EE 2012 Wishlist: Bring Back Core
A couple of weeks ago I asked you for your wishes for ExpressionEngine in the year 2012. The response was wonderful and full of great ideas and, thankfully, very little snark. I wanted to hear everyone else’s ideas but neglected to share my own.
I agree with many of the suggestions in the comment thread of my original post. But if I had to only choose one thing (and, in truth, it’s impractical for me to do so) to wish for with ExpressionEngine in 2012 it’s this:
Bring back ExpressionEngine Core (or something similar)
When the end of ExpressionEngine Core was announced, I was all for it. I thought it was a good move by EllisLab to charge for all access to the ExpressionEngine application. And, you know, it might have been good for their business and for our community. There’s something to be said about an admission price (albeit a fairly low one at only $99.95) and how it can keep the community professional. And, for the most part, that’s the case.
But paid-only licensing1 options also keeps out the casual, happen-to-stumble-across-ExpressionEngine users, who may have been suffering for years from the plight that is [insert CMS here] and are looking for a better way to create content websites.
It’s Where I Started
My first ExpressionEngine website was built on EE Core. I wanted to dabble and check out the new-to-me CMS and Core provided me that option. Using Core allowed me to make a ton of mistakes building my first ExpressionEngine site and learn a tremendous amount along the way (although, as usually is the case, many of my best lessons were learned when there was a lot on the line).
I’m not the only one. Ask around or start an informal Twitter poll to find out who started with Core. There are many others who also started on Core and are now thriving using ExpressionEngine in their consulting businesses or other web work.
Can we create the next generation of the ExpressionEngine community with a paid-only admission to the community?
Front Lines
I’m not trying to hoodwink you with a flashy show of altruistic word gymnastics; there is certainly a business consideration here.
I create tutorials that teach people how to learn ExpressionEngine. If there’s a barrier that keeps people from adopting ExpressionEngine I am one of the first (after EllisLab) to feel the impact. Have I? There are so many scenarios that without controlled testing it’s impossible to know. But is it in the realm of possibility that the lack of a free version of ExpressionEngine has slowed growth of the community and the businesses that do commerce in the space? Definitely.
An easier way into the community will help everyone using EE. I’m not just talking about add-on developers who sell their software commercially; it’s you, the consultant, freelancer and agency owner who also benefit from more people using–and becoming proficient in–ExpressionEngine. It makes it easier to pitch EE to clients, hire people to work on your team building EE sites and have access to better add-ons and supporting services.
Having an EE Core version of ExpressionEngine available would increase the number of people joining the community, adopting ExpressionEngine and building new sites on EE. This is good for everyone.
So, that’s my wish for ExpressionEngine for 2012. It’s not a feature, a bug fix or a complaint. I’d just like to see the community open to casual passersby, CMS tinkerers and people who don’t want to or can’t spend $100 on a license.
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Yes, there is a 30-day money back guarantee for ExpressionEngine. I know EllisLab honors that guarantee but I think they’re so often used by companies (especially those sleezy television informercials) that they aren’t really taken seriously by many people (including myself). There’s also the situation where some individuals (young students just getting into web development) don’t have the money to throw down for a license. ↩
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 by Ryan Irelan
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Tom Stoecklein — 15:02 on 01.19.2012
If they don’t want to go all the way back to a separate Core option, it might be an interesting idea to offer private sandbox-type development areas for people to play around in before buying (and giving the option to export it to a tar file or even deploy to other servers or something).
Strictly limit the types of access, maybe add in the ability to install various extensions with one-click access (cough, integrate with devot:ee, cough), and configure it so that it’s running off a boostrap config to enable you to allow EllisLab to keep the overall infrastructure cost of everything down to a bare minimum by symlinking all the sandboxes off of a base install. Invision Power Board has a similar offering and from what I understand, it’s had a pretty strong affect on their overall sales as a result.
In that sort of situation, you’re taking the easy entry a Core option offers and making it as easy as a three field form while still preserving the benefits of a more professional community as a result of the admission price (granting, for the sake of discussion, that such is indeed the result).
Isaac — 17:46 on 01.19.2012
I really think that EllisLab should bring back Core. It could be even more constrained than before in some ways - don’t allow certain features to be used (just take them out of the Core build completely), limited to a single user account and a single active session, limited number of channels, etc.
It’s really hard for me to get developers to try out ExpressionEngine without Core around. Before, it was easy - “hey, go download this and play with it,” but that’s no longer the case and I think it’s a significant missed opportunity.
Matalin Hatchard — 17:30 on 01.20.2012
It’s an interesting topic. It certainly gave me food for thought when I was considering it. I know if I had been in a different position financially I would not have been able to take the leap. I’m very new to EE and am learning it now (including your EE2 quickstart book). To seriously leap in there is not only the base cost, there is all of the addons which seem almost universally used, most of which are paid. I have no problem with people getting paid for what they develop, but it does make the financial hurdle greater. For my part I’m super excited and the more I dig into EE the more I love it, so money well spent.
As to the guarantee you’re quite right - 30 days is so widely used that it almost means nothing. I doubt you’ll have a solid enough handle on EE after 30 days to be 100 certain that it’s not for you - that might take longer if it were to happen. I like Zappos ethos - 365day return policy - if you haven’t made a commercial site in the first three months, open to getting a refund. The try it out philosophy could then work.. On the other hand other systems for cms and for ecommerce go the “open source” route and lack so much in their core functionality that building a quality site becomes expensive because everything you want to do is an addon. The robust base build of EE2 I suspect comes from a dev team that gets paid properly to build a great product - I would not want that to water down in any way..
Just 2 cents from a complete (but enthusiastic) newbie to EE.
Rob — 18:02 on 01.20.2012
I still miss the core version for putting up basic non-commercial sites, and installing demos for prospective clients to play with before they commit to my services.
As it stands there is a *huge* barrier to entry as others have said. Yes I know there is a 30 day money back job but splashing out what is a lot of money for many people hundred on an unknown piece of software is not attractive in anyone’s book. That barrier is possibly costing EL a lot of sales?
When EL announced Core was going to be withdrawn I suggested an alternative of offering something like a cut down version of EE for a much smaller fee - offer just basic modules like Channel, but no comments, email, mailinglist, members, moblog, search, simplecommerce or wiki. Sell it for a modest price, and upsell upgrades from the CP. You could still use Core for small brochureware sites where needs are minimal and bring EE into place where the barrier to entry was lowered and thereby increasing exposure - there would always be an upgrade path to the full version if the site needed to expand.
I like Tom Stoecklein suggestion of a private sandbox where potential users could create an account and play with it for 48 hours or so. That would keep all code under tight control as well as letting people kick the tyres for no outlay - “risk free” as the marketing men say
Alternatively, EL could sell the basic Core for a minimal price and sell modules on top as needed for each project. That way it would truly become a modular system that could be tailored to the needs of each site without having modules that would never be needed.
Fingers crossed if EL are reading this !
Taz — 09:02 on 01.21.2012
One alternative I’ve been wishing for lately is a monthly-fee option (say, $15/month for 1 year for a non-commercial license, $30/month for commercial
Sam — 14:30 on 01.22.2012
Bring back Core!
It’s embarrassing to recommend EE to designer and developers. For those I do recommended, not one of them go further than the pricing page, and it’s not about the cost, it’s just that it looks like there’s no open source community.
Surely it’s vital to keep the open source ethos alive and kicking, what better way than having a core stripped down version available to download at will so anyone can knock it about, then if needed they can spend loads of money on add-ons, seems like a pretty good business module to me.
EE should forget money back deals and hosted trials or monthly payments, they are for other things, not for EE.
Sarah — 05:28 on 01.24.2012
I got my job in part because of EE Core. I had installed it for my personal site because of all the good press (Happy Cog), played around, didn’t do a ton with it. But at the interview, I could say that I had done at least that much, in addition to my general web skillset, and am now working at an agency that does almost exclusively EE sites.