Our clinic uses FileMaker Pro to keep track of our medical supply inventory and patient records, and I use Bento to keep track of my marketing contacts and speaking engagements.
- Homeopathic Clinician, FileMaker Pro & Bento customer
Compare Bento vs. FileMaker Pro
FileMaker, Inc. makes the most-popular, easy to use databases in the world for iPad, iPhone, Windows, Mac, and the web.
The leading personal database
For iPad, iPhone, and Mac
Work
- Organize contacts and customers
- Track group projects and task lists
- Plan company events and meetings
- Print mailing labels and inventory tags
Home
- Record home inventory with pictures and video
- Catalog wines, movies, and other collections
School
- Track uniforms and equipment on loan
- Organize lesson plans and curriculum
Community
- Organize club members and volunteers
- Track community projects and task lists
The easy-to-use business database
For iPad, iPhone, Windows,
Mac, and the web
Business
- Manage customers, employees, and vendors
- Track projects, workflow, and deliverables
- Coordinate events and meetings
- Manage inventory, assets, and equipment
- Produce invoices, sales reports and charts
- Distribute facilities work requests
Government
- Organize licensing data and compliance
- Catalog evidence and case records
Education
- Manage new student registrations
- Organize and analyze research data
Non-Profit
- Match donations with recipients
- Manage fundraising and relationships
| Bento | FileMaker Pro | |
|---|---|---|
What are the prices?Prices are listed in U.S. dollars |
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Volume discounts for 5 or more licenses |
What platforms are supported? |
Bento 4 for Mac runs on Mac OS X 10.6.6 or Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 only. Bento for iPad and Bento for iPhone are also available, both sold separately. |
FileMaker Pro runs on Windows and Mac. FileMaker Go for iPad and FileMaker Go for iPhone are also available as a free download. |
How many users are supported? |
Typical: 1 user |
Typical: 1-20 users |
Can I customize the screens? |
Bento is based on selectable themes that manage screen design for you. You can add fields, forms, horizontal lines, column separators, spacers, image boxes and text boxes. |
FileMaker Pro allows you to customize nearly every aspect of the screen. You have full control graphics, charts, fonts, colors, field formats, tab order, scrolling portals, web views and more. |
Can I produce reports and charts? |
Bento can produce simple spreadsheet-like lists, which can also include a Summary Row for sums, counts, averages, min, and max values. Bento does not have any charting capabilities. |
FileMaker Pro has much more robust reporting, including custom summary and sub-summary reports that can be printed or automatically emailed as an Excel or PDF file. FileMaker Pro also generates bar, line, area and pie charts. |
Can I automate tasks? |
Bento does not have any automation capabilities and does not support Apple Script. |
FileMaker Pro has very powerful automation features that allow you to set triggers and notifications based on user actions, such as sending an email, moving to the next field, and generating reports. |
What about access over the web? |
Bento does not provide any access to databases over the web. |
Use FileMaker Pro to publish databases to the web that can be edited by users simultaneously or set to Read-Only, if you prefer. This is ideal for mobile salespeople and offsite contractors who need to edit and update information remotely. |
Does it work with my other programs? |
Bento will import your OS X Address Book data into a Bento Contacts library. |
FileMaker Pro supports industry standards: Microsoft Office, email, browsers, PHP, MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server and active directory. |
Can I get data in and out? |
Bento imports/exports: Excel, Numbers, CSV files, TAB files, and Bento templates (with or without record data). |
FileMaker Pro has more extensive import/export capabilities: Excel, CSV files, TAB files, and XML, MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server, and 0ther ODBC data sources. Also imports Bento for Mac data. |
Is my data protected? |
Bento allows password protection of databases, libraries or fields. Bento also supports encrypted fields for storing website logins and other sensitive data. |
FileMaker Pro has more sophisticated password-based privilege-sets that can be assigned to individual users or groups allowing or denying access to certain layouts, fields and other information you choose. |
More information |
If you’d like more details, please contact us via your preferred method, and we can help you decide. |
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Next Steps |
Compare all FileMaker products Learn more about Bento Learn more about FileMaker |
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