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If your ExpressionEngine website includes an online store, there is a good chance it runs on CartThrob. CartThrob is the eCommerce plugin that powers purchasing, order management, and payment processing on ExpressionEngine sites. Version 9.0.0 has just been released, and while the announcement is aimed at developers, the implications are squarely about how your store operates.

When you receive a proposal or an audit report and one of the technologies listed is Laravel, it is reasonable to pause. You know Craft CMS. You may not know Laravel. If your site depends on something you have never heard of, that can feel like a risk.

Craft CMS has announced it is rebuilding its foundations on Laravel, one of the most widely used PHP frameworks in the world. If you run a business on a Craft-powered site, this is the kind of change that can sound alarming but, handled correctly, is entirely manageable. Here is what you need to understand, and what the right response looks like depending on which version your site is running.

A meaningful part of the work we do at Expression 37 involves inheriting Craft CMS sites that were built by developers or agencies who are no longer involved. The circumstances vary, but the practical challenge is always similar: a site you didn’t build, with code you didn’t write, and decisions that were never documented.

If your Craft CMS site connects to any external service, whether that’s Stripe for payments, HubSpot or Salesforce for CRM, or Mailchimp for email, you have a dependency that you probably don’t think about until it fails. Integrations break. Here’s why they fail and what to do about it.

Craft CMS has a strong but relatively specialised developer community. The difference between someone who has built seriously with Craft and someone who has touched it once or twice is meaningful. If your site runs on Craft and you need ongoing development or support, knowing what to look for matters.

This is a distinction that matters more than most business owners realise, and it comes up in almost every conversation we have with someone whose Craft CMS site hasn’t had active support for a while. The site is working. Pages load, content can be updated, forms submit. But working and maintained are two different things.

Custom web application development covers an enormous range of scope and complexity, which means the cost range is equally wide. If you have asked for quotes and received wildly different figures, that is not necessarily a sign that something is wrong. But understanding what drives the cost helps you evaluate what you are being offered.

Most business owners have no idea what state their Craft CMS site is actually in. They know it’s working, they can add content, and the forms are submitting. Beyond that, it’s a black box. Problems can accumulate quietly over a long period before they become visible.

Custom software development has a higher upfront cost than buying a subscription to an existing tool or adding another plugin to your CMS. That cost is often the reason businesses do not pursue it. But in the right circumstances, the return on a bespoke application is clear, measurable, and often much faster than expected.

The question most business owners ask is some version of: what will this cost? When it comes to Craft CMS support, the honest answer is that it depends on factors specific to your site. But there’s enough of a pattern to give you a useful framework.

Most businesses use multiple systems to run their operations: a CRM, an accounting package, a booking or scheduling tool, a stock management system. Their website, whether built on ExpressionEngine or Craft CMS, often sits apart from all of these, requiring manual data entry in both directions. That gap has a cost.

Most businesses with a Craft CMS site didn’t choose Craft themselves. A web agency built it, recommended the platform, and handled everything from launch onward. That arrangement works well until it doesn’t, and there are several ways it can stop working.

A significant number of businesses are running web applications, intranets, or tools that were built years ago in PHP and have not been meaningfully updated since. The code works, the application does what it always did, and so it sits. What accumulates in the meantime is technical debt with real business consequences.

There’s no single answer to when you should upgrade your Craft CMS installation, but there are several clear signals that tell you it’s overdue. Most business owners don’t think about this until something goes wrong. By then, the upgrade is often more involved than it would have been if it had been handled earlier.

One of the most common selling points for CMS platforms is the plugin ecosystem. Whatever you need, there is a plugin for it. This is true, and it is often genuinely useful. But for businesses running sites where reliability matters, a large plugin count is worth examining more carefully than it usually is.

A significant part of the work we do at Expression 37 involves inheriting ExpressionEngine sites that were built by developers or agencies who are no longer involved. The circumstances vary, but the practical challenge is always similar: a site you didn’t build, with code you didn’t write, and decisions that were never documented.

If you have been told that a project will be built using Laravel, or if you are evaluating options for a custom web application, you have probably encountered the name without a clear explanation of what it actually is. This is that explanation, written for business owners rather than developers.

If your ExpressionEngine or Craft CMS site connects to any external service, whether that’s Stripe for payments, HubSpot or Salesforce for CRM, or Mailchimp for email, you have a dependency that you probably don’t think about until it fails.

Most business websites are built on content management systems. That makes sense for most situations. But there are cases where a CMS is the wrong tool, and the gap between what a CMS can do and what a business needs it to do creates ongoing friction, cost, and limitation. Knowing when a bespoke solution makes more sense is a useful thing to understand.

When a Craft CMS site develops maintenance problems or the original agency moves on, one common suggestion is to migrate to WordPress. The reasoning usually sounds straightforward. But for many businesses, this recommendation deserves more scrutiny than it typically receives.

ExpressionEngine is a specialist platform. The community of genuinely experienced EE developers is small, particularly in the UK, and the difference between someone who has worked with EE seriously and someone who has touched it once or twice is significant.

Most Craft CMS sites rely on third-party plugins to deliver important functionality. Those plugins are maintained by independent developers who may, at any point, stop supporting them. When that happens to a plugin your site depends on, you are facing a problem that your original agency may not have anticipated.

Craft CMS changed its licensing model from a one-off purchase to an annual subscription. If your site was built on Craft and you have not had this conversation with your developer, it is worth understanding what has changed and what the ongoing implications are for your costs.

This is a distinction that matters more than most business owners realise. The site is working. Pages load, content can be updated, forms submit. From the outside, everything looks fine. But working and maintained are two very different things, and the gap between them has a cost that compounds over time.

It is more common than most people realise. A business has been running an ExpressionEngine site for years, the relationship with the agency that built it gradually fades, and eventually there is no-one actively looking after the site. Understanding why this happens helps you know what to do about it.

Most business owners have no idea what state their ExpressionEngine site is in. They know it’s working, they can add content, and the contact form still sends emails. Beyond that, it’s a black box. Problems can accumulate quietly over a long period before they become visible.

Delaying an ExpressionEngine upgrade is easy to justify. The site still works, the budget is committed elsewhere, and nothing has broken yet. But delays in this area follow a predictable pattern, and the costs accumulate in ways that are not immediately visible.

PHP 8 is now the standard version running on most web hosting infrastructure. Many ExpressionEngine sites were built when PHP 7 was current and have never been reviewed for PHP 8 compatibility. If nobody has mentioned this to you, there is a reason for that, and it is worth understanding.

The question I get asked most often by business owners is some version of: what will this cost? It’s a fair question, and the honest answer is that it depends on things that are specific to your site. But there’s enough of a pattern to give you a useful framework.

If your website is running on ExpressionEngine 4 or 5, it may look fine on the surface. But underneath, you are carrying costs that most business owners do not see until something goes wrong. This is not about upgrading for the sake of it. It is about understanding what your current situation actually means.

Most businesses with an ExpressionEngine site didn’t choose ExpressionEngine themselves. A web agency built the site, recommended the CMS, and handled everything from launch onward. That arrangement works well until it doesn’t, and there are several ways it can stop working.

ExpressionEngine has changed hands several times over the years. The current owner, Packet Tide, acquired the platform and has been responsible for its ongoing development. If your business runs on ExpressionEngine, understanding who owns the platform and what their priorities are is worth knowing.

There’s no single answer to when you should upgrade your ExpressionEngine installation, but there are several clear signals that tell you it’s overdue. Most business owners don’t think about this until something goes wrong. By then, the upgrade is usually more involved than it would have been if it had been done earlier.

Many businesses commission an ExpressionEngine audit without being clear on what it should cover. Here is what a thorough audit examines and what it usually reveals.

Most business websites work in the sense that they function. Far fewer perform in the sense that they actively contribute to the business. Here is what the difference looks like in practice.