Thread

I work for a muniplicity in sweden. We are currently using Episerver. It is very closed you have to get a license for everything. Combined with the Microsoft model this force you to invest more and more. One license per site + loadbalancing licences, You have plugins licens (normal) but also you need a developerlinces for even using the plugin if you want your inhouse developer using it! Well lets say Im not happy.

I’m beginning to wonder what could you get for that money instead?  I estimate the we almost can afford another webdeveloper for the same amount of money it costs every year.

In episerver you have pagetypes, with custom fields. We have subsections that can have many different page types. We have urls like http://www.muniplicity.se/Startpage/muniplicity/care/daycare/costs/. Can this be done in expressionengine? Can I have different page types in the fashion I described? 

How is the workflow in EE? How long does it take to get a EE site vs a wordpress up and running?  (Wordpress beats episerver in that regard). I know I ramble but im so excited because i really think that EE could be better for us.

Regards
//Johan

Here is a municipal site which I was part of building some time ago. EE has improved greatly since then and it worked quite well for its needs then so it should be easier now. http://www.smithers.ca

EE license is a one time license (no yearly fees or load fees) as for plugins it kind of runs the gambit. Some are free, some are a modest cost and some are a little more. Most that I use are well worth the cost because they save so much time and make the end product so much easier for the user to update. There are some 1st party addons (Ellis labs) but the majority are 3rd Party and so like i mentioned price and support varies. Just check with the EE community to see what are most well supported. In general not many sites i build do not get structure http://www.buildwithstructure.com and wygwam http://www.pixelandtonic.com after that its on a case by case basis what else is needed. Some of my favorite developers of addons are http://www.devdemon.com/ and http://www.gotolow.com/ and http://www.solspace.com

Hope that helps some.

Thank you PhilBrienesse 😊 About plugins and the cms. When new version is released of the cms do I need to purchase the plugin again? Only on major versions or for every version or not at all? How much is the upgrade fee for ee? Well even thoe I’m willing to pay its nice to know.

Second got any advice on how to convince my boss and fellow colleagues to switch? I think its even better if i can find someone outside the workplace to explain the benefits.

Regards
//  Johan

Right of point release upgrades are free from ee. Meaning going from 2.2 to 2.3 is free. Whenever they come out with a 3.0 that will be a new license. I’m not an EE employee so I can’t say for sure but when 2.0 came out there was an upgrade option which was about the difference in license cost of a 1.x site to a 2.x site if I remember right.  As for addon upgrades that would be up to the individual developer who sells those addons. Any I have dealt with require 1 license per site (same as ee) and I have never been charged again when a new version is released. There has been the odd occasion when a free addon has gone to a pay system when they have come up with substantial new features or feel the addon has become so popular and time consuming to support that they need to charge.

Thanks for the replys it helped alot.
About plugins if i buy the multi-site addon for ee can i have the same plugin licens across the multi- site?

What’s the release cyckle for major version of ee?

Again that would be up to each individual developers policy but most require a seperate license for each domain even if you are running multi-site manager. Not sure what the release cycle is for ee hopefully one of the staff can answer that. It was a long time for 2.0 to come out dont imagine a new 3.0 is planned for anytime soon but i really have no idea.

Thank you very much. This seems like a nice community 😊

Welcome to the ExpressionEngine forums, macuser.

Thanks for the assist, Phil.

As far as release cycles go, we tend to release about every 8-12 weeks, it depends on what new functionality is introduced and how many bug fixes we get done.

As far a the license goes, you’ll pay only for the 2.x branch, all upgrades to that branch will be free. When 3.0 comes out, there will be an upgrade fee, but that price has not been determined yet.

Does that help?

Yes absolutely! This will help a lot when I’m gooing to try to convince my boss and colleges to make the switch. For now I’m just gathering information. Next up is going to be to locate someone who can vouch for EE outside the organization. Don’t know a lot of organizations in Sweden that use EE but I’m sure going to try find the right one for the job.

Well. there are several thousand people here who can vouch for EE. 😊 If you’re looking for pros to assist you in creating a site, you may want to look at the Pro Network.

If anything else comes up, please do let us know in a new thread..