Bionic Forms
Local-first business apps

An app is now easier to make than a spreadsheet.

One sentence in plain English gets you forms, views, and workflows. A spreadsheet gets you formulas to babysit, columns that drift, and a file called final_v7. The trade-off that justified spreadsheets is gone.

Free for one person · your data stays local & encrypted · the live one opens instantly, no signup

Already running your business on FileMaker, Access or Notes? Don't start from an empty screen — tell us what it does and we will build it for you, on the free plan, no card.

you type
The obvious question

Why not just a spreadsheet?

  1. Cells take anything. Fields have types. Dates are dates, statuses can't be typos, and a phone number is never “call after 5”.
  2. Apps act. Sheets sit. Change a record and the workflow runs itself — emails go out, statuses flip. Run the desktop app and time-based reminders fire too, so overdue work surfaces without anyone remembering to look.
  3. One truth, not forty copies. Every record keeps its history. Nobody emails “budget_final_v7_MATTS-EDITS.xlsx” ever again.
  4. Views, not tabs of doom. Overdue, due-this-week, by-borrower — the same records, sliced live, instead of duplicated tabs that drift apart.
  5. Permissions per person — not “hope nobody sorts column B”. People see what they should, edit what they may, and guests fill forms without accounts.
  6. It's a real app, not a tab you left open. It runs on your own machine, encrypted, and syncs itself. With the desktop app it keeps working with no internet; the browser version needs a connection. (No iPhone or Android app yet — those are waitlists, not downloads.)

The only reason spreadsheets ever won was that making real software was expensive. That reason is gone — so the honest question flips: why would you make a spreadsheet?

What you get

Built on four opinions.

01 · offline

Works offline on the desktop app

The desktop app is local-first: the network is a convenience, not a requirement, and nothing breaks when you lose signal. The browser version needs a connection — desktop is macOS and Linux today.

02 · encrypted

Encrypted by default

Local databases are encrypted at rest, devices must be approved, and access follows stable identities. FOSS encryption — no black boxes.

03 · meaning

You define meaning, not pixels

A professional app shell — navigation, search, detail views, actions — so you describe behavior, not layout coordinates.

04 · zero admin

Nothing to administer

No database to run, no schema to design, no sync protocol to learn. Open the app and work.

Three steps, no schema in sight.

You describe behavior. The runtime handles the database, sync, and security.

01

Describe it — or paste a spreadsheet

Say what you want in a sentence and the assistant builds the forms, views, workflow, and access rules. Or paste a Google Sheet link: columns become typed fields, rows become records, and you review every choice before it's built.

02

Use it anywhere

Every authorized person gets a full local copy. It works on a plane, a job site, a basement — no connection required, ever.

03

It syncs itself

Back online, changes sync quietly in the background. Conflicts get a clear merge screen — not a lost-work surprise.

Public forms

Let anyone fill in a form. No account, no app.

Open any collection to the outside world. Entries arrive as ordinary records with full history, marked as coming from the public form.

01

Share a link

Every public form gets its own link. The page is plain HTML that works on any phone with no JavaScript — it survives an old browser, or a QR code taped to a wall. Close it on a date or after a set number of entries.

02

Or truly anonymous

Anonymous mode records no name, no email, and no network address — the page says so, and the server keeps that promise. Built for the questions people only answer when nobody's watching.

03

Embed it on your site

One script line puts the form on any website: sitting in the page, behind a popup button, or on a side tab. Submissions land in your app either way, behind the same bot trap and rate limits.

Download

Get it on every device.

Free for one person on your own machine — your data stays local and encrypted. Sign in once to set up, then it works offline. Same account works across desktop and mobile.

macOS
Apple Silicon · v0.1.0
Download
🐧
Linux
x86_64 · v0.1.16
Download .deb
Unsigned
Windows
10 & 11, x64 · v0.1.18
Download
Not code-signed yet — Windows will warn on first run. What you'll see
Waitlist
iOS
iPhone & iPad
Waitlist
Android
Phone & tablet

macOS is ready now — open the download and drag Bionic Forms into Applications; it updates itself automatically. Linux is ready too: the .deb installs system-wide and updates through apt, while the AppImage and tar.gz run from your home directory and update themselves. Windows is ready too — unzip it anywhere you like and run BionicForms.exe. iOS & Android: leave your email and we'll tell you the moment it's ready. You can also use Bionic Forms right in your browser on any of them — open the web app.

Windows will warn you the first time, and here is why. The download is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen shows a blue “Windows protected your PC” box. Click More info, then Run anyway. Some antivirus flags it for the same reason. Nothing is wrong with the file — a code-signing certificate is bought, not written, and we would rather ship the app and tell you this plainly than keep you waiting on a purchase. If your IT policy blocks unsigned software, the web app works on Windows with nothing to install.

Loans offline
Laser level L2
R. Osei · due Jul 15
Overdue
Makita drill #4
J. Nguyen · due Jul 19
On loan
+ New loan
Pricing

One flat price for your whole team. Never by the seat.

Unlimited users and free guest access on every plan — you're priced by what you build (apps, storage, AI, email), never by the seat. Free forever for one person.

A 100-person team on legacy per-seat software
$2,100–4,300/mo
per-seat, plus a server and a consultant to keep it running
vs
The same 100-person team on Bionic
$99/mo
Flat, unlimited users. Everything included. Take your data any time.

Describe your first app in plain English.

Start in your browser in seconds, or install the desktop app — same account, either way.

Already running something in FileMaker or Access? Open a live database first and see whether this is the shape of thing you want — no signup, no email. Open the live database → Or skip the building: tell us what your current system does and we will build it for you →