An honest 2026 assessment of Claris FileMaker - where the platform is, where it's going, who still uses it, and when it is (and isn't) the right tool.
Updated April 2026 · 9 min read · By Neptune Digital
A client asks us some version of this question roughly once a fortnight, usually after reading a LinkedIn post from someone who hasn't touched the platform in ten years. The short answer is yes - but it depends on the shape of what you're building. This is our honest 2026 assessment.
Claris International Inc. - a wholly-owned Apple subsidiary, formerly FileMaker Inc. - continues to ship two core products under the Claris brand:
Note: Claris Studio has been discontinued and will shut down on 15 March 2027. FileMaker data is unaffected.
The release cadence is roughly annual for major versions with point releases throughout the year. Claris maintains a public roadmap and an active developer programme.
The "FileMaker is dead" meme has reappeared on the internet roughly every two years since 2010. It has been wrong every time. In 2026 the platform:
None of which is a guarantee that FileMaker is right for your project - only that the platform is not going anywhere.
In the UK, the user base skews to:
The common thread: teams of 5–500 users that need a custom workflow that off-the-shelf SaaS doesn't quite cover, and that can justify a proper build rather than a spreadsheet.
We say this a lot, which usually surprises people who expect a Claris Partner to sell FileMaker into every brief. FileMaker is the wrong tool for:
FileMaker in 2026 is a mature, actively-developed, Apple-owned low-code application platform with a strong niche: internal, relational, workflow-heavy business applications for 5–500 users. If that is what you are building, it is one of the cheapest and fastest routes to a real production system. If it isn't, pick the right tool for the job - a good Claris Partner will tell you when FileMaker isn't it.
See also - Best FileMaker Developers in the UK (2026), FileMaker vs Airtable, or the UK FileMaker cost guide.
Yes. Claris International Inc. (the company behind FileMaker, a wholly-owned Apple subsidiary) continues to actively develop the Claris platform in 2026. Claris FileMaker and Claris Connect receive regular feature releases and security updates. Claris Studio has been discontinued (shutdown 15 March 2027) but FileMaker data is unaffected. Claris publishes a roadmap and an annual release cadence.
No. The 'FileMaker is dead' meme reappears on the internet roughly every two years and has been wrong every time. Claris FileMaker remains a supported, actively developed, enterprise-licensed Apple-owned product with hundreds of thousands of active deployments globally. The product has been rebranded from FileMaker Pro (2019 onward it is marketed under the Claris brand) but the platform, file format, licensing model and developer community are alive and growing.
Recent Claris platform additions include: AI and large language model integration hooks built into the scripting engine; deeper native REST and OData support; improved SSO and SCIM for enterprise identity; ongoing performance work on FileMaker Server; and native Apple Silicon optimisation. The broad direction is integration-friendly, cloud-native and AI-ready. Note: Claris Studio has been discontinued (shutdown 15 March 2027) but FileMaker data is unaffected.
Apple itself, still. Plus hundreds of thousands of organisations globally - roughly half in the US, the rest spread across Europe, Japan and the rest of the world. In the UK, users skew towards professional services, sports and governing bodies, media, healthcare, manufacturing, public sector, education and charities - anywhere a team of 5–500 users needs a custom workflow that off-the-shelf SaaS can't quite cover.
FileMaker is the wrong choice when you need: a consumer-facing web app at scale (use a modern web stack), a global data platform with many millions of records per table (use a cloud data warehouse), a spreadsheet-shaped workflow for 1–10 users (Airtable is faster), or a pure mobile-app product (build native iOS/Android). FileMaker is the right choice for internal, workflow-heavy, relational, multi-user business applications with 5–500 users.
For a bespoke internal business application at 5–500 users, FileMaker is one of the fastest and cheapest routes to a production system in 2026 - genuinely low-code, with a proper relational data model, a mature scripting engine, native iOS, and UK-hostable servers. For consumer-facing products or ultra-high-scale data, use something else. The honest framing is not 'FileMaker or nothing' - it is 'FileMaker where the shoe fits'.
