Tap Forms Organizer and Secure Database App Reviews

I bought this after learning that Bento was being discontinued, and needing to find an alternative where I could migrate my Bento databases. For someone who is an artist and not an expert in database creation I can say It has been effortless to migrate my data from Bento over to Tap Forms. Plus, it adds functionality that I never had in Bento, like creating custom labels that really allow me to edit the layout and output to a much finer degree. I have been really pleased with this software so far.

Love the flexibility and ease the use of this app. Wherever I had questions, I found that the developer already posted answers for on the internet. Form creation was easy, adding fields was easy, love the field types and the connection to contacts, and editing drop downs was simple. My one wish, synch forms and records between users real time versus just iCloud. With that said, I easily exported the forms and records to another user and they will be the master record keeper for a specific form we are using. I rarely write review but this one deserves two thumbs up!

I recently came to realize this version is now tecchincally out of date, as there is a seprate version 5 build. Unfortuatnly the new build requires yet another cloud service, as if I don’t already subscribe to enough. The new service REQUIRES a credit card to sign up, even though you *may* never be charged. This is a lot more than I want to deal with, so it’s time to move on and find yet another database application to replace this one.

I have both Mac and iOS apps. The entire sync mechansim between Mac and iOS is cumbersome and not intuitive and if you are not careful you could inadvertently overwrite your database on your MAc with an older version from your iOS device or vice versa.. I think the Mac version is fine by itself though and much safer to use without the iOS version. In fact I strongly reccommend only getting either the Mac or the iOS versions but not using both together. Now there are new versions of both the Mac and iOS apps that still do not support sync properly - no Dropbox or iCloud support at all and the reasoning behind this does not make sense to me. There are numberous apps that use Dropbox sync that were just released and I do not agree with the developers reasoning to use a sync service no one has ever heard of before in the new version which WILL cost you money if you go over a certain data threshold each month! I am not upgrading again until a standard sync service like Dropbox is used. One specific app that I own versions of on both the Mac and iOS works flawlessly with Dropbox and also uses a database to store it’s data so I am not satisfied with this decision. This app was released a week ago.

Update: As you can read I got away from Tap Forms awhile back due to sync issues etc. Well, I came back to give it another try, and as of today, all of my saved files are gone. This time, gone for good. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I really like the concept of this app, and have been using it for months, both business and personal. The syncing has always been a little wonky, but I have worked through that, until today. Today the syncing cost me a significant spreadsheet. Shame on me for not having an independent backup. I’ve lost data before that I have recovered, but it looks like I’m out of luck this time. I’ll be moving to another app. I’ll be monitoring this app, and hope to return someday, but for now, I must be going ...

This ought to be a very useful app for all those who cannot afford FileMaker or who were abandoned by Bento or by almost anyone needing a cloud-syncing multi-device database. I certainly thought so and I spent quite a lot of money and two weeks exploring its capabilities before putting all my business records onto Tap Forms. And then, very recently, I was met by the dreaded spinning beach-ball that all Mac users thought was almost an extinct monster. I found that there was no way to access my files (in fact no way to do anything at all with the app). I tried everything a power user can think of to fix the problem but my Mac’s Force Quit function could only advise me (relentlessly) that “Tap Forms is not responding”. This would not have worried me too much if the Tap Forms support team (Brendan) had been able to respond instead… but he wasn’t. So, all together it’s a lovely concept and worthy of consideration. It’s the sort of thing many of us really need (for home, business, patients’ records, archives, etc) but not yet an app that any serious user should completely trust. Getting shut out of one’s own data (not even being able to export it to some other application) is something most of us thought we’d said goodbye to in 1992 (when thankfully System 7 arrived)!

I really enjoy using Tapforms for all different kinds of data I collect at my job or at home. The support is outstanding!! Really worth the money!!

Nice Programm, BUT…. No Sync since month. Hotline not able to help. Use the App since years, but about to delet App finally.

Installed the update and performance of the database changes from bearable to unusable. Recalculating. Problems, that had been solved 30 years ago. Bento. TapForms. Stop wasting your time with those databases on Mac OS X.

Tap Forms filled the void left with Bento, nothing to complain about the app, perhaps I would be more happy if Tap Forms supported REGEX mask, or some way so we can create our on masks. The thing I did not like about it, it has to do with the licensing, I understand that Mobile Version and Desktop Version should be different licenses, but I do not agree with the policy about iPhone / iPad, it seems a little too much to do that. I can not talk about the technical differences between theses two versions, but as this app it is not Universal, for now I’ll be only with the Desktop version.

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical to tranfer my Bento database to the TapForms format. Also scared to lose data. To be completely honest, I did lose some data while importaing (like the messages list, this was an excellent feature and would like to see it in future version of TapForms), but it covered basically 98% of my content. This application gets a 5 star rating from me not only due to the software itself, but also due to support. I havent had to contact support directly yet due to the great replies from the developers in the forums. It shows they are really interested in resolving the bugs and also helping you resolve your direct issue. Although it is not 100% compatible with Bento, and I waited a long time to do the transfer, I can say that this software has a great potential in its own. Keep up the good work guys.

The app loads, but no window visible Please fix this because a NEED my database!

leider funktioniert von macbook zu iphone der Sync nicht richtig. Von iPhone zu Mac ohne Probleme. Bitte beheben

I have been using the iphone version of this app for a little while and am very excited that there is now a companion mac app with both sharing data via the icloud. There have been a couple of minor issues with the mac app but the customer support has been abosultely incredible. Everytime I send am email it is responded to with a solution or a workaround promptly! I value great customert service and this company has great customer service. Great service and great app, what more could one ask for !!

Solid. Hands down one of the best applications I have used. Have been using both iPhone and iPad version for a long time. This is exactly what I was looking for so just had to add the Mac app as well. So happy I did. Excellent support for all and constantly evolving. Highly recommend this!

These apps are both fantastic. For a few years now, Ive been using Bento and have been quite pleased with it. However, I just purchased a new MacBook Air and went to load Bento on it and discovered that its being discontinued. I searched around the forums looking for a replacement program and Tap Forms was repeatedly mentioned. I purchased both the Mac app and the iPhone app and have synced them together using iCloud. Great job on the programming! It works flawlessly and Im 110% pleased. Wish Id known about it - and made the transition - years ago. I think Tap Forms is superior to Bento. No contest.

I agree with the other reviewers˙ comments; and would like to emphasize that the after-sale customer service that I received from the developer has been fast, courteous, well documented, and efficient. Nothing short of exemplary. Thank you, Brendan.

Awesome - Your Program Rocks - I have used almost every Database and online CRM available and this is just perfect. Super quick response from support too! The forums are great for info and the updates keep coming- Keep up the great work!

Outstanding on Mac OSX and iOS with a great iCloud sync. Responsive developer.

Ive been a databaser for decades. Ive built multiuser databases in RBase and Access. Starting with the first Palm then PalmPilot, Ive used mobile databases to track personal stuff like vehicle maintenance and health. The specialized databases for these purposes have usually been over the top or too fiddly. I landed with HanDBase for many years through PalmPilots and PocketPC, then for the past two years in Apple since I switched to Apple. But HanDBase was not an Apple app from day one, and the HB developers are trying to serve all the operating systems out there. To their credit, HB is a nice system, but I wanted something that would sync easily between my iDevices and iMac. I just discovered this well thought out app. I explored it first on my iPad, then bought the iPhone version, and finally the iMac version. It works great, very solid. After a few years of development they seem to have wrung out major bugs and added very nice features. Confirms my rationale for switching to the relatively calm, predictable world of the Apple ecosystem. Happily I was able to import my HanDBase databases into custom Tap Forms that suit my needs perfectly. Importing from another program is not a task for the impatient, requiring precise attention to detail, but Tap Forms makes it pretty easy if one follows the rules. I will continue to use 1Password for my confidential data, because I have invested so much there already and I like the way 1Password integrates with Safari, but for other database purposes I will be very happy with Tap Forms. iCloud sync works very nicely. I had no glitches out of the box. (In Apri 2014 an update broke sync but the developer fixed it and apologized - reset process was very easy and seamless). Tap Forms is great for average users who want to track information and find specialized apps too confining. The app does not require users to be programmers. The user interface is fairly intuitive once one gets the hang of it, but could use some simplicity tweaking here and there. The developer seems very responsive, though I have not had to use tech support myself. Now that Bento is going extinct, I predict a rosy future in this general user Apple database niche for Tap Forms.