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.
ExpressionEngine was originally developed by EllisLab. After years of development under that name, the platform was acquired by Packet Tide in 2019. Packet Tide is a small US-based company, and the team behind the current versions of ExpressionEngine are the same developers who have worked on the platform for a long time.
Yes. Under Packet Tide, ExpressionEngine has continued to release updates. Version 7 is the current major release, and the platform has kept pace with modern PHP requirements, security patches, and feature improvements. This is not a platform that has been abandoned, though it does occupy a niche position compared to platforms with larger commercial backing.
The practical implication of Packet Tide's ownership is that ExpressionEngine is maintained by a small team with a long track record on the platform. That is broadly reassuring, though it also means the pace of development is measured rather than rapid. You are not going to see major architectural changes or a sudden expansion into new markets. What you get is a platform that continues to work reliably, receives security updates, and supports the kind of content-driven business websites it was always designed for.
In our experience, the risk to businesses running ExpressionEngine is rarely the platform ownership. It is the combination of an outdated installation, unmaintained addons, and a lack of ongoing support. A business running ExpressionEngine 7 with a proper maintenance arrangement is in a sound position. A business running ExpressionEngine 2 on a server with outdated PHP, with no developer looking after it, is carrying significant risk regardless of who owns the platform.
If you are running ExpressionEngine and want to understand your risk position, the questions worth asking are not about Packet Tide. They are about your current installation version, your PHP version, the state of your addons, and whether you have a developer who understands the platform. Those are the variables you can actually control.
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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.
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.
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 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.
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Expression 37 works with a small number of clients at any one time. These are some of them.
Karl founded Expression 37 in 2007 and has worked exclusively with ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS ever since. He does not take on work in other platforms and does not hand work to other developers. Expression 37 is deliberately small, because the kind of support that matters to clients with business-critical sites is specific to their site, not something that scales in the conventional sense. If you work with Expression 37, you work with Karl.
Find out how we workKarl at Expression 37 has been essential in keeping our Craft CMS website running at its best. His regular updates and fine-tuning ensure that our site is always up-to-date, secure, and optimised for performance. Karl’s expertise and attention to detail mean we can rely on him for everything from routine maintenance to customised site tweaks. It’s a relief to know our website is in such capable hands with Expression 37. Highly recommended!
Kimberley Clayton-Bull ~ Head of Marketing & Communications
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