Hot off the griddle for the Mac

Pancake StackWebsites on your Mac, then online.

A Mac App Store web stack for building and testing sites: its own Apache, PHP and MySQL, simple until you turn on Advanced, and a clear path from name.localhost to your own domain.

See the menu Pick your stack

Three monthly plans
macOS 14 or later
No account needed
First week free

On the menu

Everything a site needs, cooked in

From the first page at name.localhost to a live domain, it all comes in one app.

No. 01

Its own Apache, PHP and MySQL

PHP 8.2–8.5 (and 7.1 for old sites), MySQL 8.4 and Python, built in and sandboxed. Nothing to install, and it never touches macOS's Apache or Homebrew.

No. 02

A site in four questions

WordPress, Laravel, Django, Flask, PHP or static HTML at name.localhost with its own database; or bring in a folder, a Git repo, a live site, Apple Server, MAMP or XAMPP.

No. 03

Online in a click

A test link with no account, your own domain through a Cloudflare Tunnel, or port forwarding with DDNS and Let's Encrypt. One switch takes everything off the internet.

No. 04

Edit a live site safely

Download a site's code and database from your server over SFTP or FTP, edit and test it on your Mac, then publish it back to the same server; changed files only, with a save point before every download.

No. 05

Deploy anywhere

here.now, Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, any SFTP/FTP host, managed WordPress, Heroku, DigitalOcean, Render; or a new cloud server. .env files and dumps stay on your Mac.

No. 06

Edit and preview in the app

A built-in editor for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and Python with a live preview at phone, tablet or desktop width, Tidy HTML, and an assistant that proposes changes you review. Open any site on your phone with a QR code.

No. 07

PHP the way apps expect it

GD, Imagick, intl, zip, sodium, XSL, YAML, OAuth, Tidy, APCu and Xdebug on every PHP 8.x. Plug-ins switches Apache modules and PHP extensions; per-site error and logging settings; Optimize Images makes a site's JPEGs and PNGs smaller.

No. 08

Save points and Pancake Cloud

Daily backups and one-click save points, taken automatically before risky changes. Pancake Cloud saves a site; files and database, encrypted with your passphrase; to your own server, an S3 bucket or iCloud Drive, and loads it on another Mac.

No. 09

Backend services

FullStack adds PostgreSQL 17, Valkey, Memcached and Nginx per site, scheduled tasks and workers, encrypted off-site backups to S3, push alerts and sync between your Macs.

No. 10

An assistant on Apple Intelligence

Ask why a site shows an error, or to start the servers; it reads the logs and runs Pancake's tools on your Mac. Claude Code, Cursor and Codex can use the same tools over MCP.

Plans

Pick your stack

Every stack runs as many sites on your Mac as you like. Taller stacks put more of them online and add more toppings.

ShortStack

A pat of butter

Unlimited local sites; one online.

TallStack

More layers

Up to 10 online, deploy, staging, database sync, SMTP relay, outside PostgreSQL and SSH, AWS servers.

FullStack

Ice cream and a cherry on top

Unlimited, older PHP per site, PostgreSQL, Valkey, Memcached, Nginx, tasks and workers, off-site backups, sync, servers on every provider.

Each plan starts with a free week for new subscribers.

Homemade

Your sites stay yours

No account, no analytics. Sites, databases and settings live in the app on your Mac; passwords in the Keychain. Anything that goes elsewhere (Cloudflare, your host, your bucket, your iCloud) goes straight from your Mac with your own credentials. If a subscription ends nothing is deleted: the servers stop until you renew, and export always works.

Coming to the Mac App Store

The griddle is heating up. Each plan starts with a free week for new subscribers, and Pancake needs macOS 14 or later.

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