My honest review of this incredible website/theme builder software for WordPress.
I did appreciate how professional, smooth, and powerful it is. I can see why some people would like it. But it’s not for me.
DISCLAIMER: I don’t even know how to use it. So take my review with a grain of salt. Maybe had I spent just 10 more minutes, it would have made all the difference.
#1 – Some learning curve
- Overwhelming interface.
- Lots of ambiguous buttons and icons.
- Will take you some time to learn.
- While it may be better and clearer than a typical pagebuilder…it doesn’t appear easier.
- Hard to import existing theme designs.
- Also hard to start new theme designs.
I couldn’t even get started. Everything I clicked on was wrong or unhelpful. Instead of feeling like a box of toys, it felt like a field of mines…just wrong clicks everywhere.
When you try to start “new”, it offers you mostly options for single HTML page layouts (but with attached CSS styling). For this to be a serious WordPress theme-builder, all new projects should default as “New theme” or at least have that in the listed options.
I couldn’t find basic tools for drawing boxes and color and what not. I’m accustomed to the logic of building things in sections. Again…I didn’t even study the documentation, I just jumped right in and got lost almost immediately.
I wouldn’t say this tool is too hard to use or hard to learn. It’s more that there’s a big enough learning curve that makes it too unwieldy for average users.
#2 – Can’t see live content
- You can’t see how design looks with your existing content.
This was a big stickler for me. All the design work is done on your local computer and not connected to your website. So you can’t see how it looks with your content.
Sure, you can copy over some text and images to make it “realistic”, and there’s also a nice PREVIEW function that lets you see the page in your browser. But it’s not the same.
Due to this issue, I just don’t see it working well for many users. I think most people trying to do custom designs are people who already have existing sites and now looking for more flexibility. If you have an existing site and want to be able to build a new design and actually see your content taking on the new design…this tool doesn’t really allow that.
#3 – Lacking WordPress-logic
- Doesn’t automatically spin up a “WordPress theme” for you.
- There’s a process.
- Also, many WordPress design logic isn’t obvious.
Think about how most users see a WordPress template. We see it as HEADER, NAVIGATION, BODY, SIDEBAR, FOOTER. And then throughout those places, there will be widget positions. And then we also have to talk about page templates. It should have FRONT PAGE, ARCHIVE, SINGLE, SHOP, etc.
I didn’t see page templating broken down or described in that manner inside Pinegrow. It looked more like an empty graphic design canvas where you just draw your site without any WordPress-layout or hierarchy in mind.
It also doesn’t look like a native WordPress theme builder. It reminds me of a typical website builder program (like Dreamweaver), and then hacked to add WordPress compatibility.
Pinegrow is still a great design tool
There are things I like about Pinegrow:
- Professional – looks well built. Very fast and smooth, tons of features and options for professional designers and developers. It certainly looks like fun once you get the hang of it.
- Working offline – this is a PRO and a CON. The con is it doesn’t connect to your website. The pro is it doesn’t need to connect to your website. You can design a WordPress site completely offline with no internet connection. Like on a plane to Hawaii.
- Build fast sites – sites built with Pinegrow will be very lean and fast. (Even leaner if you go without Bootstrap.)
- Pinegrow users are happy – I notice Pinegrow has pretty satisfied users. Even the ones that wished it did more things are still happy with it.
Should you use Pinegrow?
Pinegrow is a full-featured WYSIWYG website builder. I think it’s great for a professional designer creating multiple themes regularly. It’s a really slick interface, very smooth and fast. Feature packed and can build for any site, not only WordPress.
But if you’re trying to build a custom WordPress design for a particular site, you might want a tool that’s more integrated and runs off of WordPress just so you can see your content while you design. Also, if you’re not a professional and don’t build custom designs often, I think there are much easier tools out there. You can try Gutenberg block libraries or even Oxygen Builder. Those feel more native to WordPress and help you understand WordPress design in a more intuitive way.
Thanks for your review Johnny. I tried PG one year ago.
What I liked :
– Really clean HTML/CSS output !!! 😍
– the ability to integrate pure html/css… and convert to WP later… if really needed / wanted by the client ! (My go to is to use WP for everything, but if I am honest it’s not always really needed).
– Good interface ! (but a bit overwhelming first yes)
– We can use any JS library (cool) or CSS framework (I don’t like them neither). The cool thing is that we can use sass !
– We can import any HTML/CSS and convert it to WP.
– The interactivity features (GSAP) are good.
– You can use versioning because it’s just files (every pagebuilder use DB…)
– You can generate a lot of loops / queries tank to PG and are able to make any changes you want !
– we are free ! We can even create gutenberg blocs with ACF pro…
What I didn’t liked :
– First : shortcodes don’t work !
– It’s not connected to the really content (my tip : work on a local by Flywheel install and auto-sync the theme folder with a live wp theme folder with Transmit)
– you cannot visualize any change made by any plug-in…
I really liked the pros…
But I even more hated the cons…
For now I will stick with Oxygen. 🙂
Yeah, Oxygen is fun. So easy to draw out custom designs. And I love that they chopped out the autoloads.
It is not box of toys for sure. It is a box of pro tools for pro tools users. What is the point if this review? It is useless and full of misunderstandings.
As with many posts on my site….the review is there so people can stop asking me the same questions about things. Some posts are useful. Some posts are so people can stop bothering me (for this reason alone, this post has served ME well).
By all means, you’re welcome to post a link to another review you felt was more helpful. But either way, I’m not a fan of Pinegrow because it doesn’t fit my workflow style.
… there is difference between opinion and review. This post is opinion disguised as a review. Why not say this is just a opinion based on a fact that you don’t want to invest time for proper review? I really hate bad info … therefore my 2c.
cheers, V
Nowhere in the title does it say this is a review. And way up high in the beginning of the post is an upfront disclaimer of my limited experience (and understanding of it). At this point…I’m too lazy to change anything and your time is better spent writing a better review than constantly complaining in my site comments…just my 2c. Cheers.
I had the same experience. Tried over the years to like it, but kept running into the learning curve and better alternatives between Oxygen, Elementor + Paid Add ons, Beaver Builder etc.
Not a review, says the author. Ok. Doesn’t know how to use it, says he. Ok. The fact is, there’s a learning curve. Big news. The product has evolved a lot since. There’s a Pinegrow plugin for WordPress if you so wish. Meaning you can work “live” on a staging server, for instance.
If you want to build simple websites, filling sections, Pinegrow is overkill. It is not a “democratic” builder. Use Beaver Builder instead.
If, on the other hand, you want to build your own custom Gutenberg blocks, Php blocks, ACF blocks, Pinegrow is probably one of the best tools around, limitless in that regard. It’s super fast and error proof. It also has a very good animation builder. Not for the faint of heart, but that’s the price to pay for total freedom and ultimate customization without having to code. Do not be scared : support, detailed step-by-step tutorials and documentation are second to none. Check Pinegrow’s YouTube channel. The Pinegrow team cares about their customers (contrary to Oxygen, for instance).
A big difference with most builders, the resulting code does not depend on Pinegrow, as it writes pure clean code, which you can edit in VS if you so wish.
As far as performances are concerned, you will get ultra light no-bloat code, almost as if custom coded by hand, and make huge gains in DOM size. If you don’t know what DOM is, you probably don’t need Pinegrow.
Hello Johnny,
I’m Emmanuel from the Pinegrow team and I feel you should have a second look at Pinegrow with the last update, as your point #2 (Can’t see live content) is no more 🙂
Check https://pinegrow.com/release_notes/pinegrow-web-editor-7-93/ and https://youtu.be/LCrDnk0MEjo?si=2rjgIBisDE385W76
Cheers.
Appreciate your input Johnny. Been using Pinegrow for a few years and developed maybe 15-20 themes. You are absolutely right that it would benefit from an instant “starter” page of HTML code if you choose a new project. Much easier to get going when you have something to work with. Lots of tutorials out there, particularly at the Pinegrow website and on YouTube. Best theme builder out there in my view.
I’m really glad you like it and can only imagine that it’s improved even more since I first tried it.