Before I start I would like to state that this post contains thoughts that are my own and are not endorsed by EPiServer or my company in any way.

I was fortunate enough to attend the EPiServer partner day UK 2010. When I was there I discussed an idea I’ve got called "EPiServer express". As we all know EPiServer requires a license that costs real money. This can be a barrier to entry for casual developers, non-partners and even developers such as myself who’d love to host their personal site using EPiServer. I’ve discussed with several people who would love to host their personal sites on EPiServer but find the need for a license a blocker. This is a real shame as we all love developing in EPiServer but often have to resort to platforms such as WordPress for hosting our own club/blog etc sites.

Microsoft encourage people to use their product line by offering the “Express” line of their professional tools such as Visual Studio and SQL Server. So I’d like to float the idea of “EPiServer Express”. This would be a feature limited, free version of EPiServer for strictly personal/non-commercial use.

These are the “EPiServer Express” features I’d thought of:

  • Maximum of 100 pages in the database
  • A maximum of 20 page types
  • Strictly non-commercial
  • Can only be hosted on a single domain
  • Not multi-lingual enabled
  • One available VPP folder and a PageFiles folder
  • No import or export of data
  • No subscription functionality
  • No workflow
  • No report viewer

How would EPiServer benefit?

  • Encourage the open source and developer community by developing and creating personal sites which can drive innovation in professional sites
  • Everyone (partners and customers) benefits from a larger pool of EPiServer developers and EPiServer knowledge
  • EPiServer could offer low cost hosting (say £20 a month) which could open a new revenue stream
  • More users equals more knowledge sharing, ultimately increasing quality

What are peoples thoughts?

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