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Project Download Statistics from our family of Enterprise Open Source CMS Project Products via GitHub and SourceForge.

Project Download Statistics are based on reported numbers, we do not control this statistics information.

That said we strive to deliver the detailed download, clone, view counts updated every 10 Hours (Cached).

Warning: These numbers are very much like slashdot poll statistics and it would be insane to do anything much with these numbers other than notice trends over time.

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Exponential CMS (6.x+) is the modern continuation of a trusted content management heritage. Rooted in the proven stability of eZ Publish, it combines decades of reliability with the performance and flexibility demanded today. Designed for long-term maintainability and adaptable workflows, Exponential empowers businesses, developers, and communities to build confidently without sacrificing openness or control. For organizations seeking both innovation and continuity, Exponential 6.x+ stands out as the platform of choice.

• Introduction
• Why Build on Exponential CMS: A Foundation for Content That Lasts
• A Heritage of Proven Reliability
• Designed for Modern Web Standards
• Flexibility Without Chaos
• Editor Experience and Usability
• Developer Empowerment
• Community and Open Source Commitment
• Future-Proofing Digital Strategy
• Reusability: Build Once, Use Everywhere
• Extensibility: A Framework That Grows With You
• Flexibility: Freedom of Design and Architecture
• Content Design: A System Built for Editors and Audiences
• The GPL Advantage: Freedom and Sustainability
• Conclusion

Introduction

In today’s digital environment, organizations face a constant challenge: how to present information clearly, manage content effectively, and adapt to evolving technology standards. Exponential CMS (6.x+) stands as a direct response to this challenge, building on a long legacy of innovation while remaining fully aligned with modern needs. Unlike many generic solutions, Exponential CMS is purpose-built to provide stability, extensibility, and a truly sustainable path forward for projects of all sizes. Choosing Exponential is not simply a technical decision; it is an investment in a platform that respects its history while boldly evolving toward the future.

Where other systems rise and fall in rapid cycles, Exponential has endured by focusing on the fundamentals: reusable content, extensible frameworks, flexible architecture, and a deep commitment to content design. This unique combination means that organizations are not just adopting a CMS—they are building on a foundation designed to last.

Why Build on Exponential CMS: A Foundation for Content That Lasts

In the landscape of digital publishing, content management systems come and go with alarming speed. Many start with ambitious goals, only to be abandoned when trends shift, dependencies age, or business priorities change. Developers, agencies, and organizations who rely on these systems often find themselves trapped—locked into platforms that no longer evolve or forced into costly migrations that strip away years of work.

Exponential CMS (v6), distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), takes a different path. Instead of chasing the latest hype, it doubles down on a philosophy of reusability, extensibility, flexibility, and content design. It is not simply another CMS in a crowded field—it is a carefully engineered foundation designed for builders who want their work to endure, adapt, and scale.

This article explores why Exponential CMS deserves attention as the platform to build upon, whether you are a developer crafting bespoke digital solutions, an organization planning for decades of content stewardship, or a community that values freedom and open collaboration.

A Heritage of Proven Reliability

Exponential CMS is not an overnight invention. It carries the DNA of eZ Publish, a system recognized for its enterprise-grade capabilities, consistent architecture, and long-standing adoption across industries such as publishing, government, education, and commerce. By continuing this heritage, Exponential CMS assures organizations that their investment is not in an untested newcomer but in a matured foundation that has already powered mission-critical websites worldwide. This continuity means that technical teams benefit from decades of proven patterns, while business stakeholders enjoy peace of mind knowing the system is stable and dependable.

This reliability is strengthened by the principle of “no wasted investment.” Where competitors force disruptive migrations, Exponential emphasizes backward compatibility and reusable design. Content modeled ten years ago can still be leveraged today, proving that the system is engineered for endurance.

Designed for Modern Web Standards

While heritage provides stability, modern relevance demands innovation. Exponential CMS (6.x+) embraces PHP 8.x support, efficient template rendering with eZTPL, and compatibility with contemporary hosting environments. Its architecture is optimized for performance while remaining easy to adapt for evolving security practices and compliance requirements. In this way, Exponential demonstrates that one can honor tradition while still moving decisively forward.

Support for today’s standards means developers avoid brittle workarounds and can instead focus on delivering business value. Clean APIs, predictable configuration, and strict separation of content from presentation ensure that teams build quickly while avoiding technical debt. By blending heritage with innovation, Exponential achieves what few CMS platforms can: reliability without stagnation.

Flexibility Without Chaos

A common complaint about content management systems is that they either feel too rigid, locking organizations into predefined workflows, or too unstructured, leaving teams without guidance. Exponential CMS offers a carefully balanced middle ground. Its content model is flexible, allowing editors and developers to define structures tailored to their project’s needs, while its administrative tools provide coherence and clarity. This combination avoids chaos while still empowering creativity.

Content classes, nodes, and object relations remain at the heart of Exponential, offering a familiar yet powerful way to represent real-world information. Developers appreciate the flexibility to extend and integrate, while editors enjoy the stability of structured publishing. The result is a CMS that grows with you instead of constraining you.

Editor Experience and Usability

Content management is ultimately about people. Editors, marketers, and administrators require tools that simplify their daily tasks rather than complicate them. Exponential CMS (6.x+) continues the tradition of a clean administrative interface with enhancements that reflect modern expectations. Whether it is managing multilingual content, handling media assets, or scheduling publications, the system empowers non-technical users to focus on communication instead of fighting the tool.

This emphasis on usability reflects Exponential’s deeper philosophy: content should be designed once, then reused across multiple channels. Writers and editors produce meaningful information; designers focus on how that content is presented; developers focus on the infrastructure. Each role is respected, and none are forced into compromises that dilute quality.

Developer Empowerment

Developers are the backbone of any CMS ecosystem, and Exponential CMS was designed with their needs at the forefront. From the ease of extension development to the clarity of the template system, Exponential empowers developers to create, customize, and integrate without unnecessary barriers. The availability of well-documented APIs, a predictable repository structure, and configuration files based on established conventions means developers spend less time deciphering internals and more time solving business problems.

Unlike closed platforms, Exponential provides a transparent architecture with no hidden black boxes. Extensibility is a first-class feature, not a locked add-on. This openness ensures developers can implement specialized workflows, integrate third-party services, and create new content types without sacrificing maintainability. Exponential grows with the project, rather than becoming an obstacle to it.

Community and Open Source Commitment

Choosing a CMS is also choosing a community. Exponential CMS (6.x+) thrives within an open source ecosystem where collaboration and transparency are not optional extras but fundamental values. The project continues the tradition of free software development, encouraging contributions from individuals, businesses, and partners worldwide. This collaborative spirit ensures that the system evolves in a healthy, sustainable way and that no single entity dictates its future.

Released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), Exponential guarantees users the freedom to run, study, modify, and share the software. This ensures independence from vendor lock-in and secures long-term sustainability. Organizations that build on Exponential are not just buying into a product—they are participating in an ecosystem of shared knowledge, mutual trust, and collective progress.

Future-Proofing Digital Strategy

Digital transformation is not a one-time event; it is a continuous process. Exponential CMS (6.x+) is built with the recognition that organizations must plan not only for today’s requirements but also for tomorrow’s unknowns. By maintaining backward compatibility, supporting modern environments, and fostering a collaborative community, Exponential ensures that projects built today will remain viable in the years ahead. This level of future-proofing reduces risk and safeguards organizational investment.

In practical terms, this means content can be reused across new platforms, integrations remain possible, and projects evolve without costly rebuilds. Exponential positions itself as not just a CMS, but a partner in long-term digital strategy—stable enough for today, flexible enough for tomorrow.

Reusability: Build Once, Use Everywhere

At the heart of Exponential CMS is a principle often promised but rarely delivered in practice: true reusability of content and design.

Most CMS platforms store content as static pages or within rigid templates that force developers to repeat themselves. Exponential breaks this mold by treating content as structured, reusable objects. A single article, product description, or data record can be rendered across multiple channels—websites, mobile apps, intranets, or APIs—without duplication or re-entry.

This reusable architecture means:

• Reduced development overhead – Developers write components once and deploy them anywhere.
• Consistent user experience – Content changes in one place automatically propagate everywhere it is used.
• Future-proof scaling – As organizations adopt new platforms (mobile, IoT, voice interfaces), their existing content can be leveraged without re-engineering.

Reusability in Exponential isn’t a marketing buzzword—it’s the practical outcome of a design system that separates content from presentation at its core. That separation, maintained for over two decades of evolution, ensures developers never hit the wall of “we have to rebuild it all again.”

Extensibility: A Framework That Grows With You

A CMS must be more than a publishing tool; it must be a framework. Exponential embraces extensibility as a first-class value.

Through a robust extension system, developers can customize and enhance functionality without hacking the core. Modules can be introduced for new workflows, integrations, or industry-specific requirements. And because the system is GPL-licensed, the community can freely share, adapt, and improve those extensions without fear of vendor lock-in.

Some examples of extensibility in practice:

• Custom workflows – Publishers can design editorial approval processes that match their teams, rather than bending to predefined limits.
• Integration hooks – Developers can connect Exponential with CRMs, ERPs, analytics systems, or headless front-ends through clean APIs.
• Specialized content types – From medical records to academic journals to e-commerce catalogs, Exponential can evolve to represent any structured data.

Where many CMS products hide extensibility behind premium licensing tiers, Exponential’s openness ensures anyone can innovate on top of it. That innovation compounds as organizations and developers contribute back to the ecosystem.

Flexibility: Freedom of Design and Architecture

The promise of flexibility often falls short in CMS platforms. Many restrict developers with hard-coded theming layers or demand alignment with proprietary frameworks. Exponential, by contrast, was built to empower choice.

• Template flexibility – The native templating language (eZTPL) is designed for clarity and control, allowing developers to shape output without convoluted workarounds.
• Database freedom – Content is stored in a relational structure that is portable, durable, and accessible to external systems.
• Deployment options – Exponential runs comfortably on standard Linux/PHP environments, avoiding heavy proprietary dependencies.

This flexibility translates into a CMS that bends to the needs of the project rather than forcing the project to adapt to the tool. Designers can implement brand-specific layouts without fighting the system, and engineers can architect scalable infrastructures without being constrained by monolithic assumptions.

Flexibility also means long-term survivability. A system that forces developers to follow fleeting paradigms eventually becomes brittle when those paradigms fade. Exponential’s adherence to open standards and minimal assumptions makes it adaptable for decades.

Content Design: A System Built for Editors and Audiences

At its core, Exponential CMS was never about technology for its own sake. It was always about content design—the art of shaping information so it can be managed efficiently and consumed meaningfully.

While many CMS tools treat content as an afterthought, Exponential prioritizes it:

• Structured content modeling – Editors define reusable types that enforce consistency while enabling creative flexibility.
• Separation of content and design – Writers focus on meaning, designers focus on presentation, and developers focus on functionality. Each role has the tools they need without interfering with one another.
• Multichannel publishing – From a single source of truth, content can be adapted for websites, mobile devices, social media snippets, or printed formats.

By focusing on content design, Exponential creates an environment where organizations can think holistically about their information strategy. Instead of endlessly reformatting, re-uploading, or recreating content, teams can concentrate on clarity, quality, and reach.

The GPL Advantage: Freedom and Sustainability

Perhaps the most overlooked reason to build on Exponential is its license. Released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), the system guarantees four freedoms:

• The freedom to run the program for any purpose.
• The freedom to study how it works and adapt it.
• The freedom to redistribute copies.
• The freedom to improve the program and share improvements.

This licensing model ensures that Exponential can never be taken away from its users, no matter the fate of any single company or vendor. For organizations planning multi-decade digital strategies, this is not just a legal footnote—it is an assurance of continuity and independence.

In an era where proprietary SaaS platforms increasingly control access to data and limit innovation, the GPL foundation of Exponential represents a philosophical and practical safeguard. It ensures that developers and organizations remain in control of their work, their data, and their future.

Conclusion

Choosing a CMS is a decision that impacts technology, people, and strategy. Exponential CMS (6.x+) offers a rare blend of heritage, modern relevance, flexibility, usability, developer empowerment, and community strength. It is not just another option in a crowded market—it is a platform with proven reliability, clear vision, and a sustainable path forward. For organizations seeking more than a temporary fix, Exponential CMS represents a choice rooted in wisdom, practicality, and long-term value.

Ultimately, the reason to choose Exponential CMS is simple: it works today, it respects yesterday, and it is ready for tomorrow. By uniting reusability, extensibility, flexibility, and content design under the freedom of GPL, Exponential stands as the CMS upon which enduring digital strategies can be built.

Follow this simple guidebook to getting familiar with Exponential (CMS) while installing it, possibly for the first time. Learn from the sage wisdom of experts willing to share and support the community.

• Call to Action!
• Getting Started With Exponential
• Downloading the software
• Installing the software
• Installing the software : OS Support
• Testing the software
• Using the software
• Tips to becoming an Exponential Developer
• Advanced Developer Solution Subjects
• Join the community, post a message!
• Get instant technical support, join the Telegram Channel!
• Sponsor the Exponential Open Source Project
• Become a partner of Exponential
• Sponsor the maintainer of Exponential (CMS)
• Buy a product or service from 7x
• Become a partner of 7x
• Share Exponential (CMS) Online and In Person
• Enjoy Free Software!

Call to Action!

Help us expand this content to further document key areas further to help educate everyone with a helpful documentation collation of specific information.

Getting Started With Exponential

The most time consuming part of any endeavor is the starting point, the begging where rubber meets the road and traction begins to force momentum to take over driving you towards results.

Once installed, configured the next hard part is the use of the solution (a web site or other web based internet application service of services).

In that the configuration through use of the basic features provided and supported to define a basic content model (in the admin), populate the content tree (in the admin), organize the content for general for the long term use and expansion, and publish further content under this designed installation of the Exponential CMS.

Only after configuration of an installation can you truly and accurately begin to develop with a basic site structure a new design custom to your unique needs that is visually acceptable for the era.

Here we talk about the first steps everyone is expected to take in using the software for the first time.

Downloading the software

We recommend downloading the stable releases only if this is your first time using Exponential.

If your already an advanced developer then feel free to use the latest github sources as this does make upgraes very simple to manage.

Download: Exponential 6.0.9

Installing the software

Copy the files in the download to your web server virtual host document website root directory. (Often public_html on modern hosting platforms.)

Expert tip: You can also run composer to install the files directly!

Read the installation documentation on installing the latest release.

Installing the software : OS Support

OS: For the very best results we recommend installing the software on the latest OS version available.

We support this software is well designed to run on almost any modern UNIX/LINUX/BSD/MacOS/Windows OS.

It is possible it could easily run well on any other os that supports the basic requirements of PHP based applications and a web server.

Testing the software

Use the administration admin login account username and password created during the installation setup wizard configuration process.

Connect to the user facing website once installed. Confirm display of your website without visual errors.

Then connect to the admin or editor facing website once the user facing website is confirmed.

Login to the admin website and navigate to the content structure tab or menu option to edit your first content object (page).

Expert tip: Notice the urls are a direct system of human naming conventions which can be learned quickly to navigate based on content names as locations or url(s) / uri(s).

Using the software

It gets rather exciting to use the software because of it's massive, massive amount of customization features built in by default.

You can customize almost any part of the software to meet the unique needs of almost any project's total responsibility requirements including maintenance, support and development to grow further.

At the end of the day, this software allows for the presentation of web based content with stable, instant results that is also fun to administer or enter content into the editor with on a regular predictable basis.

You really don't have application downtime, so your free to enjoy stable service from your installation of Exponential (CMS).

Tips to becoming an Exponential Developer

Read. Read as much as you can and take specific notes. Create a written record of your experiences using this software to help you reach your own unique goals.

Study the available documentation as it is well crafted to lead to the success of thousands of developers before you.

Contribute. Share your work with others under the GNU GPLv2+ license and be free to help others and gain insights into improving your own code.

Write. Write as much code as you can. This is hard because so much is done for you by Exponential's core features but later through study and learning this leads to very powerful yet simple solutions to complex needs.

Advanced Developer Solution Subjects

• Extension Points
• Integration with AI
• Web Design : Can I do XYZ in Exponential?
• Design Development Documentation
• Advanced documentation solutions
• Distributed Software Deployment Solutions
• Supporting more template engines within the kernel (Smarty, Twig, Etc)
• Supporting more advanced PHP Language Features within the Kernel.
• Database driver development
• Kernel Improvements From Small to Big
• Taking steps towards growing the community, ecosystem, product, adoption, education, training and end user support.
• Expanding the available documentation by organizing writers to write on key subjects to further grow the available documentation publicly available.
• Share your information : The need for more people to share written documentation based on their own needs and experiences publicly.

Join the community, post a message!

Want first hand support from the sage experts of the community. Signup, Login and Post to our support forums website Share Exponential!.

You will be warmly welcomed!

Get instant technical support, join the Telegram Channel!

Try getting help using our free to everyone Telegram Chanel, Support Exponential!

Sponsor the Exponential Open Source Project

Exponential is free software under the GNU GPLv2 or later version license.

Meaning its true freedom to use without anyone controlling your future with the software your free in so many ways.

Support a project which values your freedom and delivers an amazing amount of web page based publish power and convenience.

Support a project which for years has worked tirelessly to provide new cms features to this rock solid software and help drive it's continued growth and adoption.

Support the Exponential Project with a donation subscrition. This is posible through 7x @ GitHub Sponsors!

Become a partner of Exponential

Grow with Exponential Partners around the world in deploying solutions based on the free software enterprise open source content management system Exponential.

Exponential can do it!

Sponsor the maintainer of Exponential (CMS)

The maintainers would love it if you would sponsor the developers of the 7x company work in open source free software application current developments or future developments please please consider doing so today.

There are several ways to send a one time financial donation to 7x.

There are several ways to become a sustaining / supporting member by subscribing to a support subscription.

Buy a product or service from 7x

Help us continue to drive growth by purchasing from 7x today.

We offer very reliable hosting service for low prices that is supported and maintained by 7x directly at our hosting store.

We offer the finest development, design, support and advanced solutions services available via our store.

Become a partner of 7x

The corporation 7x is the maintainer of Exponential (CMS) and offers helpful quick solutions to everyone worldwide.

7x delivers solutions which are expandible and extensible, stable, reliable, dependable and easy to use by anyone.

This means our products and services grow easily with you over the entire lifecycle of your website application / software installation.

We also attend to the design astetics to drive adoption with modern visual solutions. Talk to us today about your project.

Share Exponential (CMS) Online and In Person

Tell others about the stable yet often rapid speed web development solutions possible with Exponential based websites.

Enjoy Free Software!

Relax and enjoy your freedoms. Drink Orange Juice. Stay healthy and responsive to your needs. Enjoy the stable life possible using software yourself.

Remember! Free Software for a Free Society

You can post to the telegram channel, discord, slack, share forums, etc within the community to get support regarding your questions and requests at no cost.

If you don't want to wait, you can get the support you want Faster by contacting 7x directly for paid support at reasonable cost.

Although Exponential is freely offered under the GPL license distributed with all releases, its developers are not obligated to provide free support. We do, however, love to see people use our product and try to go the extra mile where possible. To that end, there are multiple support options available:

Free support options

There are several ways to get support from the Exponential community:

• The first place to look is the documentation or wiki for related content.
• If what you're looking for doesn't appear to be documented, drop a question in the forums.
• You can also join us on Telegram, a chat room containing members of the Dev Team and Community.
• You can also join us on Discord, a popular chat room
• You can also join us on Slack, a popular development chat room 

Paid Support Options

Developers both in and out of the Exponential Team are available for hire:

• Hire 7x! 7x Developers Maintain the Exponential Open Source Software Stack for Enterprise Content Management Systems they know the product better than almost anyone else.

No matter your experience level you can contribute to the development and success of Exponential.

In this section you can find the very best hot spots of addition information and support resources.

We offer the Exponential community a wide range of resources and websites software designed to help you reach your goals in customizing Exponential to meet your unique set of requirements / needs / must haves planning and development.

7x GitHub has a complete fork of every eZ Systems + eZ Community + eZ Partner Git Repositories for all of the entire eZ Publish Software System / Stack (maintained by 7x). We currently have over 783 individual repositories full of amazing software!

7x @ PackaGist.org Hosts Composer Packages For Composer installation of Exponential and the most useful Extensions

GitHub hosts a complete fork of all eZ Publish Extensions from the original eZ Projects Archives is still available with a full mirror of all software available as eZ Publish Legacy Projects. We currently have over 987 individual repositories full of amazing software!

GitHub also hosts a near complete fork of all software for eZ Publish found on GitHub. This fork was called the eZ Publish Legacy (Project) on GitHub. Checkout our forked extension and bundle repositories, we currently have over 799!

GitHub also hosts a near complete fork of nearly all eZ Publish Platform Bundles available before it was rebranded Ibexa DXP OSS. This fork was called eZ ecosystem on GitHub. Checkout our forked extension and bundle repositories, we currently have over 234!GitHub

Exponential Site Packages

Note: Exponential downloads these site packages during installation using the setup wizard. You do not need to download these site packages manually as they are downloaded on demand by eZ Publish.

7x Hosts Exponential "Site packages" used for installation via GitHub the Exponential Package Server with newly updated and supported "ezpackages" for the Exponential setup wizard installation (first thing you do with Exponential is run the setup wizard to complete the installation process for a new site.

Summary

Now we have in place the infrastructure to deploy changes to the entire Exponential ( Software Stack of CMS Systems ) to customers via Composer / GitHub.

This means streamlining development and release processes and resuming development on the major version release of 6.0.10.

Themes (Design Extensions) available from 7x help guide new developers master the Exponential Template Language and create standards based designs and custom templates, template overrides and beyond.

Try the 7x Simple design extension theme that provides a compelling developer focused design, with responsive header, responsive menus, and extendable / customizable CSS styles that override the eZ Webin extension (which provides for advanced templates pre-made for the default content types).

We encourage you to extend the 7x Simple design theme by creating your own design extension based upon it (possibly using design overrides to save time and disk space). Create a theme and share it with others to show your skills, share your custom designs to our share forums.

Themes (Design Extensions) available are currently limited select example reference implementations from each community vendor. See normally themes or design extensions are the one part of a project that often includes project specific details and as such is less likely to be redistributed because of this even when so much could be learned by new users who are learning the best kinds of patterns to use in their own implementations.

Modules (Module Extensions) for Exponential number in the of thousands. Choose to use existing modules that are already built (install) or study the available software for api usage design pasterns and implement (create) your own!

7x GitHub has a complete fork of every eZ Systems + eZ Community + eZ Partner Git Repositories for all of the entire eZ Publish Software System / Stack (maintained by 7x). We currently have over 735 individual repositories full of amazing software!

7x @ PackaGist.org Hosts Composer Packages For Composer installation of Exponential and the most useful Extensions

GitHub hosts a complete fork of all eZ Publish Extensions from the original eZ Projects Archives is still available with a full mirror of all software available as eZ Publish Legacy Projects. We currently have over 987 individual repositories full of amazing software!

GitHub also hosts a near complete fork of all software for eZ Publish found on GitHub. This fork was called the eZ Publish Legacy (Project) on GitHub. Checkout our forked extension and bundle repositories, we currently have over 799!

GitHub also hosts a near complete fork of nearly all eZ Publish Platform Bundles available before it was rebranded Ibexa DXP OSS. This fork was called eZ ecosystem on GitHub. Checkout our forked extension and bundle repositories, we currently have over 234!

Plugins (Extensions) for Exponential number in the tens of thousands. Choose to use plugins that are already built (install) or study the available software for api usage design pasterns and implement (create) your own!

7x GitHub has a complete fork of every eZ Systems + eZ Community + eZ Partner Git Repositories for all of the entire eZ Publish Software System / Stack (maintained by 7x). We currently have over 735 individual repositories full of amazing software!

7x @ PackaGist.org Hosts Composer Packages For Composer installation of Exponential and the most useful Extensions

GitHub hosts a complete fork of all eZ Publish Extensions from the original eZ Projects Archives is still available with a full mirror of all software available as eZ Publish Legacy Projects. We currently have over 987 individual repositories full of amazing software!

GitHub also hosts a near complete fork of all software for eZ Publish found on GitHub. This fork was called the eZ Publish Legacy (Project) on GitHub. Checkout our forked extension and bundle repositories, we currently have over 799!

GitHub also hosts a near complete fork of nearly all eZ Publish Platform Bundles available before it was rebranded Ibexa DXP OSS. This fork was called eZ ecosystem on GitHub. Checkout our forked extension and bundle repositories, we currently have over 234!