Positioning and value proposition #

This page is for sales and marketing people who need to say clearly what Exponential is, for whom, and why it is worth choosing. It answers: what is our position, what sets the product apart, what value does it create for a customer, and how do we say that in one, three or ten sentences.

Everything here is built from facts in the repository and the help. Each fact names its source. Where you add your own company's services or prices, mark them as yours: they are not facts about the product.

Contents #

1. The position in one paragraph
2. The facts the position rests on
3. The differentiators
4. The value proposition canvas
5. Elevator pitches
6. Messages per audience
7. Words to use and words to avoid
8. Claims you may not make
9. A positioning worksheet for your offer

The position in one paragraph #

Exponential is the open source content management system, application framework and online shop for organizations that want to own their platform. It is free to use under the GNU GPL, runs on the operating system, web server and database the customer chooses, and comes with its full development history in Git. It continues a code base of nearly thirty years, the code base of eZ Publish, a product its creator discontinued after almost 18 years, and is maintained today by the company 7x and operated by the nonprofit Exponential Foundation, with regular 6.0.x releases since 1 January 2024.

Sources: README.md ("What does Exponential provide", "License", "Requirements"), Who is 7x?, Who is the Exponential Foundation?.

The facts the position rests on #

The differentiators #

Each differentiator is a property of Exponential that a buyer can check. None of them depends on what other products do; that keeps them true even when the market changes. For comparisons, see Comparing Exponential factually.

The value proposition canvas #

The canvas has two sides. On the right, the customer: the jobs they need to get done, the pains in the way and the gains they hope for. On the left, Exponential: what it offers, how it relieves the pains and how it creates the gains. The left side lists only documented properties. The right side is typical; replace it with what your customer actually tells you.

The customer side (fill in from your discovery) #

The Exponential side #

Elevator pitches #

Each sentence below can be backed by the source in brackets. Do not say the brackets aloud; have them ready if asked.

One sentence #

Exponential is a free, open source content management system, framework and online shop that you can host anywhere and keep for good, continuing a code base of nearly thirty years. [README, LICENSE, Who is 7x?]

Three sentences #

Exponential is an open source CMS, application framework and built-in online shop, free to use under the GNU GPL. [README] It runs on almost any operating system with PHP, on the database you choose, from SQLite to PostgreSQL and Oracle, so you are never tied to one host or vendor. [Operating system support, Database support] It continues the eZ Publish code base with its full history since 2002 and is maintained by the company 7x and the nonprofit Exponential Foundation, with regular 6.0.x releases since January 2024. [Who is 7x?, Foundation page]

Ten sentences #

1. Exponential is a professional PHP application framework with advanced content management, and its most notable feature is a content model you define yourself. [README]
2. News publishing, e-commerce and forums are built in, and it serves several sites and languages from one installation. [README]
3. Content can be written in 368 locales, right-to-left languages included, and the administration speaks many languages, with the current totals at the top of the languages page. [Languages in Exponential]
4. Editors build pages themselves with Exponential Layouts, and Exponential Intelligence helps them write, but only ever as drafts that a person publishes. [README]
5. It is free to use under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later, and its documentation is free under the GNU Free Documentation License. [README, Free documentation]
6. It runs on almost any operating system with PHP 8.0 or later (PHP 7.4 usable without support), behind Apache, Nginx and other web servers, or on its own Velocity server. [Operating system support, README]
7. It supports six databases, with SQLite as the default, so a site needs no database server at all. [Database support]
8. Its code continues eZ Publish, a product its creator discontinued after almost 18 years, and the full Git history back to 2002 comes with it. [Who is 7x?]
9. Since December 2023 the company 7x leads it, and since March 2026 the nonprofit Exponential Foundation operates the project; releases 6.0.0 to 6.0.14 have shipped since January 2024. [Who is 7x?, Foundation page]
10. Security fixes arrive as the next release, published versions never change, and vulnerabilities are reported privately with a first answer within one business day. [SECURITY.md]

Messages per audience #

Words to use and words to avoid #

Claims you may not make #

The sources do not support these, so they stay out of every pitch, slide and web page:

• a number of customers, installations, users or a market share;
• named customers or quotes, unless the customer agreed in writing (Writing case studies);
• prices of the software (there are none) or of services you do not offer yourself;
• guaranteed response or resolution times beyond what SECURITY.md says (a first answer to a security report "within one business day");
• performance figures other than those in README.md, "What that measures as", and then only with the context the README gives (what was measured, on what machine, reproducible with scripts that ship with the project);
• certifications or compliance labels the sources do not name.

A positioning worksheet for your offer #

If you sell your own services around Exponential, write your position on top of the product's. Fill in the placeholders and keep the product facts as they are.

For          <target customer: industry, size, situation>
who          <the job they need done, the pain they feel>
<our offer>  is <your service: implementation, migration, hosting, support>
based on     Exponential, the open source CMS, framework and online shop
that         <key benefit for this customer, in their words>.
Because      Exponential is free under the GPL, runs on the OS, web server and database
             the customer chooses, and comes with its full Git history,
the customer <can change provider / keeps their data and code / owns the platform>.
We add       <your experience, team, service level you can actually deliver>.
Proof        <help pages, your own permitted references>

Related pages #

• Sales and marketing: start here
• Who Exponential is for: personas and industries
• Feature highlights mapped to customer needs
• Comparing Exponential factually
• Handling objections: security, longevity and support
• What Exponential is: the product family
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.