Top 10 Essential Add-Ons For Your ExpressionEngine CMS

Since its declaration as Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), ExpressionEngine has been steadily ascending the ranks to establish itself as a prominent Content Management System (CMS). For tech enthusiasts, this presents an exciting opportunity to explore and innovate within this CMS.

ExpressionEngine Add-ons are software modules born from experimentation with the existing software. Within ExpressionEngine, they serve the purpose of facilitating customization. While there might be substitutes for some add-ons, there are a select few that are irreplaceable.

ZealousWeb Technologies has introduced an ExpressionEngine Addons known as “Smart Import Export.” This extension offers intuitive modules that simplify the process of importing and exporting channel data in JSON, XML, and CSV formats.

ExpressEngine users can benefit from the exceptional capabilities of the “Calendar” add-on, which stands as a robust solution for event management and calendaring. With its user-friendly interface, you can effortlessly craft events with intricate recurring event patterns and exclusions. Furthermore, the adaptable templating system provides a wide array of choices to cater to your calendaring requirements. When it comes to feature-rich event add-ons for ExpressionEngine, none compare to the extensive offerings of “Calendar.”

Freeform stands out as the go-to choice for building forms in ExpressionEngine, offering reliability, intuitiveness, and impressive power. Our elegant form builder places everything you need right at your fingertips, granting you complete control to craft both straightforward and intricate multi-page forms. Additionally, it seamlessly connects your forms with various popular API integrations. Customizing your templates is a breeze, and we provide ready-to-use templates and features that will have you up and running in just minutes. When it comes to form plugins, no other option even comes close to competing with what Freeform has to offer!

The structure is an effective extension that empowers you to swiftly construct websites by crafting pages, establishing navigation, and effortlessly handling content.

It diverges from the standard template_group/template arrangement by generating “static” and “listing” pages, all of which can be edited within a hierarchical sitemap interface. With Structure active, you can seamlessly incorporate traditional page-style content and numerous entry pages within a unified space.

WYGWAM stands out as the foremost and widely embraced ExpressionEngine add-on. It boasts compatibility with EE2, EE3, EE4, and EE5, providing dynamic text formatting options. Its rich WYSIGWIG editor relies on CKEditor 4, enabling users to tailor the editor’s user interface to their liking.

Low Search is a powerful search add-on that enhances website search functionality by swiftly delivering highly relevant results. It employs a variety of parameters to fine-tune the data within the website, ensuring an efficient and precise search experience for users. Instead of searching through raw input data, Low Search utilizes keywords, making it significantly faster than alternative search methods. Additionally, it offers support for various search criteria, including category, distance, ranges, and relationships, enhancing the search capabilities of your website.

Channel Images streamlines the utilization of images in ExpressionEngine entries, eliminating the need for a sequential, time-consuming approach. This add-on is capable of managing multiple image uploads and offers image manipulation features, enabling resizing, cropping, rotation, and more to align images with your template requirements. Furthermore, its user-friendly interface simplifies robust image operations, including reordering, deletion, uploads, resizing, and the selection of a cover image for specific entries.

Smart Members Pro provides effective solutions for managing member-related login issues. It facilitates the import and export of members, offers a single sign-in feature with unique usernames and passwords for each user, and supports over 20 social media login integration options. Additionally, users can create custom fields with various options, including multi-select, radio buttons, select dropdown, and file fields to personalize their membership experience.

Carthrob is a versatile eCommerce solution designed for ExpressionEngine, streamlining the process of order placement and management. It empowers users to sell a wide range of items, including products, software, donations, articles, and both physical and digital goods. Carthrob seamlessly handles real-time credit card transactions, ensuring security for ExpressionEngine and confidence in payments. Notably, it places a strong emphasis on developer extensibility, offering advanced APIs for the customization of taxes, shipping, and payment gateways to meet specific business needs.

Smart SEO empowers users to effortlessly incorporate an array of SEO fields, tailored to their specific needs, while addressing common SEO challenges. This plugin seamlessly integrates SEO data into channel entries and categories, simplifies robot.txt file editing, and facilitates access to previous data versions. Moreover, it offers the advantages of Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager without the need for extensive coding. Users can also associate SEO data with custom fields within categories and channels. The use of simple tag codes enables dynamic management of SEO data, providing a user-friendly experience.