Thread

Coming from a Codeigniter background I have built 2 sites in Expression Engine in both old and new versions and love it.

Although I work in an agency that uses Codeigniter I think the EE licence is great value for money and can see if justified in the commerical market place.

My one gripe and reason I have only built 2 sites with EE in my own work/freelancing is the initial licence cost. It is more often than not too expensive for people trying to get their first site up, the result is usually me putting something together with Wordpress. I have clients now at the stage where they have outgrown this and want to move to something better which is where EE comes in. The big trouble here is having to start a new build from scratch.

What would be great is if Ellislabs offered a cut down version of EE that had only essential elements (ie no simple commerce, whitelist etc) that could be easily upgraded as the client grows. From my own experience and looking at other sites like Show-ee most ee sites not only require a licence but at the very least a couple of add-ons from Pixel Tonic and others taking the inital cost to about $350 - $400 before you start.

Surely with Wordpress 3 and Drupal 7 now out and getting easier and more flexible, Ellislab surely want to do something to get more interest around their product and more people using it. I think this could be one step in the right direction, I certainly would like to get more clients on EE from the start.

Anyone else feel the same?

What would be great is if Ellislabs offered a cut down version of EE that had only essential elements

Something like the Freelancer license, you mean? If that’s still too expensive, how about MojoMotor?

In terms of a package yes the freelancer licence is what I was thinking, even with a few less items however the first line of that licence is:

“The Freelancer license may not be used for client work.”

Ultimately I’m looking at sites that are usually mainly pages, enquiry form and then 1 or 2 modules with a custom query for portfolio, event listings, slider/banner management etc. Stuff you have to hack about in Wordpress to do.

From what I’ve seen in Mojo motor this is too complex e.g. say wanted to do a query of showing only forthcoming events, or portfolio items marked as featured.

“The Freelancer license may not be used for client work.”

Yes, but that certainly doesn’t mean that your client wouldn’t be able to buy one for himself and let you work on his site.

Ah… got you 😉