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. This isn’t a criticism: there’s no reason why a business owner should need to understand the internals of their CMS. But it does mean that problems can accumulate quietly over a long period before they become visible.
Here’s what actually determines whether your site is in good shape.
The current release of ExpressionEngine is 7.x. If your site is running EE 2 or EE 3, it’s on a version that hasn’t received security updates for years. EE 4 and 5 are also end-of-life. Anything below EE 6 should be considered overdue for attention.
You can usually find the EE version in the footer of the control panel when you’re logged in, or ask your developer.
This is where many older EE sites run into trouble. PHP is the server-side language that EE runs on, and it has its own version lifecycle. PHP 7.x is end-of-life. PHP 8.x is current. Your hosting environment and your EE version need to be compatible with each other.
If your server has been upgraded to PHP 8.x but your EE installation was built for PHP 5.x or 7.x, you’re likely already seeing errors or silent failures.
Third-party addons extend EE’s functionality, and most non-trivial sites depend on several of them. Each addon has its own version history and PHP/EE compatibility requirements. An addon that was installed when the site launched three years ago may not be compatible with current versions of EE or PHP.
Log into your EE control panel and go to Add-Ons. If any show as requiring an update, or if any are throwing errors, that’s a signal worth taking seriously.
This one is simple to check: does your site serve over HTTPS? If you visit your domain and the browser shows a security warning or a padlock with a problem indicator, your SSL certificate either isn’t in place or has expired. This affects both security and search engine rankings.
Page load time matters both for user experience and for SEO. You don’t need specialist tools to get a rough sense: if the site feels slow when you load it yourself, it probably is. Google’s PageSpeed Insights gives a more objective assessment and flags specific issues worth addressing.
If you want a complete assessment rather than a partial one, a formal audit covers all of the above plus a review of the codebase, hosting configuration, and security setup. For a site that’s been running for several years without specialist attention, this is usually the most efficient starting point. It tells you what’s fine, what needs attention soon, and what’s genuinely urgent.
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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.
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.
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.
Most clients come to us when their site has started to feel like a risk rather than an asset. Whether the agency relationship has ended, an upgrade has been delayed, or the site has simply grown beyond what it can handle, a conversation costs nothing.
Get in touch with KarlTrusted by established businesses and growing brands across the UK
Expression 37 works with a small number of clients at any one time. These are some of them.
Karl is the founder of Expression 37 Ltd and has been working exclusively with ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS since 2007. In eighteen years he has supported more than 80 clients across the UK, from long-term retainer arrangements to emergency rescues when something has gone wrong at the worst possible moment. Every piece of work is handled personally by Karl, with no account managers or junior developers between you and the person doing it.
Find out how we workOur ExpressionEngine website had been running on an outdated version for some time and we knew it needed attention, but finding someone with the right expertise to handle it properly was a concern. Expression 37 assessed the site thoroughly, explained exactly what was involved, and carried out the upgrade with no disruption to our business. The site has been noticeably more reliable since, and having ongoing support in place means we know any issues will be dealt with quickly. Straightforward to work with and clearly know what they are doing.
James Dawber - Managing Director
Dawber Williamson