An Easy Choice? WordPress and ExpressionEngine Compared
- By Sufyan bin Uzayr
- Posted in Tools, WORDPRESS
- 15 comments
In a world full of multiple options, picking the right CMS can be quite a task at times. Each CMS comes with its own share of good and bad points, thus making the selection process even more difficult. How does one pick the ideal CMS? Which features does one require? These are only some of the questions that every user asks before he or she decides to use a particular CMS.
Two of the most talked-about CMSs in the current computing scenario are WordPress and ExpressionEngine. Each has its own loyal user base, multitudes of extensions and features, as well as drawbacks. Both WP and EE are often compared, debated and discussed all across the internet.
So, among WordPress and ExpressionEngine, which one beats the other? We shall attempt to answer this question in this article.
However, before we go any further with the actual comparison, let me first take a moment to clarify my reasoning behind each category or sub-category of comparison.
WordPress and ExpressionEngine: The Comparison
What And How?
In writing this article, I have attempted to compare the two wonderful CMSs under the following heads:
- Usability and User Experience
- Community and User Base
- Support and Documentation
- Miscellaneous
Note that, however, the free versus paid rhetoric has not been considered. Why? Simply because you will consider a paid EE over a free WP only if you can afford it. Now, since you can already afford to pay for your CMS, you should definitely shell out money if you think the said CMS can bring an additional edge to your website, and you should not if you feel that the said CMS will not be worth the investment — in this case, this article might prove useful for you. On the other hand, if one cannot afford to pay for EE, he or she will likely settle with a free option such as WordPress anyway, and there will not be much need for such a comparison.
Furthermore, the first point, usability and user experience is by no means an absolute answer: what is usable for you may not be usable for me. I have tried to provide an exhaustive opinion on this point, because most likely, you will not use either EE or WP just for your website, but will also be passing it on to your clientbase.
Lastly, it must also be noted that in this article, I have refrained from citing any concrete technical examples. Bluntly put, both WP and EE are not competing entities and thus, a purely technical comparison (such as doing this on that) will not be fruitful (if it were WordPress vs Drupal, the story would’ve been the opposite).
With that said, let us see how each CMS fares!
1. Usability and User Experience
Let’s take up WordPress first. Is the CMS usable? Definitely yes. However, what sort of user experience does it provide?
Ideally speaking, usability need not simply refer to the interface and appearance, though a good interface is almost always a preliminary requirement. WordPress brings to its users a great level of simplification and abstraction: no matter where and what I write about WP, this is one point I often find myself repeating: WordPress deserves a pat on its back for bringing simplicity to the end users’ lives. Agreed, I am openly biased in favor of something light-weight such as Habari or something more refined, such as Concrete5. However, the abstraction that WordPress offers is in a league of its own! Yet, what about the advanced users? What if you wish to migrate domains or change the URL of your blog? What if you ‘like’ tweaking the database? In its crude form (sans plugins and extensions), can WP serve your purpose in that case? This is where the simplification of WordPress acts against it: Concrete5 gives me a sitemap editor and SEO settings without installing any plugins or playing around with the code; WordPress does not.
ExpressionEngine, on the other hand, assumes that you know what you’re doing (allow me to be blunt: if someone is shelling out over $200 for a single-license of a CMS, he or she should know the software well anyway). The CMS gives you channels, and each channel is given its own categories, custom fields and behavior. Thus, EE is not the CMS for your everyday blog or hobby site about osteopathy. In fact, EE is the option you should consider if your website is in need of multiple modules and features which are otherwise semi-hidden (or absent) in WordPress. In terms of user experience, ExpressionEngine will make your life very easy if you know how to treat it properly.
2. Community and User Base
WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS — make no mistake about it, this piece of software has its own loyal following. You have the official forum, along with the plethora of websites all across the internet that offer your content related to WordPress. Basically, if you are looking for fellow WP users to share some knowledge and a cup of coffee, you will not have to look long and hard: there are just too many of them out there!
This is one area where ExpressionEngine lags slightly behind. That said, it must be clarified that EE has its own loyal user base and a decent community. However, in terms of numbers, the community is less populated as compared to that of WP. Furthermore, you will not be able to find many blogs related solely to EE. Perhaps the biggest reason for the smaller community is the fact that EE is a paid software, as compared to the totally free WP. Lastly, before you fall prey to the numbers’ game, it must also be pointed out that some of the biggest names in the industry use and trust EE, so just in case you decide to use it simply for the sake of good company, you won’t be a loner!
3. Support and Documentation
Again, WordPress has its own Codex, coupled with the third-party blogs. There isn’t much to talk about here beyond that.
Coming to ExpressionEngine.
Ellis Lab have a user guide at your service: however, the biggest plus is the support. Now, expecting such support from WordPress will be unfair, because all said and done, WP is not a paid software. However, irrespective of that, ExpressionEngine has a support desk, specialized paid support (starting at $49 per month, paid in addition to the $299 CMS pricing), and other related sections. To sum up EE’s performance in this section, just two words: professional support.
4. Miscellaneous
Let us now try to sum it all up.
WordPress is ideal for end users and PHP developers. ExpressionEngine, on the other hand, seems apt for designers and front-end developers.
If you wish to just play around and create a blog, or wish to extend its functionality by means of tweaking, look no further than WordPress. If, however, you’d like extensive control right from the beginning and are not the type who’d employ PHP skills simply to extend a CMS, ExpressionEngine is definitely worth the money.
Conclusion
Here is something I used to repeatedly ask myself, years ago when I was still experimenting with CMSs: WordPress lets you install themes at will; why can’t ExpressionEngine do that?
Later on, as I got accustomed to EE and other CMSs, I realized that at times, WP needs to be tweaked to get a certain task done, whereas EE does that very task in a comparatively lesser amount of time. Naturally, both CMSs have their own pros and cons, and the more I used both of them, the more I fell in love with their respective strengths and weaknesses.
Anyway, nostalgia apart, what do you think of WordPress and ExpressionEngine? Which of these two tools do you use and prefer? Have your say in the comments!
(dpe)
About the Author
Sufyan bin Uzayr is a freelance writer, graphic artist, programmer and photographer based in India. He writes for several print magazines as well as technology blogs, and has also authored a book named Sufism: A Brief History. His primary areas of interest include open source, mobile development, web CMS and vector art. He is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of an e-journal named Brave New World. You can visit his website, follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook and Google+.
Mike Toner, 13 December 2012
Very nice overview. I was looking at some websites from Viget Labs today and noticed they are using Expression Engine . I had wrongly assumed their designs were using WordPress- anyhow, that discovery led me to EE vs WordPress comparisons and your blog post couldn’t have been timed better.
I have used WordPress exclusively over to build over 20+ websites. I find the CMS very flexible and able to handle the tasks my clients need to complete. Most importantly for me, the WordPress back-end is intuitive and easy to navigate so that once I hand the site over to my clients, they are not intimidated to get in there and publish away.
John Faulds, 13 December 2012
Your article is slightly out of date: EllisLab no longer have a refund policy in place for ExpressionEngine (that only changed a couple of weeks ago). They also revised their support policy at the same time: support now has to be paid for but you get three months free support with your first purchase.
I’ve used both WordPress and ExpressionEngine but stopped using WP a long time ago in favour of EE. I just found I could do more things and more easily with EE than WP and the control panel can be more precisely customised to each site’s individual requirements.
Ben, 14 December 2012
Good article, but a lot is missing. To start, extending ExpressionEngine does not require writing PHP, in fact, one of its great advantages is avoiding PHP almost entirely. The combination of available add-ons and built-in capabilities (using a plain-English tag language) makes this CMS powerful and flexible without resorting to PHP.
TJ Murrin, 14 December 2012
EE actually just up a few things. A single liscense now costs $299 and the beginning monthly support is $49/month. That said, I do like EE for its easy set up of HMTL files. For some reason the PHP laced WordPress templates have been very difficult for me to understand. All I needed to get my head around the EE learning curve was the tutorials provided by mijingo.com. Of course, EE isn’t for everybody and may not be what your clients need either.
John Macpherson, 14 December 2012
It’s all about using the right tool for the job. A bit of a personal plug but i created a short video about EE vs WordPress at http://www.mediasurgery.co.uk/video-episodes/expressionengine/expressionengine-vs-wordpress-choose-the-right-tool-for-the-job a few months ago.
It’s even debated is WordPress is a true CMS, it was built as a blogging engine and really is still that. For small site that is aligned with a blog WP is a great choice. For anything more than that and say an small e-commerce site or site with multiple content types EE is probably the way to go. EE’s real USP is its flexibility, that’s why there are very few templates out there for EE. Just about all EE sites are custom built. This takes time of course it does, quickly throwing a site together is not what EE was built for.
Use the right tool for job.
Fred Davis, 14 December 2012
How about Joomla? Or Drupal? Both are better than Expression Engine… installable themes, millions of users, over 10,000 plug-ins/components/add-ons… and both are FREE opensource products. Joomla is the easier to use, Drupal has the most horsepower & security (it’s used by Whitehouse.gov, and many other large sites. WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are the only CMS’s with critical mass.
mayphatdien, 19 December 2012
So agree with Fred Davis, i know Joomla, Drupal, but i never heard of Expression Engine before, may be i will try it someday
Norik Davtian, 31 December 2012
I agree with @John_Macpherson
It’s all about using the right tool for the job.
I also have wrote a blog post about a similar topic on why and when to use WordPress.
http://bigemployee.com/why-to-use-wordpress-for-your-website/
arifnanda, 24 January 2013
Here we go.. Great topic here, I like both of cms. But dont forget expression engine is powered by code igniter frame work with large community support. In default installed ee have a great function for develop community website. Either way wordpress do that with some extra work.
So maybe you can choose ee to build community website with a simple way, and wordpress for daily blogging.
Steven Grant, 25 January 2013
Joomla? Seriously? People still use that?
The thing about Joomla sites (and Drupal too) is that I can smell when it’s been used, you only have to look at the source code of a page.
EE site templates are tailored to their content (starting with a blank canvas) not the other way around.
To say that only WP, Joomla & Drupal are the only CMS with critical mass is just baloney, EE accounts for 2.3% of the world’s top 10,000 websites. Obama’s change.gov was powered by EE and in fact, the only reason whitehouse.gov isn’t EE powered is because of a bill to support OSS.
J Farthing, 01 March 2013
@Steven Grant
WP is worse than Joomla or Drupal for identifying plugins used, themes used and of course the CMS from the source code – by several orders of magnitude. By using WP as a platform your site has essentially become an online advertising billboard. I recently used a well known theme framework that had no less than 200 references to the name of the framework used in the source code of just one page.
Kiryl, 20 March 2013
I am really happy found CMS like EE cause. I searching something same for my projects, and finally i got it.
Thanks for the article, nice website disighn!
Lawrence, 24 March 2013
As a designer who has absolutely no desire to become a PHP programmer, I use EE and occasionally Textpattern. I tried WordPress and really wanted to like it, but there is only so much that can be done with it in regards to customization before you are forced into learning PHP.
Paul, 12 April 2013
For us the two play in different leagues. WordPress, or our current favourite Concrete5, are great for low budget, simple sites. When we’re working on a £5k+ project it’s EE all the way.
Company Owner, 04 May 2013
Well….every discussion about “EE” that is out there, for which comments are still allowed, is (no offense) one web designer arguing with another about what a great “end user” experience this CMS or that CMS provides, or the ubiquitous, “EE isn’t free” argument. Well, let me tell you: there’s nothing friendly or fun or competitive about EE from the standpoint of the company STUCK, and yes, I mean, STUCK, using it. Have a WP or Joomla or Drupal or even EZPublish site and need someone to tweak it for you? You can find hundreds of web guys/gals to work on it, AFFORDABLY. Need someone for EE? You’re SCREWED. You can’t find anyone affordable, and it’s too brain-damaging to do it yourself. Need anything other than basic blog functionality? Oh, wait! There’s a module or plug-in that you have to buy in order to do that. I wrote our own first site using Boyink’s tutorial, from scratch. When I needed to have it updated, I was looking at a $5-$6K bill, just to get someone to even TALK to me. It would have been 20% of the price with WP, Joomla, etc. The EE guys think that EE is “the best ever” because, quite bluntly, they can charge ignorant company clients for a “custom” website using the same base templates that they coded over and over, and for which they simply change the outer “skin” or design. For a one-off site, what’s the benefit, as the whole thing requires custom code? It’s ridiculous. Worse, I cannot *believe* that EE guys will argue that WPress is not a “CMS,” because, bygod, EE certainly isn’t either. It’s a framework upon which you can build a CMS, from SCRATCH, with all custom code. The wiki is worthless, it has no templates at all (nothing you’d want, anyway), the forum is rusty at best, it *still* doesn’t even have a rudimentary gallery module, you can’t multi-link posts, and the table structure is clunky. Everything you need to make a full-featured, robust site at an enterprise level is owned/developed by SOMEONE ELSE, so if one of those companies goes out of business, you’re hosed.
I can’t use WPress, simply because the tables I need are far to large, and WP would bog down, but EE is no damn bargain. And for those of you complaining that it costs money–so what? You all pass it on to the poor schmucks like ME who have to pay for it, anyway. In my opinion, I wish I had bit the bullet and spent more–even a LOT more–for something with more REAL power–not imaginary power, or made-up-by-add-ins-power–that at least had a decent website designer/maintenance base from which to choose, without taking it up the strata chocolata. I tell any company owner who asks not to EVER allow a web designer to use EE, because that’s a web designer’s way of locking you into their services for EVER, no matter how bad or late or lazy their work IS. The moment I can afford it, I’m going to find another CMS (a real one) to use for our business, because EE is nothing but aggravation. Their corporate philosophy has no basis in customer service, particularly in 2013, and they don’t care two damns for the people who are ACTUALLY paying for those licenses: the business OWNERS, not the web developers who make the sites. $300 is nothing; it’s the thousands you’ll spend to get the site done, and the thousands more you’ll spend every time you need to refresh it, that’s expensive; that and the exceedingly limited labor pool from which to find people to work on the site. I’ve lost track of the “EE designers” who’ve told me that they’ve all moved on to other CMS’s. The labor pool is minute and very, very “proud” of their services, a great deal of which is utterly unwarranted. Ever looked at the “Site Gallery” on the EE homesite? You think sites like those are worth THOUSANDS? Most of them look like the same 3 predigested sites, regurgitated over and over.
I’m sure that there are still some business owners out there that are not savvy enough to look into what CMS is being used, but I for one make an effort to ensure that if anyone asks me what I think about ours, I tell them–run, do not walk, from getting “sold” on EE. For the business owner, it’s no bargain.