Claris FileMaker Pro gets native Apple Silicon update

AppleInsider

Claris has released its Apple Silicon version of database and software development tool FileMaker Pro, including a new quick-start app builder.

Claris FileMaker

Claris moved from an annual to a rolling update schedule for FileMaker Pro in May 2020. Since then, the company says it has issued over 100 enhancements, but now it's unveiling a more major update.

"Claris FileMaker Pro and Claris FileMaker Server are the first low-code universal macOS binaries that ensure optimized performance on Apple silicon computers while still offering amazing speed on Intel-based Mac computers," said the company in a statement to AppleInsider.

FileMaker Pro for macOS and the FileMaker Cloud edition now also include what the company calls its "next generation no-code app builder," or "quick start experience."

"[It is] a new way to create FileMaker apps with a simple drag-and-drop interface in minutes," says Claris. "And when you're ready, a simple click lets you continue building your app with the full FileMaker Pro feature set. We believe this feature is a good way to introduce low-code development to your new team members and individuals seeking to move into a tech career."

"Plus, we have added features that help make smarter apps with artificial intelligence (AI), such as Core ML (machine learning), for things like image classification and sentiment recognition, Siri Shortcuts for voice-enabled interactions, and NFC reading -- all on mobile," continues the company.

As well as the macOS, cloud, and iOS updates, the latest release of FileMaker Pro also provides security and performance updates specifically for Windows and Linux.

Claris FileMaker is available directly from the developer. Costs start at $19 per user, per month.

Keep up with everything Apple in the weekly AppleInsider Podcast -- and get a fast news update from AppleInsider Daily. Just say, "Hey, Siri," to your HomePod mini and ask for these podcasts, and our latest HomeKit Insider episode too.If you want an ad-free main AppleInsider Podcast experience, you can support the AppleInsider podcast by subscribing for $5 per month through Apple's Podcasts app, or via Patreon if you prefer any other podcast player.

rayz2016

Wow. FileMaker got real expensive real quick. 

edited June 2021

d_2

I sure miss the original FileMaker, I used it professionally in the early 90’s  - it was very intuitive yet powerful, and did everything I needed (and more) - I have tried the options on the Mac App Store without any luck meeting my needs 

commentzilla

Rayz2016 said:

Wow. FileMaker got real expensive real quick. 

Rayz2016 said:

Wow. FileMaker got real expensive real quick. 

That $19 figure is misleading. That price per/person is for 5 or more users using their hosting plan, which includes FileMaker Server and storage. There are other plans if you have your own hosting and FMS now also run on Linux.

dee_dee

Not sure why they bothered. FileMaker is a piece of junk.  

dee_dee

Rayz2016 said:

Wow. FileMaker got real expensive real quick. 

Most people have dumped FileMaker for more powerful and free solutions like php or Ruby etc.  So FileMaker really jacked up their pricing. Their upgrades also got so buggy people stopped upgrading so they had to start charging per user per month. 

macplusplus

dee_dee said:

Rayz2016 said:

Wow. FileMaker got real expensive real quick. 

Most people have dumped FileMaker for more powerful and free solutions like php or Ruby etc.  So FileMaker really jacked up their pricing. Their upgrades also got so buggy people stopped upgrading so they had to start charging per user per month. 

Most people may have dumped FMP for those because it is easier to impress the client by bragging about thousands of lines of deep spaghetti code. With FMP it is just a correct database schema and a few dozen script steps.

seanj

dee_dee said:

Not sure why they bothered. FileMaker is a piece of junk.  

You’ve clearly not tried it’s low-code competition such as OutSystems,  Mendix, Salesforce Lightning, Microsoft PowerApps, etc. Have just been through a corporate review of all of these and FileMaker was the best all-rounder. Maybe it’s due to its maturity as some of the products seem to have been written by script kiddies who don’t know about data normalisation concepts, while others seem to have been written by data nerds who have no idea about UX design.

citpeks

Rayz2016 said:

Wow. FileMaker got real expensive real quick. 

FMP hasn't been "cheap" for a long time, at least in terms of perpetual licenses.  The real kicker is when they decided to target business users, and adopted a subscription model.  That resulted in an individual perpetual license jumping from a couple hundred to $540.

d_2 said:

I sure miss the original FileMaker, I used it professionally in the early 90’s  - it was very intuitive yet powerful, and did everything I needed (and more) - I have tried the options on the Mac App Store without any luck meeting my needs 

As did I, for internal company solutions, not as a developer for hire.  Started with 2.1.

After that, I continued to use it for personal purposes, at least until jumping off the train due to the update costs, even long before they jacked it to $540.

It's a lament I've heard from other former users in the same boat.  Know and like the program, but the high cost couldn't be justified for personal use.  And with the business shift, they kissed off such users altogether.

rayz2016

commentzilla said:

Rayz2016 said:

Wow. FileMaker got real expensive real quick. 

Rayz2016 said:

Wow. FileMaker got real expensive real quick. 

That $19 figure is misleading. That price per/person is for 5 or more users using their hosting plan, which includes FileMaker Server and storage. There are other plans if you have your own hosting and FMS now also run on Linux.

So what’s the pricing for a one-man band dev shop?

firelock

I citpeks said:

Rayz2016 said:

Wow. FileMaker got real expensive real quick. 

FMP hasn't been "cheap" for a long time, at least in terms of perpetual licenses.  The real kicker is when they decided to target business users, and adopted a subscription model.  That resulted in an individual perpetual license jumping from a couple hundred to $540.

d_2 said:

I sure miss the original FileMaker, I used it professionally in the early 90’s  - it was very intuitive yet powerful, and did everything I needed (and more) - I have tried the options on the Mac App Store without any luck meeting my needs 

As did I, for internal company solutions, not as a developer for hire.  Started with 2.1.

After that, I continued to use it for personal purposes, at least until jumping off the train due to the update costs, even long before they jacked it to $540.

It's a lament I've heard from other former users in the same boat.  Know and like the program, but the high cost couldn't be justified for personal use.  And with the business shift, they kissed off such users altogether.

This pricing structure seems like a mistake to me. FMP is still a niche product, probably more so now than it was in the early 2000s when I used it. It’s strength was that tech-savvy non-developers could purchase it for a few hundred dollars and tinker together some really awesome custom solutions. Then they would convince their boss to buy a bunch of licenses for the whole office to deploy it. It’s now priced at a level where no one is going to buy it individually just to try out. It would instead have to be purchased with a specific business purpose in mind and multiple licenses. For a product this niche it doesn’t seem like a winning approach.

edited June 2021

ktr

dee_dee said:

Not sure why they bothered. FileMaker is a piece of junk.  

In what sense?

frank777

Rayz2016 said:

So what’s the pricing for a one-man band dev shop?

If you are just getting into Filemaker, the full price is insane, but the upgrade for the single user download is CDN$263., which isn't crazy bad if you're going to upgrade every second or third version or so.

The problem is that Filemaker seems to scale somewhat well (not perfectly) to the SMB market, and trying to capitalize on that leads them away from the SOHO/hobbyist base. And Bento, which seemed like a depowered version meant to satisfy the lower-end, failed to find a following.

I'm a longtime Filemaker database fan (though not a Pro by any means) and I think they are setting themselves up for someone to come up with a Pixelmator to their Photoshop. If that happens, they're going to lose a lot of their base.

rayz2016

dee_dee said:

Rayz2016 said:

Wow. FileMaker got real expensive real quick. 

Most people have dumped FileMaker for more powerful and free solutions like php or Ruby etc.  So FileMaker really jacked up their pricing. Their upgrades also got so buggy people stopped upgrading so they had to start charging per user per month. 

php and Ruby serve different markets. They’re low-level dev tools for building websites.