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dbFront

dbFront

4.8 (11)
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Recent review

"dbFront As A UI"

5.0

Scott B. - SelfJanuary 8, 2024

STARTING PRICE

CA$249

one time
flat rate

Free Trial
Available

EASE OF USE

5.0/5

Based on Capterra user reviews

What is dbFront?

dbFront is a no code, simple to administer and simple to use web application, that allows you to quickly (within minutes) build a web application for your existing database (SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle). dbFront dynamically updates itself as your database changes. Focusing on simplicity for the Administrator and for the User, dbFront is an excellent tool for the DBA or Analyst that wants to give users a quick way to edit corporate data, and the Network Admin who wants to keep it secure.

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Responsive Design
Template Based Reporting - Sample Reports
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dbFront Reviews

Showing 5 of 11 reviews
Overall
4.8
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0

Pros

  • My overall experience is very good and overall I think the software is very good with a fast setup time as compared to you having to create an interface from scratch your self.

  • DbFront made it easy to create an in-house front-end to our SQL database that allows us all of the functionality we need to update and maintain our records. It's awesome and constantly improving.

  • The help center for understanding the application and setting it up is very easy to follow and the Support is very responsive.

  • Needed assistant connecting to my domain and azure and support was awesome. Software is an excellent solution for a quick way to have a front end to your DB.

Cons

  • Also the truncation of the text in the table view was also a disadvantage to my particular use case.

  • I haven't found anything yet that I dislike. Usually if it's missing it's because I haven't learned how to configure it yet.

  • Also all of this has been achieved under a tight deadline and requires almost no programming knowledge to use or setup.

  • One problem is that you can only have two level relationships. So you can select say Record A to show related Record Bs and then select a Record B and show related Record Cs.

Most Helpful Reviews for dbFront

Alex A. avatar
Alex A.
Data Reporting Officer
Government Administration, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used the software for: Less than 6 months
Overall Rating
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
4.0
Value for Money
5.0
Likelihood to Recommend
10/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
December 13, 2017

"A very quick and efficient means to put a front end on a database"

Overall: We have our front end for the dozen or so data marts we will be setting up. With how easy it is in DB Front to copy the setup from one database in the application to another we have 100% consistency in approach in between all the data marts which means we will spend less time navigating and understanding what we're looking at and more time producing. Also all of this has been achieved under a tight deadline and requires almost no programming knowledge to use or setup.

Pros: Extremely easy to set up and update. Extremely easy to have multiple databases use the same settings. Once connected to a database it does a pretty good job at knocking together a front end without the user doing much more than classifying tables. Adding in the functionality of stored procs is very easy. Our team is working on data warehousing solutions and we have moved to a model where each department gets their own datamart. This means many databases all needing to share standards and best practice. We tried putting an Access front end on the process but quickly gave up seeing how complex and time consuming it was. DB Front, on the other hand, was installed and working within 30 minutes and has gone from strength to strength. Do we have an application as customised as we could get with Access? No. But the Access project was looking like months of work and this took hours. The end result may not be perfectly customised to our project but it does what we need it to (help with consistency and usability) and does it without causing us any grief. Of course, being in development, we managed to find a few niggles with the software (such as we had more databases than it could display in a list on our dev server) but with a quick email we had someone who knew the software inside out looking into the issue and had a beta release based on our own issue during the couple of weeks we have been working on this.

Cons: There are things to be refined like limiting dropdown lists to subsets of records...minor details and I'm sure part of a future update.

Vendor Response

By Big Ideas Computing on December 14, 2017
Thanks for the great review Alex.
Karin S. avatar
Karin S.
Director of OSPInsight Services & Support
Telecommunications, 51-200 employees
Used the software for: 2+ years
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
Likelihood to Recommend
10/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
March 15, 2022

"dbFront is the best front end for SQL Server on the market"

Overall: I found dbFront quite a while ago when my company was moving applications every other day (it seemed like) and I was tired of recreating the reporting and functionality for our client list in new places all the time. dbFront made it easy to create an in-house front-end to our SQL database that allows us all of the functionality we need to update and maintain our records. It's awesome and constantly improving. I would be lost without it!

Pros: You don't need a lot of SQL Server experience or Web experience to implement the software. It's very configurable and the troubleshooting & knowledgebase articles are very helpful. The help center for understanding the application and setting it up is very easy to follow and the Support is very responsive.

Cons: I haven't found anything yet that I dislike. Usually if it's missing it's because I haven't learned how to configure it yet.

Vendor Response

By Big Ideas Computing on March 17, 2022
Thanks Karin for the great review, it is much appreciated.
Scott B.
Self
Computer Software, Self-employed
Used the software for: Less than 6 months
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
Likelihood to Recommend
5/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
January 8, 2024

"dbFront As A UI"

Overall: Love the product as it gave me instant access to my personal database!

Pros: Ease of use, quick setup, accesses SQL Server Express without issue.

Cons: UI and service became out of sync; ended up reinstalling to rectify.

Vendor Response

By Big Ideas Computing on January 9, 2024
Thank you Scott, I am glad we could resolve that issue nice and quickly.
Jennifer M.
Web Designer
Information Technology and Services, Self-employed
Used the software for: 1-2 years
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
Likelihood to Recommend
10/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
December 29, 2016

"We Finally Found the Best Fit!"

Overall: After chasing technology for years, trying several self-hosted and cloud solutions, we were fortunate to find dbFront. The others had limitations or issues like being bandwidth hogs, requiring tons of ongoing maintenance updates, only offering over-complicated interfaces or their subscription fees kept going up to rates that a non-profit can't justify. Our goal was to make our data available to all Internet Users for searching, displaying, sorting and printing/exporting to CSV or PDF - - really what you would think would be a simple project. It turned out to be quite the daunting task. dbFront and their Team has changed all of this for us. We are finally able to utilize the data from our SQL database, displaying the records from within our website, using dbFront's web application and features. Using dbFront, we use can display all of our records in any order, based on any filter, add action buttons for printing, format our report templates and more. We have an Administrative panel where we can edit or add records, an Administrative panel for our Public view, and our end product for Internet Users. The interface is simple, yet very powerful. We're still learning the interface, but completely excited and relieved to find dbFront. You can choose to build a super simple Table/Form page, displaying your records in table format in the top panel, with the details for each record in the bottom Form, and a simple button to print details. You can also add multiple reports based on the criteria you set up in the back-end. You have the ability to modify both the Table and Form views. For example, you decide which fields (columns) to include in your Table, the order, and the field titles, along with the same type editing allowed for your detailed Form view. You can also add action buttons for printing and grouping. The features for "Search" and "Column Sorting" are automatically built-in for your End-Users. An experienced Database Administrator could be up and run in a very short amount of time. Less experienced Users can accomplish the same, taking a bit longer to get their public view where they want it. Bottom line: The more we use dbFront, the more excited we get. I see this as being a top contender for those in need of displaying/formatting their data on public websites, or for those in need of offering a company-wide record editing application. We are very happy to have found dbFront and look forward to years of utilizing this application.

Pros: Ease of use and the support can't be beaten.

David S.
Director of Technology
Chemicals, 201-500 employees
Used the software for: I used a free trial
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
Likelihood to Recommend
10/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
September 26, 2022

"Genius Database Application Development for Quality Data Schemas"

Overall: Excellent. Loved developing in it, especially when support was so available.

Pros: No coding required for dbFront to recognize columns in the database and display them on the screen. No coding for drop down list, provided foreign keys exists. Simple SQL for drop down lists when foreign key does not exist. Simply audit field setups for Create User & Date, Mod User & Date. Build a quality database structure and dbFront does all the work. You may input data either in grid(table) format or in form format. Users can determine their own layouts. Software support is superlative; no software offers support like dbFront.

Cons: The initial setup on the network for IIS and database connection was a lot more work than we were expecting for IT. Good instructions, but some of the steps take a long time. Once up and running, everything is lightening fast.

Reasons for Choosing dbFront: Rapid application development in WYSIWYG environment. Users rejected its look and feel, but the product meets its claims. We had a working application in place within a few business days of getting dbFront installed.
Reasons for Switching to dbFront: Users did not feel that dbFront was sophisticated enough for them. They had experience with a custom front end from another company and wanted that build for them here.

Vendor Response

By Big Ideas Computing on October 6, 2022
Thank you David for the solid and honest review. If you are able to pull out the top feature that your users felt was missing then that would be most helpful.