One framework. Three paths.
Real SaaS.
Tiger is a complete application platform — not a page builder, not a vibe-coding toy, not a plugin maze. Whether you're designing a website, prompting an AI to build your app, or writing enterprise code, it's the same real framework underneath.
Three ways in. One platform underneath.
Start wherever you are — the framework is the same, so you never migrate or rebuild to grow.
I want to build a website
Install a theme, open the visual builder, drag blocks, edit text, publish. Unlike WordPress it sits on a real application framework — security, users, multi-tenancy already there. When you outgrow a website, everything is already built. No migration, no rebuild.
- Visual drag-and-drop page builder
- Low to no div tag nesting hell like Elementor, Divi, and other visual editors produce
- Themes install fully populated with images and placeholder content — no empty shells
- Built-in SSL, security, accounts, admin panel
- A real framework underneath, ready when you are
I want to vibe-code my app
Launch a TigerDen instance, give Claude Code your SSH keys, start prompting. Purpose-built for AI: it sees every API endpoint (Swagger), every file (TigerVision), every page (DOM), and keeps context in server-side sessions. The difference is ownership — your app is built on your server, not trapped in a service.
- Full AI introspection — Swagger, TigerVision, DOM, persistent context
- Bring your own Claude Code — no AI middleman, no markup
- Auth, ACL, multi-tenancy, sessions already built — the AI assembles
- Runs anywhere PHP + MariaDB run — not one vendor's cloud
I want real enterprise software
A modernized ZF1-based PHP framework for PHP 8.x — a fast, self-contained monolith deployable anywhere. No npm, no node_modules, no build step, no hydration, no four-vendor chain. One framework, one server, one process, ~10ms page loads.
- Auto-generated Swagger API map
- Hierarchical ACL — users can never escalate past their level
- Real multi-tenancy — N-level org hierarchy, not per-DB hacks
- DB-backed sessions — not JWTs the browser can read
Included — not bolted on
Everything below ships with Tiger. No plugins, no third-party services, no per-feature pricing.
| Tiger | WordPress | Vibe platforms | |
|---|---|---|---|
| User auth & accounts | Built in | Plugin (WP Members) | Supabase / Firebase / Auth0 |
| Roles & permissions (ACL) | Built in, hierarchical | Plugin (User Role Editor) | JWT claims or vendor SDK |
| Multi-tenancy | Built in, N-level orgs | Not available | Bolt-on or nothing |
| Admin panel | Built in | wp-admin (a blog admin) | Build it yourself |
| Ecommerce / payments | TigerStripe, built in | WooCommerce (plugin) | Build it yourself |
| Security | TigerShield, built in | Wordfence / Sucuri (plugins) | Platform-dependent |
| SSL certificates | TigerSSL, automatic | Plugin or host-dependent | Platform-dependent |
| Visual page builder | Built in (GrapesJS) | Elementor / Divi (plugins) | Platform-specific |
| API with documentation | Auto-generated Swagger | REST API (basic) | Scattered endpoints |
| AI integration | MCP, TigerVision, TigerAgent | Not available | Platform-locked |
| Backup & migration | TigerBackup — zip, move, done | Plugin (UpdraftPlus) | "Export" that won't run elsewhere |
| Page load time | ~10ms | 800ms–3s with plugins | 2–3s with network hops |
N-Tier Architecture
Not opinionated. Structured.
The Backend's Separation of Concerns.
Four clean tiers, each with one job and one neighbour. A request flows down through them and the response flows back up — so there's exactly one place for everything, and your AI always knows where to look.
Tiger_Model_* gateways wrap every table — a parameterized query builder, UUID keys, soft-deletes, and created/updated stamps — so raw SQL never leaks upward./api services that validate first, then run inside a transaction. Every rule lives here — never in a controller, never in a view.And the view tier itself? Everything is a partial.
The presentation layer uses one clean composition model — just different roles in the hierarchy, all stored in one table, all rendered the same way, all introspectable by AI. The builder edits blocks; the framework controls partials; you never break the structure by editing content.
And the frontend? Just the web platform.
The heavy frontend frameworks were invented
to assist human programmers manage the UI/UX and paper over what browsers couldn't do a decade
ago. But we don't live in that era anymore, so Tiger renders on the platform itself: semantic HTML,
Bootstrap for mobile-first, with CSS variables, and vanilla JavaScript. No build step, no bundler,
no node_modules. Bring a framework if you really want one; but in the modern era, you
don't need it.
<script> tag. No transpiler, no bundler.Everything you need for a world-class scalable app, and nothing you don't.
Not a feature. The architecture.
Your app is a directory and a database. TigerBackup is the whole migration story:
Runs on any box with PHP and MariaDB — a $5 VPS, a TigerDen instance, a Raspberry Pi, a Docker container on your laptop. It doesn't phone home. It doesn't need four vendors to agree to serve a page. That's real portability — not "export to GitHub and pray."
The vibe-coding stack vs. Tiger
| Vibe-coding stack | Tiger | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $80+ (Vercel + Supabase + Auth + more) | $5/mo TigerPASS or $19–29/mo TigerDen |
| Page load | 2–3s (multiple network hops) | ~10ms (single process) |
| Dependencies | npm, node_modules, 4+ vendor SDKs | Composer, a handful of known SDKs |
| Auth model | JWT with plain-text permission claims | Server-side ACL, opaque session token |
| Multi-tenancy | Per-DB or per-row manual filtering | Built-in, N-level org hierarchy |
| AI integration | Bolted on, limited introspection | Native — Swagger, TigerVision, MCP, DOM |
| Portability | Locked to vendors, migration = rewrite | Zip, move, unzip, run |
| Security | Scattered across vendor SDKs | TigerShield, framework-level, 50µs |
| Frontend | Vite/Webpack required, React mandatory | No-build, bring whatever JS you want |
WordPress vs. Tiger
| WordPress | Tiger | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Blog engine with plugins | Application framework with CMS |
| Security model | Plugins (Wordfence, Sucuri) | Built-in (TigerShield) |
| User management | Basic roles, plugin-extended | Full ACL, hierarchical permissions |
| Multi-tenancy | Multisite (fragile) | Native, N-level org hierarchy |
| Ecommerce | WooCommerce (plugin, heavy) | TigerStripe (built in, lightweight) |
| Page builder | Elementor / Divi (plugin, $$$) | Built in (GrapesJS) |
| Plugin dependency | 47+ plugins for a production site | Zero plugins needed |
| Performance | 800ms–3s typical | ~10ms |
| AI-ready | No | Native MCP, TigerVision, TigerAgent |
Every path gets you the same platform
Same features, same architecture, same portability — pick your on-ramp.
TigerDen
Your own instance on AWS, Tiger pre-installed — TigerSSL, TigerShield, TigerPASS included. No DevOps required.
TigerInstall
Already have hosting? One-click setup on any standard LAMP host.
Tiger + Composer
Tiger + Docker
No open-core bait-and-switch. No surprises.
Tiger is free, open-source software under BSD-3. No "community edition" missing half the features, no relicensing threats. Build what you want, deploy where you want, keep everything you build.