Who is 7x?

7x is the North American company that maintains, develops, supports and hosts Exponential, the open source content management system you are using right now. This page tells who 7x is, where the software came from, what 7x builds around it today and how you can take part.

The page is long on purpose: it covers a history of nearly thirty years. Every statement names its source, either a file in this repository (open it in the help or on GitHub) or a public web page. Where two sources disagree, the page says so instead of choosing one. Where something could not be checked, it is left out.

Contents #

1. In short
2. Who 7x is
3. The names: Brookins Consulting, 7x, se7enx and Exponential
4. Nearly thirty years: the timeline
5. The eZ Publish years, 1999 to 2021
6. Stewardship: from a dormant code base to Exponential 6
7. The 6.0.x releases
8. The product: what Exponential is
9. The application stack
10. The extension ecosystem
11. The platform line: Exponential Platform, Legacy, Nexus and DXP
12. Exponential Basic
13. Exponential Velocity
14. Services and hosting
15. The community
16. Open source licenses
17. Principles you can see in the code
18. 7x in numbers
19. How to get involved
20. Sources

In short #

• 7x is a company. It describes itself as "a responsive North American web design, support, development and website hosting company" and as "enterprise content management integrators, implementing the Exponential enterprise content management system" (https://se7enx.com/about).
• 7x leads Exponential. "7x took over leadership of the project and it's development, support, adoption and community growth in 2023" (README.md, section "Who is 7x").
• 7x used to be Brookins Consulting. Brookins Consulting was an eZ Publish partner in the USA (https://se7enx.com/about/exponential-hosting-usa). 7x grew from it in three stages: the idea in 2014, the start of the project in 2022 and its launch in December 2023 (From Brookins Consulting to 7x).
• Nearly thirty years. The copyright notice of Exponential reads "Copyright (C) 1998 - 2026 Exponential Foundation and 7x. All rights reserved." next to "Copyright (C) 1999 - 2014 eZ Systems AS" (COPYRIGHT.md).
• One code base, kept alive. "Exponential has made it beyond it's end of life in 2021 and survived" (README, "Exponential Project Status"). Since December 2023 7x has published the 6.0.x releases, from 6.0.0 on 1 January 2024 to 6.0.14 on 7 June 2026, followed by the current 6.0.15 line (release overview).
• Not eZ Systems, not Ibexa. "This project is not associated with the original eZ Publish software or its original developer, eZ Systems or Ibexa" (README, "Exponential Project Notice : 2025.08.12"; https://exponential.earth/about/project).

Who 7x is #

In its own words #

Besides Exponential, the 7x website lists work with other content management systems: "Exponential, WordPress, Concrete, Winter, ... Plone" (https://se7enx.com/about), and its home page offers Exponential CMS (Basic, Platform, Nexus, Legacy), Winter CMS and Concrete CMS (https://se7enx.com/).

7x and the Exponential Foundation #

The copyright holder named in every file of the kernel is "Exponential Foundation and 7x", together since 29 October 2026 (Copyright and copyleft): see COPYRIGHT.md, LICENSE and the header of almost every PHP file, for example autoload.php. The documentation carries "Copyright (C) 1998 - 2026 Exponential Foundation and 7x. All rights reserved." (The license of this documentation).

The two are not the same organization. 7x is the company; the Exponential Foundation is a nonprofit corporation, founded on 19 March 2026, which names 7x "the current leader in contributions both financial, code, extension development, new features, infrastructure, maintenance and much much more back to the project" (https://foundation.exponential.earth/). The Foundation's own page explains the rest: Who is the Exponential Foundation?

The people you meet in the repository #

In the git history of this repository, the commits of the stewardship period (November 2023 to today) are authored by the account 7x (the large majority), by ekke and felix (whose pull requests come from the public GitHub accounts ekked and fwoldt), and by a handful of others. Run git shortlog -sn --since=2023-11-01 to see the current list. The person who founded the company is named on the public page https://graham.se7enx.com/7x, which is written in the first person: "I founded 7x in 2001 as Brookins Consulting".

The names: Brookins Consulting, 7x, se7enx and Exponential #

From Brookins Consulting to 7x, in three stages #

Brookins Consulting was founded in 2001 (https://graham.se7enx.com/7x). 7x did not appear on one day: according to 7x's own account (the owner's statement of 18 October 2026, for this page), it grew in three stages.

Each of the three public sources names the stage it describes, which is why they give three different years. Through all three, Brookins Consulting and 7x are the same company, and it has worked with this software since its first versions.

Why the product is called Exponential #

"At the specific request of Ibexa we are changing this projects name to 'Exponential' or 'Exponential (CMS)' effective as of August, 11th 2025" (https://exponential.earth/about/project). In the repository the rename landed the next day: the README, composer.json and lib/version.php changed on 12 August 2025, and one commit renamed the product in bin/, doc/, design/ and the translations (332 files). Class names such as eZContentObject, paths and database tables did not change (August 2025). That is why you still see eZ in the code: it is the prefix of real identifiers, not the product name.

Nearly thirty years: the timeline #

Dates come from the sources in the last column. "Tag" means the date of a git tag in this repository; "release overview" is the file doc/eng-us/release-overview, which lists every version with its source.

The eZ Publish years, 1999 to 2021 #

Exponential did not start in 2023. Its code was first the code of eZ Publish, the content management system that the Norwegian company eZ Systems developed from 1999 (COPYRIGHT.md; https://se7enx.com/about/exponential-hosting-usa). eZ Publish was a product that its creator discontinued after almost eighteen years of service to the world (7x's account, owner, 18 October 2026); its last releases are listed until 2021 in the release overview. The name belongs to that past: the software you use today is Exponential. The history of this repository goes back to 2 September 2002, when the 3.0 line was in development, and contains every commit since: 27,242 commits on main on 18 October 2026 (git rev-list --count origin/main).

What the history shows, generation by generation:

• eZ Publish 1 and 2 (2000 to 2002): the first generation, with eZ Trade for shops. 7x's founder started with it in 2000 (https://graham.se7enx.com/7x). Brookins Consulting released "eZ Region" as free software for eZ Publish 2.2, sold eZ Publish 2.2 support to businesses and government agencies, and created eZCommunity.net and the eZCommunity2 repositories "for the continued development and improvement of eZ Publish 2.2 + PHP5 support" (https://exponential.earth/about/about-exponential/features-added-by-7x/7x-core-contributions-to-ez-publish-cms-2000-2015). That line lives on as Exponential Basic.
• eZ Publish 3 (2002 to 2007): introduced the content model you still use in Exponential, with classes, objects, versions, siteaccesses and the template language. The changelogs from 2.9 to 3.10 are in the help.
• eZ Publish 4 (2007 to 2012): the PHP 5 generation, with ezjscore, the online editor and the 4.x administration. Changelogs 4.0 to 4.7.
• eZ Publish 5 and the community builds (2012 to 2021): the legacy kernel next to the new Symfony stack, the monthly community builds, then the 2017.08 to 2019.03 releases until September 2021 (release overview).

During those years, according to 7x's own list, Brookins Consulting gave "Over 18 Years of steady forum support to eZ Publish Version 3 & 4 & 5 Community Forum Users", released eZ Publish compatible extensions, and mirrored the eZ Publish repositories, the project forge extensions and the documentation of doc.ez.no for preservation (same source as above). Twenty of its pull requests were merged into the code base between 2014 and 2023 (git log --grep="from brookinsconsulting/").

The successors of eZ Publish took other roads. "eZ Platform was eZ Publish's technological successor before being abandoned by Ibexa", and Ibexa DXP OSS is "the rebranded and evolved successor of eZ Platform" (README, "What was eZ Platform?" and "What is Ibexa DXP OSS?").

Stewardship: from a dormant code base to Exponential 6 #

The history of Exponential begins: "This is where the story of Exponential 6 begins: the month a dormant code base changed hands" (December 2023). In that month the maintainers:

• merged the first outside change (pull request #40, 11 December 2023);
• rewrote the README to say what the software is, which PHP versions it supports and where to ask for help;
• added SECURITY.md, CONTRIBUTING.md and funding metadata;
• pointed composer.json at the se7enxweb packages, so the software installs with Composer under its new name;
• made the setup wizard work on PHP 8 and stop sending users to the servers of the former vendor;
• published the database update scripts from 5.4 to 6.0 for MySQL and PostgreSQL;
• set 6.0.0beta1 (25 December) and beta2 (31 December).

7x's description of the same moment: it "forked the recently no longer functional core of eZ Publish Project Software Stack and quickly released a working stable version as eZ Publish 6.0.0 in 2024/01" (https://se7enx.com/about/exponential-hosting-usa).

The ecosystem overview counts the work since: 6,556 ledger changes in 53 repositories since December 2023, 1,037 of them made by the se7enxweb team, the rest upstream history that the forks carry along. Every one of them is listed in the ledgers, and the coverage page shows that none is missing.

The 6.0.x releases #

From doc/eng-us/release-overview and the git tags (git tag -l 'v6.0.*' --sort=version:refname):

A published tag is never changed: "a fix for a problem in v6.0.14 or an earlier tag reaches you as the next release, not as a corrected copy of the old one" (SECURITY.md).

The product: what Exponential is #

"Exponential is a professional PHP application framework with advanced CMS (content management system) functionality. As a CMS its most notable feature is its fully customizable and extendable content model. It is also suitable as a platform for general PHP development" (README). The project site calls it "an award-winning, enterprise-grade Open Source Content Management System and development framework with functionality for web publishing, media portals, intranets, e-commerce and extranets" (https://exponential.earth/about/project).

A CMS, a CMF and a shop in one #

Databases and operating systems #

The supported databases, "in order of preference: 1. SQLite 3 (the default) · 2. PostgreSQL · 3. MongoDB · 4. MariaDB · 5. Oracle · 6. MySQL" (README, "Requirements"). Each is described on Database support. The operating systems are sorted into tiers on Operating system support: "almost any that runs PHP 7.4 or later".

The application stack #

The extension ecosystem #

composer.json of this release requires 66 se7enxweb/* packages, so every installation brings them (grep -c '"se7enxweb/' composer.json inside require). Many are inactive until you switch them on (The default extension distribution). A selection, with what each does:

Each extension has its own repository under https://github.com/se7enxweb, its own releases and its own changelog (extension changelogs).

The platform line: Exponential Platform, Legacy, Nexus and DXP #

Next to Exponential 6, 7x maintains the Symfony based line that descends from eZ Platform and Ibexa OSS. "In short Exponential Platform is the direct continuation of the software stack known as eZ Platform created by eZ Systems and discontinued by Ibexa" (README, "What is Exponential Platform?"). The descriptions below come from each distribution's own composer.json and repository description (read with gh api repos/se7enxweb/<name>), not from the upstream feature lists.

The DXP does not ship a layouts editor, an approval workflow, a scheduler or the legacy kernel: its requirements contain none of them. When an existing Exponential site has to move forward step by step, the dual-kernel distributions Legacy and Nexus run Exponential 6 next to the platform (README, "What Exponential Platform DXP adds"). The platform repositories, their forks of Symfony, Twig and Doctrine pieces and their histories are mapped on The Exponential platform ecosystem. Learn more at https://platform.exponential.earth.

Exponential Basic #

Exponential Basic is the line that descends from eZ Publish 2. Its repository is a fork of brookinsconsulting/ezcommunity2 (GitHub API), the eZCommunity2 repository that Brookins Consulting created for eZ Publish 2.2. Its description: "Exponential Basic v2.4.0.3: PHP 8.4/8.5.9 + Maintained by 7x : Content Management System Powered by Web Server + PHP + Database (MySQL, Postgresql, SQLite, Informix) ... GNU GPLv2+".

Exponential Velocity #

Exponential Velocity is the PHP web server that Exponential recommends "for every stage from development to production" (Velocity chronicle). "Velocity is a PHP web server for real production work. It began as a fork of the Qbix web server engine, and the two projects have since drifted far apart" (the package's README, se7enxweb/exponential-velocity). The repository is a fork of Qbix/webserver (GitHub API) and the package is MIT licensed (its composer.json).

Its first commits are from 20 July 2026, its first release v0.0.1 from September 2026, and it became part of Exponential on 22 September 2026 (September 2026). What it measures, and how to run it, is in the README section "Exponential Velocity — the fast option" and on The persistent-worker server.

Services and hosting #

7x sells services around the open source software; the software itself stays free. From https://se7enx.com/services and the GitHub profile README:

• web design and development, e-commerce and payment integration, training;
• "CMS Upgrades: Migration from eZ Publish to Exponential v6", that is, moving a site built while the software was still called eZ Publish onto the current Exponential 6;
• support and maintenance contracts for existing sites;
• managed hosting: "Exponential Website Hosting" and "Exponential Platform SSD Hosting" (https://se7enx.com/).

Prices and terms are on the 7x website, not here.

The community #

Contributors and friends of the project #

The code base carries the work of hundreds of people. Before 2016, 194 different commit authors appear in the history (git log --until=2016-01-01 --format=%an | sort -u), and pull requests were merged from accounts such as ezsystems, jdespatis, patrickallaert, joaoinacio, jeromegamez and many more. Since December 2023 pull requests have come from se7enxweb, ekked, fwoldt, netgen, brookinsconsulting, mugoweb and others (git log --grep="Merge pull request").

Exponential names the companies whose open source work it builds on:

• Netgen: Exponential Layouts brings "the concept of the upstream layouts packages to the Exponential kernel" (README); the Nexus distribution is built on Netgen Media Site and the upstream layouts packages; the se7enxweb/exponential repository is a GitHub fork of netgen/ezpublish-legacy.
• Mugo Web: their LoveStack improvements were rebuilt in 6.0.15 "with full credit to Mugo Web" (README, "Exponential Distribution Integration: LoveStack").
• CJW Network: cjw_newsletter and the CJW flavor of Nexus; their request-shield is documented as a companion in front of Exponential's HTTP cache (HTTP cache).
• eZ Systems, whose copyright from 1999 to 2014 stays in the code (COPYRIGHT.md).

Open source licenses #

Principles you can see in the code #

These are not slogans; each is something you can check in this repository.

• Git first. "Building websites with Exponential? The recommended way is to get the kernel and every se7enxweb extension as Git clones with their full history" (README, "Installation"; Develop with Git). The full history back to 2002 is kept, and every change since December 2023 is explained in the history.
• Published versions never change. A fix always arrives as the next version (SECURITY.md).
• Security by default. Private reporting to [email protected] with a first answer "within one business day" (SECURITY.md); a Content Security Policy in the administration; a hardening guide written "secure by default in the OpenBSD sense" (Security hardening).
• Accessible and readable. Light and dark themes, right-to-left layouts, keyboard shortcuts, and the rule that no administration template carries inline styles (CONTRIBUTING.md; Keyboard shortcuts).
• Current PHP. "Current releases are primarily aimed at easing the requirements to support current versions of the PHP language like PHP 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6 and beyond php9" (README, "Exponential Project Status").
• Open source, completely. "Everything we do is GPL-licensed and freely available" (se7enxweb GitHub profile README); the documentation is free documentation.
• Honest numbers. Performance figures in the README are "reproducible with scripts that ship with the project".

7x in numbers #

Counted on 18 October 2026. Numbers change; the command or page in the last column gives today's value.

How to get involved #

• Use it and tell us. Report a bug with When something goes wrong; ask in the forums or on Telegram.
• Grow from user to developer. Install with Git, keep your work on a branch and send pull requests: Develop with Git, CONTRIBUTING.md.
• Translate. The administration has many translations (the current totals are at the top of the languages page); Languages explains how to add or complete one.
• Improve this help. Every page has "Edit on GitHub"; the pages are free documentation (Free documentation).
• Fund the work. "A wide range of donation options available at sponsor.se7enx.com, paypal.com/paypalme/7xweb and github.com/sponsors/se7enxweb" (README, "Donate and make a support subscription"); the Foundation has its own sponsor page, https://github.com/sponsors/exponentialcms.
• Hire 7x. For a new site, the migration of a site built in the eZ Publish years, or support of an existing site: https://se7enx.com/.

Sources #

Repository files (all in se7enxweb/exponential):

• README.md, COPYRIGHT.md, LICENSE, SECURITY.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, composer.json
• doc/eng-us/release-overview, the history, the ecosystem overview, the Velocity chronicle
• December 2023, July 2025, August 2025
• The 6.0.15 changelog, Languages, The license of this documentation
• The git history: git log, git tag, git shortlog

7x's own account of its three stages (2014, 2022, 2023), given by the owner of 7x for this page on 18 October 2026.

Public web pages (read on 18 October 2026):

• https://se7enx.com/, https://se7enx.com/about, https://se7enx.com/services, https://se7enx.com/about/exponential-hosting-usa, https://graham.se7enx.com/7x
• https://exponential.earth/about/project, https://exponential.earth/about/about-exponential/features-added-by-7x/7x-core-contributions-to-ez-publish-cms-2000-2015
• https://foundation.exponential.earth/
• https://ezpedia.exponential.earth/, https://share.exponential.earth/, https://doc.exponential.earth/
• https://github.com/se7enxweb (profile README and the GitHub API), the repositories named on this page
• https://packagist.org/packages/list.json?vendor=se7enxweb

Related pages #

• Who is the Exponential Foundation?
• The history of Exponential
• The Exponential platform ecosystem
• Develop with Git
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve.

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