Ninox Database 4+

I use this to track my income and expenditure, to create my tax records, so my need is very straightforward. I.e. no printing of invoices. It synchronises between my laptop, iMac and iOS devices using iCloud with no issues and I’ve used it for a couple of years now.

Having tried all the other reasonably priced ‘databases’ out there - which are really just single tables and found their synchronisation flaky at best, I settled for Ninox.

My only gripe is their support pages can be confusing and why they recently changed their icon from that of a database, which was easy to recognise as a database to something random is beyond me.

Like other reviews, I find this tool unintuitive and the manual a little difficult to follow. That said, that's not my big issue with this; it's that there is no security built in - you cannot protect the database with a password/encryption which might be a deal breaker for some - especially if you are putting some sensitive information in there and wish to sync that data across your iPad and iPhone. If you do want to sync, be aware your database file is sat in the cloud and a single password breach means it's accessible.

Even the location of the file if you run it standalone is strange - buried in an arcane path (and the documentation is wrong here by the way) rather than having the option of saving to documents (where of course you could put an encrypted container and protect it). The Ninox answer to this is to buy into Ninox Cloud but I'd argue in this day and age, security should be built into the product, not bolted on to the outside. Finally, this was a requested feature (by someone else) over two years ago and today I got told it would be added to the list - given the last update was updated fonts I wouldn't hold your breath for a secure version anytime soon.

Two stars because it looks nice - could have been 5 if done properly.

I am really impressed with this piece of software. It’s not yet perfect with a few small gremlins but they are of a minor nature. Having previously used Filemaker I have some experience of relational database design and while this isn’t a full replacement for Filemaker it would probably satisfy lots of people. It is suprisingly powerful, very stable and does everything I need. I can’t comment on performance once the database gets large and complicated because I have only been using it for a few days but I have built a very useful, multi-table database that has made a real contribution to my working day. Great value for money, highly recommended.

UPDATE. I have now been using Ninox for 18 months and I still rate it very highly. It is regularly maintained and updated with new abilities. It has never crashed and runs in the background 24/7. Still very highly recommended.