PastPerfect Reviews & Product Details

I have used in various museums and historical societies for over 10 years, and it has well suited our needs for collections. PastPerfect 5's layout is intuitive, and our volunteers learn it easily. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The web version is more difficult to use. The layout is not as intuitive as that in PastPerfect 5. When the program was released several years ago, many bugs still existed. However, many of these have been resolved. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The layout of the system is easy to follow for the Catalogs portion and it looks attractive. The ability to search by description is also a very convenient feature. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The amount of storage space for media was grossly overexaggerated. When our organization decided to purchase this program we were assured that we would have more than enough space to upload images for our collections items. We have already used up our space -after four months of use and less than 40% of our photographs uploaded. Very disappointing and extremely difficult for our organization to deal with this issue. We are now looking for another program to replace this system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The databases we have thanks to this tool are very complete, we can always be aware of the content we have available and update any type of defect on everything we have, we can also track various articles that interest us, to make changes or replacements, some things that we no longer want, or just find something new that we want, if something I like about this application is that it is very easy to use, it is designed to do the necessary tasks inside a museum and meets them perfectly, a great tool, ideal for this type of work where you need to have a constantly updated database. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is no customization on the part of the user, as this application should be used, you cannot change anything at all, and you always want to add or remove some feature, but you just cannot, even edit any contact data, you can also that some features are missing, for the administration of libraries, since the application does not have these characteristics and it would be ideal to have them, so as not to depend on another tool, the ideal would be to manage everything from the same system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It's user friendly. The customer service is pretty decent all the times I for some reason needed to ask a question or troubleshoot something. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The quirks. It seems one has to go through different tabs to get one result, even though it should be able to search all at one time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love how one can change which aspects of the object one looks at. For example, there is a tab for dimensions, a tab for appraisal, condition, and they all have sub-aspects in the tabs as well. It is much easier to access target information when the tabs clearly label the subject of what you need. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The version that I have really channels the essence of the 1990s, so it has this older feeling instead of a fresh, 2018 feel. I would love to see the interface updated to match the style of 2018, instead of being perpetually stuck in the 1990s. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Easy to use the basics of this program with potential to build better. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We have had issues with integrating the virtual exhibits into our website and have been tackling it for over a year. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

This software does so many components of the museum field and can keep everything organized! I use it for the various artifact records, volunteer management, and exhibits. My coworkers use the contact database for members, and keeping a record of everything. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It does take a bit the learn the program but well worth it! There are many different systems compared to our previous database systems, but learning all of these different components is well worth the time it takes to learn it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The organization of the different sections are easy to use and does not take long to learn. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sometimes it is difficult to transfer metadata because you are not able to use the hot keys to copy and paste the information. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

PastPerfect has a substantial portion of the small museum database market due to it's long-standing presence in the space. It has extensive customization which is conducive to small- and medium-sized museums who want an out-of-the-box solution without needing to determine database best practices. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

PastPerfect was originally released in 1998, and quite frankly, appears to not have changed much since. It's telling that its last major release was in 2010, which in software terms is the equivalent of riding mammoths into battle.

Its biggest failure is an inability to adapt for the cloud space, which has been a priority for the CMS industry since at least 2005. Because of its long lag in effectively utilizing cloud technology, PP has lost out to some free industry competitors who are accessible online. For a small museum with a limited budget, cloud computing allows multiple users to catalog a collection from any device with a single login and from any location in a museum.

Alternatives are more user-friendly, more cost-effective, and have more intuitive interfaces. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that Past Perfect can track all of the things museums need to track via an affordable software. The database allows tracking of people, donors, members, pledge campaigns, archival materials, collection objects, loans, and mailings. A very good product for small museums looking to get organized. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

A lot of the fields are very picky about where and how you can enter values. Things aren't always as easy and intuitive to use as other database software. There is a limited scope of searching available and it is hard to search for things unless you have the exact object number. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.