permits you to build dynamic, content driven websites using simple, yet powerful tags. There are 22 add-on modules and over 100 plugins which you’re able to utilize at the time of this writing – a number which is likely to increase sooner rather than later. Other than the flexible nature of EE, many developers (and clients) are attracted to the quite incredible security features built into EE core. EllisLab claims that EE “has the most comprehensive suite of security features of any publishing platform on the market” – quite some claim.

OK I’m Sold…Let’s Get a Rockin’

The first step is to determine whether the server you wish to utilize is capable of running EE. Fortunately, EllisLab have put together an excellent wizard which can walk you through each step. Download the wizard and follow the instructions – which are to basically upload one file onto your host and navigate to it. This script checks your server for certain requirements – such as does it run the minimum version of PHP and MySQL (which are both required) and then several ‘optional’ or suggested options. You get a report immediately upon running the script which breaks down exactly what EE requires and recommends, and whether your server meets those requirements. You then need to check your MySQL settings and will hopefully be greeted with a message that reads. “Congratulations! Your Server is Ready for ExpressionEngine!”.

Checking your server is compatible with EE

Rock and Roll! Download and Installation

Right, you’ve decided that you want to give EE a go, you’ve determined that your server is capable of running it and are ready to get started. So let’s do precisely that – by downloading the EE Core.

  1. Visit https://secure.expressionengine.com/download.php?ACT=agreement&id=34 and accept their license agreement to download the zip file.
  2. Next, extract and upload the files to your web host (or place them in your localhost folder).
  3. Now you need to navigate to that folder and the install script will fire automatically.

You will need to know a few details before beginning (which are outside the scope of this tutorial):

  • MySQL Username
  • MySQL Password
  • MySQL database name
  • MySQL Hostname (normally ‘localhost’)

Note: You’ll need to either create your database or have an existing database before running the ExpressionEngine installation. This can usually be done either using something such as phpMyAdmin or through your web hosting account control panel.

Accept another agreement and then you’re off to the first ‘real’ stage of the installation – renaming the system folder. Go to the folder where you uploaded ExpressionEngine and find the ‘system’ folder. Now rename this folder to something less easy to guess…we’ll use “NotTheSystemFolder”…Irony, y’see is lost on hacking kiddies :) Once finished, tell the install script that you’ve done so.

NotTheSystemFolder - the script kiddies will never guess it!

Now you’re into the nitty gritty of the EE install – the Server, Database and Encryption settings and the bit where you setup your admin account. The majority of these things can be left for the default settings, however you will need the MySQL info listed above and you’ll need to choose some details about your Control Panel ‘admin’ user.

Leave all of the “server settings” as they are. Now fill-in all the details for the ‘database settings’. Once this is done, leave the ‘Encryption Settings’ as they are (SHA1 selected). Now you need to create your admin account – select a username and password, enter your e-mail address and create a ‘screen name’ and give your EE install a name. Adjust the Localization settings to suit and leave the template as default for now. Now click the “Click here to Install ExpressionEngine” button at the bottom of the page. That’s you pretty much done – you should see a nice little message telling you that EE has been successfully installed.

There’s a little bit of house-keeping to do – remove the install.php file from your EE installation directory – the install script tells you that it poses a potential security risk. So go off and do this now and get it out of the way – security is paramount!

Success! EE Is installed

Time to Express Yourself!

Let’s have a little look-see at what we’ve just done. Once the installation script has done its magic, you’ll be asked to bookmark two things – a link to access your control panel and a link to visit your new site. Let’s take the latter one first – we’ll take a look at what our site currently looks like. The ‘Default Site Weblog’ is displayed and a post called “Getting Started With ExpressionEngine” is displayed. The links that this post contains are priceless – invest some time in clicking through them all and reading (and watching) the resources it presents you. Don’t worry about the term ‘Weblog’ – we’ll go through all of the terminologies used in EE in the next part of this run-through. This is often something which puts people off learning EE, so don’t quit – it’s really not as hard as you think.

Your new spangly 'default' EE Site

I Want Control!

Then you shall have it! Clicking on the former of the two links you’re given after the installation script finishes will send you to your ‘login’ page; enter the details you chose during the install process if they’re not automagically entered for you. Now you’re presented with your Control Panel. Have a look around – get used to it – you’ll be seeing this little chap quite a bit.

Take Control with the EE Control Panel

Click on publish and have a look at the ‘form’ you will use to enter new content. That’s something you’ll be wanting to become familiar with! Now click on ‘Edit’ and you’ll see your ‘Getting Started With ExpressionEngine’ post that you viewed not so long ago. Clicking on the title of it will take you to a window similar to the ‘Create’ page – but this time it’s populated with the content from the post we viewed earlier. You can now see how the default editor works – with the [b] and [/b] code clearly showing you how EE creates bold text. Hyperlinks are the same as you normally create in a text editor.

What’s in Store

So then, we’ve had a brief look at what ExpressionEngine is and why it’s worth ‘giving it a go’. Next up, we’ll:

  • Learn how to create content in EE
  • Lear some EE terminology
  • Change our settings in the (rather complex) control panel
  • How to use pre-built themes.
  • Delve deeper into the developer side of things and discuss the way in which EE themes work and set about creating our own – manipulating EE tags while we’re at it.
  • Discuss the premium options within EE and have a look at whether they are right for you or your next project.
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Richard is creative director for Friendly Design based in Manchester, England and has been designing for the web for over ten years. He has used many Content Management Systems in the past but has recently been pointed in the direction of - and has thoroughly enjoyed learning - EllisLab's ExpressionEngine. He's a hard man to win over, but rumour has it Haagen Dazs Strawberry Cheesecake will do the trick. He doesn't like writing about himself!  

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← Older Comments
  • http://createsean.com Sea

    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.

  • Nauglamir

    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…

  • http://modxdeveloper.com Shane Sponagle

    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 :)

  • callen

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

  • Heiko

    “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.

  • bill

    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.

  • steve-0

    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.

  • Mats

    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).

  • http://www.whoisskillen.co.uk Steve K

    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.

  • http://www.webinception.com Chad Crowell

    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.

    —-

  • Lenny Terenzi

    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.

  • Don

    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…

  • http://OrganizedFellow.com OrganizedFellow

    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)

  • Yohn Doh

    “OK I’m Sold…Let’s Get a Rockin’”

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

  • http://grantmx.com grantmx

    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.

  • Yohn Doh

    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.

    • http://www.iamfriendly.com Richard Tape

      Yohn Doh, in reply to your comment, I neither work for EllisLab or intend to work for EllisLab. I have absolutely no agenda other than to introduce a CMS to people who may not have heard of it and this opening gambit, if you will, merely acts as an introduction to what I am going to write. I thank you for your comment, but I am at pains not to take offense to what you have written. I am here to hopefully help some people out, so please stick with this series and see what I come up with. If, at the end, you still think it ‘smells’ a little off, then you are welcome to your opinion and I appreciate, understand and respect that. However, making a judgement so early, is, in my opinion, a little uncalled for. Thanks again.

  • Heiko

    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.

  • Heiko

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

  • http://www.turnitupmedia.com Jon Z

    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

  • http://eetemplates.com Marcus Neto

    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…

  • http://acalora.com vik407

    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.

  • http://dzine-studios.com Dan

    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.

    • http://therealjustinlong.com Justin Long

      You can create as many pages as you want with out purchasing the Pages Module. You would be able to create it as a template in a group and if you wanted you could have not a single EE tag with in that template and it will be a static page just as you would want. You also have the ability to create a static page by limiting the {exp:weblog:entries} tag such as {exp:weblog:entries limit=”1″} or you could further limit it by adding an entry id parameter such as {exp:weblog:entries limit=”1″ entry_id=”12″} which you would be able to pull from the control panel. All of the things that I have mentioned are both standard and free ways of creating pages within EE. There is also a Pages Module that comes with a Personal and Commercial licenses (as you have said) but I can say in every site that I have done I have never installed the module and have made many static pages without a problem.

      So to say that EE can’t do something out of the box just because you have to think out of the box a little is unfair. One of the greatest things about EE is that it is so flexible during development. But with being so flexible it will have it short-comings (ie… initially learning all that you can do is intimidating and time consuming) but in the end the sites that you are able to produce are fantastic.

      The control panel does need some updating and the team at EllisLab are working hard to make the CP easy, sleek and well organized. But until EE2 comes out their is still hope as they have given you the ability to create tabs for things that you use commonly.

  • http://www.twitter.com/PontusEteus Pontus

    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.

    • http://www.iamfriendly.com Richard Tape

      Pontus, thank you for your comment – a well-written one at that, too. It was not my intention to ‘promote’ EE to people, it was my sole intention to introduce it to people who may not have heard of it – hence the first heading (“Expression What-now?!”) – and also introduce the remainder of the articles. From some of the feedback above it appears that it seems like a bit like an advert, if so, I can assure everyone, it was not intended. The remainder of this series certainly don’t read like that and I’ve made a concerted effort to remove any potential ‘bias’ towards ‘selling’ the product. Hope that clears that up!

  • pms

    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.

  • http://www.angstmann.co.uk Richard Angstmann

    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.

  • Patrick Mc

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

  • Andrew Bekesh

    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.

  • http://www.visual-blade.com Daquan Wright

    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.

  • http://www.forexnet.info Patrik

    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

  • http://theredpixel.com Paul

    Great tutorial, looking forward to the next installments.

  • http://www.avadesign.ca Tamara

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

  • Kyle Petersen

    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.

  • Josh

    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

  • JohnM

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

  • JohnM

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

  • http://www.paulcripps.com Paul Cripps

    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.

  • Joey Sanders

    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…

  • http://chrisodonnell.name Christopher Francis O’Donnell

    “This programme made possible by EllisLabs.”

  • http://chrisodonnell.name Christopher Francis O’Donnell

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

  • http://www.capitaldesign.ca Adam

    Great post! Amazing start for newcomers

  • http://kodegeek.wordpress.com/ Musa

    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!

  • Stephen

    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.

  • http://www.computerclue.com Tom B

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

  • http://netinspire.co.uk/ Lee

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

  • http://www.amitywebsolutions.co.uk Laurence Cope

    Too much emphasis on price here. $250 is a small part of a good quality web development project so why complain about price. What we need to read is WHY we would use EE over other CMS’s. Why is it considered better? Everything I’ve read about EE can be done in other CMS’s, so i want to know why i would use EE over these others that cost $250 less. I think people believe its better because it has a price tag. if its only the support that’s better then EE would be good for you if you want support. I need no support for the CMS i use, so i have no idea why i would use EE yet. Are there any unbiased comparison sites?

  • Brian

    Doesn’t look like there is a free version even for personal use or development anymore. That’s a shame.

  • http://codexmedia.com.au Paul

    I like WordPress, and there are jobs that suit it. Don’t install more than a few plugins though (particularly obscure or new ones) if you want it to work predictably..

    For something big, that you have to consult on and scope out (for a fee) you need something cleaner, with an MVC structure, and EE fits that bill, while avoiding the security dangers inherent in an open source MVC CMS.

    It comes down to how much you charge v. how much time you spend on the project. If you charge $5000 for a site and it takes you 50 hours with EE, surely that’s better than doing it something open source that takes you 75 hours or more.

  • http://www.g44g.com Rosie

    Howdy! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with
    SEO? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not
    seeing very good success. If you know of any please
    share. Kudos!

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