Customer Reviews
We're proud of our software and pleased to share some of the ways our customers are using SocketTools. Developers all over the world find our components to be excellent, powerful and reliable... their words, not ours.
5/5
Congratulations to you and your team on such a fine product and service
I wrote a few sendmail programs in the past, none of which work anymore. I often use PowerBasic as a compiler. PowerBasic continues to have an active development community and I saw a post on the Power Basic Forums, where one of the contributors indicated they were now using SocketTools for a number of aspects of their Internet programming, including their SendMail program, and they indicated that SocketTools did a great job and was simple to use. So I downloaded a demo version and the setup could not have been more simple. Despite the length (holy crow! 5,200+ pages) of documentation, it was easy and well-organized to find the information I required. The demo program for my compiler worked immediately, and your technical support was amazing. They even wrote to me with an answer to my question (based on my download comment) before I even asked it. Super-impressive!
Jim McLachlan, Hart Software (Canada)
5/5
The SocketTools WebStorage API is a tremendous service
I’m probably not your typical customer as I don’t use Internet controls (at least not yet). But I do use your WebStorage control and it is a tremendous service. I own a small business involved in Excel VBA add-in development for customers in the real-time financial market data space. The products are license key based and WebStorage gives me a way store this data, as well as usage info and local settings, very reliably and without having to build and maintain a web hosted database (in which I don’t have much experience).
I used to get your SocketTools email advertisements for a number of years and as I looked through the capabilities I always had a sense that someday I may make use of them; although I had no real need for internet communications. But when the WebStorage control was introduced it was the spark that got me on SocketTools as it provided a neat way to get the data storage functionality I had always wanted but never took the time to develop on my own.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know I’m a fan!
Charlie Procaccini, ProSoft Design LLC. (United States)
5/5
SocketTools and Catalyst Development have by far surpassed my expectations
I’ve been very impressed with all aspects of this project, and both SocketTools and Catalyst Development have by far surpassed my expectations. We ran into a number of roadblocks on this endeavor, and I appreciate your persistence and patience, particularly with the inconsistent test environment our client provided. I am also very impressed with the functionality of our new custom control. Very slick! Once again, thanks very much for all your hard work!
Kevin Taylor, Tailored Software, Inc. (Canada)
5/5
Catalyst Development went above and beyond our expectations
We hired Catalyst Development for a custom programming project we were tasked with for one of our clients. Since we don’t do application development, we were looking for a partner who could take our description of what the application should do and turn it into a fully functional product. Communication between our Catalyst developer and our company was good and was always productive.
Catalyst Development went above and beyond our expectations by taking our application description, making suggestions that would improve or enhance the application, and still delivered both on schedule and on budget. We would not hesitate to employ their services again for our future application development needs.
Brian March, Evans Computer Consulting (United States)
5/5
SocketTools is reliable and provides great customer support
SocketTools is reliable and provides great customer support. Laudus is a ERP company developing for the Chilean market. We use SocketTools for HTTP, FTP and email access, and it has worked flawlessly for many years.
We recently had a custom need to add a behavior to a function, in order to asynchronously send the customers backups to the Amazon Web Services storage service. They set up the project and executed it in the time agreed; it worked from the first moment, and allowed us to store thousands of backups a day with no bug reports. It has been a pleasure to work with them and use their products.
Javier Borrajo, LAUDUS S.A. (Chile)
5/5
The documentation is amongst the best I’ve seen and used
Great product! I recently purchased the SocketWrench library and I’m pleasantly surprised by the ease of use and exceptionally intuitive API.
I wanted to replace some home-grown code with the new component and it just dropped into place and worked on the first compilation! The documentation is amongst the best I’ve seen and used, with lots of clear and concise tips and helpful information. I am very impressed with the price-quality level.
I look forward to many years of mutual benefits for both our companies.
Martin Hart, Memory Soft (Spain)
5/5
The best and most productive controls I have ever come across
Thanks for the amazing controls, the best and most productive I have ever come across. They work every time as per the detailed documentation with no gotchas. Great work.
Martin G Nagle, InfoMining PL (Australia)
5/5
Our application was completed ahead of schedule, thanks to SocketTools
During a time when my company was reducing IT staff, requests were not. An urgent request for a new application requirement was given to my group which would have involved sending a file to a mainframe environment via FTP. We had manual tools to accomplish this task, but an automation process within the application was the requirement.
Due to the short turnaround time the application was needed within and with a lack of programmer resources, I investigated alternatives. SocketTools was the front runner to fill the FTP void. To verify, their trial version was used to test the environment. It worked, so a license was purchased. The application was completed ahead of schedule, largely thanks to SocketTools.
Steven Powell, Boeing (United States)
5/5
SocketTools provides the reliability required for real-time trading
Our company develops a set of tools used by options traders. Since 2004 we have used SocketWrench (now included in SocketTools) in our software to link to a number of data providers to bring in streaming real-time quotes to our customers desktop applications. During that time our platform has migrated from VB 6.0 and COM to .NET, and from exclusively 32-bit applications to a combination of 32-bit and 64-bit applications.
These significant platform migrations have all gone smoothly, in large part due to the high degree of SocketTools backward compatibility. Source code changes to our software to upgrade to .NET and 64-bit versions of SocketTools were minimal. The software has been 100% reliable. Any support requirements we have had over the 11 years we have been customer have always been handled to our complete satisfaction in a prompt and professional manner. Highly recommended.
Peter Hoadley, Hoadley Trading & Investment Tools (Australia)
5/5
I'm impressed with how you maintain backwards compatibility
I wanted to let you know how impressed I am with maintaining backwards compatibility. I had a VB6 program with 6 different implementations of the SocketWrenchCtl.SocketWrench class v4.5 (which was from 2006). I dropped the new in the updated .ocx file expecting to suddenly invoke 11 years worth of renamed properties, added dependencies and breaking changes. I have not yet changed a single line of code and so far (fingers crossed) it appears to be stable.
I just thought I'd point that out because most devs can't go 3 months without introducing a breaking change (myself included)
Russell Phillips, Echotech (Australia)
5/5
SocketTools was well worth the money for the royalty free library
We have over 22,000 doctors using our software nationwide to integrate their medical systems and exchange clinical and financial data between their systems and to Health Information Exchanges, Accountable Care Organizations, Payers, Registries, and other entities. To accomplish this we use mostly our own technologies coupled with SocketTools. SocketTools supports our sFTP connections. We use the ActiveX Edition with Visual FoxPro 9 IDE.
We've used SocketTools for many years. In the past, when we've had some rare problems, we've worked with SocketTools to either find a workaround or they have produced a fix to handle the unusual situation we had.
We choose the SocketTools library specifically to avoid writing our own sFTP capability, as there are many variables in sFTP servers and encryption layers. SocketTools was well worth the money for the royalty free library.
Gary Gorsline, Lead Developer, X-Link Technologies (United States)
5/5
I cannot stress enough how easy SocketTools is to use
I use SocketTools .NET edition. I downloaded the trial edition and was surprised at how easy it was to use. I used SocketTools .NET to give my .NET app the ability to SSH into my Debian Servers for the purposes of server administration. Within 10 minutes of installing SocketTools .NET I was able to SSH into my server from my app. By SSH'ing into my server from my .net app, my users can maintain their Debian Servers without any knowledge of Linux. Of course I purchased a license from the website and it was quickly delivered.
Catalyst products are well documented. I have not had the need to contact support or go out looking around to figure out how to use their products.
I cannot stress enough how easy SocketTools is to use. I was blown away by how quickly I got the job done. As a single developer I was able to quickly accomplish the tasks at hand without having to write a bunch of code to handle the SSH'ing.
Good Job Catalyst, Your products are an incredible value, you saved me many hours of coding to accomplish my tasks. I recommend SocketTools to all .NET developers.
JW (United States)
5/5
The examples provided by Catalyst are outstanding
We have been using Catalyst Tools with outstanding success. We recognized early the robust features and quality code base that is provided to developers like us and our experience with the software has been excellent.
In 2001 we started a search for communication tools to help us create a targeted and secured data transfer module that could be embedded into our software. We chose SocketTools and developed a communications module that has been functioning trouble free by about 1,000 users for almost 13 years. The base code is reliable and well thought out.
The examples provided by Catalyst are outstanding and proved to be a very good starting point for use to develop the code to our requirements. You will find the code easy to read and understand. The questions we posed to Catalyst support were answered promptly.
Lastly, Catalyst has safe guarded our investment by keeping their tool set up-to-date as was evidenced when we had to move our product that was created in an Windows XP era and needed to now work in a Windows 7 / 8. Their new version was available and with minimal work and a recompile our module was ready for use on these new operating systems.
I highly recommend you take a look at their product offering.
Gary Lynch, Atwood Systems (United States)
5/5
It’s always a great pleasure working with SocketTools.
It’s always a great pleasure working with SocketTools. I have been using this since version 7 for various projects. As the name suggests, the SocketTools SDK covers everything that we can do with a socket control. It’s easy to use, rapid and stable. The examples allow a beginner to get started coding in a few hours. It's a great product and value for the money.
Charles Packiaraj, SATHYA Technosoft (India)
5/5
We find SocketTools to be powerful and flawless
InnQuest Software Corporation, based in Tampa Florida, is a leading provider of hotel systems for more than 5,000 hotels in more than 100 countries. Since hotels have to communicate with many different systems through-out the day, InnQuest relies heavily on Catalyst SocketTools. Some of these include communication to the bank for credit card processing, Booking.com or Expedia for reservations, gift card transactions, phone and voicemail systems and even the electronic keylocks on the door. Hotel front desk staff can even send SMS messages to guests letting them know when their room is ready using the SocketTools SMS functions.
In fact, InnQuest transacts more than 1 million credit card transactions per month securely with the INET library and more than 5 million reservation messages per month with the HTTP library.
We use Catalyst exclusively for all our secure HTTP, FTP, WinSock, Mail, and SMS needs for many years. We find not only the Catalyst staff extremely helpful if we need them, but the tools to be powerful and flawless.
Robert Paresi, InnQuest Software (United States)
5/5
The most reliable and well-built add on software library we have ever used
We have been using the Catalyst SocketTools Library for several years and have found it to be the most reliable and well-built add on software library we have ever used. We build commercial cloud based (SaaS) Labor Management software where we use the SocketTools library as a middleware layer between our applications and back end database. I would recommend Catalyst Products to anyone, if you are looking for an excellent middleware system Catalyst Products are the only game in town!
Mike Bishop, Owner, Raey Systems, LLC (United States)
5/5
We found the solution to our problems, the solution was SocketTools!
Recently, we were faced with some extremely complex HTTPS/SSL interface issues that caused many hours of downtime for our customers whom depend on us to deliver real-time data information services to their infrastructures. We attempted to use pure .NET solutions to solve the issues with absolutely no luck. We then went outside for help and went through three separate expert consulting firms whom all were unable to solve our issues.
After much discussion with Cary Harwin and the Catalyst Support Team, we found the solution to our problems. That solution was SocketTools! The fact is, we were able to overcome our issues within two days using the SocketTools components.
We are so grateful to the whole team at Catalyst and especially Cary Harwin, whose patience and understanding was awesome!
Thanks Catalyst!
Chris Masterson, Intrievex (United States)
5/5
Emailed Catalyst tech support and got helpful advice in a hurry
I'm involved in a project where there is software running on an OpenVMS system, talking to a proxy server on a PC, which in turn talks to a large corporate system using a SOAP protocol. We tried it using a couple different sets of code-generating tools for the proxy component, both of which ultimately failed because various low-level protocol tidbits weren't controllable thru the API (that was all handled for us, unfortunately, not in a way that worked with the corporate system.) The effort to not succeed at this ran into several weeks.
Finally, we got SocketTools, and used the "HTTP" control, and were able to get to a working prototype in a few days, and it's now in production. I ran into a couple bumps in the road, and emailed Catalyst tech support, got helpful advice in a hurry.
Johann Nutter, Tyger POS (United States)
5/5
We could not have done any of this without SocketTools
I have been using SocketTools for 10 years or more and it has never let me down. We use the tools mainly for sending emails and FTP transfer from applications that we write for in house use as well as some commercial applications we developed. We used it to develop our quotation system that sends emails to potential customers, another app sends automated customer update emails and transfers information to and from our website.
We also used it to develop an offsite FTP based backup solution that is used on a daily basis and has not failed us once. Another application we developed can monitor processes and services running on our computers and if one stops, it sends an email to the engineer meaning that our systems are always running; we could not have done any of this without SocketTools. So, if anyone is looking for a comprehensive toolkit for network and internet protocols, Catalyst SocketTools is the way to go, whatever programming language you use.
Mike Montgomery, MjM Data Recovery Limited (United Kingdom)
5/5
The examples provided with the software has proven invaluable
The SocketTools suite has proven valuable for me in several applications I have developed using the secure FTP and email components. The examples provided with the software has proven invaluable resulting in a shorter development time.
I developed an imaging application which accesses mailboxes on our exchange server, processes the parts of the email, and produces a single combined image for our imaging repository. If the email does not conform to expected standards, the same email component is used to construct and send the email back to the sender notifying them of the non-conformity. The mail components of SocketTools simplifies this process significantly.
I also developed an automated application which connects to a credit bureau FTP site, checks for new available files, and downloads them to our system for processing. All components needed were available within the SocketTools suite for me to complete this automation project. Additional products have been developed for connection to other data providers as well.
I recommend the Catalyst SocketTools products to any serious developer who needs TCP/IP connectivity. The return on your investment will be realized in your first development project by shorter development time and the reliability of the components.
Ron Bartleson, Hunter Warfield (United States)
5/5
The update was painless and Catalyst staff extremely helpful
Trimar Software Pty Ltd is a small Australian software company that provides a range of accounting products to professional accountants and their clients. Some years ago, we needed to introduce an email facility and I found Catalyst on the web and bought their SocketTools product. It was just what we needed. What was particularly helpful were the code examples for SMTP that clearly showed how many features operated. Our Payroll clients can now email their Payslips to their employees on a regular basis.
We also have an investment product and we enable users of that product to access our web site using the FTP module from SocketTools, to download company market values. The FTP module is also used by clients to check the current update status of their software by having their software FTP from our web site the latest software version number and comparing this against their own. Catalyst has always been very helpful. Just recently our web host upgraded to SFTP and this required that we updated SocketTools. The update was painless and Catalyst staff extremely helpful.
Roger Brownlee, Trimar Software (Australia)
5/5
Excellent software and support
We have been using SocketTools for several years now and it provided us an easy to use, well documented and extremely reliable library. Our company created server software that needs to respond and handle incoming TCP/IP requests 24/7 quickly without failing and as little overhead as possible. A few hundred of our customers use that software to serve thousands of their own customers' network requests every day. Only problem we had in the beginning a couple of years ago was handled really fast by the Catalyst support staff, even then the actual cause of the problem was not in their SocketTools. Excellent Software and support.
Pauli Porkka, Systems Analyst, PrettyBit Software (Finland)
5/5
SocketTools has provided an invaluable high-level interface
As a veteran of the software development industry, I have employed SocketTools in hundreds of applications, both in-house as well as in commercial software products. Beginning with the VB6 platform, SocketTools has provided an invaluable high-level interface enabling us to rapidly build advanced IP connectivity applications in a fraction of the time, with a fraction of the headache that would otherwise come with implementing complex native API solutions.
The proliferation of connectivity-based applications and services demands TCP/IP core competencies. With only limited experience of underlying IP protocols, I've found that most programmers can quickly grasp the SocketTools classes and bring an application from concept to production very quickly. Doing anything from a simple DNS lookup to a multi-threaded IP sockets host listener is a snap.
Nick Romano, AEX Group (United States)
5/5
SocketTools is so easy to use
I was way past a deadline, for about four weeks. The software I was working on had to connect, via Internet and local network, had to log variable information (temperature, humidity, time, machine names, sensor names, etc) from a series of instruments and gather all the data in a single computer, and display in real time and log to a database it's different values. I was trying to use VS own network framework and it was frustrating. For weeks and weeks, the more I learnt the more complex it became, and the further away from my goal I was.
After about three weeks, I decided that instead of trying to be a master in the VS Framework, I needed software that could do that part for me, and of course I started the search, and found several solutions, SocketTools was one of them, but I thought it was too simple at first, so, left it for last option. About 4 days of trying the others software, and being overwhelmed with nearly the same problems as with VS, decided it was time to give SocketTools the opportunity. Boy, I was surprised! In one hour I was connected to another computer in the same network, by the next day (about 6 hours, programming time), the software was fully gathering the data from all the instruments.
SocketTools is so easy to use. Read the documentation first, and it will all be so easy to implement and use.
Luis Amell, SERCONEX, SRL (Dominican Republic)
5/5
SocketTools has helped to simplify my programming needs
I have used SocketTools .NET edition for several years. I have developed several applications that are used by end users to communicate with electronics products that we design. The power of SocketTools is a good range of tools, reasonable cost, good documentation, good examples and support. There are always free and single executable ways meaning just using windows DLL's but good luck finding documentation and getting support in using them.
I am an intermediate programmer and SocketTools has helped to simplify my programming needs. In my applications I currently use Email, UDP and TCP connections and FTP.
Trent McElhaney, Agratronix (United States)
5/5
SocketTools makes cloud network connectivity seamless and invisible
We are a software development company that provides solutions to the banking industry in the US and Canada. We have been in existence nearly 30 years. Technology changes rapidly and we've learned that we are usually more effective in meeting those changes using trusted tools instead of reinventing wheels when we don't have to.
One such change is the "cloud" being used extensively as an extension of our clients' local area networks. In order to meet the challenges of these new requirements we choose to make the SocketTools Library part of our development environment.
We especially like the high level functions that eliminate 100's of lines of code and many hours of programming. Our company is not a "cloud connectivity" expert - we are banking experts. SocketTools Library makes cloud network connectivity seamless and invisible and brings value added to our banking solutions.
Don Lowenstein, Lowenstein and Associates PC (United States)
5/5
Catalyst's support is top-notch, with quick response times
SocketTools has been a valuable component in our automated build tool, Visual Build (http://www.visualbuild.com/). We used it to implement most of Visual Build's networking actions, greatly reducing the time needed to incorporate FTP, HTTP, SMTP, Telnet, and other networking capabilities into our application. Catalyst's support is also top-notch, with quick response times for support questions and bug reports. I highly recommend SocketTools to anyone looking for a robust networking component for their Windows or web applications.
Kyle Alons, Kinook Software, Inc. (United States)
5/5
SocketWrench greatly simplified the handling of SSL/TLS server side connections
I use SocketWrench. I use it for handling the s in https for our web development server/platform, and I'm glad that we do! SocketWrench greatly simplified the handling of SSL/TLS server side connections, the documentation is very good, and the support over the last many years has been excellent every time.
Colin Schmidt, Cnawlece Inc. (Canada)
5/5
You cannot find anything better than SocketTools for multi-versatile communications
As a professional software developer I have used SocketTools to accelerate the development of lots of things. It was very easy to embed SFTP functionality in several programs. One was used to upload and download to license files stored in a Cloud Server. This made the update of a customer license a "one click" secure operation. SocketTools also was integrated into a software package backup option to push a ZIP file to the same Cloud Server.
A pharmacy package I supported had a fully integrated feature to upload data to many state pharmacy boards, again with only a few clicks. Each had different specs and SocketTools made it easy for every state. This was a feature that normally could only be found on packages costing thousands of dollars more and avoided a very tedious and error prone operation to upload data manually using various state pharmacy board websites. The same pharmacy package also used SocketTools and SSL encryption to send live on-line insurance claims with nearly 100% reliability for thousands of transaction.
One other little cool utility checks an IMAP server for new email messages and sends a text message to a specified mobile phone that I did not want to burden with the whole email box.
I have occasionally needed tech support to clarify an issue and every time the advice was quick and helped me solve the problem. If you need a multi-versatile communications package for Windows you cannot find anything better than SocketTools.
Mark Strickland, Chief Engineer and Owner, SimplyBASICsoftware.com, LLC (United States)
5/5
SocketTools is a solid product with quality documentation
SocketTools is a solid product with quality documentation. Support is also top notch! Highly recommend SocketTools!
Christian Vardin, President, ControlEng Corporation (Canada)
5/5
We have been using SocketTools in our small business
We have been using SocketTools in our small business accounting series CASHMAN since VB3. The SMTP tool has allowed us to embed a function for the emailing of client data to their accountant with absolutely no fuss and without concern for the email client being used.
Marshall Hodgekiss, Bear Mountain Systems (Australia)
5/5
We have found the SocketTools products to be highly reliable and easy to use
Utilisoft is a specialist software developer for the energy industry and other corporate sectors. We have been users of the SocketTools Library edition for the last 15 years, and fans of the product for all of that time. We use it to allow our customers to write scripted customizations and apply them within our data entry toolset. Our scripting language is much simpler than C++ or C# and so allows non-technical developers to utilize some quite advanced features. For example, one of our customers, who has never had any sort of training in programming, was able to access the https features of SocketTools to link a data entry field into a credit checking service, utilizing a Webservice API. The first we heard was after they had completed the work.
We have found the SocketTools products to be highly reliable and easy to use, and the service we get from Cary and the team has been exceptional at all times.
Martin Evans, Utilisoft Ltd (United Kingdom)