ESTAGE FAQ
ESTAGE is a hub-centric business infrastructure — a unified digital headquarters where entrepreneurs build, grow, and own their entire business, powered by AI. ESTAGE Genesis is the AI engine at its center: you describe what you want in plain language and Genesis builds the site, store, community, courses, funnels, and even the custom application behind them.
Below are direct answers to the questions people ask most. Every answer stands on its own, and each one links to the fuller documentation.
About ESTAGE
What is ESTAGE?
ESTAGE is a hub-centric business infrastructure — a unified digital headquarters where entrepreneurs build, grow, and own their entire business, powered by AI. One hub holds the website, community, courses, blog, funnels, live streaming, store and checkout, email, CRM, and affiliate engine, so the audience, the content, and the data belong to the business owner rather than to a rented platform.
What is ESTAGE Genesis?
ESTAGE Genesis is the AI engine at the center of ESTAGE, used at genesis.estage.com. You describe what you want in plain language and Genesis builds it — pages, sections, whole sites, a store, a member area, even a custom application with its own backend. It works alongside a live preview and a click-to-edit visual editor, so you can steer it by talking or by pointing.
Is ESTAGE just an AI website builder?
No. A website is one piece of what an ESTAGE hub holds. The same project can also run a member community, sell courses and products through checkout, publish a blog, stream live and host webinars, run marketing funnels, and — with Genesis Cloud — carry a real backend with a database and user accounts. Funnels optimize transactions; hubs optimize relationships.
Who is ESTAGE for?
ESTAGE is built for entrepreneurs, creators, coaches, course sellers, agencies, and small teams who want their whole online business in one place they own instead of six subscriptions stitched together. No coding background is required — the AI does the building — but developers can open the code editor or connect their own Claude Code and work on the project directly.
What can you build with ESTAGE?
Three kinds of software, all from the same AI chat: websites, native mobile apps for iOS and Android, and server-rendered web applications. On top of those the platform runs community portals, courses, video hosting, live streaming, blogs, funnels, checkout, a managed backend, and in-site AI. Everything is generated as working software — real pages, real forms, real payments — not a clickable demo.
How is ESTAGE different from renting a platform?
Your hub publishes to your own domain, your audience and content live inside it, and your data stays yours — that is digital real estate you own rather than an account you rent. There is no algorithm between you and your audience, and no dozen disconnected tools each holding a slice of your business.
Do I still need other tools alongside ESTAGE?
Usually far fewer. The hub covers site, blog, community, courses, live streaming, checkout, funnels, analytics, and marketing pixels natively. For services you already use, connectors and webhooks link the site to Telegram, WhatsApp, Notion, Google Sheets, Supabase, Firebase, AWS S3, Zapier, Make, and others without exposing any API keys in the site code.
Where do I start using ESTAGE?
Open genesis.estage.com, create a project, and type what you want to build in the chat. Genesis plans it, builds it in a live preview beside the chat, and you refine from there — either by asking for changes in words or by clicking elements and editing them directly. When it looks right, Publish takes it live.
What the platform includes
Is ESTAGE an AI website builder?
Yes — an AI website builder is one part of it. ESTAGE generates a complete React website from a plain-language description, with a live preview, click-to-edit visual editing, and publishing to your own domain. The same builder also produces native mobile apps and server-rendered web applications, and the platform runs the community, courses, video, checkout, and backend behind them.
Can ESTAGE build a mobile app for iOS and Android?
Yes. ESTAGE includes an AI mobile app builder that produces a real React Native (Expo) app — not a web page in a shell. You preview it on your phone by scanning a QR code, share a published snapshot with testers, and publish through the wizard to the App Store, TestFlight, and Google Play under your own developer accounts.
What is an ESTAGE Web app?
A Web app is a server-rendered Next.js application with its own server, for products a static site cannot carry — dashboards, portals, catalogues, anything assembled per request. You build it in a dev workspace, publish it to its own always-on service, scale the instance count, and point a custom domain at it.
Does ESTAGE host video?
Yes, end to end. ESTAGE stores your uploads, transcodes them into adaptive quality levels, delivers them worldwide, and plays them through its own player — no third-party embed in the middle. The library is organised in folders with access control per video, paid material can run in a DRM-protected mode, and live streaming and webinars are part of the same platform.
Does an ESTAGE community have a mobile app?
Yes. Beyond the web portal on your own domain, members can install a native iOS and Android app for the community, with push notifications and deep links into a post, course, chat, or live room. The community also includes direct messages, access-gated groups, challenges, events, live rooms and video calls, and points and badges.
Does ESTAGE have an affiliate program engine?
Yes. The platform tracks referrals through to the sale: referral links and traffic sources are captured on the site, attributed to the partner who sent the visitor, and turned into commissions on what your checkout sells — through the same CRM that holds your products, customers, and orders.
Can one project hold a website and an app at the same time?
Yes. A project can hold a Website, a Web app, and a Mobile app side by side. Each keeps its own chat, files, and preview, while the project shares one team, one domain, and one set of customer data across them.
What can a published ESTAGE site call at runtime?
Platform JavaScript APIs installed into the site: window.estageAI for AI, window.estageConnector for external services, window.estageBlog for posts, window.estageCommunity for community data, plus localization, personalization, and funnel-tracking globals. The AI wires them for you, and no API key ever reaches the site bundle.
Building with AI
How do I build a website with ESTAGE Genesis?
Describe it in plain language — for example, "a landing page for my coaching business with a hero, testimonials, and a contact form". Genesis plans the work, builds every section for real, and shows it in a live preview. You then refine by chatting ("make the hero darker") or by clicking any element and editing its text, colors, or image directly.
Do I need to know how to code to use ESTAGE?
No. Everything can be built and edited by describing it or by clicking elements in the visual editor. The code exists and is yours to open — a real React codebase, viewable and editable in the built-in code editor — but you never have to touch it.
Does Genesis generate real code or a template?
Real code. Each project is a working React codebase that Genesis writes and maintains — no template locked behind a theme editor. Every write passes a validation pipeline before it reaches your project, so broken code does not land in the preview, and you can inspect or hand-edit any file in the code editor.
Can Genesis build from an existing website, screenshot, or Figma file?
Yes. Paste a URL to clone or rebuild a page, paste a Figma link for a faithful port of a frame (colors, layout, and real images included), share a reference URL for an inspired redesign rather than a copy, or paste raw HTML and screenshots. Genesis asks where the result should go — a new page, a replacement, or a full rebuild.
Can my site be multilingual?
Yes. One-click localization translates every visible string on the site into the languages you choose and adds an on-site language switcher, without you rewriting a single page. Translations are stored as data, so editing your copy later only re-translates what actually changed.
What happens if the AI breaks something?
Every AI turn is a checkpoint you can revert, an Undo button covers the last change, and version-history snapshots go further back — manual code edits included. If the preview shows an error, one click asks the AI to fix it with the actual error message attached.
Can I use my own Claude subscription with ESTAGE?
Yes. Any Genesis project can be connected to the Claude app as a custom connector, so Claude can read and edit that project, create pages, generate images, and publish — running on your own Claude subscription. Connect one project per connector and name it by project so Claude always works on the right one.
Editing, teams, and control
Can I edit my site without asking the AI?
Yes. Click any element in the preview to select it and change styling, links, and visibility per device; double-click text to edit it inline; replace images from a URL, your assets, a stock library, or AI generation. The chat and the visual editor edit the same source, so you can switch back and forth freely.
Can I invite my team to a project?
Yes. The Members tab in Project Settings invites collaborators by email — existing Estage accounts are added immediately, new ones get a sign-up invitation. Owners can gift AI credits to members, remove people, and see access inherited from folders.
Can I give a teammate limited access instead of full control?
Yes. Projects have roles enforced on the server, not just hidden in the interface. Admin, Contributor, and Marketer are built in, new invitations default to Contributor, and you can edit those or build your own from per-capability checkboxes covering building, publishing, each settings tab, infrastructure, and content. Deleting or transferring the project, store publishing, issuing API tokens, and buying domains or plans stay with the owner.
Is there a desktop app for ESTAGE Genesis?
Yes, for Mac. With the desktop app running, the AI can reach your own computer where you allow it: read images from a folder or your Photos library and place them on the page, save exports where you ask, capture your screen instead of you uploading screenshots, and notify you when a long build finishes. Credential folders are refused and project files still go through Genesis validation.
Can clients review a site and leave feedback?
Yes. Client Review shares a link to the site where a client can pin comments directly onto elements, without an Estage account or access to your builder. Comments come back into the workspace, and you can hand any of them to the AI to apply.
Publishing, domains, and SEO
How do I publish an ESTAGE site?
Click Publish in the top-right of the builder. Genesis builds an optimized production version, deploys it, and shows an Open site button when it is live. Republishing after changes replaces the live version. Unpublishing from Settings takes the site out of search results while keeping the project intact.
Can I use my own domain?
Yes. Add your domain in the workspace, point your registrar at the nameservers shown in the setup wizard, and connect the domain to a project — with an optional subdomain. HTTPS certificates are issued and renewed automatically. Until then, every project also has its own address under genesis.estage.com.
Can several projects share one domain?
Yes. One domain can serve many projects through subdomains — for example the main site on the apex domain and a community portal or a campaign site on their own prefixes. The apex mapping covers www automatically, and each mapping can be changed without republishing.
Is an ESTAGE site good for SEO?
Yes. Every published page ships its own title, meta description, canonical URL, and social-share image, with a sitemap and RSS for the blog. Project Settings covers SEO defaults, marketing pixels, and custom code injection, and the built-in PageSpeed audit reports Core Web Vitals per page with one-click AI fixes.
Selling, payments, and money
Can I sell products and subscriptions from an ESTAGE site?
Yes. Order forms sell products, bundles, and plans from your Estage CRM catalog, including recurring subscriptions and trials. A single form can offer several products with price variants, and the buyer picks one before paying. Genesis places the form and a wizard configures it — no code involved.
Which payment providers does ESTAGE support?
Stripe is supported out of the box, with PayPal, Razorpay, Square, and EasyPay also available; the non-Stripe providers require your business details to be filled in first. Card entry runs through Stripe in the buyer browser, so card numbers never pass through your site code, and 3-D Secure challenges are handled in the checkout flow.
Can I offer coupons and discounts?
Yes. Coupon codes live in your Estage CRM and are validated live at checkout — percentage, fixed-amount, and trial-extension discounts all work, and a full discount skips card entry entirely. Returning buyers can also pay with a saved card, pre-selected to the one they used last.
Do payments work in the preview?
No. Checkout only runs on the published site. Configure the order form in the builder, publish, then test the purchase flow on the live URL.
Community, courses, blog, and live
Can I run a membership community on ESTAGE?
Yes. A project can host a community portal with a member feed, groups, courses, events, and member profiles, on its own subdomain of your domain. Members sign in to the community realm, and administration happens inside the portal itself.
Can the community run inside my own site instead of a separate portal?
Yes, on a Web app project. The Community toolkit renders your existing Estage community inside the site Genesis built for you — feed and posts, member profiles, courses with lessons and resources, challenges, a video library, live broadcasts with chat, stories, moderation queues, and badges. Members sign in through a secure Estage login, and the AI restyles every screen to match your brand.
Can I sell and host online courses?
Yes. Your Estage course catalog renders on the site as live data — covers, categories, lesson counts, search and filters — and publishing a new course makes it appear automatically. The course experience itself, including lessons, progress, and payment, runs on Estage, so the site links visitors into it rather than reimplementing it.
Does ESTAGE include a blog?
Yes. Enable the blog and the project gains an index page, post pages, category and author pages, RSS, and SEO metadata. Posts are written in a rich editor or drafted by the AI, with authors, categories, cover images, and drafts that stay invisible on the live site.
Can I stream live or run webinars?
Yes. Add a live stream to a page, broadcast from OBS or any RTMP encoder, and visitors watch through an adaptive player that switches from offline to live automatically. A webinar page combines the stream with live chat, and the page can go live or offline independently of the broadcast.
Backend and custom applications
Can an ESTAGE site have a real backend?
Yes — that is Genesis Cloud, a dedicated backend for a project with a database, user accounts and authentication, realtime updates, file storage, and server-side functions. It is fully managed: pick a tier, and Genesis provisions it in minutes. You do not need it for a normal marketing site or blog.
How do I add a backend feature like user accounts or reviews?
Ask for the feature in plain language — "let visitors leave reviews", "add member sign-up". If it needs a backend, Genesis says so and offers to set one up, then builds the database tables, access rules, and UI together. You can also work directly in the Cloud workspace: tables, policies, SQL, auth providers, storage buckets, and functions.
Does ESTAGE handle sign-up emails for member accounts?
Yes. Projects with a Dedicated Cloud send confirmation and password-reset email through managed platform SMTP with no setup, and the sender address upgrades to your own domain once it is connected. You can switch to your own SMTP server at any time from the Cloud email settings.
AI on your live site
Can my published site use AI?
Yes. Site AI gives a published site a chatbot, smart forms that classify or summarize submissions, translation, document and image understanding, and image generation — with no API key and no AI provider account of your own. Calls run server-side, so nothing sensitive sits in the site code, and a monthly cap bounds usage.
How do I connect my site to Telegram, Sheets, or another service?
Configure the connector once in project settings — the secret is encrypted server-side and never reaches the site bundle — then ask the AI to wire it to a trigger, such as "send me a Telegram message when someone submits this form". Telegram, WhatsApp, Notion, Google Sheets, Supabase, Firebase, AWS S3, Twitch, and ElevenLabs are supported today.
Can I send form submissions to Zapier or Make?
Yes. Give the AI your Zapier or Make webhook URL and describe the trigger; it wires a fire-and-forget POST into the form submit, button click, or order success you named. Use connectors instead when a service needs a secret key.
Ownership, data, and safety
Who owns the site, the content, and the audience data?
You do. The hub publishes to a domain you own, your audience signs up inside it, and leads, members, and analytics belong to your business rather than to a rented platform. That ownership is the point of the hub model.
Are my API keys and secrets safe in an ESTAGE site?
Yes. Connector credentials and Site AI keys are encrypted server-side and never baked into the published bundle; calls run through a relay that pins the destination host and rate-limits abuse. Card details go straight to the payment provider from the buyer browser and never touch your site code.
Can I take a project offline again?
Yes. Unpublish from Settings tells search engines to stop indexing and takes the live site down while leaving the project, its content, and its history untouched. Publish again whenever you are ready.
Still have a question?
Section titled “Still have a question?”Search this knowledge base from the top of any page, browse the glossary for what a specific term means, or open genesis.estage.com and ask the AI directly inside a project.