ExpressionEngine 2.0 Release Announced

Yesterday at the first day of The EECI 2009 conference in The Netherlands, Ellislab’s finally announced the launch date of the long awaited ExpressionEngine 2.0.  It will be released on December 1st 2009, an early Christmas present anybody?

Code named “ExpressionEngine 2.0 Kaylee” will in development, this new version is a major step forward for the popular CMS, pushing it beyond its blogging roots and stamping its mark as full on content management system. 

Perhaps the most interesting and eagerly awaited feature is its full integration with Ellislab’s other product CodeIngnitor, a PHP development framework.  In fact during the development Ellislab’s took the opportunity to completely re-develop EE 2.0 from the ground up using CodeIgnitor.

During his keynote speech, EllisLab President Leslie Camacho also revealed the new pricing structure, which is as follows:

• Non-commercial $149 (used to be $99)
• Freelancer: $99 (for own website, not clients)
• Commercial $299 (used to be $249)
• Upgrade: $50 (from 1.6.3+) 

Many of the details of what’s included in EE 2.0 is still closely under-wraps and as a member of the beta testing group I am restricted from saying anymore as a result of NDA.  However Ellislabs have done a great job of keeping people up to date through their blog and they also released a screencast on Youtube last year, which you can see below.