Pros
- Cross-platform; Win/Mac/iOS (one file works on all)
- FileMaker Go for iOS is FREE!
- Easy learning curve.
- Fastest database dev tool. i.e. Days and weeks months, vs weeks, months, years!
- Searching is extremely fast!
- Wide array of great template starter solutions in bundle will serve the needs of most beginners.
- FM Pro/Advanced may be used as an ad-hoc db server (9 clients/5 IWP).
- Support for SQL Select queries! (Use free BaseElements plugin by Goya for Insert/Update/Delete)
- FM Server Advanced IWP (Instant Web Publishing) serves 100 virtual web clients with little to no changes to layouts and scripts.
- FM Server/Server Advanced gives you Custom Web Publishing which allows you to write PHP web pages to link to your filemaker databases to serve up to 200 web users.
- Native ODBC JDBC allows access to external SQL databases.
- Using Actual Technologies driver(s) allows FileMaker a live connection to most SQL databases (MySQL, Postgre, SQLite, Oracle SQL Server, Sybase).
Cons
- FileMaker GO cannot be used to create files (But it is FREE after all!)
- Learning relational database theory and filemaker training should be a serious consideration for complex solutions.
Searching related data should be scripted carefully to prevent decrease in search performance or SQL should be used as an alternative.
- FM Server/Server Advanced sweet-spot is <=250 users. Advanced removes this cap, but good hardware and good database design becomes important. HD and RAM I/O are key, so SSDs and good RAM can help a LOT. Using multiple servers and mirroring/syncing data to distribute the load is preferable for very large deployments.
- File size is limited to 8TB. But if you only store 1 table in a file, (server allows unlimited files) 8TB is quite a large.
- FM Server was never designed to be a web server to thousands of users at a time.
- Filemaker Pro should not be used only as a front end to an external SQL database due to performance/load issues.
Summary
Unless your needs are complex from the start, the learning curve for FileMaker is very friendly compared to anything else out there.
3rd party plugins allow you to go far beyond what FileMaker is normally capable of. Example: web services, REST, Ajax, Ruby, Etc are all possible. You can even tie PBX phones into FileMaker.
Great community support: FileMaker Technet, FM Forums.
Other Dev Resources: filemakerstandards.org, modularfilemaker.org
Pros
-It's a real relational database platform.
-Good connectivity to external datasources (in and out).
-You can build very presentable user interfaces very quickly.
Cons
-Like any professional database system, it has a learning curve.
-There are a few interface idiosyncrasies. For all the power it gives you, sometimes your objective seems just out of reach.
Summary
FileMaker is a pretty unique product. While it's marketed as being easy to use, it really is imperative to have some basic knowledge of relational databases before embarking on a big project. Fortunately, there is a large community of dedicated users who are happy to share their knowledge.
Pros
Generally very flexible and much more useable for the novice if you buy "The Missing Manual" for it. Highly modifiable, and they offer decent online support if you sign up for their FileMaker Pro forums and knowledge base.
Cons
I'm running FileMaker Pro 11.0v4 on two mac mini's. One runs Snow Leopard (10.6.8) and the other Lion (10.7). The biggest issue is stability. I manage 10 students on a NSF grant to database a collection at Cornell. It is not a complex database, but many fields are required for the specimens we are digitizing. Each student uses their own database and rarely has over 3000 entries. The databases are saved off-site on a server. Regardless of useage via the server or directly on the hard drive, I have found that FMPro 11 crashes constantly, especially at the start of data entry. Once a student has been entering data and has 100 or more entries it tends to crash less. Crashes can lose up to 20 entries at time (about an hours worth of work). Options are limited. Open Office Base isn't as powerful, Microsoft doesn't make Access for Mac, and FMPro users don't like to hear that their favorite (and only) databasing program for Mac is flawed.
Summary
FMPro 11 certainly is useful in some ways. If you are adept at scripts and programming this software is for you. However, basic essentials like the ability to select multiple records at the same time and saving your work are missing. Those are two examples of many. FMPro 11 autosaves constantly, but that that is useless if the program crashes as data is lost as are people hours.
The online FMPro 11 community is helpful but loyal to the program to a fault, being somewhat too brainy for its own good. They are more adept at answering complex program questions than helping you figure out why FMPro 11 doesn't offer the most basic and useful tools that you can find in Access, Excel, or Base software.
The Missing Manual for FMPro 11 is very useful for beginners, but doesn't solve why this program crashes so much. I think it would be very useful if it was more user friendly or more intuitive to the beginner or novice.
Experts will find this to be a powerful databasing tool that is highly flexible for whatever they want to produce. It offers several different views to manipulate data and create forms, and is nearly limitless in what you can create a database for. I give it 2 stars out of 5 because all of that is moot if the program is so unstable it can't help but crash at least once an hour.
It does offer recovery options, but the databases are often hopelessly corrupt, so the only safeguard is to constantly back up, via copy and paste, into a safe folder. Having a simple "save as" option would be incredibly useful, but becomes another example of a basic and useful tool that this program is lacking completely.
You should try it out, but be wary of it crashing. Maybe you'll have better luck, but don't trust your data entry to this program until a stable build is made available.
Updated on Feb 22, 2012
Honza. You are biased in your response. Read my review more carefully. I work at an Ivy League university. The problems are real. I've used two versions of the program over two OS's on 6 different computers for over 2 years with the same problem. Having a developer fix my problems is moot since a well-oiled and coded databasing system shouldn't need that much repair. All of your excuses for why the database crashes have been troubleshot and are not the issue here. It's just a glitchy program. Also, going through the menu to "save a copy as" is a lot different than "control or command" + S. And when you are working on thousands of entries where time is important, it's useful to have simple options like that. Finally, I don't need to know why you think tools aren't offered. I need the tools. Period. As for a 99% satisfaction rating, maybe you should check out the other ratings. FMPro does not get stellar reviews and for good reason.
Read replies (3)
Reply by JimCT1968 on February 7, 2014
We have been using FMP to run our business for since version1. It very seldom does, even then only on a single user (since FM9). It auto-saves each time you click out of a record, so only the current entry is lost (put a commit button in to do a quick manual save if needed). The server makes backups every 30 minutes of my most important data, so the most lost would be 30 minutes of work. I have 14 users running off a single mac mini server. There are 34 databases, with multiple tables, the primary database having over 200 layouts, 21 tables and over 1200 fields. I have not rewritten the coding nearly as much as I should resulting in a patchwork over the years with many inefficiencies (since there are newer better ways built-in to the program that there used to be and work arounds no longer needed). All this and the program keeps getting more stable through the updates.
Reply by FileMakerGeek on October 3, 2013
We have been running on 11.0v4 for all of our clients until just recently (v12 now). We have encountered none of the issues you describe. We are running on iMacs. Our largest client is a pension fund. They run a monthly 7 million payroll. Payroll is run locally for 5+ hours without a single issue. None of our clients have the issue you describe. You should investigate database corruption. Rebuild the schema from scratch, export data, check exported data, then reimport it into a new clean uncorrupted file. Continuing to use databases that you have crashed in will only make the problem worse. Look deeper for printer driver conflicts or other software conflicts that could be causing the instability in the OS. Try doing a clean (wipe the drive) OS install and install FileMaker Pro and test that alone. FYI: Try using FilemakerPro client as a mini server. It supports up to 9 network clients and will prevent corruption and data loss due to crashes on a client machine.
Reply by Honza Koudelka on February 17, 2012
When a mainstream software like this "crashes constantly" like in your case, then it is certainly due to a local issue in your environment, otherwise they wouldn't have millions of happy customers.
From my experience, 99% of crashes of FileMaker Pro are caused by either using a corrupt database or an unstable plug-in, or a corrupt OS, or damaged file system.
I am sure that any FileMaker Certified developer (and many non-certified as well) is able to fix your issue and make your system stable and reliable.
BTW, FileMaker Pro does have a Save a Copy As item in the File menu. It just is not enabled when connecting to a remote database for obvious security reasons.
Yes, I am a loyal member of the community, but I do not have problem "helping you figure out why FMPro 11 doesn't offer the most basic and useful tools that you can find in Access, Excel, or Base software."
If you ask me about any specific feature or tool, I can explain you why I think it is not offered in FileMaker Pro 11.
Pros
Full featured, web integration, ease of programability, flexibility in layout and robust data protection.
Cons
Past updates have made some earlier versions incompatible or required much reprogramming. Hopefully, this will not be the case in the future.
Summary
Outstanding product
Pros
Many features
Cons
Be prepared to rewrite old scripts because they don't seamlessly update
Summary
For the small business user. Bento is too stripped down, Filemaker is too complicated
Read replies (2)
Reply by FileMakerGeek on October 4, 2013
Conversions are painless unless you are converting from a very old version (before v7).
Software companies cannot be expected to support old file formats forever.
In any case, here is a link that may assist you with converting really old files:
http://www.filemaker.com/11help/html/fmp_basics.3.9.html
Reply by TygerTye on January 22, 2012
So what would you recommend?
Pros
Ridiculously easy to use and format, ideal for 'fast and dirty' database programming, and can also be scaled up for robust bigger systems, or issued as runtime through Filemaker advanced
Cons
Slow! On most databases on modern computers you won't notice this. However, the code is not compact or optimised for an enterprise level solution. Migration to MySQL etc is data-only.
Summary
Most databases these days are Excel spreadsheets -- a highly risky strategy for any data of more than passing importance. Filemaker is vastly more powerful and functional, and only marginally less 'obvious'. It has a very high degree of control over forms and relations, as well as strong calculations and a serviceable scripting system. Filemaker has worked hard to create enterprise versions of it, using Filemaker Server. Although this is a robust solution, the speed doesn't match high-end enterprise solutions, although the costs are a lot lower. Vastly preferable to Access for many applications, and makes construction of a database as part of a project solution a fairly easy step, which can itself save months of work and specification. However, you have to take your own steps to ensure data robustness, as the 'anything can relate to anything' ease of use can easily produce results which are unexpected (ie, illogical).
Updated on Feb 11, 2011
Not had any problems installing any version.
Pros
This is a great software but...
Cons
The updater doesn't work, it gives an error message telling that it can not find a valid copy of FileMaker Pro, even though I have it installed. Too expensive to buy.
Summary
This a great application and I can do a lot with it, but I never had the chance to buy it, I just tried the trial version, It's way too expensive.
Read replies (2)
Reply by FileMakerGeek on October 4, 2013
This is not a problem with the updater, it is a problem with your OSX spotlight index. Your spotlight index is probably damaged. Download Onyx and use it to remove/rebuild your spotlight index and make sure you reboot. This should fix your problem.
Reply by Martin Turner--2008 on February 11, 2011
Seriously, you're giving this one star because your attempt to get it for nothing failed?
Pros
no good for required purpose
Cons
no good for required purpose
Summary
Discarded it since it was of no use opening my old filemaker files
Read reply (1)
Reply by FileMakerGeek on October 4, 2013
Your files must be very old then. Here is the conversion path for all versions:
v12 can open/convert v7-v11
v11 can open/convert v3-v6
v6 can open/convert v1-v2
Pros
None. Since "none" is too short a comment for CNET's system, let me change that to "absolutely none."
Cons
Doesn't install.
Summary
I don't like seeing a notice for an updater in CNET Tech Track and then finding that the updater doesn't update.
Read reply (1)
Reply by FileMakerGeek on October 4, 2013
Download Onyx and rebuild your spotlight index, then reboot. Make sure your spotlight index has completed it's rebuild. The updater should work then.
Pros
This category does not apply.
Cons
I wrote and called FMP. They could not help me get the updater to work.
Read reply (1)
Reply by FileMakerGeek on October 4, 2013
Download Onyx and rebuild your spotlight index, then reboot. Make sure your spotlight index has completed it's rebuild. The updater should work then.
Please Wait
