
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Features

- Industry: Printing
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10
FileMaker Pro is the easiest database manager for everyone
Reviewed on 2021/03/02
Very stable ! We use it now on our Windows server and several Win and Mac clients.
Pros
The easy and stable way to use it and improve it daily, as you want.
Cons
Only iOS mobile App (no Android). Restriction without big consequence for me.

- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 11-50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
FileMaker: The Only Easy-To-Use Solution for SOHO
Reviewed on 2021/02/26
FileMaker currently runs my event business, and for 20 years ran my publishing business. I have FMP scripts that export structured data like white pages listings and vendor listings. These scripts have run, with little modification for decades—that says a lot.
Pros
FileMaker works right out of the box as a relational database that can run the back end of your business. Doctors, shopkeepers and consultants can all benefit from using FileMaker. It's powerful yet, simple to use.
Cons
Over the years, the licensing of FMP has progressively gotten worse. If I could find another solution, I would. Believe me, I have looked. I return to FMP because I can develop sophisticated solutions myself, or with the help of a seasoned developer.
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
I have used the product as both a user/administrator, and as developer.
Reviewed on 2018/04/25
Pros
The software is easy to use and relatively easy to learn from a developer's standpoint. It has all of the functional capability one needs to develop a useful database application, such as contact/client management or - in my case - management of an art gallery's permanent collection.
Cons
What do you do when you outgrow the system or want to migrate to a more robust database system? For me this is the major drawback of Filemaker Pro - there are no tools to help you export a complete file that can be imported into another database. You can import text fields and fields with yes/no on/off switches, but you cannot export images/photographs.
This is a major drawback if you are planning to use the product for a couple of years before migrating to a standard relational database.
Basically, Filemaker Pro files are proprietary files and are not accessible to standard relational database methods, such as SQL. This is okay if (a) you will not outgrow the product or (b) you have no images/photographs included in the database.

- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 51-200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10
Build your own... everything!
Reviewed on 2019/11/06
We use FileMaker for everything. We recently installed an SMS system (as an API tagged to SendHub). We can now send messages, track messages, view threads, and analyze usage - all from within our CRM which was built entirely in-house in FileMaker.
Pros
FileMaker allows anyone to create anything. Ok , that's a bit of an exaggeration. The truth is, with a little work, you can build most every kind of database you would need - Payroll, CRM, Time Management, Mass Market Email, Inventory, etc. And what you can't build, you can find skilled developers to build for you. Plus there are add-ons galore, and FileMaker is compatible with any system that allows for an API interface.
Cons
There are only three things wrong with FileMaker. They are 1) the price, 2) the price, 3) the price. It's not that the price tag is not necessarily hefty, but the pricing structure makes entry difficult for a small business. Yet, FileMaker is IDEAL for small businesses in every other way!
- Industry: Events Services
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 4.0 /10
It Works, but is it the best?
Reviewed on 2018/12/18
If you're looking for an all in one platform, this isn't my first choice. Honestly, it's probably not in the top five for me. If you're looking for a database management software for tracking customers, sending invoices and proposals, and software you can update as your company grows, this is great. You'll probably need something better in the long run, but it's a good start.
Pros
The ease of creating forms and spreadsheets for data tracking with this software was pretty great. We used this mainly in our event planning business and I didn't really have a complaint. You can tell the program what information you need and it will track it and input what ever you've indicated you need it to input. It definitely depends on user input and you have to take the time to ensure your databases are updated. If you do that, you won't have a problem.
Cons
The only real aspect I didn't like was that there was no workflow type tracking. As our business grew, this is something we desperately needed, but it was never marketed to us as such, so I can't really complain about this. If you're looking for an all in one platform, this wouldn't be my first choice.
- Industry: Food Production
- Company size: 201-500 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
Great Platform For The Right Use Cases
Reviewed on 2020/09/22
I use it daily for development tasks for a platform that my company runs on. We are always adding features as user requests come in, as well as modernizing legacy features to make use of better ways to accomplish given tasks that available with newer versions of the platform.
Pros
Feature set is quite large.
Very easy import/export of data.
Great tool for proof-of-concepts for large systems, or for small to mid-size applications.
Cons
Initial login interface is not very customizable. To truly make a custom login, you have to essentially "log in" with a dummy account, go to a specified layout, and then re-log in with the credentials supplied by the user. This opens up potential security holes.
Using the native security virtually eliminates this gap, but leaves little to no customization of initial user experience.
The FileMaker platform is still not easy to replicate asynchronously, and it does not scale all that well to multiple widespread locations without serious effort.
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 51-200 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10
Filemaker Pro in research
Reviewed on 2019/01/24
Our Communications department has filed a decade's worth of published articles in FileMaker for reference. Some research teams track process and progress through different FileMaker accounts.
Pros
I suggest and purchase this software for our research teams that need a database to track projects, supplies, responsibilities and other facets of their research centers that do not warrant a sql database or the reporting issues that go with that. They can easily customize the interface, prioritizing what they think is most important.
Cons
It can get expensive when you are ramping it up for a growing department. Adding dozens of users and a FileMaker Server in a secure on-premise standup is a budgetary consideration for anyone, and therefore usually delayed until the monies become available.
- Industry: Events Services
- Company size: 11-50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10
Customisations galour!
Reviewed on 2018/10/05
We managed to combine multiple apps into one single one. To-do lists, stock tracking, quoting, staff movements, freight calculations; everything in 1 place now
Pros
It can do almost anything & allows for the most detailed (anal-retentive) person to make even minute changes to suit their preference.
Powerful, cost effective (for our 10-15 person office) & mobile for our teams on the road.
Cons
Finding a good programmer can be painful.
- Industry: Logistics & Supply Chain
- Company size: 51-200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
Relational DB On Another Level
Reviewed on 2018/12/05
Started from zero knowledge to having built an entire ERP system for the business. Loving the FileMaker platform.
Pros
Easy to learn and program
Easy to implement into an existing organization
Tons of information out there in regards to tips and tricks!
Cons
Currently the 17.0.2 release under Mojave has some issues that aren't set to be resolved until mid December 2018.
- Industry: Real Estate
- Company size: 51-200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Ease of Use
- Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10
Making It Easier to Manage My Data!
Reviewed on 2018/12/10
Pros
Easy to create databases with detailed tutorials for each function. It has made managing all of my paperwork a lot easier and it is simple to share files with coworkers.
Cons
Calculations were difficult for me to figure out at first but after some trial-and-error, I was able to get it just how I wanted it to be.
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
This product is revolutionizing the way I operate my day to day business.
Reviewed on 2018/07/16
Pros
I honestly have only scratched the surface of what FileMaker is capable of doing. As I go further down the rabbit hole, I am finding that there are so many tools to aid in my ability to create unique business solutions.
Cons
While FileMaker has what seems to be an endless amount of possibilities, it can make it difficult to feel like you know what you are doing. I would recommend getting some initial training or watching tutorial videos.
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
Used FileMaker for over 6 years at my old agency. Fantastic system
Reviewed on 2017/06/08
Pros
It was easy to use. Creating jobs based off your client data base and being able to keep track of each round of creative changes was simple.
Cons
Keeping track of hours for the team was nearly impossible. As an account person, I need access to hours per project for budgeting purposes.
- Industry: Airlines/Aviation
- Company size: 51-200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
I have been using this everyday since I started 2 years ago.
Reviewed on 2017/10/03
I benefit by having all of our products history and sales organized in our database.
Pros
I enjoy all of the options and how much you can customize it to your needs. Me and my team have built a system to control and input all of our work and it helps us track the the history of our products.
Cons
I experience some bugs here and there but nothing specific enough to call out. Small things such as the window changing sizes after macros are done.
- Industry: Leisure, Travel & Tourism
- Company size: 1 001-5 000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10
is great product
Reviewed on 2017/06/29
Pros
is quickly to develop, and you can use in windows and mac systems also in web direct is great to have, FileMaker is very versatile
Cons
Filemaker doesn't have vertical portals those are very important we have many reports and this type of portals are very helpful
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
Provides a Stable platform for core business functionality
Reviewed on 2018/03/07
Pros
Powerful scripting options and very configureable. The business finds there is very little down time due to system stability
Cons
Some of the management of the database is unintuitive for users used to using SQL management studio or similar.
- Company size: 51-200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10
Filemaker best Solution for small and medium business
Reviewed on 2017/12/13
Pros
Easy to use
Instant Features deployment without downtime
Available on multi platform
Easy to maintain and to share
Cons
Limited communication with other platforms
Not suited for Big business
Limited reporting capabilities especially Graphics

- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 11-50 Employees
- Used Other for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Ease of Use
- Likelihood to recommend 3.0 /10
What was so elegant got so messy
Reviewed on 2021/02/12
We used FileMaker for dozens of business processes over many years. But year by year it got more difficult to keep up with it's upgrades and changes. Finally, we abandoned it for a mix of integrated special-purpose tools that do what we want.
Pros
I used to like FileMaker, it was easy to use but powerful. As it evolved it got complex and confusing. It requires a computer scientist to figure out how to use it now.
Cons
It requires a computer scientist to figure out how to use it now. What was simple and intuitive became complicated and confusing.
Response from Claris
Hi Aaron, thank you for your feedback. Our customers are very important to us so we have shared your notes with our product team. If you would like to discuss your experience further, please do not hesitate to reach out to our customer care specialists at [email protected]
- Industry: Biotechnology
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10
We use it daily!
Reviewed on 2019/01/14
Pros
Easy to manipulate and change our interface as needed.
Cons
The updates can be inconvenient to our formatting. Unexpected changes can occur in our database.
- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
The original low-code dev environment with database and user interface all in one
Reviewed on 2017/06/08
Pros
It has al of the beauty of an Apple product, rapid application environment, agile, fun. Secure and stable server environment. Web and mobile ready.
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
Very rewarding
Reviewed on 2018/08/01
Organization
Pros
Medium easy to use, but with great results, the data base behind it its amazing to access to create your own Exccell customized date based
Cons
its difficult ate the start to set up and fill up to get the best results, but its completely worth it
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 51-200 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10
Built our company's CRM
Reviewed on 2019/03/12
Pros
If you have the right developer, you can do almost anything to suit your business' needs.
Very compatible with other softwares when trying to import/export.
Cons
The server can slow down at times when bandwidth is being stretched thin.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 51-200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 5.0 /10
Poor functionality, and support
Reviewed on 2017/05/17
We were able to keep everything in houser
Pros
Ease of deployment, lots of documentation on the web. The web interface was intuitive and found it easy to use
Cons
Price and support, They want to charge you just to answer the phone. When there was an issue getting support was rather difficult.
- Company size: 201-500 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
I've used FileMaker for almost ten years. It's reliable, easy to use, and efficient.
Reviewed on 2018/03/07
Pros
I like that each new version offers more options which suit my needs. I also like that I've never had any technical issues.
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 4.0 /10
Hard to upgrade
Reviewed on 2018/02/22
Pros
Allowed us to create a very sophisticated database that could track donors and all direct mail responses
Cons
Every time filemaker upgraded to a new version we couldn't count on functionality continuing so we would have to rebuild
- Industry: Medical Devices
- Company size: 5 001-10 000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Ease of Use
- Likelihood to recommend 6.0 /10
Good and Bad
Reviewed on 2019/11/05
Pros
I like that everything related to a request is in one spot and it had all the fields I needed for requests.
Cons
Clients didn't have access to the program.