Thread

I am an EE lover. I am devoted user of this CMS since it was called pMachine. It has been rewarding process and I valued the journey well.

EE is a great CMS software. But it is important to note, that nearly everything can be done via its native framework.

I said nearly, because not everything is available out of the box. The rudimentary requirement of CMS like gallery for example, is not available by default. And if we need it, we have to engage third party “community” - where consequently we have to fork another dollar out.

I am recently also looking for a way to connect with Facebook, due to the fact that nearly everyone using it. Of course, there is a way to do it by writing the code, with condition of time available. But if you need a help from the “community” you really have to fork another dollar out too.

I understand there is no such thing as a free lunch, and I respect the contribution of every developer in the “community”. However, when I calculate the total cost of every module/plugin/extension that are needed to save time (menu, gallery, socmed, etc), the figure is rather making my boss unhappy.

This is so different, when for instance, we want to use the Facebook connect plugin using other CMS. The other cms provided more than 1000 solutions and most of them are free ( http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=facebook)

I feel disheartened by those fact. The fact that there are numbers of community that willing to help, and it is for free, while, it has been very quiet at EE.

I don’t criticize EE policy to encourage developers to build a third party module and to sell it. I think that is plausible policy (look at the result at DevotEE). However, cmiiw, I don’t see this policy resonate well enough. At least, for me, a poor developer who relies on to the community, who has to think about every penny that I have to spend for several obligation that I have to do with EE, from extending the license and to pay for some third party services.

I am very sad to think that I have to leave EE when I look at the post-it stick on my computer screen “Use WP, the community’s great… And Free”

If the Wordpress route works for you then that’s great. But it’s also worth thinking about the long term implications of these free plugins.

Because they’re free, developers have little motivation to maintain the plugin or offer long term support. I’m sure some do - but suspect many don’t. When developers can be paid for their efforts in producing a plugin, they’re more likely to keep a development cycle going and to offer support to paying customers.

This might not be an issue for you right now - but can become an issue in the future when another module, or core update gives you errors. Saving a few $ now can sometimes prove an expensive option across the lifetime of your website.

Again - not to say Wordpress is always a wrong choice, but a counter argument that free isn’t always cheaper.

Great post
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