ExpressionEngine Reviews & Insights

Score10 out of 10

88 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for ExpressionEngine are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Reliable Performance: Many users have praised the product for its reliable performance. Several reviewers mentioned that the product consistently meets their expectations and performs well in various scenarios. Ease of Use: The ease of use is a common pro mentioned by several customers. Users appreciate how intuitive and user-friendly the product is, making it easy to navigate and operate without any hassle or confusion. Great Customer Support: Some users have expressed their satisfaction with the great customer support provided by the company. They have found the support team to be responsive, helpful, and efficient in resolving any issues or inquiries they had.

ExpressionEngine Reviews

19 Reviews

Marketing

Website development that's simplified and streamlined

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 18, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

ExpressionEngine has completely transformed the way we manage our website. This is our first CMS and it has been a life-saver when it comes to making instant updates or creating/editing content across all of the different pages. We have specific templates designed to fit our brand, our products, and our wireframe.

Pros

Editor contains preview windows to check work before saving changes.
Each section has a WYSIWYG which instructs users on the dimensions needed for images.

Cons

Sometimes, I'm unable to pull from the PDF folder when trying to link a file in the WYSIWYG.
Content boxes in certain templates do not expand, which makes it difficult to navigate where the cursor is and keep your place while editing.

Likelihood to Recommend

ExpressionEngine, for the most part, has a straightforward, user-friendly interface and is far more simplified than any proprietary software that I've used as a website administrator in the past. Sorting through the site structure and creating new pages is a fairly simple process. This CMS may be less appropriate for customers who require far more complicated templates (with a heavy dose of coding) to match their needs.

Verified User

Employee in Marketing (Banking company, 51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Solid, more flexible alternative to WordPress

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

June 21, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I run a web agency which uses ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS for our small business and organization clients. Both are more refined, flexible, and powerful alternatives to the default to WordPress. Both allow development of custom, non-theme-based websites to fit clients' specific business requirements.

Pros

Wide range of fields types - allows collection and display of different types of information (date, image, multi-relation, etc.)
Security. Excellent security record, does not face hacking risk like WordPress.
HTML-agnostic templating system. Write whatever HTML, JS, CSS you want, and then integrate it into ExpressionEngine's templates.

Cons

UI is still inferior to Craft CMS.
Third-party add-ons are required for certain features that ought to be built in to the product.
Vendor has fumbled support for its developer network.

Likelihood to Recommend

Upgrading from a previous ExpressionEngine build (v2 or v3).
Custom builds that aren't suited to a theme.
More complex needs than WordPress can handle natively.

Ben Seigel

Principal in Marketing at Versa Studio LLC (Internet, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

12 years of experience

View profile

ExpressionEngine - the CMS of Choice

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

March 15, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I worked at an advertising agency that used ExpressionEngine for all their client websites; it was their CMS of choice. All of the developers installed it, set up custom fields and made it meet the client's requests, each site is fully customized for the client. We had a boilerplate set up that enabled us to set up a new install quickly.

Pros

ExpressionEngine manages content and users extremely well and with ease.
ExpressionEngine is reliable and scales for small websites to enterprise websites.
ExpressionEngine has a large community following and many reliable plugins.

Cons

ExpressionEngine makes a ton of calls to the database, so caching is extremely important.
ExpressionEngine has a learning curve when learning to set up templates properly.

Likelihood to Recommend

ExpressionEngine is a good option for a CMS for many people. It scales easily, is reliable and has plenty of plugins to extend functionality. I've used it on small websites and enterprise websites, receiving roughly 15,000 requests daily. It's easy for end users to navigate and easy to manage user roles.

Verified User

Employee in Marketing (Education Management company, 51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

ExpressionEngine and why you should choose it as your next CMS

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

July 27, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I currently use ExpressionEngine for my business website, and as the primary CMS for my clients. It solves a multitude of problems. As a stable platform it allows me to build a very flexible website for my clients; EE (ExpressionEngine) is so flexible that I can build the entire site that is editable by the client or down to just the content. Feature wise EE has powerful plugins which can be installed giving the CMS even more capability. My clients love being able to go in and add/edit products, services, or even staff members to their sites. The language that EE uses is easy to learn and understand, what would take several lines in other languages can be accomplished with only one in EE. Security wise, I am able to develop roles so that I can assign only certain content to be editable by different people. Training my clients on ExpressionEngine is easy as well, if they can fill out a form, they can use EE. I will also choose ExpressionEngine as the CMS for myself, and my clients.

Pros

Flexibility is a huge aspect of ExpressionEngine, other CMSs lock you into certain ways your site must be built. You write the templates and write the way you want the website you are building to function with ExpressionEngine.
Creating editable content in ExpressionEngine is easy, allowing you to control and make your website more dynamic.
The plugins for ExpressionEngine are wonderful, I have never had a request for integration from a client that I can't find a plugin for ExpressionEngine.

Cons

ExpressionEngine would be even better than it already is if it had a page editor where you could see your page and edit the content on the actual page, some clients prefer this method when moving from online website builders.
Although there are add-ons for backup, I would like to see a native backup feature for ExpressionEngine.

Likelihood to Recommend

ExpressionEngine is a very powerful and flexible content management system. It can handle a simple small business website all the way to a large corporation's website. If you are a business with multiple websites ExpresionEngine can handle that as well with it's Multiple Site Manager. I think ExpressionEngine would be less appropriate for a global large scale business with a magnitude of sites with different regions and languages.

Jeremy Troxell

Web Developer in Marketing at Troxell Web Design (Marketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

Beginner!

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

July 21, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use ExpressionEngine for our web site, our blog and all our web updates and management of in-house image and text changes. Since it's tied directly to the web site, so long as the web hosting company is up, we are able to log in and manage the site. We are able to log in anywhere in the world so long as there is Wi-Fi service so it’s not tied directly to a hard-wired system.

Pros

Ease of use.
Similar or same menu selections that I'm used to using with other MS office products.

Cons

It doesn't seem to be workable with Internet Explorer - that is fine now that I use Google Chrome.

Likelihood to Recommend

We didn't have any say in the software as it was tied to our web site developers and development of our site.

Kelley Leonard

Managing Co-Owner/Marketing Manager in Marketing at Glenlaurel Inn (Hospitality, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

ExpressionEngine: The Flexible Content Management System.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

July 17, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

ExpressionEngine powers our college's main web site as well as online training modules, event and ancillary sites. ExpressionEngine's flexibility allows us to publish a variety of content types and designs to our web site and other internal systems. User control and access to manage, update, and approve content changes is also a great benefit.

Pros

ExpressionEngine has no preconceived ideas about how your content should look or what code is generated.
A robust template engine makes integrating designs and content a breeze.
The control panel can be customized to control what content managers have access to.

Cons

The upgrade process can be tedious if your site uses more than a couple of add-ons.
Back ups must be managed manually or by a third party system/add-on.

Likelihood to Recommend

ExpressionEngine can literally be used for any type of site, but for a very basic site with just a few pages or if the site will primarily be used for blogging, there are better tailored solutions.

Also, you will need a developer and/or someone very familiar with content management systems to install and configure the software. There is nothing like the "WordPress famous 5 minute install" that will give you visible results very quickly.

John Dezember

Web Developer in Marketing at Cleveland State Community College (Higher Education, 201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

View profile

ExpressionEngine is clean, easy to use, and easy to learn

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

July 7, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We're a web design agency, and we use ExpressionEngine to help our clients keep an updated website full of content and images. Some of our team members set up the backend to adopt our design and development features, and some team members simply upload all of the website content and do some Q/A testing and editing. ExpressionEngine is great because it's easy to learn and easy to use once you learn it. Therefore, it makes it easy to get everything up on the site and enables simple collaboration and editing among team members and clients.

Pros

It integrates well with your design and development features, so all you have to do after setup is create the appropriate fields and enter content.
It integrates well with many different tools and plug-ins, so whatever you need in addition to ExpressionEngine features, there's a tool out there that will connect and work effectively.

Cons

It would be nice to have easier access to older saved versions of pages.

Likelihood to Recommend

Some clients have a lot external plug-ins they want to use, so making sure all of those tools, or alternatives to those tools, can be easily integrated with ExpressionEngine is the first step. Another thing in question is who and how many people will be updating the site on a regular basis. ExpressionEngine is easy to use and learn, so it's the option we'll suggest to clients who will be updating their own site.

Rachael Swogger

Digital Marketing Strategist in Marketing at Wojo Design (Marketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

ExpressionEngine is a steam engine in a world of bullet trains.

Rating: 2 out of 10

Incentivized

July 7, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use ExpressionEngine as a CMS for our public website, http://bacterin.com. The biggest issue I have with ExpressionEngine is the lack of current documentation and third party module/plugin support. I find WordPress to be a much more simple solution to CMS with a much larger community. I do like how clean ExpressionEngine code is, but that simply can't outweigh the cons of the product.

Pros

Clean Code Output
Straight-forward CMS input
Simple page management

Cons

Session timeout/cookies suck
Needs much more community
Needs more current documentation.

Likelihood to Recommend

If you want a completely hand-coded website with a simple CMS backend, ExpressionEngine is fine. If you are looking for a site with easy-to-add plugins and a great community, use WordPress or even Drupal.

CJ Williams

Graphic Design / Marketing Specialist in Marketing at Bacterin International, Inc. (Biotechnology, 51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Powerhouse CMS great for ecommerce and large sites

Rating: 4 out of 10

Incentivized

July 2, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

My company uses ExpressionEngine as an engine for our larger web development projects. It allows for a very custom experience and has an extensive library of modules and add-ons, making almost anything possible. We have quite a bit of experience using the product, so development generally goes quickly and we trust the product to deliver for our clients.

Pros

Large community base provides excellent support when needed
Extensive catalog of modules to expand capabilities as needed
Built in management of member profiles and permissions saves time

Cons

Can be too cumbersome for smaller projects, takes time to pair down the built in functionality so our clients have to sift through unused features
Large queries take significant processing power, recommended use of a cache module to store this data and speed up page load
Backend can be overwhelming for clients, lots of things to manage in the control panel
No way to repeat custom page fields or groups of fields, meaning page layout must be pretty established and not customizable from the control panel

Likelihood to Recommend

For any project requiring a commerce module, this is a go to. ExpressionEngine is also preferred in situations where there are complex relationships between data and pages. In situations where the site is small, and the pages are relatively individual and not interconnected, a simple content management system tends to be more effective.

Rachel Rine

Web Designer/Developer in Marketing at Madhouse Creative (Internet, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

ExpressionEngine for non-profit

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

June 30, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use ExpressionEngine to manage our expansive website. We work with a team of developers who are able to build us customized options within the system. ExpressionEngine has been incredibly easy to use and allows us to quickly update information within our site. I would highly recommend ExpressionEngine to anyone who is looking for an easy to use content management system.

Pros

Website Organization
Quick info replacement
Form Building

Cons

Database/information management
Exports
Customized templates

Likelihood to Recommend

We use ExpressionEngine for a non-profit trade association, so having the ability to manage it all ourselves is incredibly helpful. Being able to work with a development team to create the backend structure was priceless, and using ExpressionEngine to modify the frontend is easy. It is a great tool for companies to use to manage their sites.

Laura Hanson

Senior Marketing Coordinator in Marketing at American Galvanizers Association (Construction, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

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ExpressionEngine and why you should choose it as your next CMS

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

July 27, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Flexibility is a huge aspect of ExpressionEngine, other CMSs lock you into certain ways your site must be built. You write the templates and write the way you want the website you are building to function with ExpressionEngine.
Creating editable content in ExpressionEngine is easy, allowing you to control and make your website more dynamic.
The plugins for ExpressionEngine are wonderful, I have never had a request for integration from a client that I can't find a plugin for ExpressionEngine.

Cons

ExpressionEngine would be even better than it already is if it had a page editor where you could see your page and edit the content on the actual page, some clients prefer this method when moving from online website builders.
Although there are add-ons for backup, I would like to see a native backup feature for ExpressionEngine.

Likelihood to Recommend

Jeremy Troxell

Web Developer in Marketing at Troxell Web Design (Marketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience