My Content Management System (CMS) of choice is ExpressionEngine (EE)

While I am capable of working with any CMS that runs on PHP, and most do, once I discovered the power and flexibility of EE, I saw no reason to use the others again. I want to build sites that make me look great and are fully customized for my clients. Not having to work within the structure of 'themes' I am free to build anything my clients need and in any way that works for that client. If a plug and play solution is all you need and you don't foresee needing anything special, then I am not your girl.

EE may cost a little more to build to start but it will cost you less in the long term because not only will it be built to make the work of the site administrators a breeze, but it is more stable, more secure, and easier to manage than WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. The others are only more cost-effective if you have in-house developers to do the upgrades and maintenance.  Below are some fo the features that EE comes with out of the box....

Web Publishing

ExpressionEngine’s publishing features are broad, comprehensive, and highly flexible.

• Multiple Channels/Site Sections
  ExpressionEngine supports an unlimited number of channels. You can separate your channels into independent pages, or you can put multiple channels on the same page.
• Custom Entry Fields
  Each section can have its own unique set of entry fields. These can be input boxes, pull-down menus or textareas.
• Search Engine Friendly URLs
  The URLs produced by ExpressionEngine do not contain query strings which are disliked by search engines. Rather, they mimic the directory structure of static sites.
• Custom Statuses
  Create editorial work-flow by creating statuses that you can assign your entries to, like "first draft", "revision", "final edit", etc. You can color-code them too.
• Multiple Categories
  Each entry can be assigned to multiple categories, and you can create as many unique category groups as you want.
• RSS and ATOM Syndication
  With RSS, your content can be made available for syndication. ExpressionEngine supports all major syndication formats, including the new Atom format.
• Moblog Publishing
  Email weblog entries and photos to ExpressionEngine using your mobile phone or email program.
• Relationships
  You can create relationships between entries in different sections of your site, enabling information to be shared.
• Entry Versioning
  The Entry Versioning feature lets you save previous revisions of your weblog entries, so you never lose any edits you make.
• Multi-Entry Editing
  This feature permits multiple entries to be edited at one time, saving you time.
• Entry View Tracking
  You can track up to four "zones" per entry so see where your entries are being viewed.
• Ping Servers
  Each user can define their own servers to ping when new entries are added.
• HTML Formatting Buttons
  Each user can store their own formatting elements that are available at the click of a button.
• URL Titles
  Each weblog entry can be given a "human friendly" title for use with your comments or your permalink page.
• Sticky Topics
  Weblog entries can be made "sticky", forcing them to always show up at the top of the page.
• Future Entries
  You can post entries into the future and they won't appear on your site until that date.
• Expiring Entries
  You can set an expiration date and your entries will be removed from your site automatically on that date.
• Pagination
  This feature allows your users to view older entries by clicking "next" and "previous" page links.
• Article Pagination
  You can split your articles into multiple pages.
• Image and File Uploading
  Upload to multiple destinations, and limit uploads to specific user groups.
• Image Resizing and Thumbnailing
  ExpressionEngine lets you resize images and create thumbnails, with support for the three major image manipulation protocols: GD, NetPBM, and ImageMagick.
• Image and File Browsing
  View your uploaded images in the convenient File Browser
• Emoticons
  Add "smileys" to your weblog entries and comments.
• Bookmarklet
  Post entries using a convenient bookmarklet.

Commenting

ExpressionEngine’s user commenting system lets your community participate in the discussion.

• User Commenting System
  A full-featured user commenting system is built in, supporting advanced features like moderation, membership, and the most full-featured anti-spam protection available.
• Comment Membership
  You can choose to require membership to post comments, or allow non-registered commenting.
• Comment Moderation
  You can optionally make user comments subject to admin approval.
• Comment Expiration
  Allow comments for a set period of time after each entry is posted.
• Comment Pagination
  This feature allows your comments to spread across multiple pages to avoid very large pages.

Typography

ExpressionEngine has sophisticated typography tools—a writer’s dream!

• Auto Typographic Formatting
  Your entries and comments can be formatted automatically to produce xhtml and semantically valid typography.
• Auto Convert MS Word Characters
  If you paste text from MS Word, the proprietary characters (like curly quotes) are automatically converted to HTML equivalents.
• Auto Convert High ASCII to Entities
  When posting entries, if you use high-ascii characters (like bullets, accents, etc.) they will be converted automatically to HTML entities.
• Automatic Linking
  URLs posted in entries or comments can be turned into hyperlinks automatically.
• Email Anti-Spam Encoding
  Email addresses posted in entries, comments, or even in templates, can be spam protected.
• Typographic Plugin Support
  Your text can optionally be processed by any available plugin such as Textile, Markdown, etc.

Tracking

Keep track of what’s happening on your site including most viewed and commented posts.

• Referrer Tracking
  View a list of sites that link to you through our referrer tracking system. Our referrer module supports advanced blacklisting, allowing you to ban by IP, User Agent or URL.
• Hit Tracking
  Each template has its own hit tracker, enabling you to see which pages are most viewed.
• Statistical Tracking
  ExpressionEngine tracks a variety of statistics, like total number of entries, total comments, total trackbacks, and more.
• Online User Tracking
  This features allows you to show who is online, how many people are visiting at any given moment, and how many people have ever visited your site.
• Search Term Log
  The search terms submitted by your users are saved so you can see what people are searching for.

Template Engine

Our template engine permits you to build dynamic, content driven websites using simple, yet powerful, tags.

• Full Page Modeling
  Each template represents an entire web page.
• Conditional Operators
  Use conditionals to show targeted content to users that meet any criteria you set.
• Custom Global Variables
  Create your own variables that you can use in any template.
• Sub-Templates
  With our Embedded Template feature, any template can be nested within another template, allowing you to use common headers, footers, and other site elements. This feature is so flexible you can put templates within templates within templates within templates...
• Template Access Control
  You can limit the viewing of each template to specific Member Groups.
• PHP in Templates
  You can choose to allow or deny PHP scripting in each template. You can even choose where in the chain the PHP parsing occurs - either pre-template or post-template.
• Custom SQL Queries
  Using our Query Tag, you can construct your own custom database queries. This feature essentially allows you to create your own tags.
• Template Exporting
  Export your templates as text or zip files.
• Template Library
  Save your templates to a library so they can be used to create new ones.
• Versioning System
  ExpressionEngine lets you save every change you make to your templates so you can go back in time and retrieve older versions.
• Customizable Workspace
  Each user can customize the size of the template window.
• Template Notes
  Store notes and information regarding each template.

Communications

ExpressionEngine lets you manage your mailing lists and send email in a variety of ways.

• Multi-Protocol Support
  ExpressionEngine supports the three major email protocols: Mail, SendMail, and SMTP.
• Flexible Email Options
  HTML email, priorities, word wrapping, CC, BCC and any combination of recipients, from member groups, to individuals, to members of your mailing list.
• Mailing List Manager
  ExpressionEngine comes with an integrated double opt-in/opt-out mailing list module that supports multiple lists and a custom template for each list.
• Mail Caching
  All emails are saved so you can keep a record of your sent messages.
• Batch Processing
  This feature permits you to send email to very large lists without needing a dedicated email server.

Search

ExpressionEngine has a powerful search engine and query tools.

• Search Engine
  Powerful search module with simple and advanced search capability. You can search within weblogs, comments, members, and categories.
• Search Term Log
  The search terms submitted by your users are saved so you can see what people are searching for.
• IP Searching
  IP data can be searched for in entries, comments, forum posts, etc.

Spam Deterrents

No other publishing platform gives you as many tools to prevent comment and trackback spam as ExpressionEngine.

• Blacklist
  The ExpressionEngine Blacklist/Whitelist Module is an integral part of EE's spam prevention capability. This Module allows you to specify URLs, IP addresses, and user agents that you want to deny (blacklist) or specifically allow (whitelist) from your site. The blacklist is checks all content that is submitted to your site. ExpressionEngine will compare the submitted content against your blacklist/whitelist and then behave accordingly.
• Captcha
  A CAPTCHA is a computer-generated test that humans can pass but computer programs cannot. Since a great deal of spam is generated by automated scripts or "bots", a CAPTCHA can be effective at preventing their use. When the CAPTCHA is enabled, an image containing a random word appears next to the comment and member registration forms. In order to submit the form, the word must be typed into a form field.
• Comment Time Interval
  This setting defines the amount of time that must lapse between comment postings. A malicious user will have to wait until the time has lapsed before being able to post again.
• Rank Denial
  The primary goal of spammers is to have their sites ranked highly in Search Engines in order to generating more traffic for themselves. They achieve this by posting comments at your site which contain links to their own site. The more links to their site scattered in weblogs across the internet, the higher Search Engines will rank them. The Rank Denial feature denies a spammer this "ranking" benefit by altering all links submitted by users so that they point to an intermediary "redirect page" at your site first, before being sent to the target destination.
• Secure Form Mode
  Secure Form Mode prevents automated scripts (the most common way spam is generated) from repeatedly submitting comments or other form data. A submission is only allowed when a user manually loads a page and submits the form from your site. And once the form data is received, the user has to manually reload the page before they can submit again.
• Duplicate Data Denial
  The "Deny Duplicate Data" feature prevents a comment from being accepted if an identical one already exists in your database. A malicious person can't submit the same information more than once.
• Site Membership
  Although this isn't technically a security feature, requiring your users to be members of your site provides additional safety against spamming since you have better control over the people posting on your site.

Utilities

ExpressionEngine’s powerful utilities help you manage your site.

• SQL Manager
  A full complement of SQL utilities, including database optimization, database backup, manually submitted queries, table info, process info, and more.
• Extension Manager
  Extensions are custom scripts that interact with the core EE code base to increase functionality or alter it without hacking.
• Admin Logs
  Various Control Panel processes are logged.
• Search and Replace
  Globally search and replace content in your weblog entries and templates.
• Data Export
  Export your templates and your database.
• PHP Info
  View information about your PHP installation directly from the ExpressionEngine control panel.

Add-Ons

ExpressionEngine comes with 22 add-on modules and over 100 plugins.

• Discussion Forum
  ExpressionEngine's Discussion Forum module is a complete community building solution that integrates seamlessly. Visit our community forums to see it in action. Note: The Discussion Forum is sold separately.
• Moblog
  ExpressionEngine's Moblog Module enables you to send content to your website via email. Send photos to your image gallery, weblog entries to your blog, or data into your site sections simply by sending an email to your own account. You can have as many moblog accounts as you need, and each email you send can contain special tags which let you control how the content gets stored and displayed.
• Wiki
  The ExpressionEngine Wiki Module is a powerful, full-featured wiki that integrates with ExpressionEngine. Its a great way to host and manage community created content. Your site members can add and edit articles while your admins moderate the site as you see fit.
• Channel
  In ExpressionEngine, the term "channel" refers to a section of your website. The channel module is the most flexible and powerful system we offer, enabling you to display your content in an almost infinite variety of ways. The Channel Module supports advanced features, like custom data fields, multiple nested categories, sticky topics, workflow, publish and expiration dates, and other features found only in high-end content management solutions. You can even have multiple channel on the same page to create an ezine or complex brochure site.
• Member Manager
  ExpressionEngine supports an unlimited number of members and authors in a single installation, and comes with advanced member management tools so you can control exactly who can do what.
  
  Powerful Member Groups allow you to restrict access and assign privileges to any area of your site, or within your administrative control panel. Create custom membership fields for required member information, enable editorial workflow if you have multiple authors contributing to your content, restrict pages to members of a certain level, and more.
  
  Each member has their own profile management area where they can set their own preferences, manage their account, store notes, send email and private messages to other users, upload their photo, and more. Member management is integral to ExpressionEngine, so it provides the tools you need.
• Mailing List
  Included with ExpressionEngine is a double-opt-in mailing list module that allows you to send mass email to subscribers of your site, or registered members. The Mailing List Module supports multiple sending protocols, HTML email, batch mode, and other advanced features, yet the user interface is very simple to use.
• Simple Commerce
  Introducing the ExpressionEngine Simple Commerce Module by pMachine. Fully integrate the purchasing power of PayPal into your existing ExpressionEngine site with this easy to use, flexible solution. Customizable email notifications for each product, member group assignment upon purchase, built in encryption, and automated purchase tracking through PayPal's Instant Payment Notification service give you the power you need to make your own store.
• Blogger/MetaWeblog API
  ExpressionEngine supports all three of the XML-RPC posting APIs (Blogger API, MetaWeblog API, and MT API), enabling you to use desktop software to send content to your site. Each author in your system can have their own API accounts, so different authors can post to different sections of your site.
• Recently Updated Sites
  This module enables anyone using ExpressionEngine to run their own "recently updated sites" list. If you are familiar with sites, like weblogs.com, blogrolling.com, or blog.gs you'll know that these are sites that you can "ping" whenever you publish new content, adding your URL to the top of the list published at those sites. Well now you can run your own "recently updated sites" list at your website.
• RSS
  RSS feeds are an important component of any professional website since they allow other sites to syndicate your content. ExpressionEngine supports all RSS protocols - .93, 1.0, 2.0, and Atom - and gives you the flexibility to cutomize your feeds as you desire.
• Email
  The ExpressionEngine Email module lets you easily create feedback and tell-a-friend forms on your site. ExpressionEngine's flexible tag syntax makes the process of creating and managing these forms very simple, and since it supports all major Email protocols (SMTP, Sendmail, PHP Mail) it'll work in virtually any environment.
• Search
  ExpressionEngine supports fast, flexible, and precise content searching, through simple and/or advanced search forms. As the site admin you can set search criteria, so that your users can search only the areas you specify, and you can have multiple search forms, each with different search criteria.
• Referrer
  Anytime someone arrives at your website as a result of clicking a link at another site, ExpressionEngine will track it with its Referrer Module, and display that info in a list. This can be valuable information in determining how people are finding out about your site.
• Blacklist/Whitelist
  The Blacklist and Whitelist Module is part of ExpressionEngine's extensive security features, designed to prevent spam in comments, trackbacks, referrers, etc. This module let you ban (blacklist) or allow (whitelist) URLs, IP addresses, and User Agents.
• Statistics
  The ExpressionEngine stats module enables you to show a "who's online" list of users viewing your site at any given moment. You can also display various statistics, like the total number of entries, comments, trackbacks, members, page hits, etc.
• Query
  Although ExpressionEngine enables you to display your content in nearly any imaginable way, occasionally you might need something uncommon. The Query Module permits you to run pure MySQL queries within your templates. No longer do you need to write your own custom handler scripts to output information from your database, simply put your query in our Query Module Tag and let it generate the results.

Member Management

Build a community with ExpressionEngine’s robust and flexible membership capability.

• Multi-User System
  ExpressionEngine is a true multi-user system. Each user can be granted a wide range of privileges, letting you define with precise control what each user is permitted to do.
• Member Groups
  You can define an unlimited number of Member Groups, each with over 40 individual user privileges. Each member of your community is assigned to a Member Group, determining what they are allowed to do.
• Custom Member Fields
  The member profile system permits you to add your own fields. Build your own data model and collect the information you need from your users.
• Member Activation
  Members can "self-activate" via email or you can validate accounts manually.
• Profile Management
  Each member has their own profile management page, in which they can set preferences and update their personal information.
• Subscription Management
  The member console allows your users to manage their comment subscriptions.
• Member Localization
  Each member can have their own localization settings, allowing them to view your site in their local time.
• Member Communication
  An Email Console permits members to email each other from your system. Each user can choose whether or not to receive email.
• Email Console Logs
  For security, all email sent by your members is logged.
• Member Quick Links
  Each member that has Control Panel access can view their own custom links in the Control Panel navigation.
• Note Pad
  Each member has their own notepad.

Data Caching

ExpressionEngine’s data caching features allow you to reduce your server load while retaining all the benefits of dynamically generated information.

• Template Caching
  Entire templates can be cached, producing the fastest rendering time of any dynamic system.
• Query Caching
  The output of your database is cached, reducing the database load.
• Tag Caching
  Each individual template tag can be cached, allowing pages to be both dynamic and static simultaneously.

Security

ExpressionEngine has the most comprehensive suite of security features of any publishing platform on the market.

• Session Management
  ExpressionEngine has three separate session management systems, based on your security needs. Your control panel and your public site can each utilize its own session preferences.
• Secure Form Processing
  Forms can only be submitted once per page load. This prevents duplicate submissions and deters spamming.
• Captcha
  ExpressionEngine can generate "captcha" images for member registration and comment posting to prevent spamming.
• Throttling
  This feature lets you manage the frequency that any given IP address can access your site in order to help prevent denial of service attacks.
• Duplicate Data Denial
  When enabled, this preference denies any user-submitted data that already exists in the database, providing increased spam protection.
• Multi-Password Denial
  Multiple users can not access the system using the same password simultaneously.
• IP and User Agent Logging
  Our Session Management system tracks both IPs and User Agents for more precise authentication.
• Password Lockout
  Users can be locked out after several invalid password attempts. This is a deterrent to collision and brute force hacking attempts.
• Secure Password Mode
  User can not choose passwords that are based on the username, or that appear in a dictionary.
• IP Banning
  Users can be banned by full or partial IP addresses. Wild-cards can be used.
• Email Banning
  Email addresses can be banned or restricted from use. Wild-cards can be used.
• Username Restriction
  This permits you to designate names that you do not want your members using.
• Word Censoring
  Define a list of banned words. When submitted by your users, the words are replaced with ###