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How long will Ninox 3 remain?

I have an idea for a vertical application I would like to put together. I would far rather build this in Ninox 3 (I am finding the interface of Ninox 4 far too cluttered and it's still far from viable) but have concerns about how long it will remain for. Does anyone know how long Ninox 3 will be around?

Thanks John

33 replies

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    • Rafael Sanchis
    • Rafael_Sanchis
    • 3 wk ago
    • Reported - view

    Has anyone managed to do anything even remotely interesting with Ninox 4?

      • John_Schaffer
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Agree with your thinking, and congratulations for making Ninox last as long as it has for you.  Seems like some options here: (1) keep your investment in Ninox and add customer requirements by hiring add-ons out to a firm like nioxus, (2) change to a Ninox successor (Zigaflow as you mention, possibly others) and rebuild all, (3) try to fit your business into an existing set of tools (sometimes can be helpful as some legacy processes could get streamlined but change is always more exciting that desired), (4) something else.  It could be that your success has grown the business to where outsourcing the technologies could be advantageous to allow more focus on revenue-producing, expense-reducing, supply-chain optimizing activities.

    • Rafael Sanchis
    • Rafael_Sanchis
    • 9 days ago
    • Reported - view

    I'd like an explanation as to why an app that works well is suddenly completely changed, copying other databases like Airtable or Seatable that have been on the market for years, and now we have to adapt to a very different database, without a very promising future.

      • John_Schaffer
      • 9 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Didn’t ninox top management change about a year or so ago?  Might be related to V4’s degree of difference from V3.  Perhaps the Board directed ninox to get away from its aging development tools and adopt more modern approaches, including features such as AI-engine integration.  Could also be that the ninox subscribers, at least the bigger ones with hundreds maybe thousands of licenses, could be complaining about the current product and pushing demand to V4 appearance and features.  That would matter to top management, especially if accompanied by lesser usage, dropped licenses, and so on.

      Just surmising here, no inside knowledge of any of the goings-on within ninox.  I’m as stunned as everyone at the new product and the company’s enthusiasm for it.  Reminds me of Apple’s tenacity about Liquid Glass, a UI exactly no one wanted, nor asked for, nor seems to like much.  So what does Apple do?  Trench in harder.

    • Mel_Charles
    • 4 days ago
    • Reported - view

     You may be right here. I have been with Ninox for since 2019 and with dataese + some filmaker before that for some 20 years so i am pretty committed. However in taking a good hard look at myself and the buisness i have to ask "what am I" first and foremost I have and need to run my business, 2md I have always like programming etc. (not to you experts but more than passing interest!) and love databases. + Excel when powered us with VB.

    Ninox has been great and has lets me manulate and manage all quotes/and jobmanagement of my customer database of now just 515k customer records. However This year the performace in terms of error and support has gone quite downhill. Thus I started to seacrh around.

     

    Zizaflow is very good (been testing it all week) and has considerable power and tools. They also work with various industry sectors to tailor the product to suit my sector. There ate loads of switch options to bend it to work how i want and the docx forms for layouts are a breeze!  (are u listing ninox?) The other bits are well within my capablility and i don't nned to desing anything - APIs for my trade have already been agreed with all majoyr product suppliers - so as at now looking good

    JobMgt - is another tool whereby all is provided and i am struggling to think what extras i could use as all the usle plug in are there. ie sptify/tickets etc (not that i need these yet)

    Both of the above are exceptional but come quite pricey for users and data levels needed but !!!!! but give me loads of functionality that I want and to date have not yet or been able to implement into Ninox. Despite my effort to understand Jason - it is a bit of a bridge too far fro me !

    Promos - is based on Filemaker Pro and is an offshoot offering from one of Claris's head software engineers who set up his own company- again complete system will all major API's built in and more in the pipeline. Costs on this is very comparable to what I am paying Ninox - just a tad higher but they will bend the system to what ever we want within reason.

    Promosoft - is a basic system but still from quote to invoicing - stock etc etc. NO Api's and the interface looks somewhat DOS like but it is clean and def cheap! 5 users for £40 a month all in - Probably too cheap and limited for me. 

    I think my time has come to change ! Anyway my wife moans at me for spending night after night coding up forms and adding scripts etc. But at least it stops me playing the piano which annoys her even more 🤣 - bless her!

    It is sad to think there are a core set of colleagues on this forum that appear to be upset. Never noticed this in the years I have been a forum member.

      • Rafael Sanchis
      • Rafael_Sanchis
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       

      I've seen it confirmed in the community and official forums that Ninox 4 (table) still doesn't have feature parity with Ninox 3, so I wouldn't expect an immediate replacement. According to one community member, it's still about a year o more out before both versions match in features and stability.

      The automatic 3→4 (table) migration tool doesn't yet exist in a solid form. It's not even settled how migration would be handled per database/workspace instead of per whole account — that's an active complaint from owners managing dozens of workspaces, and I see it as a critical point before making the jump.

      There are basic questions, like whether the Mac or Android app will work without the team feature (local databases, no cloud), that remain officially unanswered. Ninox itself admits they're still deep in development and can't confirm those details yet.

      One historical problem from v3 that v4 (table) likely inherits: the form editor is still rigid, without a truly free pixel-perfect design. You have to "trick" the layout with invisible spaces and line breaks to position elements where you want them.

       

      😙

      • Mel_Charles
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I don't need to panic on this but am starting to discover other alternative options re software out there.

      • Rafael Sanchis
      • Rafael_Sanchis
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       

      in the same way 👍

    • John_Schaffer
    • yesterday
    • Reported - view

    I don’t use ninox for any business reason (long retired) but do create a lot of things to help my own interests around the house and for some of the organizations I volunteer with.  I’m the only user so license costs are a non-issue.

    I mention the above but I’m still interested in the future of the product as V4 progresses.  For folks using ninox as a “bet your business” tool, seeing the concerns of  and  is both illuminating and a tad scary.  While working I either led or was involved in major conversion projects that were never, ever, cheap or quick, but eventually (well beyond the quarterly performance numbers for executive oversight) helped the business in innumerable ways.  Think things like mainframe TSO/IMS processing to Oracle, or early HR systems to PeopleSoft, etc., etc.  The process for selecting the next tool is messy, confusing, and looking back after the fact raises a lot of angst for analysts as well as the decision-makers.

    If you hire a consulting practice (obviously for a large company, not the local plumbing business) to assist, they will encourage you to document your needs and business rules from owners of processes likely to be touched by the outgoing and incoming software.  On that basis, they identify a couple of options, you pick the least offensive, convert, and move on with your lives.  I suggest a slightly alternative, possible additional, analysis.  With a firm understanding of the key inputs and outputs to the business (supply chain and sales), a good question to ask is: “How will my business be changed (better, worse) if I adopt the processes embedded in the software application thereby making minimal customizations?”  If outcomes are better, go for it.  Otherwise, eat the customization.

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