[oakleaves]

Hi,

I am looking for an up-to-date analysis of professional CMS solutions OTHER THAN the big 3 open-source ones:- 1) Wordpress, 2) Joomla, 3) Drupal.

I would be interested to hear from people as to what they have tried recently, how it performed for them, would they use it again, which was the most professional, what the clients response was.. etc.

I'm thinking along the lines of expression engine and Modx to name a couple. They don't need to be open-source, although that's always a bonus.

[MikeChipshop]

I know a bunch of guys and agencies that swear by expression but absolutely all the agencies I work with will use ruby based CMS solutions if they need mission critical scalability.

[oakleaves]

MikeChipshop, on 07 January 2012 - 06:16 PM, said:

I know a bunch of guys and agencies that swear by expression

I keep considering it.. and looking again.. but still not sold on it.

I think the $300 per site fee is a bit steep, or am I just tight?

I'm just wondering if the only thing that's better about expression (as opposed to wordpress) is it's perceived kudos?

This post has been edited by oakleaves: 07 January 2012 - 06:21 PM

[MikeChipshop]

oakleaves, on 07 January 2012 - 06:20 PM, said:

I keep considering it.. and looking again.. but still not sold on it.

I think the $300 per site fee is a bit steep, or am I just tight?

I'm just wondering if the only thing that's better about expression (as opposed to wordpress) is it's perceived kudos?

Once off-set against the cost and size of jobs you would be doing, then I find it quite cheap to be honest.
Some of the jobs an agency I work for takes on where they potentially use expression can be in the tens of thousands of pounds.

[oakleaves]

MikeChipshop, on 07 January 2012 - 06:30 PM, said:

Once off-set against the cost and size of jobs you would be doing, then I find it quite cheap to be honest.
Some of the jobs an agency I work for takes on where they potentially use expression can be in the tens of thousands of pounds.

I see. I'm going to keep Expression Engine in mind for possible future work / projects. To be honest, most web design projects I have on at the moment are below the £3000 mark so I have to plan carefully as to the most viable solution / approach.

I still like to make sites without CMS's if I'm totally honest. I just love starting from a blank canvass as I feel it gives me greater scope for creativity, and like was mentioned on another thread, my clients don't always end up using the CMS anyway!

This post has been edited by oakleaves: 07 January 2012 - 06:40 PM

[FizixRichard]

I think overall Expression Engine is reasonable, but I do get your price concern, there are plenty of websites where its factored out when you start adding the cost of everything else on top.

$300 for the license
+$40 odd bucks for the forum
+$xxx for the installation and setup
+$xxx for the theme design
+$xxx for any extensions

It can rank up and if you are building a brochure site for someone, on a £600 to £1200 budget, it becomes a lot less appealing. Especially when the client says, I want branding free.


Expression has some great benefits like the ability to define custom data schemes from the control panel, you don't need to mess around in code much if at all. The template engine is decent, though I prefer the one from IPB and think that would have been a better model.

One thing I can find is that a lot of end users can be scared to death of it when they start to read up on it. It's easy for a technical person to get to grips with but no so much for an end user with no technical knowledge at all.

That said, its far easier than Drupal and Joomla to setup.

Like I don't know many individuals who have gone it alone with Expression, as in purchased it for their site and gone with it. I know loads who have gone with Wordpress on their own and who have gone with stuff like IPB and vBulletin and phpBB for forums.

Those solutions (while not CMS's) are really easy to install, setup and get going with. I know complete novices who have grabbed skins for those products and customized them a bit, recoloured them etc.

I find people feel safer with them and a bit more daring. I think its because, take WP and IPB in particular are a bit like "Apple" in the sense that the technical stuff is really tucked away and they give a sense of safety and security due to their approach and simplicity.

That kind of thing is really good for an end user is what I like about IPB's full suite, although, as looking at this site, IPB has a lot going on (which it will, its a massive product).

Another thing that's useful in a CMS and Expression achieves this, not as elegantly as IPB and vBulletin, is upgrade-ability, as in being able to upgrade without killing the theme and plugin. I've found Drupal sites tend not to upgrade elegantly at all.

Maybe that's because I don't tend to built with it myself and the sites that I've came into contact with have been hacked to hell and back, maybe its due to Drupals approach.

[Bomb]

SilverStripe always works well for me, well worth a look.