Hi.  I’m considering using EE for several upcoming projects. I’m wondering:

In a worst case scenario: let’s say I build a site using EE, and a few years down the road EE goes belly-up and stops providing service.  Will my files, the database I’ve generated over the years be portable to migrate into a new system?

Or I’ll just be out of luck and will have to start from scratch?

Anyone with database knowledge should be able to help you migrate from the EE database schema to a new database schema. It happens all of the time (for me it’s usually bringing data into EE).

That being said, I don’t think that is something you’ll need to worry about. ExpressionEngine (and Ellis Lab) is not a fly-by-night shop.

First of all, you’ll keep your EE license. So, even if ExpressionEngine would not be available any longer, your installation will continue to work.

Regarding the database, it is a standard MySQL DB, so you can access all content from there. However, EE has some pretty unique features (custom fields, custom statuses, unlimited “weblogs"/container) that might be a bit difficult to port to another system.

HTH
Markus

There is nothing in EE that “locks” you into EE. Everything is based on open source technologies, none of the code is encrypted, so if something unthinkable happens and we no longer exist, it wouldn’t be overtly difficult for a web programmer to to move the data to another solution. At least not compared to losing all your data and starting from scratch.

Thank you very much Ryan, Ms, and Leslie for your replies. 
I feel reassured!