Knack

Vorteile

-Data Privacy Framework Implementation
-Nice Database, especially if you come from a relational database background
-responsiveness by design - you don't have to worry about that
-agency program
-knack flows for automation

Nachteile

-graphical modifications are limited
-the primary key in the database is hard to gain - I did that with knacks flows
-no adequate cookie documentation -problematic for gpdr statements
-no SQL access

Vorteile

No. 1 feature I love is that they don't charge per user. They have Starter, Pro and Corporate plans and prices are reasonable. I also like the ease with which a relational database can be configured and the built in functionality to format and print a report is ideal for what I need.

Nachteile

I am a paid user on the Starter Plan and I do not have any dislikes about Knack at this stage, except perhaps the "powered by Knack" branding which requires upgrading to the Pro Plan to be able to remove it. Having said that, the branding text appears at the bottom of the pdf reports and can be removed by editing the pdf later.

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Vorteile

Sounds like it might be easy to use, could obscure a lot of development detail.

Nachteile

Didn't really get a chance to use it, and forgot to cancel within the 30 day window. OK, I'm out $25, my fault and I don't have a problem with that.

So I reply to one of their inquiry, follow up sales emails, say I need to cancel, I can't use it, WELL within the second ( the first PAID ) month that I am subscribed.

So I assume they might refund the first month out of goodwill, but of course they are not obligated so I don't mind if they don't.

But -- fun news-- despite TWO emails in that 2nd month requesting cancellation, ( I am not using it and not loading their servers or using their tech support in any way whatsoever, it cost them zero to have me subscribed and not even logging on)

They Bill me for a SECOND subscription month , because i didn't go through some "cancellation process".

If they are too dumb to prefer the extra $25 they scrounged off me to maintaining good will public image, I can't imagine they have personalities I want to deal with long term.

Vorteile

I like that in Knack I can access all-inclusive data, and see it reported in a variety of ways. I can opt for simple summary reports, more complex detailed reports, or even colorful and pretty graphs. I can use a wide variety of parameters to create the report, and I can sort the included data in a variety of ways. I can also export data in different formats. Knack is extremely flexible for me. Full disclosure - I am a frequent Knack user, but I do not record data into Knack, nor do I set up the databases at all. That magic is all done by someone else, so I cannot comment on the administrator aspects of Knack.

Nachteile

Sometimes Knack will log me out while I am in the process of using it. I try to accept the blame when this happens because I always have too many tabs open in my browser, and I often work in 2 different sections of Knack simultaneously. However, it is definitely frustrating.

Also, I have a pet peeve about the number of items I can view in one page of a report. For a report with lots of items, I have to navigate forward or back between many pages. I would much prefer to scroll further down the same page to see data in a long report. I don't know of any way to alter the number of items per page.

Vorteile

The fact that the software acts like a native app but is in reality a micro website. Edit and upgrades are pushed out with a refresh with having to go through the process of submitting to an App Store. Also dont need to develop for different platforms/screen sizes. One size fits all

Nachteile

There are several features that have been requested over the years from many users that seem to be left behind. The biggest one in 2020 is that the mobile side needs a big upgrade in order to compete with native apps. A big one for us is uploading of photos on the mobile side. Its very cumbersome and slow. We have lost a few jobs because of this. Need some sort of mobile app that connects to these databases.

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Vorteile

Very simple to solve for Secure, HIPPA, PCI compliant user logins. Ability to pivot large data-set with simplified permission based views - no incremental expense for additional users / views / roles.

Nachteile

Support. Our reliance on knack is significant in pre-sale functions and as a result, when it breaks we have always defined the solution (or created the work-around) several days before a knack tech gets around to responding to our requests.

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Vorteile

The pricing model makes it an easy sell to get started. You don't have to pay per user, so if you aren't sure whether you'll be able to achieve your goals, it provides a low cost opportunity to make an attempt.

Nachteile

My biggest concern is that our app has become complex enough that it will be difficult for it to be handed off to a new user in the future. Once the software is launched for the team, any changes you make are in effect instantly - there's no opportunity to preview them and roll them out later. Additionally there are a couple of glitches in the builder interface which are frustrating at times. Knack is in Beta with a new interface and I anticipate that these will be resolved.

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Vorteile

-Easy to learn and build numerous apps
-Lots of functional field types
-Easy to customize CSS and Javascript for each app if desired
-Excellent price point

Nachteile

-Very buggy
-Customer service was initially very responsive, but eventually stopped responding to my requests for simple bugs in my app to be fixed, even after numerous attempts to resolve.

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Vorteile

We had a lot of processes we could not manage anymore by just sharing Google Sheets. Within weeks we were able to create custom database driven applications that completely replaced dozens of spreadsheets, macros, and more. We have dozens of managers and corporate employees on it everyday. We love it.

Nachteile

My biggest qualm with Knack is the customer support -- but that's not a very big qualm at all. For what we pay we get enormous value, and it makes sense that support is limited for our plan to just chat and email, with longer response times. When we are finally attended to, the customer service is very helpful. Because of the low price point, I initially had concerns that it would be reliable for a company our size, where little mistakes can cause interdepartmental issues. However, Knack has always been online, and the issues we have had were mostly attributable to user errors.

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Vorteile

Honestly, Knack has been an amazing application for us. It helps us design applications that replace many applications or help enhance applications that have blind spots. If you are process-oriented, like critical reports, looking to grab data at critical touchpoints that are not being measured then Knack will change your game. I am an entrepreneur with two multi-million dollar companies and we have found Knack to be as indispensable as our big ERP systems.

Nachteile

More videos in the Library. I am a super visual person and like others with me. While the videos in the library have gone up exponentially, I think the Knack team should lead with videos in explanation and text.

Vorteile

It holds data lists that I've acquired and allows me to show it, via html code, on my website for comparative reasons.

Nachteile

It took a little time to learn. Data takes some time to upload and doesn't always show how long it might take, so have to drink more tea!

Vorteile

Knack is a great tool, especially for internal projects or B2B customer projects -- once built an entire group texting platform using Knack, Zapier, & low-code Twilio!

Nachteile

wish there were more options for the front end so could use in more consumer-facing applications
record-based pricing is hurting overall industry -- right company will find way to price differently

Vorteile

Knack is highly flexible and easy to use once you know the platform. Powerful platform that's hard to match.

Nachteile

The dashboard can be a bit buggy, I regularly find and report bugs to the company...but they are quick to fix them in most cases. Even with the occasional bug, there's still nothing that rivals this platform.

Vorteile

My company used Knack as a recruiting tool - we had applicants create a profile and apply through the site for various job postings - and it was fairly easy to set up. The system itself was easy to navigate, and it kept the records organized nicely.

Nachteile

It's possible that using Knack as a full database provides better results than using it as a recruiting solution, but it did seem limited in features for our purposes. We've used other database products that have a lot more features and functions in addition to being much more customizable.

Vorteile

Made my first powerful internal business tool in a few hours. Have since used this tool to look like a genius when I am, in fact, not a genius.

Nachteile

There are a few features that have been requested with the devs that don't exist yet. The big one for me is aligning fields! Please make this a thing, Knack!

Vorteile

EU hosting

Pricing not set on a per client level.

Easy to build with and deploy.

Nachteile

Some of their competitors have a wider feature set.

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Vorteile

Incredible product for building databases/order systems for small organizations. Functionality is substantial.

Nachteile

The lack of support and the turn around time for support is difficult. For companies that use as an integral part of their business it is risky for an ordering system, etc... Also, having problems with the rules and parameters disappearing randomly on forms has been a problem for my organization.

Nachteile

Absolutely terrible customer service. I signed up, spent 2 days making an app, then the builder completely froze. I tried 5 computers, all different browsers, as soon as you log in it give a spinning gear and freezes. Knack support said it's because I'm using Chrome and that Chrome is bad at handling memory (even though I told them I tried IE, Edge, Safari, on 5 machines). Then today, I spent 3 hours making an app and doing email templates. I go get a drink, come back, it's COMPLETELY GONE. I contact their support, they said their backups failed and they don't have one, and that they confirmed I DID have an app, but that it's no longer there. They said even though I just signed up 2 days ago, they don't do refunds, but that I'm welcome to cancel my service in their portal. I canceled it and filed a chargeback with Visa. Avoid this company, extremely shady.

Vorteile

Database management very simple for dependencies

Nachteile

Stuck with implementing some javascript functions not enough info on that

Vorteile

We've launched a side company, Cableshepherd.com built complete on Knack. From Customer Account creation, management, portals, quoting, etc - Knack has solved a problem other CRMS and business platforms have not been able to. It is a true business application.

Nachteile

If not a developer, I could see how it could be difficult to learn, but overall, we're relatively pleased with performance.

Vorteile

The app builder is a great feature of this software. There are a lot of useful options such as searching, various forms and tables. I find it easy to customize although having little background in programming helps but not required. Easy interface after a little bit of use.

Nachteile

Knack servers can use some updating. Can be slow at times with complex queries which can be frustrating. Knack support tries to address all our concerns, but some issues will take some time to fix. The front end could use some updates also and to have access to change the visuals would be nice

Vorteile

Its easy of use (the team that build our databases are no experts at all!), and the fact we can embed the databases in our website.

Nachteile

To create a multi-level navigation menu with the current feature set, we need to apply some work arounds to make it do what we want.

Vorteile

Easy to setup and use, highly customizable

Nachteile

Pricing structure and cost is too high for the amount of storage you get

Vorteile

Knack has a good user interface and is a lower price point for databases of this type. They have very good service and the online chat help is excellent.

Nachteile

I have found that we need developers to do work that I would not call high level but this assistance does ramp up the relatively low cost of the product. This happens with almost every database, but I was hoping Knack would be different.

Vorteile

Once you've got everything figured out (specifically linking different objects) it's very easy to use. There are quite a few useful features.

Nachteile

Sometimes the software is glitchy when it comes to importing .csv documents. Things won't load and then you'll have to restart the whole process.

Vorteile

When I found this software, I nearly jumped for joy. I had been researching no-code database apps for a long time, and this really seemed to fit what we needed it to do. Hats off to Knack for an original-concept.

What's great:
- App building on the backend AND front end. You create your data modules, decide your schema, then decide how it shows up to the users. Set your logins, set the access levels, etc. It's amazing.
- It's extremely easy. Once you get the hang of it, you can make nice looking apps in little time.
- The API is very easy to use and powerful. We us it to build special CMS apps that allow our customers to update content on large interactive touch screens. The data is always reliable.
- The app is responsive, so users can can access public or their private data from mobile devices. It opens up many possibilities for businesses to use this as a CRM, CMS, Accounting, or even a field-service database.
- The in-app support through the chat is great. Staff members are responsive and helpful.

Nachteile

Take this with a grain of salt. When your whole business runs online like ours, you get used to the idea that no software is ever perfect. There is always something that will grind your gears. Here's some things about Knack that need improvement:
- Community support - my major gripe about Knack is the responsiveness to the community. There are many active users who contribute a lot of great content, ideas, and issues that need solving. Response from Knack in the community is practically non-existent. Even just to say "Good idea, we'll add that to our list"...just let people know they've been heard! Also, in my opinion, there's some very standard features that I can't believe aren't built yet. Sometimes it seems they work on features for a very small niche audience, rather than things that all users can benefit from. (Like drag and drop sorting of records)
- Minimal design freedom on the front end - You can make an app that is extremely functional, but there's not a lot of ways to customize the look and feel of that data for the users. So you may solve some great business issues with Knack, but chances are it won't look super pretty.

Vorteile

I love the way it shields me from what I know to be complex and tricky issues involved in putting together an application built around a relational database. I know the agony of wrestling with figuring out how to do things with relational databases and it just makes me so happy to be able to create a wonderfully stable application that works in the cloud - without the torture of having to figure out why my SQL query isn't working as I thought it would, etc. It just works, and I am shielded from the coding. I don't have to know what a SQL query is. To me this is just plain magic.

Nachteile

Hard to come up with something I am not really happy about with it. I guess everything could be improved with more features and options and such, but I see that as mostly window dressing. The guts of this thing are amazing. I'm sure the future will see more features and more ways to style the applications and such, but the magic is built in now.

Vorteile

Great intuitive interface, great software, fair pricing. Now that EU servers are available this makes it a great product for users like me who hold client data and need to comply with EU data privacy laws. I am already delighted with the product, but have seen a beta version of the new builder which in my view takes the produt from excellent to perfect. As a non-technical user (I am no more than a competent excel user) I had never thought I could build my own functioning application. With Knack, I can.

Nachteile

The standard support hours are based on the US working day so that means we in Europe have to wait. Having said that, if there is an emergency there is 24 hour response there. This is a minor niggle and I guess when Knack grows to dominate the world they will put more support on.

Vorteile

- Lives up to the "no code" billing many other platforms tout, but with Knack you can actually build a feature-rich app without coding.
- Zapier integration recently improved, greatly expanding the capabilities of the app
- Out of 10-15 database apps I tried, the learning curve was shorter and support documentation was more useful with Knack
- Easy to implement and strong user security/user roles implementation
- Unlike many business-focused app builders, Knack is designed for many users in structure and in pricing model, so it's the best for customer-facing applications (including ecommerce websites)
- Basic subscription plan includes all the features most will need, unlike many apps that pull 1-2 critical features into their mid-tier and enterprise plans.

Nachteile

- Pricing plan options are slim, and the base plan is a bit more expensive than others in the similar tier.
- Very difficult to style the app in an attractive manner without a fair amount of CSS and/or Javascript understanding (though the standard design is fine and mobile friendly). Limited options for customization in the dashboard.
- Main troubling issue is with how pages and views get created with every menu and link you add..causing a quickly overwhelming page structure and sitemap. Biggest related caution is that when simply deleting a menu item, you could also be deleting an entire page or detail view without clearly being told that (and no way to recover it).

Vorteile

Packed with features and easy to use/build whatever you want.

Nachteile

Dashboards and Reporting is the biggest drawback. It needs more development.

Vorteile

Knack is seriously one of the greatest apps that exist out there for those who need to organize their offices. Nowadays, data is produced in such huge amounts that it ca be very difficult to organize. This leads to chaos and lost productivity. Other database apps like Access, OpenOffice and even just SQL are not user friendly and the UI is chaotic. Knack is an easy way to make your own custom database with functionality that expands seemingly daily.

Nachteile

There's a bit of a learning curve, but I learned it in about a week. Now I've made a CRM/HRM/Project manager all in one with unlimited logins for pennies on the price of a full-suite solution.

Vorteile

It is so easy to set up a relational database as well as a website to access that data.
Very easy to learn.
You can quickly create software to solve your organization's needs.

Nachteile

New features are not added often.
Workflow actions are triggered by the page accessing the data and not by the database itself.
There are limits to the design customization so the software sometimes seems old.

Vorteile

Super easy to get going (it is the most intuitive interface).
Price by number of apps instead of by user works well with our company.
Powerful features including, for instance, users logging in by their Google+ or Facebook profile (single sign on).
I have not run into any bugs.

Nachteile

You can't adjust the presentation layer (the website) as much as, say, Caspio. You can change some things like colors and basic layout, but most of the CSS is fixed.
Their formulas are very weak. They only allow basic functions, especially for manipulating text. For formulas, I found Airtable to be much better.

Vorteile

Easy to create web-based apps. Can achieve a variety of tasks using 3rd party tools. You can embed your app in your website.

Nachteile

The interface is slow and limited. Can be quite clunky and frustrating and trying to work out how to achieve something with the help of Zapier. Customer support stinks. No one is ever able to sort any issues and if you make the slightest mistake or accidental you could break the whole app and be needing a backup which they charge , they quote 1-3 hours usually and takes 3-5 working days so not particularly business friendly. Javascript locks up occasionally in the back end and you're either left waiting and nothing happens or nothing happens when you click the save button. Fairly expensive considering how unpolished the software is and how woefully awful their customer support is. The reliance on Knack/Zapier/Webmerge integration doesn't always work seamlessly and learning to implement it yourself can result in duplicate Webmerges which cost a lot of money too.

Vorteile

Its highly customizable and you can adapt it to fit whatever your company needs might be. Be it just a simple data base, a team management software or something else. Its great for large sets of data, but needs you to be smart and data savy.

Nachteile

Its not always great when using outside the US. The smartphone view is close to impossible to work with.

Vorteile

We loved how easy it was to onboard with Knack. The free trial gave us the chance to make sure we could design the database and front-end website that we wanted. After that, it was easy to select the payment plan we needed with a price that was surprisingly low.Other pros include the ability to have multiple website pages and tabs, create multiple database tables that interact and link with each other, and embed charts on the front-end site.

Nachteile

The only con that we've found is that the formula fields are somewhat limited as far as what they can do. It would be great to have a few more options like IF or CONCATENATE formulas to populate and format certain columns dynamically based on the value of other columns. Also, the appearance/design options for the front-end site are pretty limited in their builder. However, I think you can do custom CSS and Javascript; we just haven't had the time or developer abilities to do it yet.

Vorteile

This is Everything I need from a database & simple interface builder. I took a long time evaluating existing products for my business programs to no avail, and decided I needed custom solutions. As a nonprofit I know we couldn't afford paying someone to do it so I took it upon myself to research options & move forward. Knack was my first intro to "no code" cloud app builder and I love it. I check around every 6 months or so to see what competition is out there, I've yet to find anything I enjoy using quite as much.

Nachteile

That apps cannot integrate / stay in sync. It's going to take a lot of extra work to integrate all my company's apps, as it is not feasible for all our programs / branches to use one app, and some information needs to be in sync across all apps. I just know by the time I've finally done it, they will have built in the feature / option...

Vorteile

Great online builder with a very easy learning for it. They offer get webinars that demos a lot of the You can get up and running in minutes not months once you have a plan. You can even customize with css and javascript.

Nachteile

Only con i would say and was not a deal breaker was the use of css take a bit to get use to for major customization

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Vorteile

Power, capability and ease of use

Nachteile

Would like more form layout capabilities

Vorteile

Look of the app is very nice. The "Builder" they have come up with is innovative, not your normal database building tool. It takes some getting used to. There are some limitations to it, that other databases don't have.

Nachteile

Very poor customer support, if you are on the lowest plan. They will not pick up the phone and call you, nor can you call them. They claim a response time of between 24 and 48 hours....not true. I am now having support requests unanswered for 4 days. Their blog and self-help support site are very poor. There is no main office or phone number, they all work from their homes across the US. Apparently, they don't have titles and they think it's funny to post pictures of themselves on their website with funny made up titles in the organization. This organization needs to grow up and get serious. I will terminate my plan with them and ask for a full refund if things don't improve dramatically in the next day or two.

Vorteile

Simple but solid interface. Customizable and overall good looking interface for the user, very decent pricing, great tutorials and models.

Nachteile

More customizing options would be great, especially for formatting texts.When using calendars, each appointment counts as 1 record, so it adds up pretty fast.

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Vorteile

I like Knack does not charge per user. Also, it includes most of the features that you would need is a common business application (CRM, ERP, etc.). Low-code programming workflow is easy.

Nachteile

No a great user community around the software. Knack should promote more user interaction. Also it should produce more education content.

Vorteile

Intuitive design! It just makes sense from the get-go, even if you have little understanding of relational databases, with a bit of light reading of Knack's thorough documentation, it's not difficult to get going.

Nachteile

Definitely the way the front end views of your database operate in a mobile device. Some of the feature's are basically unusable, and if your user's are going to use a mobile device, you really have to keep that in mind when developing the database's UIs or you can end up with a bit of a mess.

Vorteile

I really do not know what I would do without the resource of the Knack platform. There is so much cross talk of data between those who provide it and those who need it that than an online, customizable, easy to implement data management platform is the most optimal solution.
Love the ability to customize with CSS and JavaScript and connect to other software through Integromat

Nachteile

Not much to NOT like ; as I see it there are features I haven’t figured out how to use yet and things that don’t work because of pure user error.

Vorteile

The Knack software is easy to use to set up forms and pages to collect information online.

Nachteile

The software can take a little getting used to when you first start out. I would think this is normal for any advanced system like this.

Vorteile

DIY... It has a learning curve but if you get excel you can figure this out! Which makes it easy for me to play with all my ideas.

Nachteile

It is still growing and does have some limitations but support has been great and they seem to listen to the needs of the customers.

Vorteile

Super tool for developing multi-user database focused applications.
Per developer pricing (as opposed to per user).
Easy to provide ROLE based access to different inputs, views and reports
Super documentation and templates to learn from or get you started
Rules to display and update screens/records
Easy to add rich functionality to an application
Really nice data import tool
Single sign on with Google (and others)
Excellent support
API/Integration using tools like zapier

Nachteile

Need to know some basic html/css if you want customise the look of your screens
No IF THEN logic (probably could use Zapier for this)
Nice if users could import data (as opposed to builder)
Easier back up tools

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Vorteile

Ability to customize databases; real-time updates; many template options to choose from; customer service is excellent. I've used this several times for an annual holiday website. Our users were so impressed and became repeat donors.

Nachteile

customer service agent and his staff were very helpful as I extensively redesigned a template to serve our varied needs. I have been very satisfied and think the only confusion I ran into is customized differences between mobile and website versions.

Vorteile

What I like most about the software is the built in relational flexibility Knack offers. When creating objects you are able to build in the relationships to other objects intuitively, and then when building the app itself, it remembers these relations to create the relationship that is most useful.

Nachteile

Missing are the complete lack of drag and dropping of "views", also not easily customizable to change fonts, headings, colors, etc. This must be done through CSS and/or Java Script programming.

Vorteile

I love that Knack is completely customizable! This product can do almost anything you need it to do with little to no programming experience required.

Nachteile

To get Knack to do exactly what you want, you have to build it which can be time-consuming but ended up being it worth it for us in the end.