Pinegrow vs Webflow:

Pinegrow vs Webflow: Which Website Builder is Better?

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By David Borgogni

Last Updated on April 22, 2023 by Ewen Finser

Today we are going to be comparing Pinegrow vs Webflow, two powerful website builders that will enable you to build your dream website without a single line of code.

Your website is the online ‘face’ of your brand, so having a beautiful website that reflects your brand and its values is important.

Almost all businesses these days have a website, but not everyone has the funds available to pay a developer to build a site from scratch. So what do you do?

Bottom Line Up Front Summary: I personally prefer the more modern, accessible, and feature-rich experience with Webflow here. It’s not that Pinegrow is a bad option, just not as fast and functionally immersive as Webflow. You can try Webflow here to get a feel for it.

Main Differences Between Pinegrow vs Webflow

The main differences between Pinegrow vs Webflow are:

  • Pinegrow is a desktop web editor for Mac, Linux, and Windows, whereas Webflow is completely Cloud-based, so there is no software to download or install.
  • Pinegrow is designed to be used by professionals, and so may take a while to get used to at first, whereas Webflow is more intuitive to use, and would make a better choice for beginners.
  • Webflow offers fully managed hosting for the website you have created on their website builder, whereas Pinegrow is just used to create websites and templates, so you would need to purchase hosting separately.
I Personally Prefer Webflow

While there are other great options, Webflow is THE best new site builder on the market. If you take the time to give it a try, you can literally build anything without knowing any code. If you've ever felt LIMITED, Webflow is the answer.

Try Webflow First
We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

Well, there are a few options. You can use an all in one website builder like Squarespace where you simply choose a template and edit it if you wish, or if you prefer WordPress, you can either purchase a ready-made theme or code your site from scratch (which you probably don’t want to do if you’re not a developer).

So the other option here is to use website building software, which will enable you to build a completely custom website, with none of the restrictions that come with using templates.

Today we are going to be comparing Pinegrow vs Webflow side by side to see exactly what features they each offer, as well as their pros and cons, customer support, and the pricing, so you can decide for yourself which of these website builders will be the best option for you.

Let’s take a look.

The Similarities

  • Both Pinegrow and Webflow enable you to build a completely customized website from scratch without needing to code by hand.
  • Pinegrow and Webflow both use drag and drop visual page builders, so you can see exactly how your page will look while you are building it.
  • Both of these website builders turn your designs into clean code, ready to be published.

Pinegrow vs Webflow: What is Pinegrow?

what is Pinegrow

Pinegrow is a desktop website builder for Linux, Windows, and Mac, which allows you to easily build responsive websites with multi-page editing, CSS & SASS styling, as well as CSS grid editor and smart components. It works for Bootstrap, Foundation, and WordPress. Pinegrow is run by a small team who work remotely around the world.

The Software enables you to open, edit and save standard HTML and CSS files which means that you aren’t locked into a proprietary file format, you can build websites offline with no internet connection, you can just open and edit any of your existing projects, and you can create as many websites as you want. Pinegrow can also be used along with any other web development tools that you are using.

Pinegrow vs Webflow: What is Webflow?

What is Webflow

Webflow is a ‘no-code’ website builder that lets anyone build business websites quickly and easily without needing to code. As well as enabling you to design your website, Webflow also works as a CMS and hosting platform, so you have absolutely everything you need to build and run a beautiful website in one place. The company was founded back in 2013, and since then, they have grown to over 160 team members and served over 1 million users!

The software enables you to build your website visually until it’s exactly the way you want it to be, and then Webflow will translate your design into a clean, semantic code that’s ready to be published online.

Pinegrow vs Webflow: The Features

We’re going to take a look at the features of both Pinegrow and Webflow to see how they compare. Let’s have a look at Pinegrow first.

Pinegrow Features

Pinegrow Features

Pinegrow includes all the features you need to build beautiful, responsive websites without having to code from scratch. The main things Pinegrow Web editor can be used for are:

  • Building websites
  • Quickly mockup a page
  • Use CSS Variables and functions
  • Style a page
  • Make your page responsive
  • Edit content on a page
  • Try templates online and customize them if you need to
  • Add quick code snippets
  • Collaborate with others

To get started with Pinegrow, all you need to do is choose from one of the ready-made templates, and you are ready to go. From there, you can make all the changes and customizations you need until your page or website is looking exactly the way you want it to. Pinegrow works with any HTML based project and lets you make any page responsive, so it will look perfect on any device.

Works with any HTML Project

Pinegrow makes working with HTML quick and easy by enabling you to work visually. The visual tools include:

  • Smart Drag and Drop
  • Page Libraries
  • Edit Element Code
  • Repeater
  • Insert Elements
  • Page Code Editor

Pinegrow Review

General Purpose CSS Editor

The General Purpose CSS editor lets you easily edit SASS and LESS live without having to use any external tools. You can use simple controls to change the size, width, and color of text and other elements, and you can also add complex features such as shadows.

You can inspect active CSS rules, use developer tools like editor or code, use rich visual controls, and CSS grid editor and everything will work together in harmony.

WordPress Theme Builder

WordPress Theme Builder Pinegrow

You can build production-ready WordPress themes quickly and easily using Pinegrow’s WordPress theme builder. The Pinegrow theme converter will let you turn any HTML page into a WordPress theme by assigning WordPress actions to individual elements on the page.

This is a useful option to have if you want to use another website design tool to design your sites, such as Webflow, Muse Blocs, or Code editor. You simply run the site you have created with the other tool through Pinegrow theme converter, and, hey presto! You have a perfectly functioning WordPress theme ready to go.

Element Library

Pinegrow has an extensive element library packed full of ready to use components such as buttons, images, forms, sliders, and much more. You simply click on the element of your choice and drag it to wherever you want it to be on your webpage. You can also edit and duplicate elements and move them around as you need using the smart drag and drop tool.

Pinegrow Interactions

Pinegrow interactions is an add-on for Pinegrow web editor, which enables you to create powerful interactions using the interaction composer, as well as scroll scenes, and custom animations designed with the timeline editor.

Webflow Features

Webflow’s main features include:

  • Web Design
  • Motion Design
  • CMS
  • Components
  • Showcase
  • Website Management
  • Custom Branding
  • Marketing and SEO
  • Integrations
  • eCommerce
  • Hosting

Design and Styling

Webflow’s designer enables you to harness all the power of coding, without actually needing to use code. It allows you to take control of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript using a completely visual page builder, and once you’re done, Webflow will translate your design into a clean, semantic code, ready to be published.

You can build your pages using either pre-built elements such as sliders and background videos, or start with unstyled elements to give you more control. You can also create and save reusable symbols for items such as nav bars, sign-up forms, and footers so that you can make multiple changes across your site with just one edit.

When it comes to styling, Webflow makes it easy to build flexbox layouts and style all elements on your page until they’re perfect. The designs you create are responsive, and you can see exactly how they will look on a variety of different devices, and make adjustments as required.

I Personally Prefer Webflow

While there are other great options, Webflow is THE best new site builder on the market. If you take the time to give it a try, you can literally build anything without knowing any code. If you've ever felt LIMITED, Webflow is the answer.

Try Webflow First
We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

Interactions

You can use Webflow to create custom interactions and animations without the need to use a single line of code. You can even create scroll-based animations by linking any of the elements to scroll progress, so it appears as a user scrolls down the page.

Another cool interaction you can create is ‘reveal on click’ content as well as rich hover animations that reveal new content when you hover your mouse over a certain area on the page. There are also over 20 prebuilt animations that you can add to your site in just a few clicks.

Content Management

Webflow’s CMS is suitable for designers, developers, content strategists, and editors. It’s easy to get to grips with and includes everything you need to create a beautifully designed content template to connect to your site design.

You can design and edit your content right on the page, and it’s all live, so once you click publish, it will be there ready for the world to see. You can also give your clients and colleagues access so you can work together in real-time, and they can add content and make edits whenever they need to. Webflow integrates with Zapier, so you can easily integrate with over 750 available apps, without the need to use any code.

Ecommerce

Webflow can be used to create completely customized eCommerce stores. Everything can be built visually from the homepage to the product pages, and the checkout pages, so everything on your site matches perfectly. You can even create customized transactional emails to send to your customers when they make a purchase, to offer a completely seamless brand experience.

There are a variety of payment methods to choose from, including PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more. There is also an intuitive order management dashboard where you can keep an eye on your orders, and when you are ready to ship an order, you can even print a custom shipping label using Zapier integrations.

Hosting

Webflow’s hosting is lightning fast as well as being reliable, so you can be sure your website is in safe hands. It’s easy to set up, and there’s none of the hassle of setting up a domain or trying to get to grips with cPanel and other things that come with setting everything up with a new host from scratch.

The hosting is provided by Amazon Web Services and Fastly and has an uptime rate of 99.9%. In a Pingdom speed test, Webflow’s hosting had great results, scoring an ‘A’ for performance, and 1.02 seconds for page loading speed, impressive, right?

The Hosting is fully managed and comes with free SSL certificates as standard so that you can be sure that all of the data coming through your website is 100% secure. It also provides backups and versioning, password protection, custom forms, SEO management, integrations, site service, and no maintenance. Winner.

I Personally Prefer Webflow

While there are other great options, Webflow is THE best new site builder on the market. If you take the time to give it a try, you can literally build anything without knowing any code. If you've ever felt LIMITED, Webflow is the answer.

Try Webflow First
We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

Pinegrow vs Webflow: Customer Support

Customer support is important because you will want to be sure that if you run into any problems, someone will be able to help you as quickly as possible to ensure minimal downtime for your business. Let’s see how Pinegrow and Webflow measure up when it comes to customer support…

Pinegrow

Pinegrow provides customer support by email, as well as hosting a community forum and support centre on their website. The support centre includes video tutorials to walk you through building your website, as well as documentation and guides on how to get started, so you can get all the information you need in one place.

Webflow

Webflow offers customer support between 6.00 am and 6.00 pm PT. They will get back to you within 24-48 hours with a personalized reply to your support request.

You can also visit ‘Webflow University on their website, which is full of useful articles on how to build and manage your website with Webflow, as well as all the answers to the most frequently asked questions.

Pinegrow vs Webflow: Pros and Cons

Pinegrow

Let’s take a look at the benefits of using Pinegrow first…

Pros

  • The code that is created by Pinegrow is completely clean, with none of Pinegrow’s elements added to it.
  • Since Pinegrow is a desktop app, it can be used offline when you are unable to access the internet.
  • Pinegrow uses a powerful visual editor, so you can see exactly how your page will look while you are building it.
  • Pinegrow enables you to easily create ready to publish WordPress themes.
  • There is a rich library of elements to choose from, which you can simply drag and drop onto your pages and edit as required.
  • It works well with Bootstrap and Foundation.
  • There are a variety of payment options and plans to choose from.

Cons

  • The software is designed to be used by professionals, so for some people it may seem quite complicated when getting started.

Webflow

Now it’s time to check out the pros and cons of Webflow…

Pros

  • It’s completely free until you are ready to launch your site, so you can spend as long as you want to tweak your site until it’s perfect, with no costs involved.
  • You can create completely customized websites without needing to code from scratch.
  • Webflow uses a drag and drops page builder, which lets you build and customize your pages in any way you want. You can see how your site will look at a range of different device types with changes updating in real-time.
  • You can easily create unique animations and interactions with no need to use code.
  • Make edits to your pages in real-time, so you can see exactly what your page will look like before you hit publish.
  • Invite editors and collaborators to add and review content on your website.
  • Fast hosting with 99.9% uptime and page loading speeds of 1.02 seconds.
  • SSL certificate included with hosting plans.

Cons

  • If you have never done any web development before, there will be a learning curve when getting started with Webflow.
  • Compared to hosting providers like Bluehost or SiteGround, along with open-source software like WordPress, Webflow can work out to be quite a bit more expensive.

Pinegrow vs Webflow: Pricing

Pinegrow Pricing

Pinegrow has a few different pricing options available, depending on your needs. Since Pinegrow is software that you download onto your computer, it requires a license. You can purchase a license for a one-time payment, as well as having the option for a yearly renewing license, or paying monthly.

One Time Payment

Both Pinegrow Pro and Pinegrow Pro with WordPress (without interactions) are available for a one-time payment. Pinegrow Pro costs just $49, and Pinegrow Pro with WordPress costs just $99. Once you have made the payment for the license, it’s yours to keep and use forever. However, only one year of updates are included in the price, so you will need to pay again in the future if you wish to update the software. If you would like to add interactions to your license, they can be purchased separately.

Monthly Subscriptions

Subscriptions are billed every month and can be canceled at any time, so the software will only be active when your subscription is active. There are monthly subscriptions available for Pinegrow Pro with Interactions, which costs $10/month for each user, and Pinegrow Pro with Interactions and WordPress, which costs $15/month per user.

Yearly Subscriptions

Subscriptions are automatically charged every year, so you always have access to the latest software. There are yearly subscriptions available for Pinegrow Pro with Interactions, which costs $49/year for each user, and Pinegrow Pro with Interactions and WordPress, which costs $99/year per user.

If you like the sound of whatPinegrow has to offer, head over to their website to take a look at the plans in more detail.

Webflow Pricing

Webflow Pricing

Webflow itself is free to use until you are ready to launch, at which point you will need to pay for hosting. There are three plans available for website hosting, as well as three plans for eCommerce hosting. Let’s take a look.

The Basic plan costs $12/month and is a great option for anyone who just needs a simple website with no need for CMS. This price includes hosting, and a free SSL certificate, with up to 25,000 monthly visits and 500 form submissions.

The CMS plan is designed for blogs and content-driven websites. This plan costs $16/month and allows you to have 100,000 monthly visitors, 1000 form submissions, 2000 CMS items, limited CMS API, three content editors, and a site search function.

The Business plan is designed for higher traffic marketing sites or blogs and costs $36/month. You can have up to 1,000,000 visitors per month, unlimited form submissions, full CMS API, ten content editors, site search, and form file uploads.

Webflow Plans

And now for the eCommerce plans…

The Standard plan costs $29/month and includes all features from the CMS plan. This plan gives you access to all available eCommerce features, lets you have three staff accounts, and takes up to $50k a year in sales volume. This plan has 2% transaction fees and carries Webflow branding on transactional emails.

The Plus plan costs $74/month, and includes all of the features from the business plan, as well as 0% transaction fees, ten staff accounts, and allows you to make up to $200k a year in sales.

The Advanced plan costs $212/month and includes everything from the Lite plan, as well as 15 staff accounts, and has unlimited yearly sales.

If you like the sound of Webflow, head over to their site to try it out for free here.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How many projects can I create with a Pinegrow License?

There are no limits to how many projects you can create with your Pinegrow license, so you can create as many Websites and WordPress themes as you like, with no additional fees to pay.

Why is Webflow hosting better than other hosting providers?

Webflow offers many benefits compared to other hosting providers, including super-fast page loading speeds, 99.9% uptime, and full scalability. It is also fully managed, so everything is handled for you.

How many licenses do I need to use Pinegrow with my team?

A separate license is required for each person using Pinegrow, so you would need to purchase a license for each team member. There is an exception for family members, so your child would not need a separate license to build a website with your Pinegrow software.

Pinegrow vs Webflow: Which of these website builders is right for you?

Both Pinegrow and Webflow have a lot of similarities. They both allow you to build beautiful, fully customized websites without needing to code from scratch, and they both use drag and drop page builders, so you have full visual control over how your site will look.

The main difference here is that Webflow includes managed hosting, so you build your site and host it all in one place, whereas with Pinegrow, you just build the pages you need, and host them elsewhere.

For most people, Webflow would be the better choice. It includes a huge array of features, as well as a range of fully managed hosting plans, so you have absolutely everything you need in one place, what’s not to love?

Pinegrow is more suited to developers, as it takes some getting used to the software. It’s a great option for anyone who wants to create WordPress themes and websites from scratch to be hosted elsewhere since it doesn’t include any hosting.

If you would like to check out Pinegrow, you can visit their website here, and to try out Webflow for free, click here.

Bottom Line Summary: I personally prefer the more modern, accessible, and feature-rich experience with Webflow here. It’s not that Pinegrow is a bad option, just not as fast and functionally immersive as Webflow. You can try Webflow here to get a feel for it.

Still not sure how to build your website? Squarespace is a great option for beginners, and we compared Webflow vs Squarespace side by side to see how they measured up against one another. We also looked at the best Webflow alternatives to try in 2020, so check out the article, you might just find the perfect solution for you!

Further Reading on Site Builders:

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