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FileMaker is a great rapid development platform for custom apps
July 07, 2017

FileMaker is a great rapid development platform for custom apps

Benjamin Fletcher | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller

Overall Satisfaction with FileMaker Pro

We use FileMaker for delivering cross-platform database and custom apps which are process platform (Windows, Mac OS, iOS and WebDirect) for small and medium enterprises covering a wide spectrum of sectors.
  • Rapid application development of bespoke solutions for multiple platforms.
  • Scales well from single to hundreds of users.
  • Very easy to adapt and maintain solutions.
  • Well suited for novice database learners or seasons developers.
  • Integrates well with other technologies to act as 'digital glue' to combine different systems - works well with with SQL solutions with ODBC; web APIs via REST APIs/JSON, etc.
  • They do have a unique advantage in the market as they offer an on premises deployment option as well there being private cloud and AWS hosted options.
  • FileMaker does not pitch themselves as a high-end enterprise platform: they don't pitch themselves as a solution for systems requiring thousands of concurrent users. Ironically this can be done with integration with other technologies to improve scalability.
  • FileMaker themselves don't offer consulting or training directly - you need to look to their FileMaker Business Alliance partners for anything other that initial software installation support.
  • They do have a perception problem in the market place - people usually have a bad experience when they inherit a legacy solution built by a non-professional developer and so they often view FileMaker solutions as being old, clunky or missing functionality. The modern platform is exceptionally powerful and full featured - however, to fully take advantage of it of often requires some re-development of a legacy solution. Obviously this is not a problem if you are started a new development from scratch.
  • A significant proportion of our revenues is based around proving FileMaker development, support, consulting and hosting services and this has been the case for 20 years. Use of the platform has been stable, but slowly grown over the years.
  • FileMaker is often a great prototyping tool - even if your eventual solution needs to scale beyond its limits, it is a great way to economically prototype new workflow solutions for databases and custom apps without a significant up front investment.
  • On a personal note, it is my go-to tool for resolving data challenges - even if I wasn't using it professional, I would still use it for ad-hoc data collation and analysis.
  • Access and Servoy
FileMaker is still the quickest way to go from zero to having a minimum viable working solution. Simple solutions can be built in as little as a afternoon of development. It is the only tool I am aware of which allows tech savy end users with domain knowledge to build bespoke apps for their businesses without undertaking professional software development training.
FileMaker is well suited when there isn't an off the shelf solution that works exactly to meet an organisation's requirement (or if the available off the shelf software is simply not economic) and a bespoke solution which can then be further adapted organically. It is especially appropriate for organisations which have a desire to 'get their hands dirty' so that there is someone in-house that can continuously review, tweak and adapt the solution to better meet business requirements on a regular basis.