Frequently Asked Questions

FMPHost provides 15 day free trials of our FileMaker Dedicated Database Hosting, FileMaker Pro Database Cloud Hosting and FileMaker Pro RemoteApp services.

At any point during the trial you can place credit card information on file to continue uninterrupted service when the trial ends.  Should you choose not to continue your service the account will be suspended and files you have uploaded will be inaccessible.  After 7 days of inaction, your account will be cancelled and any files will be removed from our servers.

FMPHost provides three FileMaker hosting options, FileMaker Dedicated Database Hosting, FileMaker Pro Database Cloud Hosting and FileMaker Server Hosting. Each target a different need. Please see our comparison chart to determine the service that’s right for you or contact us today with any questions.

We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.

While we allow customers to place additional funds on their account as prepayment, we do not offer a discount for doing so.

As we try to keep our prices as affordable as possible for everyone we do not provide any forms of discounts.

With the release of FileMaker Server 15, FileMaker Inc changed their End User License Agreement requiring that each entity that wanted to use FileMaker Server must be on their own dedicated server. As our FileMaker Pro Database Cloud Hosting service is comprised of servers shared with multiple customers we could not offer FileMaker Server 15 as a part of that service. Therefore, to continue our aggressive pricing in FileMaker Hosting and provide most of the same benefits that our FileMaker Pro Database Cloud Hosting platform offers, FMPHost developed the FileMaker Dedicated Database Hosting service. Click here to learn more about this new service.

The service is provided on a server dedicated just to your databases and users, but unlike our FileMaker Server Hosting plans, the emphasis on this service is the database. FMPHost handles all of the server maintenance, backups and upgrade installations leaving you only concerned about uploading and accessing your databases. While access to the FileMaker Server Admin Console is provided you may never need it as FMPHost’s own control panel provides for easy uploads, backups, remote backups to Email, FTP and Dropbox.

FileMaker plugins may be installed either through the Install Plugin script step or by contacting FMPHost support.  Custom SSL certificates may also be installed.  Any other software or services is not supported on this plan as it is fully managed by FMPHost and  we need to be able to perform upgrades and maintenance tasks in bulk across all of the servers. In addition, with this service the server itself is expendable. To keep the service affordable FMPHost only backs up your databases. If your server somehow ran into trouble, FMPHost would redeploy it from a template and then load your databases back into place. Therefore, anything you may install or add to your server would be wiped out. We do provide access to the FileMaker Server Admin Console, but if you need to a custom deployment configuration then please see our FileMaker Server Hosting plan.

As the server is dedicated to you, you can host up to the 125 files FileMaker Server allows. Depending on the size of those database files you may need to order additional hard drive storage.

This plan is self managed, meaning you will get access to the Windows desktop using Microsoft Remote Desktop software.  You even have the ability to change the Administrator password so FMPHost could not even access the server.  FMPHost’s automated control panel software is not installed on these plans.

Yes to all of the above. The FileMaker Server Hosting plan is dedicated just to your account and you have full desktop administration of it.  As such you can install any software you like and use it as you see fit (within the Terms of Service) and if you need help we are just a chat / support ticket / phone call away!

Yes. Your data is valuable and we treat it that way. We automatically snapshot your FileMaker Server every night and stored for no additional cost.

With the release of FileMaker Server 15, FileMaker Inc changed their End User License Agreement requiring that each entity that wanted to use FileMaker Server must be on their own dedicated server. As our FileMaker Pro Database Cloud Hosting service is comprised of servers shared with multiple customers we could not offer current versions of FileMaker Server as a part of that service. However, to continue our aggressive pricing in FileMaker Hosting and provide all of the same benefits that our FileMaker Pro Database Cloud Hosting platform offers (and then some), FMPHost developed the FileMaker Dedicated Database Hosting service. Click here to learn more about this new service.

This depends on your plan. If you are on our FileMaker Starter Hosting plan you can host one database that can reach 1 GB in size. Our Standard FileMaker Plan allows for three databases and our Premium FileMaker Hosting Plan allows for six databases.

Each databases beyond the 6 included with your FileMaker Advanced Hosting subscription is an added $10 per month. You also get an additional 2GB of storage added to your plan.

Charging just for storage would be our preferred method of billing, however FileMaker Server has built-in caps on how many databases we can host at one time per server. Given the cost of a FileMaker Server license and equipment with enough horsepower to provide optimal service to you we must limit the number of FileMaker databases in each plan.

Unfortunately no. Because FileMaker Server has a built-in limit as to how many database files can be hosted per server we count each .fp7 or .fmp12 file as one database. If your solution involves four .fmp12 files, for example, you will need to choose our Premium FileMaker Hosting Plan.

At FMPHost, we are not fond of limits, however FileMaker Server has a fixed limit of 100 maximum IWP connections on one server. These connections are shared among all the databases and users connected to one server. Typically, a fully loaded server has 30 IWP connections active at any given time meaning there is still plenty of connections available for surges in traffic.

Most likely the database is on our server and opened for hosting, however the security privileges are probably not set correctly and that must be handled by you before the database is uploaded. Open up your local copy of your database in FileMaker Pro and go to File > Manage Security… and then assign the FileMaker Network and FileMaker WebDirect extended privileges to the privilege set(s) associated with your users.

FileMaker 12 Server Advanced shipped with the known limitation of only allowing layouts using the classic theme to be available through Instant Web Publishing. Connect to your hosted database using FileMaker Pro and change the layout theme to classic or switch to a new FileMaker Server version to use WebDirect.

WebDirect and Instant Web Publishing are powerful tools and they make it very easy to deploy your existing database to the web, but they are not perfect. As the versions of FileMaker progress and as the technologies such as HTML5 grow in adoption it may one day be a perfect match. In the meantime, if you need absolute control over the web layout of your FileMaker database please see our Website Integration page for custom web publishing options.

FileMaker Pro is a great tool, but unfortunately it is not optimized for sharing data over the Internet. All of the business logic executes on the client so that means if you use a calculated field, list sort or script all of the data necessary for those operations must transfer across the Internet from our servers to your computer. With the FileMaker Pro RemoteApp service all of the data stays in our facility as FileMaker Pro is running on a server next to the database server. What you receive are the pixels updates on the screen. This greatly increases performance, akin to running the file locally. The FileMaker Pro RemoteApp service still has access to your local drives and printers so it is a perfect replacement for a locally installed copy of FileMaker Pro.

This scenario is most common when a Mac user with “Remote Desktop Connection” double clicks the RDP file. Remote Desktop Connection is the older RDP client Microsoft provided for Macs and it does not support the newer RemoteApp technology. You must delete that application and install “Microsoft Remote Desktop” from the Mac AppStore.

Yes, you must obtain proper licensing from 360Works prior to ordering our 360Works MirrorSync Hosting or 360Works Zulu Hosting. The hosting service we offer provides a managed instance of the MirrorSync or Zulu application kept online so your clients can always connect to it.

No, but we have a list of developers of which our mutual customers have given us great references. Please contact us if you need a referral.