Hi,
Learning more about Pinegrow, but unsure about this question as I compare it against tools like Wappler.io.
I see Pinegrow strength in websites. But If I want to create dynamic SAAS apps like a customer portal etc, is there a path to do that with PG?
I didn’t see anything in particular about data binding or pulling data from an API.
or what about using Pinegrow to design blog pages (like in a CMS).
Thanks in advance for your reply.
Hi @Uelsimon,
At their heart, Pinegrow and Wappler are similar products, with some key differences. Both are designed to be low-code HTML builders. While I haven’t had a deep dive in how they handle API calls/dynamic data, it is likely through Ajax/JavaScript. These same methods can be used in Pinegrow. Granted, Wappler has some built-in tools for getting you up and running, but at a premium price.
Pinegrow also can be used to create WordPress themes. It isn’t a page builder like Divi or Elementor. However, if you can put the page together in HTML and PHP, Pinegrow works well.
Hope this helps,
Bob
thanks Bob for the insight. sadly…I’m so no-code…that might be a stretch lol. But I like the the ability to leverage CSS visually and have it generate clean code… so was hoping it’d give me he end to end experience for creating actual apps.
Hi @Uelsimon,
I spent a premium on Wappler for over an year and it didn’t work for me, and eventually I abandoned it after a long bitter experience… That said, they do have quite an active community and it does seem to work out for many creators… I would strongly recommend you to try it out, and make your own judgement.
Actually, I would like to slightly tweak Bob’s note… IMHO, Pinegrow is not a low-code tool, I call it your-own-code visual web designing tool…
The html markup, styling is purely yours and you build it all out. Even when you use frameworks like bootstrap within Pinegrow, all components & styling (bootstrap.css) is purely from the framework.
Pinegrow provides an amazing DX to design your HTML & to apply styling (CSS/SCSS/LESS) visually. When it comes to JS, it does visually support component re-usability but again, only visually. Checkout their master page, components & editable areas features. Pinegrow doesn’t provide any proprietary JS components. Pinegrow wisely stays away from any JS visual tooling. It’s easy to type “let myvar = 100”, instead of clicking five buttons to visually add this single line to your code.
One important thing to note is, your code (your-own-code) is completely open standards/formats (html/js/css/scss/less) and your are not locked into Pinegrow. Pinegrow stays very agnostic, and not lock you into proprietary file formats (like erstwhile dreamweaver).
Now, with Wappler they are not only a tool but also has a proprietary framework underneath their tool (remember it as App Connect & Server Connect). On the front-end, it let’s you visually build your HTML markup, styling (like Pinegrow), but also let’s you visually add directives (like in vue.js such as v-if, v-bind etc) and add custom elements which are their proprietary javascript components. Wappler evolved by bundling all their previous dmxzone js components into a visual tool. Also, they boast server side components as well, previously PHP based, now also include node-based server components (which I didn’t get a chance to explore). If you happen to reach the point where you want to customise, extend their framework components, it’s not easy, ask yourself this question multiple times before committing yourselves.
If you are aspiring to build your own SAAS product, which I believe should be highly performant, my recommendation to you would be to upskill on the web technologies, probably pick one of the top amazing framework like Vue.js / Svelte and grow & evolve within their ecosystem, they have some amazing community support! Pinegrow will provide great value as one amongst your toolkit, when you want to build your HTML template & styling with vanila JS.
You should move this thread out of the “Random” category as this info might be helpful for other users as well. All the best!
Wow… that was intense. Lol. great great feedback @TechAkayy .
Sadly…I dont think you’ve made my decision any easier lol.
But I have a better sense of what I’d be singing up for.
I think Pinegrow is winning for versatility of creating the front end.
and I guess worse case scenario…I can then use the CSS and other code to have another tool or team connect to to make it work as a saas.
Maybe I can combine Pinegrow with Bildr to get the job done.
I wonder if this is a typo and you are referring to combining both Pinegrow & Wappler? Would be interesting to see how it works out for you…
Just to summarize,
When you choose Pinegrow which is purely a tool, and you choose a pinegrow-supported framework (like bootstrap) or meta-css framework (like tailwind), you can build your app in both Pinegrow (leveraging it’s visual designing capabilities for html & styling) & simultaneously in an external editor (Visual Studio code for the JS part, apply build tools like webpack, and all other heavy-lifting)…
When you choose Wappler which is both a proprietary framework as well as a tightly-coupled tool, you can build your app only with Wappler using it’s visual building capabilities, but if you want to work on your code independently in an external editor, you are toast. Also, you are required to keep your Wappler monthly subscription active if you want to continue building or maintain your app (even if you want to make a small change).
Don’t forget to do a cost-comparison between the two tools (running it say for one/two full years), you will be in awe…
All the best!
Hey @TechAkayy,
Thanks for the write-up! Looks like I need to learn a little more about how Wappler works. You gave some great info.
Cheers,
Bob
Not a typo.
Bildr.com is a no/low code platform with full code access as built on core web frameworks similar to pinegrow.
So thinking to build the build the front ends in PG on machine and fine tune the design then copy it over into bildr for logic and hosting.
A bit redundant maybe but I’ll learn css faster using PG for now.
Cool, hearing it for the first time…
Would love to hear back on how it all worked out for you 
Best wishes!
will keep you posted
Simple to relocate components. It permits you plan outwardly while likewise creating code. This is an extraordinary learning instrument for individuals getting everything rolling coding html and css. You can alter text as though you were utilizing Sketch, however it really creates the html and css for it.
You say you realize how to code, yet clearly you don’t know anything about processing. Every one of the three - BSS, Pinegrow, and WebFlow are “front-end” instruments for UI connection with clients - they’re not back-end apparatuses depending on data sets - which is the thing that CMSes are. Your (lasting) question just asks - “Would i be able to join PHP frameworks with every one of these front-end apparatuses?” Simply put, Yes - presently go to each and do a quest for PHP. Pinegrow grants utilizing more than one CSS system; as its name infers BSS licenses utilizing just one - Bootstrap. I don’t utilize WebFlow, so can’t discuss it… Every one of the three are “manufacturers”, with bundled parts, which vary in how effectively you can join your own code, and how effectively one can do this, Pinegrow maybe being generally adaptable in such manner, however BSS has some decent components here, as well, yet as I said, it’s dependent on Bootstrap, which in itself isn’t so adaptable as Foundation, which Pinegrow empowers you to utilize. Pinegrow additionally has its own WordPress layout buildring instruments - - in its “full”, more expensive, rendition. I like BSS and Pinegrow, for various things, as my concise portrayal of each notices.
Probably the best could be the official support of svelte or vue directly from pinegrow, keeping the idea of “your code, as you want it” but offering a wizard or easy panel to generate code to fetch data from API, use that data in components, and repeating components.
We used bootstrapstudio for prototyping, then because they lack flexibility/git support for collaboration we move to pinegrow.
But now is been proven too inefficient to design a mockup in pinegrow then convert it to a JS framework, because for every update you want to do to the ui you have to do it 2, one for the HTML variant of the website/PWA and the other for the JSframework.
Searching for a low code IDE for Vue, Angular or Svelte I didn’t find a lot, and it’s really strange, those that are out there are or proprietary and you can’t export your UI from their platform, or they don’t have support for HTML and you have to use there component, so 0 flexibility again.
I’m happy to pay more pinegrow, if there will be a way to support Vue (on an other jsframework).
And UI/Wizart for basic features, like:
I don’t think that a complete full-stack solution is what is needed, there are so many projects for backend: n8n, directus, strapi, integromat, airtable, nocodb, …
We just miss a front end your-own-code low code visual IDE.
See here - VueJS support for pinegrow - #17 by Akayy