We’re less than 275 votes away from making a significantly faster FileMaker calculation engine the #1 community-elected idea for improving FileMaker. Will you be one of the people who helps us cross the finish line?
I first submitted this idea back in 2021, after discovering that JavaScript was more than 1,000 times faster at finding prime numbers than FileMaker’s calculation engine. For three years, nothing changed—so in January 2024 I launched my Initiative ’24 to raise awareness and push for action in order to make FileMaker faster for everyone.
To prove the point, I built two reference benchmarks—one for numeric operations and one for string operations—combining functions that, in my opinion, are among the most commonly used in real-world FileMaker solutions. I compared performance across FileMaker, PHP, Python, and JavaScript. Surprisingly, Python was just as slow as FileMaker in math, but JavaScript turned out to be 230 times faster in math and 34 times faster with text than FileMaker.
That’s why I set an ambitious goal: to make the FileMaker calculation engine at least 24 times faster. Even then, FileMaker would still only reach about one-tenth of JavaScript’s speed—but I firmly believe this goal is realistic and achievable.
Since then, my idea has climbed to #4 of all time (out of 3,536 total ideas) and #1 in the performance category. Now, we’re just a few hundred votes away from reaching the very top. Can I count on your support to get us there before the end of the year?
The message is simple:
By making the calculation engine significantly faster, every single FileMaker customer benefits instantly—without changing a single line of code. And by casting enough votes, we send a clear signal to Claris that this is worth serious investment.
Encouragingly, we’re already seeing progress with FileMaker 2025. JSON handling has become much faster: in my tests, looping through a 2-dimensional JSON with 5,000 nodes was 28 times faster in FileMaker 2025 compared to FileMaker 2024—using the exact same code.
That’s a fantastic start, but it’s only the first step. If you agree this matters, please help push this initiative over the finish line.
How to vote:
- Visit the idea page at https://24usw.com/fastcalc
- Log in with your Claris Community account (or create one for free if you don’t already have it)
- Click the thumbs-up button
And if you’ve already voted—thank you! Please ask a friend or colleague who hasn’t yet. Every vote counts. Still unsure if it’s worth supporting? Book a free 30-minute call with me, and let me convince you personally.
Even Klemens Kegebein from the German FileMaker Magazin and other FileMaker Konferenz attendees in Hamburg supported my initiative:
If you come to support us at a physical event such as FileMaker Konferenz or EngageU, you can also enjoy updating our physical progress indicator by marking your vote there on your own 😉:
Let’s show how strong and united we are as a community!
