+1
Yep!
The number of postings with the new licensing to try to answer "what is a (FMP) user?" could fill several books.
And on Thursday there will be "Claris Open Q&A with Giuliano Iacobelli and Rick Kalman". This is a chance to ask about Claris Studio.
but those two are not responsible for licensing questions..
If one speaks the German language (and lives in that region (time zones...)), a phone call to the 'FileMaker Magazin' is worth more than anything else.
We (as Claris Partners) do not sell licenses. All the licenses are done via the FileMaker Magazin (K&K Verlag) - there are to many not-so-clear things in Claris licensing...
One of the main problems here is 'sharing licenses', for example a company has a FM solution for entering working hours. There are never more than 10 users in FM at one time.
When it comes to web direct, it's getting even more complicated. There are situations where a company has 10 or 20 employees - but during 'high season', there might be 50 or more, volunteers as well...
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My posting was about WebDirect and Claris' apparent greed-based, Sales Prevention Licensing (SPL) that prevented me from using FileMaker to support a client.
I could care less about Claris Studio. I would rather Claris implement hugely v 1.0 type missing features in FileMaker like basic script search across a solution.
Thanks.
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That's Ok. With the Tuesday session you have the chance to get answers from the horse mouth. These guys are with Apple - Apple now have a large part of managing Claris - they are able to tell you exactly how licensing works.
On Tuesday I'm going to be busy trying to get work done for my client.
My hope was I could just order the license online with clear explanations so I could get work done for my client and for my business! If I have to attend a conference to figure out how licensing works, that's not good.
I've moved this project to Ninox and completed it in 30 minutes. It's hosted and ready to go. My hope would have been FMS, but I'm no longer considering FMS for future client work based on this rediculous experience with "FM Sales (prevention)".
I do appreciate your reply. 
Thank you.
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I spoke with a long-time FileMaker user over the weekend (won't mention his name for his privacy) and he told me that the Claris sales folks are not the best and apparently, the one I spoke with, didn't know what he was talking about. He also told me that he had a claris sales person who was a former used car salesman. I believe it!
So, the long and short of it is that he said that I'm fine using FMS five user license for my client to connect to my FileMaker app to enter data as long as I don't already have five other users. I could also get a site license (someday, maybe!) for $2,400 / year with 100 WD connections.
I wish claris would just DITCH (!!!) their sales "team" and get a comprehensive online ordering capability. From every experience I've ever had with them, these sales people add nothing but confusion (see this thread), irritation, and sales prevention.
I'll stick with Ninox for this go-round, but will again consider FMS for the next project.
Hope this update is helpful.
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Getting people on the phone with "Sales" is like a car dealer so they can employ value pricing instead of posted pricing. When a sales process is fuzzy, it's easier to create a bit of confusion which makes it easier to profit.
But at some point people will walk away.
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Sales man are sales man, not technical people. This is something that will change, I believe that Apple will take care of that, I can't say when though.
@OliverBarrett , in which country are you located ?
I am in US.
It's unfortunate you can't watch the presentation about licensing.
It's unfortunate, IMHO, that watching a presentation would be necessary to understand licensing and that it's so complicated in the first place. I've never had to "understand" licensing. This is ridiculous!
In any case, surprise!, it seems that I got bad info from the "sales" person at Claris and in actuality the regular 5 user license would have been really OK for my client to access my (future) FMS server via Web Direct to add data to an app I wrote to gather requirements.
I'll stick with Ninox for this go-round since I did that app quickly and hosted it with no need to "understand" licensing and the hour after hour I've spent on Claris profit-driven licensing maze.
As previously stated, Claris should really ditch their "sales" people and put a webpage on their site with CLEAR options and explanations. The Claris sales people, at least the one I spoke with, didn't seem to know these options or maybe it was classic "bait and switch" trying to sell me something more expensive than I needed. Who knows?
This whole experience made it seem to me that Claris does not have their act together. A presentation won't fix that, either.
Thanks,
1 Like
Posted by Claris on YouTube, a one hour presentation from DevCon August, 2018
[Filemaker Licensing Simplified FBA 02}
Also this week...
FileMaker Licensing Strategy Update
Giuliano Iacobelli and Rick Kalman from Claris Inc, will be on two livestreams to talk about their latest products and licensing strategy and have an open Q&A.
Tuesday, Aug 29th 2023 1-2PM, Claris Product and Licensing Strategy Update
Thursday, Aug 31st 2023 1-2PM, Claris Open Q&A
The FMTraining YouTube channel by RC Consulting
Sales staff never decides about strategies and methods employed. Sales staff follows orders. They are not responsible for the current state of the product, it’s licensing and how this company behaves.
For eight years we have been subjected to embarrassing marketing campaigns, a self-serving product strategy, an equally self-serving licensing and pricing policy and an arrogant we-do-not-discuss-the-product-with-developers attitude.
Apparently, shit has hit the fan and there is sort of a small change. Too little, too late. Obviously there is something Apple should take care of.
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This is happening, lot of Apple employees on board of Claris now.
A one-hour presentation titled ‘FileMaker licensing simplified’. That’s a good one!
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Agreed, good points!
@Torsten and @OliverBarrett ,
how about listening to the presentation and then determine if it's too long ?
The presentation Torsten mentioned dates back to 2018, and my guess is that things have changed since.
Sure, the price went up. 
For my latest project (replacing a filemaker solution) I am implementing the server in Vapor with a Postgres backend. The client is developed in Swift. No license cost for the tools, no license cost for deployment - and great flexibility and scalability.
I’ll watch how FileMaker things will evolve and what Claris’ value proposition will be, but I am done with one-hour webinars full of marketing shenanigans.
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so you are a happy guy having no Windows users to supply to / support 