SGEN key concepts in 10 minutes
SGEN organizes around four layers. SG-Dashboard is your account — sites, plan, team, billing. SG-Admin is where you manage each site — pages, blog, products, settings. SG-Builder is the visual editor you open from any page or post record to design layouts. SG-Core + SG-Modules is the built-in feature set — forms, SEO, ecommerce, redirects — no plugins needed. Inside a site, content is either a Page (standalone), a Post (dated, belongs to a feed), or a Custom Object (a record type you define). A Sandbox is free and private; a Live site is on a real domain. That is the whole map.
Read once, understand everything
These terms appear throughout every guide and reference page. Knowing them means you can follow any walkthrough without stopping to look things up.
Maps to what you already know
SGEN has its own vocabulary but most of it maps onto ideas from other site builders — just different names. The primer shows those mappings explicitly.
Skim the bold lead-ins
Each concept opens with a bold sentence that captures the whole idea. Skim those if you are in a hurry — read the detail when you need it.
Before you start
SGEN has its own vocabulary. Most of it maps onto ideas you already know from other site builders — it just uses different names. This page is the fast primer: read it once and the rest of the documentation will make sense. Each term links to the full reference if you want to go deeper. For complete definitions, see the Glossary.
The map
Four layers, top to bottom — your account, the platform, the surfaces you work in, and the content you create.
Account (SG-Dashboard)
Where you manage which sites you own, your plan, your team, and whether a site is in Sandbox or Live.
Platform (SG-Core + SG-Modules)
The essentials and the built-in features — pages, media, users, forms, SEO, ecommerce, and more.
Builder (SG-Builder)
The visual editor where you design pages.
Content (pages, posts, custom objects)
The records you create and publish — what visitors see.
Environments: Sandbox and Live
These two terms describe where your site is in its life, not two different products.
Free forever
Sandbox
Your free-forever workspace. You build and test here on a staging URL, so nothing is public. There is no time limit, no cost, and no visit cap — and you can run as many sandbox sites as you like. Every account starts with a Sandbox.
Real domain
Live
Your site published on a real domain, serving visitors. You move a built site from Sandbox to Live when you are ready and pick a paid plan at that point. Plans differ only by how many live sites you run — every plan includes the entire platform.
Most first-timers spend their first hour entirely in the Sandbox. See Environments and site states and SGEN sandbox walkthrough.
The four product pillars
SGEN is organized into four named groups. You do not need to memorize them, but you will see the names throughout the docs.
Pillar
SG-Core
The essentials every site needs — pages, posts, media, menus, users.
Pillar
SG-Modules
The built-in features — forms, SEO, redirects, tracking and consent, ecommerce.
Pillar
SG-Builder
The visual editor for designing and styling pages.
Pillar
SG-Dashboard
Account-level control — your sites, plan, team, and billing in one place.
Modules
A module is a built-in feature — the kind of thing other platforms sell as a plugin. Forms, SEO, redirects, tracking and consent, and ecommerce are all modules. The key idea: modules are already part of SGEN. You do not install them; you just use them. SGEN is one platform, and every plan includes the entire platform — all 23 modules, with no suites and no add-ons. Plans differ only by how many live sites you run, so nothing is ever locked behind a higher tier.
SG-Builder
SG-Builder is the visual editor. You drag components onto the canvas, edit text and images in place, arrange sections, and preview across screen sizes before publishing. If you have used a visual builder before, this will feel familiar.
The building blocks: a page is made of sections, sections hold blocks (also called components), and you preview at different breakpoints (screen widths) to check how the page looks on phones, tablets, and desktops.
Pages and posts
These are the two everyday content types.
Standalone
Pages
Standalone — your home page, about page, contact page, pricing page. They do not have a date or feed.
Dated, in a feed
Posts
Dated entries that belong to a feed — most often blog articles. Posts can be organized with categories and tags.
The difference matters because they behave differently: posts show up in blog feeds and can be filtered; pages stand on their own.
| Page or post — which should I create? | Answer |
|---|---|
| Home page, about page, contact, pricing, landing page | Create a Page — it stands alone, no date, no feed |
| Blog article, news update, announcement | Create a Post — it gets a date, belongs to a feed, and supports categories |
| Product listing, team member, event, testimonial | Create a Custom Object — this is structured content beyond pages and posts |
| I want the same layout on every blog post automatically | Use a Template — set it once, it applies to all matching posts |
When in doubt: if it has a date and feeds into a list, it is a post. If it stands alone, it is a page.
Custom objects and custom fields
This is the concept that opens the most possibilities once it clicks.
Record type you define
Custom object
A record type you define yourself — beyond the built-in pages and posts. Think of things like team members, products, properties, events, or testimonials: a structured kind of content with its own list and its own fields.
Extra data on any record
Custom field
An extra piece of data you add to any record type. For example, adding a "Price" field or a "Region" field to a record.
Together they let you model your site's content to match your business, instead of forcing everything into pages and posts.
Post types
The kinds of records — built-in (pages, posts) plus your own custom objects.
Custom fields
Extra data you attach to any record type.
Records
The individual entries — one team member, one product, one event.
Categories and tags
How posts get classified into feeds and filters.
Templates
A template controls the shared layout of a group of pages or records — so every blog post, or every product page, uses the same frame without you rebuilding it each time. Change the template once and every record using it updates.
You now know enough
That is the core vocabulary. With Sandbox, Live, modules, SG-Builder, pages, posts, custom objects, custom fields, templates, and menus, you can read any guide in the documentation and follow it.
Dashboard → Pages → SG-Builder canvas — This is the path you will take most often in your first hour — from the dashboard to the page list to the builder canvas where you design pages.