Pinegrow CMS Overview

Over the last year or so, I've been converting some WordPress sites to static HTML and I've been building static HTML projects more than I have in a long time. And, with Pinegrow, it's been easier than ever to build and manage them. In this video, I show a quick overview of some of the core CMS features built into Pinegrow Desktop that make working with static sites easier and faster than a WordPress site.
📝Note: I'm not affiliated with Pinegrow in any way. I'm just a happy, paying customer who wants to see the product continue to grow and thrive, and to help build a more active community around it.
🌐 My Websites:
• adamlowe.io
• peakperformanc...
✅ Connect with Me:
• Facebook: / peakperformancedigital
• LinkedIn: / peakperformancedigital
• KZbin: / @adamloweio
• Twitter: / @adamslowe
⚙️Tools I Use:
• WordPress.org: wordpress.org/
• Pinegrow Website Editor: pinegrow.com/
⌚ Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:54 Master Pages (templates)
05:00 Components
06:30 Partials
08:27 CMS Mode
09:15 Wrap Up

[@TheAdminBar]

Dang, I didn't even know all this was possible with Pinegrow. Looks like a great way to build out a TON of the "basic" sites we end up making for mom-and-pops! No plugin updates or vulnerabilities included!

[@AdamLoweIO]

Exactly! And the fact that I can use the same code for static sites and WordPress sites makes it super simple to build and manage them.

[@stewtech]

Subscribed and Liked

[@joxmanyou]

Thanks, Adam.

[@maikvanrossum]

Some very helpful insights 👍🏻 thanks a lot 🙏🏻

[@Sharpete]

Excellent, thank you.

[@pepitogrande]

Super useful stuff :)

[@TytusDubel]

Hi Adam, thank You for Your always precious videos. one question comes to my mind. I did few experiments with a simple static site generator, called 11ty, the nice thing was that it was super easy in a way, and I was asking my self if with this proces you could also create sort of fake static post.

[@AdamLoweIO]

I haven't used 11ty, but from my understanding you can use regular HTML files with some template markup. If that's the case, then there is nothing stopping you from using Pinegrow to create those HTML files. I know people use Pinegrow on their Astro projects as well, but I don't have any direct experience with it.

[@carlosrosalesrojas6788]

back to the future :)

[@AdamLoweIO]

Right? As much as I like WordPress, it’s overkill for a lot of small projects. Static site generators are a cool new tool, but they have their own challenges. Sometimes a regular old html site is just what is needed.

[@NelmediaCa]

Back to my Dreamweaver years with templates...! But yes, this is something that I often though of (and why I subscribed to Pinegrow): WP is often overkill and pretty heavy for small/simple sites. I didn't know there were templates and partials though, and tbh I ended up never really using it... I'm always afraid that at some point the client will want to add something that would be a simple plugin installation on WP, but would take hours to do (if at all knowledgable enough) to do in HTML/PHP... BTW, I was able to edit PHP in Dreamweaver... Pinegrow doesn't seem to support it too much...

[@AdamLoweIO]

Oh yes, Dreamweaver. I still get an involuntary twitch when I think of that one ;) I'm with you about being afraid that the client is going to ask for something that can't be done with a static site, but luckily those cases have been pretty rare. I'm usually able to fill the void with a hosted solution (complex forms, schedulers, etc.) but every so often I have to convert it to a WordPress site. The good news is that changing from static to WP in Pinegrow is a simple process. All I have to do is take the static site and add actions to turn it into a theme. As for PHP... I agree that it's a limitation of Pinegrow. I'm pretty comfortable adding any needed php using VSCode though, and since Pinegrow works directly with the HTML/CSS files I don't need to worry about losing any changes.

[@NelmediaCa]

@@AdamLoweIO When I first got Pinegrow, it was: 1- to replace Dreamweaver as an HTML/Visual editor; 2- because I was studying how to create my own WP themes and I saw that it could do it. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to really study it (and not enough documentation I think) so I put it aside. Also, tbh, page builders improved so much, now with just a basic theme (like Astra or Kadence) or no theme at all, the pb being the theme (i.e. Bricks), I don't feel the need for tools like Pinegrow anymore... But still, I like your approach and with time, I could try to balance between it and WP. TBH, the last HTML site I did, I used Bootstrap Studio instead of Pinegrow, because it was so much easier to use (and enough for my needs)... And it ended up being the only page (was a landing page) that I had to constantly modify (because of the client) after... So, regreted that I didn't use Elementor (my tool at the time) on that site... Do you have kind of Pinegrow tutorial from beginner to creating your own WP theme on your channel?

[@AdamLoweIO]

Bootstrap studio is a fine product and is very easy to use, so I can't blame you for going that route rather than trying to learn the intracies of Pinegrow. As for a Pinegrow WP Theme tutorial, it's a big topic and I have a mini-course that covers it (adamlowe.io/mini-course-no-code-wp-theme/). I plan to update it in the next few months to include creating a Block Theme, but block themes are still changing and my process needs a lot of work before I'm comfortable putting a course out there in the wild.

[@NelmediaCa]

@@AdamLoweIO I had forgotten about that course... I just joined and hopefully I'll be able to start soon...

[@AdamLoweIO]

Thank you! And please reach out if you have any questions.

[@user-ki5qq6dr7p]

What alternatives to CSM Mode do prefer?

[@AdamLoweIO]

If they need to edit the site themselves, then I'll generally use WordPress. If I'm doing the edits for them, then there is no need for CMS mode. I have been playing with things like Astro, Eleventy, and Strapi but I'm not comfortable enough with them yet to use on a client site.

[@GoustiFruit]

@@AdamLoweIO Been playing with Astro, but not very comfortable with hand coding. Trying to do more “visual” things with PG, that also helps learning CSS.

[@AdamLoweIO]

@GoustiFruit Astro is so much fun! I love Pinegrow for sure, but I keep coming back to Astro for some reason. One of these days I’ll probably cave and use it for a real project.