FileMaker is hired to run a custom database app that someone built years ago, usually for one team's daily work. Replacing it is a project, not a switch, but a narrow one when you rebuild only what people use. Below: the cloud prices as published, the realistic path, and the inventory that has to come first.
The file works, so nobody touches it. Over the years it absorbed one team's processes, and the person who built it may be gone. What you are paying for is mostly the fear of finding out what it did.
The work is not the license. It is the unlisted duties: the script that runs at month end, the report someone emails on Fridays. They only surface when they stop.
That is why the inventory comes first. A software cost can be capitalized or expensed depending on how it is used, so ask your accountant how an internally built replacement should be booked. Our audit can find the charge in the books.
Only alternatives we have checked. An open-source project is listed with the license its repository reports, on the date shown; one whose license could not be read as a single standard id is not offered as open source. Read the license guide before running any of them.
| Alternative | Kind | License | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appsmith | Open source | Apache-2.0 | Appsmith repositoryChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Rebuild the one or two screens people open every day | Custom build | — | Written for the one job |
Each feature below is what the product's own page or README says, linked to where we read it on the date shown. Pros and cons are limited to what those pages state and to what the path itself changes. We do not rank products on quality.
| Plan | Price as published | Includes | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| FileMaker Cloud Starter | $22 per user per month, billed annually | FileMaker Cloud for 5 to 10 users only | Claris FileMaker pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| FileMaker Cloud Max | $45 per user per month, billed annually | FileMaker Cloud for 5 to 99 users; 100 or more users through sales | Claris FileMaker pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
List prices as printed on the vendor's page on the checked date, in US dollars per user per month, billed annually, and excluding tax. Prices may differ at checkout. Server and other license pricing was not read.
A custom database built years ago usually does far less than it can. Most of it is a few forms and lists that one team uses all day and a pile of layouts nobody has opened since the person who built them left.
Do the inventory before anything else. The aim is a short written list of what the file really does, so the replacement covers that and nothing more.
Samples are made up and are not FileMaker's prices. Type in the figures from your own invoice or order form.
Build a small tool or keep paying for one: the cost of each over your horizon and the month the build breaks even.
Paid seats against seats in use: what the idle ones cost a year, and what you save by right-sizing at renewal.
Arithmetic only, not tax, accounting or legal advice. Check the figures against your own order form.
The order matters: inventory, export, rebuild, run in parallel, then retire. In outline:
List every table, script, report, scheduled task and integration. For each, write who uses it and how often. Anything nobody can name an owner for goes in a separate list to ask about.
Watch the daily users for a day or two. Write down the one or two screens they open and the steps they take in them.
Export every table to a standard format. Compare record counts and a sample of values to the screen. Store the exports where you control them.
Rebuild the daily screens for the narrow job. Have the daily users try them against real records.
Rebuild each report one by one, comparing totals with the old output for the same period.
Run both side by side through at least one full cycle of whatever the team does monthly. Compare results at the end.
Make the old file read-only, keep the exports, and end the license inside the contract's notice window.
A replacement for a file like this is written from scratch for the narrow job the company actually uses. It does not copy code, screens, layouts or branding from FileMaker or from anyone else, and it does not read or convert the vendor's file format by any route the license forbids. The data leaves through the exports you are entitled to make.
The realistic path is rebuilding the one or two screens people use daily, after listing every script and report the old file runs. Everything else becomes an export you keep. An open-source low-code builder such as Appsmith, listed in its repository under the Apache-2.0 license on the checked date, is one way to build those screens; its license carries conditions you should read first.
Run the vendor report for QuickBooks Online or Xero, then open the free audit.
General information, not legal advice. See cancelling without penalties. Last reviewed Oct 25, 2026. Product names belong to their owners and are used only to identify them.
Send us the export and see which lines are worth a second look. A connected version is planned. FileMaker is one of the lines worth a look.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
| Year | Buy, cumulative | Build, cumulative |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9,000.00 | 8,040.00 |
| 2 | 18,000.00 | 10,080.00 |
| 3 | 27,000.00 | 12,120.00 |
Undiscounted, and it leaves out the vendor's price rises and your own overruns. A tool built for one job is not the whole product: list what you would lose before you count the saving.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
“In use” is your call: last sign-in in the past 30 or 90 days from the vendor's admin report. A seat for someone on leave is not idle.