Did I write that headline for SEO purposes? Heck yes.
You see, suddenly there are a LOT of people looking at leaving WordPress and migrating from WP Engine, and that is a good thing. Competition is good, progress is good, and interoperability is good, and the more folks who take this opportunity to leave WordPress and switch to ExpressionEngine, the better the long-term health of the CMS space overall will be.
And also, yes, there are a lot of people squeezed into a WP site who should be using ExpressionEngine instead. So this is a chance to chat a little about EE with a lot of people who are suddenly listening.
Some Background
In the Wordpress world, there’s currently a massively destabilizing conflict going on between WordPress—specifically its defacto owner Matt Mullenweg—and WP Engine, a hosting and add-on developing org owned by a private equity firm. We’re not going to talk about that today.
What I will say is that Hop Studios has built and used both EE and WP sites for 20 years. We have a foot in each world, so we know when and why to use each (or neither).
Why Switch?
Should you switch because of what some are dismissing as “drama” and others are calling an epochal collapse? Actually… no.
Change, sometimes rapid, happens in every industry and evermore so in technology. No community is immune to it. WordPress is not going away, WP Engine isn’t either. The ExpressionEngine community has had its issues in the past 15 years. I don’t recommend switching software because of intermittent, non-cyclical troubles, unless they become prolonged or systemic. I also don’t believe in judging a firm (or a person) on its worst day.
(That said, this current conflict has the hallmarks of a particularly bad situation, and diversifying your technology stack can be an excellent strategy to minimize the risk of dependencies.)
So Then Why?
Lots of good reasons.
Should you switch because of the support? Yep.
Should you switch because of security? Yep.
Should you switch because of functionality? Yep.
Should you switch because of the cost? Yep.
I’ve just come from the annual ExpressionEngine conference, and was reminded once again of what a fantastic, supportive, generous, creative and resilient community ExpressionEngine has. Comparing the WordPress world overall to the ExpressionEngine world, I can 100% vouch for the benefits of being part of the latter over the former.
ExpressionEngine’s templating language is easier to use than WordPress’s. You don’t need to have exposed PHP in EE templates. (Though you can do this if you want.) You can also use Twig for templating in ExpressionEngine — Twig’s a powerful and safe templating language.
Some of what you need add-ons for in WordPress is part of the core in ExpressionEngine, especially including Advanced Custom Fields functionality. The flexibility of data types and structures in EE is why we use it for so many of our clients, and why so many of our clients who started with a WordPress site come to us when their needs grow.
ExpressionEngine is by far a safer and more secure CMS than WordPress. (In fact, part of this current kurfuffle is based on a “security issue” WordPress found in Advanced Custom Fields.) ExpressionEngine has fewer dangerous bugs by orders of magnitude than other CMSs.
For comparison, from 2004 - 2024, WordPress has had 367 CVE vulnerabilities …
https://www.cvedetails.com/product/4096/Wordpress-Wordpress.html?vendor_id=2337
… meanwhile, Drupal has had 411 CVE vulnerabilities from 2002 - 2024 …
https://www.cvedetails.com/vendor/1367/
… and Craft CMS has had 47 vulnerabilities, and that’s only from 2017 - 2024 …
https://www.cvedetails.com/product/37245/Craftcms-Craft-Cms.html?vendor_id=16372
How many has EE had in the past 20 years? Just 14 CVE vulnerabilities …
https://www.cvedetails.com/vendor/7662/Expressionengine.html
That isn’t just luck. That is praise-worthy, and it’s because of dedication to security-first coding.
When you also include add-ons and plugins and third-party development, other CMSs have far, far more security issues, and all together those issues require much more updating and fixing of hacked sites and loss of productivity and reputation.
Because of this, ongoing maintenance costs with ExpressionEngine are much lower than with other CMSs.
There is also the licensing cost. For a site of moderate complexity and activity, WordPress has no licensing fee, while ExpressionEngine is a $249 purchase and $49 per year.
However, you end up with about the same software costs when you think of the paid plugins and subscription services that most WordPress sites end up using. If the determining factor for which website software is its license costs, ExpressionEngine is in the same league as WordPress — compared to Microsoft SharePoint, SalesForce, Oracle APEX, etc.
There are other advantages too, that you’ll find as you dig deeper. Training goes faster, setting up overlapping member roles is easier, EE scales better without additional intervention (though both can handle huge traffic if built well). And yes, ExpressionEngine does revisions (and emojis 😉 ).
Do you want to learn more about switching to ExpressionEngine from WordPress? Our team of experienced developers is here to assist you with your migration journey. Contact us today. We’re happy to address your specific situation and concerns with a free consultation.
