Every "FileMaker alternatives" article I could find was written by a company that sells one of the alternatives. So is this one — I build Bionic Forms, and it's on the list below. What I can offer instead of neutrality is bluntness: verified prices with the traps called out, and a straight answer about who should not buy mine.
Prices checked 18 August 2026 on annual billing where offered. They drift; the linked pricing pages are the source of truth.
Three traps come up over and over in this category. Per-user prices multiplied by annual contracts: a "$19 per user" line becomes $1,140 a year the moment the vendor requires five seats. Undisclosed minimums: Quickbase advertises "starts at $35/user/mo" and then adds, in a footnote, that the cost shown "does not include platform minimum", an amount it never publishes. And promo prices posing as list prices: the $19/month Knack figure floating around the web is a three-month promotion; the plan is $49.
Claris renamed its plans this cycle: Starter is $19 per user per month and Max is $39, both billed annually on 12-to-36-month contracts, and Starter is only sold for teams of five to ten. If you have six people and a solution that works, the honest math often says stay; migration costs real weeks. The people with a genuine grievance are the two-person offices paying a five-seat minimum for two users.
Microsoft Access deserves the same honesty: it is still bundled with most Microsoft 365 plans (not Business Basic), so if your team runs Windows and already pays for 365, Access is effectively free. No Mac version, no web version, and you maintain it yourself. But free is a strong argument, and I'd rather say so than pretend otherwise.
Airtable ($20/user/mo, real free tier, read-only collaborators don't count as seats) is the default cloud database for teams organizing work. It is a service, not an app builder in the FileMaker sense — your data lives with them, and the interface is theirs.
For self-hosters: Baserow is MIT-licensed, genuinely open source, free to run on your own server, $10/user/mo on their cloud. NocoDB looks similar but is source-available under a Sustainable Use License (fair-code, not OSI open source), with cloud plans from $12/user/mo. Both cover the database-with-views core; neither attempts FileMaker's scripting depth.
Knack ($49/mo billed annually) and Tadabase ($42/mo billed annually) charge by records and apps rather than seats — Knack's entry plan caps you at 20,000 records and 3 apps. When dozens of casual users need to fill forms or check a portal, flat pricing changes the math completely. Neither has a free tier.
Zoho Creator is the cheapest credible per-user option at $8/user/mo, with a free single-app edition. It makes the most sense if you already live in Zoho's suite.
Ninox is the one that feels most like FileMaker: a team database with forms, views and scripting, desktop and mobile clients, €25/user/mo and permanently free for up to five users. It has a large small-business following, especially in Europe. If you want FileMaker-but-lighter today, this is probably your shortlist leader.
Quickbase is the enterprise end: per-user prices from $35 plus that undisclosed platform minimum, quoted through sales. If a sales call is required to learn the price, the product is sized for departments and budgets, not a five-person office.
Bionic Forms is built on a different premise from everything above: the database is the app, and it lives with you. The desktop app keeps your data in an encrypted SQLite file on your own machine and syncs through our server when you're online; there's a browser version for everyone else; you describe the app you need and the assistant builds the forms, views, workflows and history, which you then edit by hand. Pricing has no seat count in it anywhere: every plan carries unlimited users, and what you pay for is how much you build. One app is free, $29/mo gets you ten, $99/mo unlimited. Add twelve colleagues on a Tuesday and the bill does not move.
Now the part the other vendors' comparison pages never include. Bionic Forms is pre-launch with no external customers yet: you would be early, which cuts both ways. You get the founder fixing your problem the day you report it, and you carry new-product risk. There is no Windows desktop app yet (a waitlist, not a download; the browser version works fine on Windows). No iOS or Android app. Offline is a desktop feature; the browser version needs a connection. And the importer moves records (CSV or a Google Sheet) with no automatic conversion: it does not convert FileMaker layouts or scripts. Nothing here does; the difference is I put it in the body text instead of the fine print.
If you need mobile-first field work today, pick Ninox or Airtable. If you need a vendor with a decade of references, stay on FileMaker or pick Airtable. If you're a small office whose app died with its platform, and you'd trade being early for a product where the person who writes the code answers your email himself, that's the exact person I built this for.
| Product | Entry price (annual billing) | Model | Free tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claris FileMaker | $19/user/mo | Per user, 5-seat min, annual contract | No | The incumbent; Starter capped at 10 users |
| Microsoft Access | Bundled with most 365 plans | Suite bundle | — | Windows desktop only |
| Airtable | $20/user/mo | Per editor | Yes | Cloud service; read-only seats free |
| Zoho Creator | $8/user/mo | Per user | Yes (1 app) | Best inside the Zoho suite |
| Ninox | €25/user/mo | Per user | Yes (≤5 users) | Closest to FileMaker in feel |
| Knack | $49/mo flat | By records + apps | No | 20k records / 3 apps at entry |
| Tadabase | $42/mo flat | By records + apps | No | Agency-friendly |
| Baserow | $10/user/mo cloud | Per user, or self-host free | Yes | MIT open source |
| NocoDB | $12/user/mo cloud | Per user, or self-host free | Yes | Source-available, not OSI |
| Quickbase | $35/user/mo + platform minimum | Per user + undisclosed floor | No | Sales-quoted, enterprise |
| Bionic Forms | $29/mo flat | Flat by apps + storage, unlimited users | Yes (1 app) | Local-first; pre-launch |
Cheapest alternative? Per seat, Zoho Creator at $8/user/mo. To stop counting seats entirely: Knack, Tadabase, or Bionic Forms, all three of which charge the same whether five people use it or fifty.
Open source? Baserow (MIT, self-host free). NocoDB is source-available under a Sustainable Use License — not OSI open source.
Automatic migration? Records yes (CSV), solutions no. Nothing on this page converts FileMaker layouts and scripts automatically. Plan a rebuild plus a data move, whichever tool you choose.
Do they all charge per user? No — Knack and Tadabase are flat by records and apps; Bionic Forms is flat by apps and storage, with unlimited users on every plan.