With ExpressionEngine, the answer is “Yes!”

If there’s something specific you want to achieve, and your website is powered by the ExpressionEngine CMS, the answer is, “Of course we can - no problem!”.

While no piece of CMS software is ever perfect - whether it’s running a simple portfolio website or driving online sales for your complete range of products - we think ExpressionEngine is as close as it gets.

This is why IC360 has been championing ExpressionEngine since 2008 and now exclusively builds all our client’s website using this CMS.

Whilst some other CMS platforms definitely have more market share, this doesn’t translate into them being the most flexible, the most powerful, the easiest to use or the most efficient.

Effective, without the fuss

We use ExpressionEngine for a whole host of reasons but probably the most important factors are:

1) Any design we like
As the websites we create are custom designed and custom coded in HTML, we know we can integrate these with any ExpressionEngine system, without a need to tweak or change them to fit around how the system is setup. We don’t need to stick with pre-defined themes or templates either.

Basically, this means we have the freedom to design and build a site however we like, without worrying about the CMS getting in the way. And should we wish to change the design - or add new frontend features - we know we can just modify our own templates and insert the relevant data tags for the content where required.

2) Any content we like
Normally we would design a website, based around known content fields (eg. product title, price, brand name, etc) but we already know that EE is capable of handling any type of content we can throw at it, so it’s not a worry.

This might be blocks of text, images, feature lists, prices, tax rates, URLs, product categories, order details, customer info or map co-ordinates - the list is extensive.

3) Code without brainache!
Generally speaking, we rarely need to use PHP within any of the EE Templates, to make a website work (unless anything really complex is required). Pretty much everything can be catered for using standard EE Tags, to output the required data into the rendered frontend pages.

The hundreds of EE Tags available provide all the power and flexibility required to tailor the outputs in any way we can think of… all without touching any PHP code.

And on rare occasion things get sticky, there are extensive EE Docs to help - and thousands of other skilled web developers out in there in the helpful EE Community.

4) Open Source and free to use
Although the “you get what you pay for” is a very true idiom in most cases; when it comes to ExpressionEngine being Open Source, you get infinitely more than you pay for.

It’s suitable for the majority of website builds right away - but if we need more, there are hundreds of affordable Add-Ons available to bring more tools and features to the party.

Check out the ExpressionEngine Add-Ons store to see for yourself.

5) Solid and secure
System security and stability is at the core of ExpressionEngine.
Knowing that security is one of the primary development and testing cycles in the overall EE system, along with a proven track record in terms of real world performance and reliability, we have absolute confidence in how bulletproof the CMS is.

Being under constant improvement, with a transparent community support structure - as well the core commercial development team - EE enjoys regular enhancement releases. These not only keep it up-to-date with modern technologies but also means it’s keeping well up with security features.

6) Multiple user access levels
Alongside the overall system security, EE also offers virtually infinite levels of user access privileges.
We know we can offer our clients the power to only grant specific access levels to the website content, data and settings.

This also applies to the frontend site - so it’s easy to give registered website customers completely different options and features from regular users.

7) Ecommerce you can rely on
In association with the CartThrob ecommerce add-on, we can offer powerful and flexible ecommerce features and tools, all within the same system.

We are able to cater for all our clients’ ecommerce needs with the EE and CartThrob partnership, without the huge financial burden and expensive maintenance that other top-level ecommerce platforms can suffer from.

Balancing speed, effectiveness and cost, is easy when using these tools, which gives our clients great value for money, without compromise.

8) Less can often be more
Being able to easily offer completely separated and removed user tools, outside of the EE CMS interface, is a mega useful way to offer our clients a completely tailored user experience, for managing website content, customer data, online orders and more.

All of this can give the Admin user a customised and simplified Dashboard interface, while continuing to use the power and control offered by ExpressionEngine in the background.

9) Tools for a sustainable business model
With the ease and simplicity of ExpressionEngine’s tools and features, along with its power and flexibility, we can run a sustainable and capable website design & maintenance business, without the significant overheads that focusing on other CMS platforms would entail.

We know we can achieve whatever our clients need and whatever their customers need, all from within this amazingly versatile tool.

10) Love Mondays again
Using ExpressionEngine makes working fun again! It can bring joy and job satisfaction, being able to achieve whatever is imagined or needed, from within a well engineered and polished tool. It’s a real pleasure to use!

Now Mondays are fun and something to look forward to (yes, we really mean that!).

Need your ExpressionEngine website updating?

We have broad experience when it comes to updating EE sites, whether all the way back to EE v1, right the way up to the latest releases.

Looking for a proficient and capable ExpressionEngine website developer?

As a Silver Partner, we have been designing and developing websites using EE since 2008, so we know we can help.

Need a new website, but not sure where to start?

Why not take a look at our Portfolio of work to see if there’s anything you like?
We know we can help create a great website for your business and for your customers.