# PastPerfect Reviews **Vendor:** PastPerfect **Category:** [Collections Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/collections-management) **Average Rating:** 3.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 12 ## About PastPerfect PastPerfect offers software program for collection and contact management. ## PastPerfect Reviews ### 1. PastPerfect is easy to use! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Museums and Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 21, 2023 **What do you like best about PastPerfect?** 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. **What do you dislike about PastPerfect?** 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. **What problems is PastPerfect solving and how is that benefiting you?** It has been invaluable in helping me to manage our collections, both in our museum and archives. It allows us to catalog large amounts of data quickly, and its online collection features are great. ### 2. Not What Was Promised **Rating:** 0.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Risha L. | Curator of Collections and Exhibits, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 29, 2022 **What do you like best about PastPerfect?** 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. **What do you dislike about PastPerfect?** 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. **What problems is PastPerfect solving and how is that benefiting you?** PastPerfect is not helping us solve business problems. ### 3. Excellent tool for inventory management in a museum **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lillian J. J. | Historian, Civic & Social Organization, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 03, 2019 **What do you like best about PastPerfect?** 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. **What do you dislike about PastPerfect?** 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. **Recommendations to others considering PastPerfect:** Great tool to make a complete catalog of the accessories that are in the museum. **What problems is PastPerfect solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is a great tool to manage and keep track of the different elements that we have in our museum, so we can have a complete catalog with all the features we need, to know their status. ### 4. Modern Museum Database **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 02, 2019 **What do you like best about PastPerfect?** 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. **What do you dislike about PastPerfect?** 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. **Recommendations to others considering PastPerfect:** Do it. Don't use ReDiscovery **What problems is PastPerfect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Collection Management. ### 5. Very easy program to become familiar with -- great for collections management! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Museums and Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 18, 2018 **What do you like best about PastPerfect?** 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. **What do you dislike about PastPerfect?** 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. **What problems is PastPerfect solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is ideal software for collections management and it is relatively easy to get used to. Volunteers, if your organization allows for it, will be able to familiarize themselves with the program easily, as will interns and staff. ### 6. Does have its limitations but works well for a small museum **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Museums and Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 04, 2019 **What do you like best about PastPerfect?** Easy to use the basics of this program with potential to build better. **What do you dislike about PastPerfect?** We have had issues with integrating the virtual exhibits into our website and have been tackling it for over a year. **Recommendations to others considering PastPerfect:** Make sure to make use of the how-to book that accompanies the software. The customer service is local and always answer the phone. Super simple to use the support line! **What problems is PastPerfect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our main service is cataloging our inventory and collection with this program. It does exactly that but has limitations with sharing our collection with other programs. ### 7. Wonderful **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Elizabeth E. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 20, 2018 **What do you like best about PastPerfect?** 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. **What do you dislike about PastPerfect?** 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. **Recommendations to others considering PastPerfect:** I recommend that museums look into getting PastPerfect. It has so many different components that make working at a museum so much easier. **What problems is PastPerfect solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are able to solve a lot of our organization problems. As well it is keeping our database updated. We are able to use the same database across multiple computers which allows for many of use to make changes to files and be able to see the changes others have made. ### 8. Excellent Museum Collection Management Software **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aneirin P. | Museum Attendant, Writing and Editing, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 13, 2018 **What do you like best about PastPerfect?** The organization of the different sections are easy to use and does not take long to learn. **What do you dislike about PastPerfect?** Sometimes it is difficult to transfer metadata because you are not able to use the hot keys to copy and paste the information. **Recommendations to others considering PastPerfect:** I find this product relatively easy to use as an emerging museum professional. Due to the fact that I only use this product at work as an employee, I'm not aware of the pricing of the product, but I do know that compared to other methods of collections management that I have used in the past, PastPerfect does make keeping track of collections easier for both the employees and those who use the software for research, especially when it comes to those who are researching local subject matter. I highly recommend PastPerfect as a software to other museum professionals, especially if they do not currently have software (which is often the care for some small and house museums), because it does make the paperwork and the management of the collections run more smoothly. The navigation is simple and it is easy to learn in one sitting; two at maximum if you are able to refer back to someone more experienced with the product if you ever have trouble. PastPerfect is my choice for a museum collections management software. **What problems is PastPerfect solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's an extremely effective way to organize and keep track of museum collections along with collections that may be held by the museum but not as an accessioned collection or object. ### 9. Outdated database lags behind free competition **Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 14, 2017 **What do you like best about PastPerfect?** 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. **What do you dislike about PastPerfect?** 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. **What problems is PastPerfect solving and how is that benefiting you?** As a curator, I had originally used PastPerfect to catalog a previously-uncatalogued collection for a small house museum in Washington, DC. However, I quickly realized its inefficiencies and ended up completing my catalog work in eHive, which was a better solution for our needs at the time, with seamless online integration and cloud compatibility. ### 10. Past Perfect 5 Review **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Angela B. | Graduate Assistant, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 26, 2016 **What do you like best about PastPerfect?** 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. **What do you dislike about PastPerfect?** 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. **What problems is PastPerfect solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have solved the problem of having a confusing database system for each part of the museum by putting them all into Past Perfect. ### 11. The Ups and Downs of PastPerfect **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Erin S. | Curator Of Collections, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 05, 2016 **What do you like best about PastPerfect?** PastPerfect is fairly easy to use. The tabs are intuitive and their phone support is quite helpful for when things go wrong. **What do you dislike about PastPerfect?** There seem to be quite a few issues with the program now that our museum has switched over to Windows 7 from XP. **Recommendations to others considering PastPerfect:** Talk with your tech departments because there is a patch that can help with the Windows 7 issues. **What problems is PastPerfect solving and how is that benefiting you?** PastPerfect makes it easy for us to catalog our collections and to keep track of all incoming and outgoing loans. It has been fairly easy to teach to our volunteers. ### 12. Great versatile product for the small museum **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 15, 2016 **What do you like best about PastPerfect?** This product has a lot of functionality and is easy to use and easy to share with students and volunteers. **What do you dislike about PastPerfect?** The functionality is limited when asked to deal with non-historical objects - natural history and archaeological items can be a challenge. **What problems is PastPerfect solving and how is that benefiting you?** This software allows us to track collections and temporary custody items fairly easily. It has helped with training museum students. ## PastPerfect Discussions - [What is PastPerfect used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-pastperfect-used-for) - [View PastPerfect pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/pastperfect/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-14+14%3A00%3A20+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=16d99673-f1b4-4d03-ab5b-023e02c8cda4&secure%5Btoken%5D=269117816d15910c56ac640905534ca89e44874b24899a7662be04c455b171a6&format=llm_user) ## PastPerfect Features **Administration** - Conservation Management - Cataloguing - Risk Management - Search Functions **Recordkeeping** - Reporting & Analytics - Object Profiles - Documentation - Loan and Exhibition Management - Location and Shipping Management - Digital Asset Management ## Top PastPerfect Alternatives - [CatalogIt](https://www.g2.com/products/catalogit/reviews) - 4.9/5.0 (27 reviews) - [TMS Suite](https://www.g2.com/products/tms-suite/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (3 reviews) - [Artwork Archive](https://www.g2.com/products/artwork-archive/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (6 reviews)