title: WordPress vs ExpressionEngine: is EE worth the price?
body: <p>I'm very new to coding (having only taken Web Development 101 at university aka 'OMG CSS u guise'), and I'm just beginning to realize that knowing HTML/CSS alone isn't good enough. I've decided that it would be best for me to learn the hell out of one CMS, because I'm not keen on learning a full programming language. Mainly I just want to be able to create websites <em>that load instantly</em> (think Sproutcore home page) that happen to use some kind of templating system to make things easier to administer over time.</p>
  
  <p>I've looked into WordPress, and I know that it's a super popular platform for a reason, but it seems like most sites running WordPress don't load very quickly. I've read around a bit and it seems like the opinion of a lot of coders out there is that WP is a "heavy" platform. And, besides, I just recently viewed source on wordpress.org and found that they're not even running WordPress there! I mean come on!</p>
  
  <p>I've also looked into ExpressionEngine, and I'm very impressed with the way things are done. It seems like after the learning curve it should be simple to use and highly extensible, but at $300 per commercial site license + the cost of add-ons, I'd like to be a bit more convinced of it's value. I know that AListApart, JasonSantaMaria.com, change.gov, iLounge, and <a href="http://www.hopstudios.com/blog/the_largest_expressionengine_sites/" rel="noreferrer">many more high quality, high traffic sites</a> run on ExpressionEngine, but I'm not totally convinced it's worth the price given that WP can surely do the job well enough in 90% of cases. </p>
  
  <p>I would really appreciate your opinion.</p>
  
  <p>Maybe I should just say F all this, and create my static pages with straight HTML/CSS, and then use a blogging platform like Tumblr or WordPress strictly for blog posts, as per Sproutcore?</p>
  
  <p>Would love to hear your opinion.</p>