Drupal vs ExpressionEngine for any kind of project from simple commercial site to complex ecommerce portals.

Question

Hi friends...

So far I've been using custom cms. lately I developed own cms with CodeIgniter, and I'm actually happy. But recently I take more design and front-end development works than deep development projects. I actually also prefer so... I have many things to do with custom cms, also some security issues, etc. I'm kind of tired of doing everyhing custom, also I want to give more time to my family...

Recently I'm seriously considering to go for a ready cms, and develop custom plugins when project need sth specific. This cms should be very flexible to implement any layout. also secured (since i had some hack problems with my custom cms!)

I googled so much about this. As a result 2 options:

1. Drupal
2. Expression Engine

opensource or licensed matter is not an issue for me at all. I just consider to go for a cms that I can use for any kind of project from simple 4-5 pages company sites to complicated projects like hotels directory, ecommerce portals, etc...

As I found out; EE is more userfriendly and doesnt hassle about implementing custom layout as much as Drupal does. Also EE use CodeIgniter that I'm familiar. on the other hand I found out that Drupal is 10000% flexible, we can do anything with that (requires good php knowledge), extremely powerful and has many plugins...

So I can't decide!! I want to go for a cms that I will use for looooong years from now on with no problems to implement any kind of project. So which one do you recommend?

Appreciate your helps! thanks a lot...

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Edited:

http://expressionengine.com/ee2_sneak_preview/#cost

this Commercial License $299.95 is for 1 setup? So I need to purchase new licence for each project? Nothing like I pay once, and use the cms for as many project as I want?

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Edited:

can you please share your cons and pros from your experiences of these 2 cms.

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Edited:

http://robozen.com/technology/drupal-sucks/

jsut read all the comments here. hmmm, drupal kind of worried me :/ since I'm looking for a cms that would be good from small projects as well.

Answer 1

We could all post answers pointing out the benefits of our preferred CMS vs every other CMS, but really that isn't going to address your problem and it would end up being a "who can shout louder" contest.

I recommend that you set aside a little bit of time to develop a test project (or two) in each and see how that goes. Base the project on things you will commonly need to do and then attempt to achieve them in the CMS you are testing. Throw in something slightly more complex that will require you to create a plugin for each and see how that goes.

Both are good systems, so try them out and see what fits best for your work.

Answer 2

I haven't really worked with any EE, but I have had to work on a Drupal project. The main thing that I didn't like about Drupal is the frequent api changes that occurr between versions, and modules for Drupal 5 may not work for Drupal 6 or 7. This can become a problem over time if you ever upgrade the version of Drupal that you are using. Especially if you are responsible for long term support. However, it is fairly simple to use and find modules to do what you need. I'm sorry I cant give you a comparison between Drupal and EE, but I just wanted to give you some caution about Drupal.

Answer 3

Correct, new point releases of Drupal introduce new changes. Nothing wrong there, as it has gotten exponentially better since the 4.x point release.

If you create a site on Drupal 6 (or 7, at the end of this year) it will be good. There is a huge community support for Drupal, much like stackoverflow, when it comes to Drupal related issues.

You should never feel pressured to upgrade from one point to another (6 to 7) unless the client pays. It typically isn't necessary. If security vulnerabilities are found they are patched right away and released, and Drupal is pretty easy to patch and update.

Of course Drupal 5 modules won't work in Drupal 6 or 7... The core API tends to change. It's not major changes, but enough to where code made 3 years ago may not work today. Comes with the territory of being a programmer :). However, if you follow the Drupal API and Drupal coding standards, when a point release is issued you shouldn't have a lot to do to get your module up and running.

Drupal is wonderful and exceptionally flexible.

Answer 4

I developed own cms with CodeIgniter

Right there is a big 'ol vote for EE

considering to go for a ready cms, and develop custom plugins when project need[s something] specific.

Both platforms have an active development community.

Drupal has an overwhelming number of plugins for everything under the sun - this means something like what you need is probably out there already but it makes navigating which to choose quite difficult sometimes, for example, there's over 48 media modules to chose from. Also, although there are many very well-maintained modules and the community will keep a really popular module going even if the original author abandons it, there are also many which aren't maintained that well over time. If you want to develop your own, you can release it (open source/free) into the wild and benefit from others using, testing and suggesting code changes.

The EE community is a bit less chaotic, there seems to be a smaller pool of extension developers. That said, they are a dedicated pool, and often extend amazing "customer service", partly because they have an incentive - money. Many of the best extensions are not free. This is a pro and a con, depending on what your perspective. If you're building a professional website you can easily pass these costs to your client, they're usually between $10 to no more than $80 for exceptional plugin functionality - that comes with developer support in most cases. If you plan on developing your own plugins for clients, you can release them and get some (mostly) passive income. You cannot do this in the Drupal community. EE users are happy to pay for a good extension that solves a problem for them.

This cms should be very flexible to implement any layout.

EE is really flexible - you design whatever you want for the front end and then you plop you EE template tags into areas that get dynamic content. It's easier than WordPress to skin from scratch and worlds easier than Drupal to skin.

But if you mean flexible in terms of site requirements, making a site do anything you want, well Drupal is a powerhouse - really a web framework more than a CMS. But with that comes a lot of overhead, in terms of complexity, learning curve, and literal page/server overhead. It has a nasty reputation for being very difficult to theme/skin as well. But if you're a coder already AND a good designer you could probably carve yourself quite a niche and be in high demand!

also secured (since i had some hack problems with my custom cms!)

Both have a solid security rep and constantly vetted by their respective communities.

a cms that I can use for any kind of project from simple 4-5 pages company sites to complicated projects like hotels directory, ecommerce portals, etc...

For simple 5 page brochure sites EE would be a much better choice in terms of server performance, end-user experience and difficulty/speed to set up. Drupal is serious overkill for simple sites.

For complicated projects there is a curve of specialty / difficulty. EE can do a lot (e-commerce, portals, directories) but Drupal can do all of that more - translation , LDAP integration, crazy custom workflows, it's amazing (but complicated).

So I can't decide!! I want to go for a cms that I will use for looooong years from now on with no problems to implement any kind of project. So which one do you recommend?

For any kind of project, you better look at Drupal. Both will be around for a long time.

Answer 5

Expressionengine gets my vote, if you need help integrating with an ecommerce, let me know.

The flexibility of EE and power of Magento make a fantastic combo, check out simplifiedbuilding.com - That's a fine example of Magento and EE.