Upgrade your FileMaker system to FileMaker 2025.
Find out more how we can upgrade your system and take advantage of these new capabilities.
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On 8 July Claris released the latest version of Claris FileMaker, FileMaker 2025 (aka FileMaker 22). The big news is that… there is no big news. Claris continue to improve this platform in small incremental ways. It sounds boring. It is boring. And it’s excellent news.
Why? Because it shows that this platform is already mature and lacks nothing significant. It shows that Claris, backed by Apple, continue to support it and invest in it.
When you choose a platform to build your business and your future upon, you don’t want exciting. You want longevity. You want commitment. You want stability. That’s what Claris FileMaker delivers.
FileMaker is that rare thing: a software product that has lasted for 40 years. Among low code platforms it is a veteran. It has existed since the 1980s and it is still improving. Clearly this is something you can genuinely rely on – unlike a fly by night newcomer.
In this world, old is good and new is bad, because new platforms can and do disappear at short notice.
Actually there is one rather good new feature. FileMaker Server 2025 now has a built in ‘Artificial Intelligence Model Server’. This means you can run whatever data models you like (for example ‘Google Gemma’, a lightweight open source gen AI model), directly on your server, without sending your data to third-party AI providers.
This is really important. If you hold personal or confidential information from clients or end users, you can keep your promise to them that this data never leaves your organisation. Usually with an AI tool, you send your information out from your server – that’s what happens if you type something into ChatGPT or Claude. They keep hold of that information and make use of it. So clearly you can’t give AI providers confidential information to process, which makes using AI tools on client data tricky.
But now Claris have given us the tools to deliver the benefits of AI while sticking to the enduring principle of data confidentiality. But there is a problem. This needs a very powerful server, as AI is power-hungry. If you’re using a cloud-hosted server, it could get expensive. We can talk you through your options: see hosting options.
A further minor benefit of FileMaker 2025 is improvements to the developer environment, which makes systems easier for developers like us to work on. We appreciate Claris for thinking of us!
Finally, FileMaker 2025 offers some quite significant speed improvements – and more to come. But only if you write your system in such a way as to take advantage of them. Existing systems won’t benefit without some re-engineering.
Whether that re-engineering is worthwhile for your business depends on how much speed matters to you. If your users need answers from your system fast, and any delays create problems or costs, it’s something worth considering. If you’re not sure, discuss it with us.
And our summary of FileMaker 2025? A great platform just got a little bit greater.
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