Best solution for custom CMS and Client Portal?

[Mr_Finn (Charbel Hajj)]

Hey guys.

Got a client (venture capitalists) who wants to build a custom website (static site, show and tell + few case studies). They are planning to scale the website at a later stage, and add a portal for their clients (private/password secured pages that contain confidential information and contracts and a few functionalities).

So my solution was:

1. Webflow for front-end (always!)
2. Export and use Pinegrow for a custom CMS on top of that
3. Create the portal on a subdomain, and from here on we can use any option to build it (WordPess?, Webflow Export +Custom coding and API integration if possible, or any other tool out there).

So my questions are:

1. Has anyone here built a site that has a portal? And what did you use?
2. Has anyone tried Pinegrow? Any feedback? Or is there a better tool to build a CMS on top of a Webflow website (without having to ruin/change the front-end)
3. Any recommendations for a portal API that can be easily integrated with a Webflow site (no code, or very low coding required). That way I might be able to build the portal in Webflow too.

PS: Exporting and hosting outside of Webflow is a must, because the client does not want to risk running into any limitations whenever they want to scale up or add more subdomains.

Any help/tips is appreciated.
Cheers!

[webdev (Jeff Selser)]

@Mr_Finn

Has anyone here built a site that has a portal? And what did you use?

Yes. I like Processwire.com’s CMS/CMF for features and scalability. Everything you need to do is built into the API. I would recommend statamic as well.

@Mr_Finn

Has anyone tried Pinegrow? Any feedback? Or is there a better tool to build a CMS on top of a Webflow website (without having to ruin/change the front-end)

Pinegrow is nice if you need a visual tool. You can work with URL’s which is nice for updating. Truth is you can design in Webflow, export, then slice up a page into parts loaded by the template engine. Very easy in both systems I mentioned.

@Mr_Finn

1. Any recommendations for a portal API that can be easily integrated with a Webflow site (no code, or very low coding required). That way I might be able to build the portal in Webflow too.

The issue with Webflow is asset management. Assets loaded to the asset manager a public, regardless if you use a membership solution like Memberstack. That rules out using it for the businesses I typically work with where sensitive info needs to be gated. Of course you can just have a marketing site on the primary domain, and deploy a custom solution on another.

[Mr_Finn (Charbel Hajj)]

@webdev Thanks for the reply mate! checking Processwire out.

@webdev

Assets loaded to the asset manager a public, regardless if you use a membership solution like Memberstack.

I didn’t actually know that. Definitely not using Webflow for the portal then.

Then it’s settled, will build the main site with Webflow, and pick the best option for the portal and have it on a subdomain.

Cheers!

[Bryan_Stouffer]

Especially if you’re not using webflow for a site that wouldn’t otherwise need a login, simple portals like zapa client portal may be a good solution to link to from your site.