Servoy vs. Filemaker

[Gula]

Have anyone tried to use Servoy? (http://www.servoy.com/)

It is so much like Filemaker, yet, I find it more powerful so far.

I was wandering if anyone have used it and found any problems with it.

[Ocean West]

Looks like Bob Cusick's project.

[bubba]

I played around with it some and it did indeed look very nice for web apps, but my question is "what does it cost to implement". The development version is free, but the company does not publicly post prices. That often means it is very very expensive.

Companies that do not provide pricing are a pet peeve of mine, so I just forgot about it rather than request a price and get on someone else's email or phone list.

Version: Developer v7

Platform: Mac OS X Panther

[Mariano Peterson]

Pet peeves be gone! Go to www.servoy.com and click the "Store" link, along the top of the page. Or you can just go straight to https://secure.servoy.com/ . All the prices are posted.

[bubba]

Thanks for the link Mariano. I am glad they finally add the store to their site.

Version: Developer v7

Platform: Mac OS X Panther

[bruceR]

Servoy does not do web publishing in any form. It is a client server application, based on Java and Javascript.

[Gula]

Do you prefer filemakers web publishing to, say, PHP, JSP, ASP - with servoy you can use whatever you want, right? I mean, can't you run, say, PHP under Apache and connect to MySQL, and then have servoy connected to the same MySQL - then you can have both clients and web ends.

I want someone to give me a reason not to use Servoy instead of Filemaker.

[bubba]

Well, cost might be one big factor. Compare the cost per user of the two and you will find a pretty substantial difference. But it also depends on the number of users you need to support.

[bruceR]

bubba said:

Well, cost might be one big factor. Compare the cost per user of the two and you will find a pretty substantial difference. But it also depends on the number of users you need to support.

Substantial which way? Servoy claims to be substantially less expensive for mulltiple users. You don't have to buy copies of the app for each user, and they have a concurrent user licensing model. With Filemaker, if you have 20 users, you have buy 20 copies of Filemaker. Period. WIth Servoy, if you have 20 users but in reality only 10 using it any one time, you buy a license for 10 users.

[fm504]

bubba said:

Thanks for the link Mariano. I am glad they finally add the store to their site.

How do you mean finally? It has been there for over a year now. How long have you been using a mac? ;-)

[dharlow]

There was a good FileMaker and Servoy commentary at http://macintouch.com/fmp7.html#mar23

Personally I have started using Servoy for putting a FileMaker like interface on SQL databases.

Daniel

[Joe King]

The question is not FileMaker Pro versus Servoy. That's like putting a Civic versus a PeterBuilt. FileMaker Pro 7 is desinged as a client application. It works great for developing robust interfaces that are more flexible and quicker (read cheaper) to develop than Servoy. The cost for easy development is license costs. The question is FileMaker 7 Advanced Server verus Servoy. FileMaker is easier to develop with IWS, but may cost more to get started. Servoy is also a better choice if you need to allow access via PHP/ASP/Lasso, etc. because mySQL is SQL compliant and FileMaker is not.

Servoy is a solid product, which opens up another avenue to the web that easier than PHP/ASP. It you need to have a public application then it's worth looking at, but the line of separation with FM7 IWP is pretty close.

thanks,

Joe

Joe King

[email protected]

[Gula]

I had to start using filemaker a year ago, and it surprised me that there was no SQL and each table was stored in a separate file. But I liked that you could build a 3 months project in 1 week. But the more I learned it, the more I realized how limited it was.

The whole logic is different from other applications, which is not very nice... I'm afraid after working with filemaker for couple of years I will not be able to find another job if I will need to. And the limitations are painfull.

I didn't find that bulding using servoy is much slower than filemaker and servoy can do almost anything a database project may need.

I think we will be switching to Servoy...

[pmconaway]

One cost nobody mentioned was how many people know sevoy and would be available to support the application you developed. I've worked at companies that will not go with a solution since I was the only one that knew the technology involved. How easy would it be to find your replacement if you left the company. Licensing costs aside if they can't replace you then...

[hayesk]

Given that FileMaker's market is growing, I don't think you'll need to worry about work. It's still a much bigger market than Servoy.

If you can do a project in Servoy just as quickly, then by all means, do it. I looked at Servoy and tried the demo, and it looked like a lot more work (and I am a programmer) and their demo was definitely a lot slower than FileMaker.

Version: Developer v7

Platform: Mac OS X Panther

[dharlow]

pmconaway said:

One cost nobody mentioned was how many people know sevoy and would be available to support the application you developed. I've worked at companies that will not go with a solution since I was the only one that knew the technology involved. How easy would it be to find your replacement if you left the company. Licensing costs aside if they can't replace you then...

Actually several clients of mine have been interested in Servoy because it is built on Java and uses JavaScript for programming versus FileMaker's scripting language.

Daniel

Platform: Mac OS X Panther

[Kasterlee]

Check this out:

http://forum.servoy.com/viewtopic.php?t=1544

[Leb i Sol]

why should there be a "vs" as all?why not "or"?

http://developer.servoy.com/docs/getting_started_for_fmp_dev.pdf

[Chris Hinder]

A lot of people will be comparing the two as they are quite similar, yet different in many ways.

For me, the major difference is that I am far more familiar with FileMaker than I am with Servoy. For a very large database with many clients, I would look at Servoy.

For a very small database, with one client that uses it once a day, theres no reason to use Servoy over FileMaker

[fm504]

Chris Hinder said:

For a very small database, with one client that uses it once a day, theres no reason to use Servoy over FileMaker

That depends. If all the client needs to do is type in the alphabet in the right order I agree. If more has to be done I'd start thinking Servoy.

Reconsidering my first sentence, even to validate the right order of the alphabet Servoy would be the better choice.

[sherifmayika]

servoy is now available for free for FM 8 users

www.servoy.com