Its rapid development capabilities. You can instantly build what people need, and it’s especially powerful at solving and adapting to system problems across all kinds of industries. It works well for everyone—from complete beginners to experienced developers—and it’s a great starting point for anyone learning database languages. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

1. Even though FileMaker has been around for 40 years, it’s still not widely adopted globally. I believe the single-user version of FileMaker Pro should be free, so more people can try it. Once people start using it and see its value, they’ll likely invest in FileMaker Server.

2. I wish FileMaker Go had an Android version. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

This is a product that a regular business can get started with on their own, or work with a consultant to build exactly the kind of system they want. I've yet to have to say no to any idea a client has had for the unique needs of their business. My favorite compliment is when they exclaim how much time has been saved by using Filemaker.

It is easy to get started, and really fun to work with, and the community fostered by Claris, consisting of other developers sharing and collaborating on tools & resources; makes this a family as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Warning: Enjoying what you do for a living may impede on your time for socializing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Claris FileMaker is a great tool for no-code rapid application development. It allows you to quickly build bespoke databases/'custom apps' for web, iOS and native Mac/Windows desktops. For maximum speed RAD it has its own built-in database engine, but can also be used as a front end to 3rd party SQL database backends such as MySQL, MS SQL and Oracle.

The platform scales well for small & medium enterprises - i.e. workgroups from 10 - to a few hundred users.

It has been a work horse tool for me as consultant/developer for over 18 years now. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Licensing has changed radically over the last few versions and so can be complex to navigate if you are not already familiar with the different differ offerings.

The WebDirect feature is very technically impressive in that produces very graphically rich interfaces, but does require significant performance overhead and so does require substantial hardware. Currently this is limited to around 100 concurrent connections. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Filemaker has a lot of different short codes to use to create lists etc

I use Filemaker daily for work, and is the main product used. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I do find Filemaker fairly confusing and often need to ask for assistance Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

You can create almost anything with FileMaker; it brings your ideas to life. Its adaptability enables you to quickly iterate and deploy features that allow you to move forward. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I dislike that it gets a bad rap. People who dislike FileMaker don’t actually dislike the software; they dislike the applications built by a person using FileMaker. It’s a great modern tool that, when used properly, can achieve excellent results. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

How adaptable it is

How robust it can be

How easy it can integrate with other APIs

How inexpensive it is to develop in compared to other alternatives Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Although you can design a very nice looking UI, it needs a more modern approach to layout design

It needs a more robust way to create web forms for anonymouse users Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

FM is flexible and powerful. We can continually update and expand or solution to handle new situations / needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Setting the tab-order in layouts with large numbers of fields is very difficult. Need better tools for clearing just the visible fields or something. Also we use many files and tables in our solution. References across multiple files are challenging to manage / clean up. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Claris FileMaker is a great platform for building and deploying custom apps for small businesses. The native features allow for integrations with external services and extendability beyond the typical functions. The community is very welcoming and vibrant. There is always someone in a forum who is eager to answer questions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Scalability can be quite tricky to handle. It helps to prepare in advance and there are ways to make a solution scalable, but it is difficult. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It has what a power user needs to accomplish a task or create a solution. You can also use it for simple tasks that don't even include scripting or custom functions. I can make a script to process my data with minimal time or difficulty. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I subscribe to this software for my business. It would be nice to have a lite option for those not as likely to do much with it. Like ClarisWorks database used to be. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The biggest upside of FileMaker is the ability to program all integrated into one system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

If you don't plan the infrastructure properly and account for all the dependencies and conditionals, you can build a huge mess. Also the charge for web API's after a certain number of transactions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.