Frends Reviews

We had many different applications for Frends. For file transferring of different types, we modified the files and then used it for logistical processes including warehousing, inventory checkups, and orders, including both purchase orders and financial processes. We also used it as a sub connector.

The best aspect is that it is very easy to use. The UI is very intuitive, and you can learn it very quickly because the basic principles are straightforward and easy to search.

Frends has a great UI, but the UI is missing role-based permissions. You can filter your integrations by roles and add several users to roles, but in the UI, the functionality for this kind of management feature is not optimal. User management or user role management could be improved.

Logging should be better. Third-party software logging should be integrated into the monitors of the front-end integrations, but it does not monitor the third-party connectors through that. Those logs are usually located elsewhere.

I have been using Frends for about three years.

Frends is very stable.

Frends is scalable because it can be used in virtual servers, so you can scale it very easily.

I am a current customer and have been with previous versions as well.

I have three years of experience with Frends and have built experience before that with other integration platforms. Compared to others, I would rate it as eight, and actually, it is a nine. It is completely deserving of that rating because it is very easy to use. Processes are easy to migrate from another system, and they are easy to replicate between environments.

Installing Frends is simple, although it could take time. There are some tricks and things to know when you install it and the different types of architectures, such as hybrid, and where you want to place those agents in your system. Overall, I think it is simple.

If I had to compare the price, it is very competitive to do the job.

If you need an integration platform, I would recommend Frends. I give this product a rating of 8 out of 10.

Our basic use cases—we have different ones. We are at the house, and we have different ports. It's totally separate from each other, and the platform is one technical solution for every product line. They can create their own integrations, and our basic integration is for the customer integrations. Basically, that can be anything. 

And then we have the internal integrations, which is something to do with the data transfer between the internal systems, or building invoicing. So there are various use cases which we are using Frends for, and it's growing all the time product-wise.

One of the benefits is the speed of creating something new. 

Second, it's replacing the old integration quite fast. Then it is like the visibility of the integration and the possibility to see what is happening in the integration. 

So to more users or stakeholders in place. So we have the approved business owner, and then we have the actual integration developer, and then we have the customer support.  

The biggest thing is very simple, very easy to customize. And the visibility of the integration itself. These are the key features I like.  

And at the visibility, we can see the integration and see how it has been executed. So we have knowledge of the integration itself, and then how was the configuration running, and we can see all the other stuff. 

So, we have multiple different stakeholders who are using it and seeing how it is going.

One thing is that Frends keep the integration, and that is something I know that it's coming, like, a later version; that is something we will be currently missing. 

So the end-users could take an interest in use by themselves, with the release thing some result flow. That is the most wanted and requested feature for now.

Another enhancement includes the monitoring part. It would be nice to have some sort of maybe mobile app on which we can see how integrations are running if there are some problems, and getting those alerts on the mobile would be really nice.

I'm basically using this daily, and I have been working with the platform for something like two and a half years now.

So I'm quite experienced with it, basically managing the whole platform in our company.

We use the latest version and we are running our own engines, which are called agents. So they are our own, and they are running on the cloud. So, basically, we are fully on.

We do not have any issues with this solution. We have some resources in our own locations, but that is not Frends' responsibility.

It is really scalable because we are basically running our own edge with software, like the integration engines and we can basically scale them forever in the cloud. 

But, scaling depends on the license which you have from Frends. In our case, we have unlimited resources available.

There are around 40 end users using this solution with different roles.

I have escalated a lot of questions because of the complexity of the background of our agents because we have our own agents, and they are quite a unique setup in our case. That has been a common issue, but we have really good communication all the time. So, that hasn't been an issue.

I'm really happy with the response time.

Positive

It was really simple because everything was right in place when it comes to Frends. Everything was set up. It's just working, and everything was up and running and working. So really, really simple.

Two people were required for the deployment. It took a couple of days. And that was two and a half years ago, and today, it's something like ten minutes.

The only maintenance which is needed is that when we are getting a new version from Frends, we need to update our own agents, and we have deployment pipelines for that. And basically, when Frends is upgrading its version deployment because they are managing it, then we need to do our own agent deployment, and that will take something like two to three minutes, probably automated. So maintenance is not a big deal at this moment because it has been done.

Based on the current usage and the license, we are not there yet. But we can see that as we use more and more of the platform, we are getting more value out of it. So, at this very moment, we are not in that good area yet. 

But we can see that in the next year, we will be close to seeing the value of it. So, in the future, we will be very happy with that choice.

The pricing is quite fair. It is quite low compared to competitors, especially when you consider that Frends is a US-based company. 

So, it's almost cheap compared to them. But, we have an unlimited license at this very moment, and that is quite costly. But still, it's cheaper than some other iPaaS solutions, like Boomi and SnapLogic.

We did a quite big study, it contained five different iPaaS platforms and did an initial EOC in under two months. And after that, Frends was chosen as the best solution based on our business needs, technical needs, security needs, and cost.

I would suggest being honest about your needs, and clearly defining what you require. 

Additionally, it's crucial to have a well-thought-out proof of concept plan detailing your intended actions. Take the time to explore use cases, then use Frends to collaborate on its development, and then execute it to observe the outcomes. It ensures a thorough understanding of how well it aligns with your specific requirements.

Overall, I would give it a nine out of ten because I've been genuinely satisfied with it. I don't have any significant complaints, and I would prefer Frends over alternative iPaaS products.  

I was primarily responsible for the design and development of integrations using  Frends platform.

The savings were significant and we had full control, allowing us to create simple crisis-resolving integrations in just one day on good days. Even complex integrations only took about a few days to develop.

One of the clear advantages of Frends includes its robust API management and monitoring capabilities. The user-friendly interface for constructing integration solutions is also a notable benefit. Moreover, the platform allows for the inclusion of C# scripting as part of the customization, further enhancing its utility.

One of the primary areas for improvement is a more mobile-friendly interface for the control center and monitoring. This would make it easier to monitor integrations on a mobile phone while on the go. Currently, the user interface is not responsive, which makes mobile usage quite challenging. Another area that could use enhancement is user management. The access rights are managed using a role-based model, which can get messy when a user needs access to multiple roles in the configuration.

I have been using it for three and a half years.

In terms of stability, the software part has proven to be quite reliable. Over the course of four years, we experienced only two or three outages, with most of them being attributed to larger Azure-based disruptions that affected other Azure customers as well. As for the agent side responsible for running the processes, we encountered a few more issues. In almost every case, the root cause was essentially our own. Overall, I would describe the platform as very stable.

Regarding scalability, I believe the SaaS part, likely handles the scaling aspects of that side. We didn't have direct visibility into that, so it's challenging to provide specifics. Still, in terms of the scalability of the agents running the processes, it's worth noting that we never encountered capacity issues.

We didn't find ourselves requiring extensive assistance because the documentation available was quite comprehensive. It provided all the essential technical information we needed for developing integrations. When we encountered an issue that we couldn't resolve, such as a specific integration challenge, we had a ticketing system in place with Frends. While we might not always receive an immediate response, it typically takes about three to four days, and then we'd have a solution or answer to our inquiry.

Positive

I'm currently using Azure Integration Services, and one key distinction is that it's not a single product but rather a collection of various individual components. This results in a notable difference: there isn't one unified user interface to manage everything. Instead, you need to navigate through smaller pieces, which affects the way monitoring works. In Azure Integration Services, you don't have a comprehensive overview of all your integrations, and you must create your own alerts and monitoring solutions. The monitoring options in Azure aren't particularly robust, which is where Frends had a significant advantage. When it comes to event-based processes, Azure offers the convenience of setting up services like Service Bus or Event Grid. However, in Frends, you don't have native support for such services. So if you require event-based functionality, you'd need to rely on external services, potentially from Azure, to achieve it.

The initial setup process was quite smooth and prompt. The platform's upgrades were also efficient, typically taking around 15-30 minutes to complete, including the entire system and all associated agents.

The setup process for the SaaS part was quite swift, particularly for the basic configuration, which didn't require extensive customization on our part. The installation of agents on-premises did take some time. Overall, I would say that within a single day, everything was up and running on the on-premises side.

The pricing model was highly advantageous in the past, with a fixed monthly fee allowing unlimited integrations. Recent changes in their pricing have removed this benefit, moving towards process-specific pricing. This means you now have to carefully consider the cost-effectiveness of using Frends for simpler interfaces.

When we were evaluating various integration platforms before selecting Frends, we conducted cost calculations and estimates. We assessed how much it would cost to manage a specific number of integrations with each platform. At that time, Frends stood out as the most cost-effective option.

I would say that the ease of getting started with Frends depends on whether the customer plans to create integrations in-house or outsource the work. If you intend to handle integrations yourself, Frends offers a relatively gentle learning curve. You can quickly begin working on integrations, and it's straightforward to reuse components from other integrations by copying and pasting. It is crucial to request a demo and evaluate how well the product fits your actual needs. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

We are working on a data warehousing project at the company. We required a solution to control the massive data in the cloud environment. Here, Frends helped us with integrating layers of the whole data pipeline.

The product has valuable features for version control. It is very secure and helps us save previous versions of processes and subprocesses. We can have production and development environments run different versions. It stores the full version history of global variables.

It is a new application and lacks some essential features compared to competitors. Basic features like reading and editing into Excel file format could be included.

We have been using Frends since May 2023.

The product has stability issues related to UI. Sometimes, the cursor doesn't align whenever we change the zoom level.

Our organization is quite small. When it comes to scaling to more processes, it has been a great solution. We managed subprocesses to create dynamic applications using the product. It would have taken 15-30 minutes to add a new table. Currently, it is scalable, and it takes fewer minutes to create a dynamic platform.

The technical support team has been helpful. They assist us with basic issues as well. They have secure access to the in-house servers. Whenever I raise the ticket, they check the system history and identify the problem. We don't have to describe anything further. It is a seamless support loop.

Positive

Our organization decided to work with Frends as it is a new application with computational benefits.

It took me a few weeks to adapt to the product's functionality. It has an approachable UI and decent documentation. It is complicated but good enough for a beginner who knows integration platforms.

I recommend it to others and rate it an eight out of ten.