Since 2017, OttoFMS (formerly Otto) has been the leading DevOps powerhouse for Claris FileMaker developers. OttoFMS has enabled hundreds of developers to deploy, migrate, monitor, and automate the tedious aspects of the professional software development lifecycle, allowing them to concentrate on creating outstanding apps and delivering excellent solutions to their clients.
In the process, OttoFMS has given back developers tens of thousands of hours and countless nights and weekends. Currently, over 1,000 servers and growing are supercharged by OttoFMS worldwide. Just in the month following Claris Engage 2024, OttoFMS users have performed over 2,200 deployments and shipped over 9,000 FileMaker files!
Earlier this February, we released new versions of the Otto family of Modern FileMaker developer tools, OttoFMS and OttoDeploy, and made them available to everyone for free. We shared this news at Claris Engage 2024, which made many people happy. But we also kept getting some variation of the question, “There’s a catch, right?!”
The answer is no, there isn’t a catch, but there are trade-offs.
TL;DR
We love what OttoFMS does for us. And we want to share its DevOps and FileMaker server enhancement capabilities as widely as possible. Philosophically, we think the barrier-of-entry to FileMaker devs for getting professional DevOps and server management tools should be low.
Longer explanation
Linux is free, Git is free, and even MacOS is free. All are examples of extremely valuable and indispensable software we use every day. Just because things are free doesn’t mean there isn’t a rational business strategy or business model behind it. At Proof+Geist, we aim to make pragmatic and commercially sensible decisions. After considering all factors, we believe that making OttoFMS free will benefit us more in the long run.
When Otto was a paid product, we provided individualized support to customers. This was neither efficient nor cost-effective for us or our customers. For 1-on-1 technical support to be practical, we’d have to charge a lot more for licensing, meaning fewer developers could afford these professional tools.
Professional devs should have access to professional DevOps tools. We think what OttoFMS offers is important enough to be a standard of practice in the Claris FileMaker development world. Yes, we might leave money on the table in the short run. Ultimately, we think helping the developer community is great for business; we think of devs as partners who can help us expand the market for our other services and B2B products.
Use it for free. Pay for extra support if you need it.
We wanted the opposite effect. So, we decided to flip the script on its head.
Instead of making all devs underwrite the cost of OttoFMS, we think institutional buyers and larger teams should pay more for priority support or personalized implementation help. Also, all OttoFMS users can now get free help in the Proof+Geist community forum; since the forum (unlike email support) is public and searchable, every solution offered by us or the community can help future users.
We think this is a win-win scenario.
Try it out!
Now that OttoFMS is free, we hope you’ll try it! If you need help getting started, you can get free help in the Proof+Geist community forum and at OttoFMS Office Hours (registration in advance is required, but Office Hours are free!).