Knack

Sky is the Limit

Commentaires : Fantastic. We had worked to solve problems for no less than 24 months prior to our introduction to knack. From the time we started with knack we had a minimum viable internal product within 90 days and a customer facing web-portal (providing sales, project, and invoice detail) in 180 days. With knack we have have saved an immeasurable amount of time and resource.

Avantages :

Very simple to solve for Secure, HIPPA, PCI compliant user logins. Ability to pivot large data-set with simplified permission based views - no incremental expense for additional users / views / roles.

Inconvénients :

Support. Our reliance on knack is significant in pre-sale functions and as a result, when it breaks we have always defined the solution (or created the work-around) several days before a knack tech gets around to responding to our requests.

Alternatives envisagées : Ninox, Caspio et Zoho Creator

Pourquoi choisir Knack : Zoho (circa 2017) ran slow, profiles/roles difficult to provision, integrations broke regularly (though this could be the fault of zapier or integromat).

Logiciel antérieur : Zoho Creator

Pourquoi passer à Knack : 'record' versus 'user' based rates.

Knack is very helpful

Commentaires : We use knack to store multiple sets of data. It is extremely helpful in tracking donations (and donors), restricted grants (and foundations/organizations who provide grants), and complex volunteer jobs for a non-profit. We are able to track and analyze all of this information through Knack. I especially like that we can attach documents to records in Knack so all of the information we need is right in one place. Also, being able to set up scheduled reminders is a lifesaver to ensure that we won't miss deadlines for important tasks.

Avantages :

I like that in Knack I can access all-inclusive data, and see it reported in a variety of ways. I can opt for simple summary reports, more complex detailed reports, or even colorful and pretty graphs. I can use a wide variety of parameters to create the report, and I can sort the included data in a variety of ways. I can also export data in different formats. Knack is extremely flexible for me. Full disclosure - I am a frequent Knack user, but I do not record data into Knack, nor do I set up the databases at all. That magic is all done by someone else, so I cannot comment on the administrator aspects of Knack.

Inconvénients :

Sometimes Knack will log me out while I am in the process of using it. I try to accept the blame when this happens because I always have too many tabs open in my browser, and I often work in 2 different sections of Knack simultaneously. However, it is definitely frustrating. Also, I have a pet peeve about the number of items I can view in one page of a report. For a report with lots of items, I have to navigate forward or back between many pages. I would much prefer to scroll further down the same page to see data in a long report. I don't know of any way to alter the number of items per page.

Hands Down the Best Database Solution for Small Companies/Organizations

Commentaires : Knack is the coolest, easy-to-use, most robust database software that we've found. Our non-profit plants thousands of trees each year and we needed an application to keep track of all the plots of trees that we plant, which species are planted, how old they are, when they're due for a check-up, if there are any issues with bugs or disease, etc. We started testing out Knack and within a day we had our entire application built just like we needed. We highly recommend Knack for any small companies or organizations that want a custom app and data manager, but don't have the budget to hire a developer make a custom software for you.

Avantages :

We loved how easy it was to onboard with Knack. The free trial gave us the chance to make sure we could design the database and front-end website that we wanted. After that, it was easy to select the payment plan we needed with a price that was surprisingly low.Other pros include the ability to have multiple website pages and tabs, create multiple database tables that interact and link with each other, and embed charts on the front-end site.

Inconvénients :

The only con that we've found is that the formula fields are somewhat limited as far as what they can do. It would be great to have a few more options like IF or CONCATENATE formulas to populate and format certain columns dynamically based on the value of other columns. Also, the appearance/design options for the front-end site are pretty limited in their builder. However, I think you can do custom CSS and Javascript; we just haven't had the time or developer abilities to do it yet.

Numerous bugs and lack of customer service taint an otherwise useful tool

Commentaires : This system worked well for what we needed this year. The main need was to create a system to enter and track points from our various members for year-end awards. This was a complex system to build because of the many different categories involved, and so far Knack has handled it. Building the system was extremely frustrating at times, as fields and properties would sometimes refuse to update, or the system would just hang and not do anything. I have built other apps with much the same issues. Customer service was initially helpful but now seems to ignore my requests for looking into bugs even after multiple attempts to have them resolved. We are on the middle tier plan. For example in one of my apps, the app simply hangs if I sort a certain table by one of the fields. Their answer was to not sort it by that field when using the app. I have also had records that should have been deleted not be deleted. I have put my own stop checks into the app and have not had any corrupted data as of yet, but the issues I've had do concern me.

Avantages :

-Easy to learn and build numerous apps -Lots of functional field types -Easy to customize CSS and Javascript for each app if desired -Excellent price point

Inconvénients :

-Very buggy -Customer service was initially very responsive, but eventually stopped responding to my requests for simple bugs in my app to be fixed, even after numerous attempts to resolve.

Alternatives envisagées : Tadabase, QuintaDB et Caspio

Pourquoi passer à Knack : Caspio was too expensive for what we received. Tadabase and QuintaDB are not fully realized yet and did not have the required calculation fields necessary.

Game changer

Commentaires : Game changer. Cant imaging our business without it. The speed in which we can develop apps to run companies is unmatched. We have tried to find a replacement, there isn’t one. Also a big bonuses is how quickly this scales. We run family owned plumbing operations up to globally companies operating in several countries all from the same platform with no need of expanding local server resources.

Avantages :

The fact that the software acts like a native app but is in reality a micro website. Edit and upgrades are pushed out with a refresh with having to go through the process of submitting to an App Store. Also dont need to develop for different platforms/screen sizes. One size fits all

Inconvénients :

There are several features that have been requested over the years from many users that seem to be left behind. The biggest one in 2020 is that the mobile side needs a big upgrade in order to compete with native apps. A big one for us is uploading of photos on the mobile side. Its very cumbersome and slow. We have lost a few jobs because of this. Need some sort of mobile app that connects to these databases.

Alternatives envisagées : Claris FileMaker, Zoho CRM, Quickbase et Google Sheets

Pourquoi choisir Knack : The biggest one was setting up remote servers. Plus the ease of development. Although FileMaker gives a much more expanded design aspect, we preferred speed of development and deployment over this.

Logiciel antérieur : Claris FileMaker

Pourquoi passer à Knack : Only need to develop one platform, the speed of edits, the ability to develop on an iPad, the ease of adding multiple users