Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
Windward Core Logo

Windward Core pros and cons

Vendor: Windward Studios
4.4 out of 5
Badge Ranked 1
3,700 followers
Start review

Pros & Cons summary

Windward Core seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office, enabling users to design templates in Word and Excel without extensive training or IT help. It swiftly generates reports with robust support and minimal adjustments. However, server setup guidelines are lacking, report size issues occur, and AutoTag may affect Word/Excel performance. Excel loses scripts and macros, impacting functionality. Enhancements in document distribution and better layout control are needed for comprehensive usability.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.
Get the report

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Windward Core offers exceptional support, with response times usually within one hour, and provides quick integration with existing applications.
Its AutoTag tool streamlines report creation by integrating with Microsoft Word, enabling users to design and update templates efficiently without a steep learning curve.
The software's capability to automate report generation reduces the reliance on IT, improving turnaround times and enabling fast client updates.
Windward Core's compatibility with popular applications like Microsoft Word and Excel allows users to leverage familiar tools, making report design user-friendly and accessible to non-technical users.
The integration of features such as dynamic document generation, modular designs with PODs, and comprehensive template management provides users with versatile and high-quality layout capabilities.

CONS

Windward Core lacks a black-and-white ideal server setup, causing users to spend time configuring scalable solutions, which could be streamlined with an AWS-package server setup.
Windward Core's document generation side lacks a distribution feature, limiting the ability to send documents to recipients based on business rules, and making users manage template-recipient relationships manually.
Windward Core does not support macOS documents, leading to compatibility issues for users working on different operating systems.
Windward Core's performance and formatting suffer when generating PDFs, with discrepancies between native and Office PDF outputs, necessitating Office installation on servers.
Windward Core error reports need improvements as they lack precision in guiding users to correct issues effectively.
 

Windward Core Pros review quotes

HM
Jun 20, 2019
You can use Microsoft Office as your designer interface. There is very little programming. You can have nontechnical people create reports.
Read full review
JK
Jan 21, 2019
The most valuable feature is that it provides good, dynamic document-generation performance and the documents are being generated reliably.
Read full review
VK
Feb 21, 2019
The quality of the layouts and designs is second to none. Windward's ability to help us generate templates, for which we can actually tag documents, is the key feature that we use.
Read full review
Buyer's Guide
Windward Core
March 2025
Free Report: Windward Core Reviews and More
Learn what your peers think about Windward Core. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
842,388 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Solutionef0b - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 7, 2019
One of the features that we have found most important is that the report builder is in Word, so it was very easy to get into it... We could also use some of our existing Word templates.
Read full review
MH
Aug 28, 2019
Another thing our clients absolutely love is the ability to design templates within the Microsoft Office suite, because of how simple it is. They're building off of something that's familiar. When they can build off of that feature, on top of something that's very familiar, that's a plus for them.
Read full review
Technica6546 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 21, 2019
It's easy to create templates and reports using Microsoft Word, so we don't have to learn something new to create a template. That makes it very user-friendly... they have integrated the product with Microsoft Word. People can easily start working on it without too much training.
Read full review
WC
Feb 5, 2020
The solution is very flexible, so you can create anything you want. Think of the possibilities you have in Excel or in Word, because these are the two document generators that are used the most. I only use Word, but I can use nearly every feature in Word, including making charts and tables, and produce those features in Windward, parametrically.
Read full review
JA
Jan 17, 2020
The most valuable feature is the fact that it uses Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel as base templates, so when you generate, it's easy for clients to upgrade, and maintain, and generate out either a PDF or an actual Excel spreadsheet.
Read full review
it_user838203 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 15, 2018
The two features that I like the best are the ability to generate Word and Excel documents, and the ability to create my templates directly inside those software sets. It's absolutely critical for me as a user to have design and layout control, because all of my reports are very, very customized. I have to have control over the ability to generate and to control what they look like.
Read full review
CH
Mar 31, 2021
The ultimate feature is the product it produces. The ROI around that saves hours and hours. It's probably about a hundred days per year. The time savings and the ability to turn it around quickly pleases our customers.
Read full review
Show 10 more reviews (out of 21)
 

Windward Core Cons review quotes

HM
Jun 20, 2019
Their PDF needs improvement. We've run into some issues when we tried to generate a Word document. If we try to generate the same document in PDF, sometimes it doesn't look exactly the same.
Read full review
JK
Jan 21, 2019
Regarding AutoTag, we do notice that when you want to refactor a little bit of your template design or when you want to implement changes, sometimes you need a lot of clicks to get the change done. For instance... it would be helpful to be able to find all the identifiers with the old name and replace them with the new name. We haven't found a way to do that with the find-replace tool. Throughout the user-interface of Windward, you need a lot of clicks to get that done.
Read full review
VK
Feb 21, 2019
The reason it took us so long to get the system up and running is that the APIs could be improved a bit. It could be a little bit more interoperable with software, without having to do a lot of the heavy lifting that we had do to get it in.
Read full review
Buyer's Guide
Windward Core
March 2025
Free Report: Windward Core Reviews and More
Learn what your peers think about Windward Core. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
842,388 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Solutionef0b - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 7, 2019
One thing that frustrated us a little bit is that we have to use the Office PDF generation, because the native PDF generation is always slightly different compared to the one in Office. The formatting is just a little bit off here and there... This means that we need to have Office installed on the server to be able to generate these documents via API.
Read full review
MH
Aug 28, 2019
They're not a gigantic company, so they just don't have all the capital to do whatever they would want to do. That's the only reason I would hold back even that one point. I know that if I do ask for something, I'll get it. I just know that it will take some time.
Read full review
Technica6546 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 21, 2019
They could make the document creation performance faster. I'm not saying it's slow but it takes time to create the PDFs. If they could make it faster, that would be one area for improvement.
Read full review
WC
Feb 5, 2020
I'm still working in Office 2016, and we have had some issues, but Windward is very quick to react when there is a problem. We are also going to switch over to Office 365 and that will solve a few of the problems.
Read full review
JA
Jan 17, 2020
The only thing I can think of, that we'd like it to do, would be the ability to "burst out" reports, meaning one section of a report could be sent out as an email to a manager of a department, say, without having to run multiple reports to do it. As it sits now, we have to do multiple reports to do it.
Read full review
it_user838203 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 15, 2018
There is always room for improvement in the speed, especially with the complex, multi-line Excel spreadsheets. They made some improvements in the last version that are quantum-fold faster than when I first started. But there is always room for improvement there. You always want reports faster and faster.
Read full review
CH
Mar 31, 2021
The error reports also need improvement. If you don't key it in right, it's a little hard to find the root cause. It gives you information as much as it can, but it doesn't really hone in and tell you explicitly what you should do to correct the problem.
Read full review
Show 10 more reviews (out of 21)

Product Categories

Product Categories
Document Generation Tools
Reporting

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons
Docmosis vs Windward Core Logo
Docmosis vs Windward Core
Nintex Document Generation vs Windward Core Logo
Nintex Document Generation vs Windward Core
CA Easytrieve Report Generator vs Windward Core Logo
CA Easytrieve Report Generator vs Windward Core
See all alternatives

Product Categories

Product Categories
Document Generation Tools
Reporting

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons
Docmosis vs Windward Core Logo
Docmosis vs Windward Core
Nintex Document Generation vs Windward Core Logo
Nintex Document Generation vs Windward Core
CA Easytrieve Report Generator vs Windward Core Logo
CA Easytrieve Report Generator vs Windward Core
See all alternatives