Tap Forms Organizer 5 Database 4+

Wait, I haven't written a review about TapForms yet? impossible, it's only my most used app, ever since the first iPhone or whenever this app was first offered for sale. It started as my password holder, but over the years it has grown and blossomed like the phone itself. I was using this app way back when it had a crappy icon, yeah I've been a fan since before Brendan was famous. TapForms now is a daily user for me and indexing every kind of note, document, folder and all those passwords. So many passwords.

Behind all the great design and functionality is Brendan, the dev team and owner all in one. Over the years, I've come to Brendan for help with how to do this or do that, and he's always been there, always in a timely manner. I'm not really doing this app justice either, because I use about 20% of what it can do. It can organize just about everything digital and keep it safe. It doesn't get any better than that.
The take away here is that Brendan has created and continues to improve an app that is more than worth the price of purchase, whichever operating system you use. In the era of online protection, TapForms holds its own against the best of them.

I moved over to TAP firms when Apple stopped supporting Bento. I’ve been keeping tack of my craft supplies since the Palm Pilot days. I was able to easily import the data from Bento into TAP forms, and I’ve been using it ever since- on my laptop, iPad and of course, my iPhone. I have every stamp set, die cut set, Copic market, craft idea book, sewing pattern and all my crafts cataloged so I always know what I have to avoid duplicate purchases. Since I also have pictures of each item, I can quickly scroll through and find a particular item quickly. Most recently, after cleaning out my closet during COVID, I started logging my wardrobe so when I am able to go out shopping again (or shopping online from my couch), I’ll know exactly what I have on hand and what size it is. Again, since I added pictures, I can quickly pull together outfits. I was trying to use Stylebook for this, but TAP forms is easier since I already know how to use it plus this app is regularly updated unlike other apps for tracking your wardrobe.

This is an exceptional software package. I previously used FileMaker’s Bento product, which was discontinued, and for context I use MySQL and MongoDB in enterprise applications. I love having a lightweight database on my computer (and now my iPad too). Tap Forms picked up where Bento left off and added impressive capabilities.

Its utility to import my Bento databases worked flawlessly; it took some work to prep the Bento files but no work after the import. My databases now sync with my teammate, providing great utility to my workflow. I did have a problem setting up IBM Cloudant (the service changed and Tap Forms did not work with it). Their customer support was extremely responsive. Within one day, they provided a workaround solution setting up my Cloudant service as a CouchDB. The workaround worked flawlessly.

If a lightweight desktop would benefit your lifestyle or workflow, particularly if you want to share that database through the cloud, I cannot recommend this product too enthusiastically.