Claris Now Offering “Bundle”

Claris is now offering their platform as a bundle, which includes a volume license. How does the volume license differ from a site license?

until now, a volume license is for some of the (known...) employees of a company, a site license is for all employees - even the facility group that never works with FileMaker

This bundle is similar to the "Problem solver circle" offer except it is for regular subscriptions. On top of that you may get a license for the number of users from one. In short its FileMaker Pro, FMS, and Claris Studio.

One bundle provides "FileMaker Anonymous Users" (For WebDirect or Go) and the other does not.

Many of my clients have a small number of employees, but want to run a public WebDirect website which could (potentially) have thousands of users (though rarely more than a handful at once).

For the limitation on anonymous users - is it a technical limitation that is enforced? Or is it merely a licensising rule?

Handle with care. Accepting the EULA means accepting being subject to audits conducted by the vendor. If you violated the licensing terms you may face the consequences.

Nobody should be violating software licenses, hope that's not what people think I'm implying, I'm mostly asking if anyone has a link to the actual license terms. Historically, Claris has not made this stuff easy to find (or to understand).

I like the idea that "anonymous WebDirect Users" is on their radar as a needed feature, but the devil is surlely in the cost and license terms...

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Licensing rule. There is no technical means that monitors compliance.

This is not new. Site licenses have allowed anonymous users for quite a while. Note, however, that the license limits anonymous access via FileMaker Pro to employees of the site license. There is also no right to distribute FileMaker Pro outside the organization.

Thank you. I'm currently using the older licenses with my clients which have a specific number of Concurrent Users which applies both to FileMaker Pro access as well as WebDirect. With these older licenses, there is a technical limitation: if you have N users and N+1 try to connect, the connection will be denied.

I would suggest contacting Claris to learn if and how the Bundle would apply.

Anyone know if the Problem Solvers Circle lets you run more than one instance of FileMaker Server on premises? For "Number of users" it says "Site license for the entire organization" but not clear to me if that means only 1 FMS instance or many. (I do have an email into a Claris sales rep, and will report back what I hear)

only Claris can answer this question - good question for one of the upcoming webinars!

Until now, a site license (schools are a bit different since a teacher is not in every case an employee of the specific school but of the gouvernement - at least in our country) covers all the employees of a company. Then, the license covered all the products for the number of employees, FileMaker Client, FileMaker Server, Connections to a server, etc. (means: 25 employees, 25 servers)

Until recently, one gets even 3 servers with a volume license with the option to ask for even more

Therefore, You should get more than one server - but maybe this will change (was changed). The Claris product line consists of FileMaker Pro, Claris Pro, Server, connect, studio, cloud, go - can result in new licenses

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Oh no, not a question about license :cry:.

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I have been told by one person at Claris that the "Problem Solver Circle - Site License for X users" does allow unlimited WebDirect anonymous connections, and lets you run more than one instance of FileMaker Server on premises. I'm still trying to get confirmation and/or to see something official in writing. Will report back when I know more.

As I wait for Claris to return my email to answer the question "how many copies of FileMakerServer (FMS) can I run under this license"...

Thanks to Claris Studio now available! - #4 by planteg I found links which takes one to actual License PDF:

Which says this:

(b) License Grant. Licensee represents that the “License Count” provided by Licensee is its current total headcount for Licensee’s entire entity as identified by Tax ID#, site address or other identification acknowledged in writing by Claris. Upon payment of all applicable license fees and subject to the terms of this Agreement, Claris grants to Licensee a non- exclusive, limited term, nontransferable license to (i) make exact object code copies of the Software, and (ii) install and use such Software on computers owned or leased by Licensee at its site. Licensee may not install more copies of Claris FileMaker Server or Claris Server software than the License Count.

(emphasis mine)

I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice, but it sounds like if you had a 30-person license, you could install 30 copies of FMS.

However, it also sounds as if the Licensee must be a single entity as described (in 1.d.i):

(i) Licensees. The Software may be used by all employees of Licensee as identified by the Tax ID# or other identification acknowledged in writing by Claris, provided that such employees are included in the License Count. Temporary employees, contractors, and consultants of Licensee may also use the Software in connection with the operation of the business of Licensee so long as such temporary employees, contractors and consultants were included in the License Count. [...]

They include a special clause for education, which is nice (1.d.ii)

(ii) Education. The Software may only be used by Licensee’s enrolled students, faculty, teaching assistants, administrators and staff on Licensee’s computers at facilities governed by Licensee during the term of the Agreement.

Also, the License does not mention "anonymous" users by that term, but it does discuss it in section 1 (e):

(e) Clients. Claris FileMaker Server Software includes the rights to access data stored in the database server using Claris FileMaker WebDirect web browser clients, Claris FileMaker Go clients and Claris FileMaker Pro clients (collectively “FileMaker Client(s)”). Claris Server Software includes the rights to access data stored in the database server using Claris WebDirect web browser clients, Claris Go clients and Claris Pro clients (collectively “Claris Clients”). Each Authorized User may use any Client to connect to

Claris FileMaker Server or Claris Server, however only FileMaker Clients can connect to Claris FileMaker Server and only Claris Clients can connect to Claris Server.

Claris FileMaker WebDirect and Claris FileMaker Go version 19 clients are not restricted for use by Authorized Users (as defined in Section 1(d)) when connecting to Claris FileMaker Server version 19.
(emphasis mine)

I'm still not sure if this license will work for my needs, but it is nice that Claris seems open to making changes to meet our needs...

Site license allows filemaker go and webdirect Anonymous use. (= people outside organization and not included in the user count). It has been the case before as well.

To cicrle back on this - after much back & forth, FM offered me a discount on a site license (which is not PSC or the Bundle). The site license provides:

  • N installations of FMPro
  • N installations of FMServer (I didn't believe this at first, but I triple checked and it's true)
  • Each FMServer install has 500 anonymous webDirect connections
  • It's a purchase (but includes free updates for 24 months)

All in all, it ends up roughly the same as I was paying before, but has much better specifications (one of my old licenses was limited to 5 webDirect users, for example).

I'm happy with the final result, but the process of getting there was painful - many many emails back & forth...

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Glad you got an offer you that pleases you :champagne:.

That is really good news. I'm glad to know that Claris is prepared to make the deal work.

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