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Is EE Overkill for a Small Biz/Small Budget Site?

March 04, 2008 7:38pm

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  • #1 / Mar 04, 2008 7:38pm

    Brandon Meek

    30 posts

    What do you think? Is EE overkill when the budget is small and the site requirements are too? I love working with it so dang much that I don’t want to use something else, but the license fees cut into my $$$ and poppa needs some new shoes. 😉

    When you aren’t using EE, what do you opt for? I use wordpress for some projects but I’ve grown tired of it.

  • #2 / Mar 04, 2008 8:06pm

    Sue Crocker

    26054 posts

    Brandon, if you purchase the license for your clients, and pass the fee back to them, you’ll eventually be able to get discounted fees for your licenses.

    That’ll help.

    I never do sites that don’t use EE, so I don’t have an answer for you.

  • #3 / Mar 04, 2008 8:15pm

    anonymous58313

    134 posts

    I have a small site that currently makes no profit that I work on for fun.

    I paid for a full commercial license (including the forum software).  It’s so cheap that I don’t think it should be much concern.

  • #4 / Mar 04, 2008 8:58pm

    stinhambo

    1268 posts

    It depends on what they want to achieve. If they don’t need anything dynamic then static coding does it for me.

  • #5 / Mar 04, 2008 9:22pm

    Peter Sommerfeld

    86 posts

    It depends on what they want to achieve. If they don’t need anything dynamic then static coding does it for me.

    Been there, done that, never would do it again 😊 Websites seem always tend to grow whatever you do and expectations of the users or your own too, - it is a matter of time IMHO.

    May be it is a good idea to start with EE-Core version and if needed there is an upgrade path. MODx sounds interesting as well as Textpattern but I haven’t tried both. Depends all on the requirements.

  • #6 / Mar 04, 2008 9:30pm

    stinhambo

    1268 posts

    It depends on what they want to achieve. If they don’t need anything dynamic then static coding does it for me.

    Been there, done that, never would do it again 😊 Websites seem always tend to grow whatever you do and expectations of the users or your own too, - it is a matter of time IMHO.

    May be it is a good idea to start with EE-Core version and if needed there is an upgrade path. MODx sounds interesting as well as Textpattern but I haven’t tried both. Depends all on the requirements.

    EE-Core cannot be used for commercial sites.

    If the client doesn’t need dynamic content then EE is overkill for me. It’s really no problem to plug in the HTML as templates and build the dynamic areas if the client wants to upgrade to a CMS.

  • #7 / Mar 04, 2008 9:41pm

    Peter Sommerfeld

    86 posts

    EE-Core cannot be used for commercial sites.

    Sure, I failed to understand that the OP asked for commercial use.

  • #8 / Mar 04, 2008 11:48pm

    Dane Thomas

    139 posts

    I don’t think there is a single site that I would build no that wouldn’t involve EE. No matter how small the budget, in my mind it’s always worth it in the long run to build something that has the flexibility to grow. I guess it depends on what type of client you are trying to attract or work with. But as Sue says the costs involved with EE are always passed onto the client - I quote for my time and work and any licensing costs involved are additional.

    The way I look at it is I divide my hourly rate by the cost of EE + any extensions and then work out how many hours of work EE is worth to you looking at other options, or working out issues and setting up email forms, etc.

    Only to have the client call you up a month or two later to say we’re looking at adding a news section…

    To me it’s a no brainer. If the client borks at the licensing costs I’d argue they aren’t a client I’d want to take on.

    If someone was to ring me now and ask for an online presence (single page) + an email form. I’d be quoting my time + EE license and setting them up with freeform….

  • #9 / Mar 05, 2008 12:55am

    Brandon Meek

    30 posts

    Normally I wouldn’t take a project with a tight budget like this, but its someone I know, I have a little extra time this month and its a project I want to do. I’m probably just going to scale back the design options to get it to fit. Thanks for the different perspectives.

  • #10 / Mar 05, 2008 9:39am

    Adam Khan

    319 posts

    No matter how small the budget, in my mind it’s always worth it in the long run to build something that has the flexibility to grow… If someone was to ring me now and ask for an online presence (single page) + an email form. I’d be quoting my time + EE license and setting them up with freeform….

    Second this emotion. Standardization makes things easy for me, which in turn gets passed on to the client in time therefore money saved.

    Though I guess posting this here is preaching to the converted…

  • #11 / Mar 05, 2008 10:25am

    Andy Harris

    958 posts

    We were talking about this only earlier today actually. I agree 100% with Dane - most ‘simple’ projects I’ve worked on quickly escalate into an “ooh, can we have a [forum|wiki|blog|cms], so using EE from the off can save you a headache in the future.

  • #12 / Mar 05, 2008 11:25am

    Brandon Meek

    30 posts

    ^^ That was kind of my thought. The simple 5 page site grows to, “OH, can I have an integrated shopping system, user board and oh I’d like to post videos whenever I want.”

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