Microsoft Access vs. SQL Server Comparison


Microsoft Access Microsoft	SQL Server Microsoft	+	+
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About Create your own database apps easily in formats that serve your business best. PC only. Access is an easy-to-use tool for creating business applications, from templates or from scratch. With its rich and intuitive design tools, Access can help you create appealing and highly functional applications in a minimal amount of time. Tailor your custom apps to your business and your customers, easily editing as needed to meet evolving needs. Using Visual Basic for Applications, automate business processes and create more useful forms and reports. Integrate data between Access and line-of-business apps using the Access connector library to generate aggregated visuals and insights in the familiar Access interface. Easily store data in SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL to enhance reliability, scalability, security, and long-term manageability.	About Intelligence and security are built into Microsoft SQL Server 2019. You get extras without extra cost, along with best-in-class performance and flexibility for your on-premises needs. Take advantage of the efficiency and agility of the cloud by easily migrating to the cloud without changing code. Unlock insights and make predictions faster with Azure. Develop using the technology of your choice, including open source, backed by Microsoft's innovations. Easily integrate data into your apps and use a rich set of cognitive services to build human-like intelligence across any scale of data. AI is native to the data platform—you can unlock insights faster from all your data, on-premises and in the cloud. Combine your unique enterprise data and the world's data to build an intelligence-driven organization. Work with a flexible data platform that gives you a consistent experience across platforms and gets your innovations to market faster—you can build your apps and then deploy anywhere.
Platforms Supported Windows Supported Mac Not Supported Linux Not Supported Cloud Not Supported On-Premises Not Supported iPhone Not Supported iPad Not Supported Android Not Supported Chromebook Not Supported	Platforms Supported Windows Supported Mac Not Supported Linux Not Supported Cloud Not Supported On-Premises Not Supported iPhone Not Supported iPad Not Supported Android Not Supported Chromebook Not Supported
Audience Anyone who needs to manage and edit database tables	Audience Any business and organization seeking a solution to manage their cloud operations
Support Phone Support Not Supported 24/7 Live Support Not Supported Online Supported	Support Phone Support Not Supported 24/7 Live Support Supported Online Supported
API Offers API Not Supported	API Offers API Not Supported
Screenshots and Videos View more images or videos	Screenshots and Videos View more images or videos
Pricing No information available. Free Version Not Supported Free Trial Supported	Pricing Free Free Version Supported Free Trial Not Supported
Reviews/Ratings Overall 4.2 / 5 ease 4.1 / 5 features 4.4 / 5 design 4.3 / 5 support 4.7 / 5 Read all reviews	Reviews/Ratings Overall 4.5 / 5 ease 4.5 / 5 features 4.5 / 5 design 5.0 / 5 support 4.5 / 5 Read all reviews
Pros & Cons from Real Users Pros I don't have a lot to say that is good about this product but might be because I didn't understand it. - Microsoft access can be highly customizable according to the user's preference and needs. - It is a widely used software, so the community support is tremendous. - For using Microsoft Access, there is no need to learn a new language, just knowing SQL queries does the job. Not many pros for using this. Access is used only when we have no option such as restriction on other apps. Helps you to maintain and manage your database easily. Easy to use and has a great interface for the users. Really simple to configure. This software is amazing and allows you to organize your databases within one application! I highly recommend this software. Cons I went through a full training for this program and by the end of the last day, I still didn't understand it. - It is not a suitable database option for handling a large database or multiple users. - There is a lot of room for improvement in the user interface of the software. Buggy, lags when importing even simple DBs. Excel, SQL and even python's microsheet are better than Access. No cons, it's a simple and plain database application. It is a part of Microsoft 365 and sadly need to buy the whole system to get access to access.	Pros & Cons from Real Users Pros SQL server offers enough security to be able to perform reliable transactions, where you can work with all kinds of procedures previously saved for SQL. In terms of relational databases, SQL server allows the inclusion of relational data licenses within multidimensional groups, which at the level of analysis makes things much easier. Recommended because you can work with up to 6 different types of licenses, so the number of clients that can be added to the platform is huge depending on the size of the company. For example, the Enterprise plan is usually around 25,000, but offers a very large number of servers to work with. The interoperability that Microsoft SQL server brings serves to create a complete network in which databases are properly secured and at the same time can be edited by specific employees. Microsoft SQL server provides the user with the possibility of transporting large amounts of data of different types through the cloud. Our professional recommendation is that, if you choose to work with Microsoft SQL server, you should purchase the standard version, since it has all the features of software such as MySQL and Sybase ASE in terms of support for procedures and work in server mode, which would be enough to obtain promising results. Cons When working with pages simultaneously, there is a limit on the number of connections that can be carried out, and it has many restrictions that end up affecting the page editing level. For example, the size of the pages is impossible to edit, which leads to a somewhat poor view of the page in terms of size (it looks very small), as well as remaining static. The Microsoft SQL server platform does not support the ability to manage Canvas scripts directly from the development data lists being used (specifically HTML) so adding Canvas code to that language is useless if the content is to be transported through Microsoft SQL server. The variety of DDL commands that Microsoft SQL server allows to implement is a bit small, which ends up limiting the work to only using DML commands.
Training Documentation Supported Webinars Not Supported Live Online Not Supported In Person Not Supported	Training Documentation Supported Webinars Not Supported Live Online Not Supported In Person Supported
Company Information Microsoft Founded: 1975 United States products.office.com/en-us/access	Company Information Microsoft Founded: 1975 United States www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/
Alternatives Google Cloud SQL Google	Alternatives Teradata VantageCloud Teradata
Quickbase	Amazon Aurora Amazon
Ninox Ninox Software	Apache HBase The Apache Software Foundation
SSuite MonoBase Database SSuite Office Software	SingleStore
Trunao View All	RaimaDB Raima View All
Categories Database Supported Database Management Systems (DBMS) Supported Relational Database Supported Spreadsheet Supported	Categories Business Intelligence Supported Database Supported Database Management Systems (DBMS) Supported In-Memory Databases Supported Relational Database Supported SQL Databases Supported SQL Server Supported
Database Features Backup and Recovery Supported Creation / Development Supported Data Migration Not Supported Data Replication Supported Data Search Supported Data Security Not Supported Database Conversion Supported Mobile Access Not Supported Monitoring Not Supported NOSQL Not Supported Performance Analysis Not Supported Queries Supported Relational Interface Supported Virtualization Not Supported Relational Database Features ACID Compliance Supported Data Failure Recovery Supported Multi-Platform Supported Referential Integrity Supported SQL DDL Support Supported SQL DML Support Supported System Catalog Supported Unicode Support Supported Show More Features Spreadsheet Features Analytics Supported Audit Trail Not Supported Calculators Not Supported Charting Supported Multi-User Collaboration Supported Templates Not Supported	Database Features Backup and Recovery Supported Creation / Development Supported Data Migration Not Supported Data Replication Not Supported Data Search Not Supported Data Security Supported Database Conversion Not Supported Mobile Access Supported Monitoring Not Supported NOSQL Supported Performance Analysis Not Supported Queries Not Supported Relational Interface Not Supported Virtualization Not Supported Relational Database Features ACID Compliance Supported Data Failure Recovery Supported Multi-Platform Supported Referential Integrity Supported SQL DDL Support Supported SQL DML Support Supported System Catalog Supported Unicode Support Supported Show More Features Business Intelligence Features Ad Hoc Reports Supported Benchmarking Supported Budgeting & Forecasting Supported Dashboard Not Supported Data Analysis Supported Key Performance Indicators Not Supported Natural Language Generation (NLG) Not Supported Performance Metrics Supported Predictive Analytics Not Supported Profitability Analysis Not Supported Strategic Planning Not Supported Trend / Problem Indicators Not Supported Visual Analytics Not Supported SQL Server Features CPU Monitoring Supported Credential Management Supported Database Servers Supported Deployment Testing Supported Docker Compatible Containers Supported Event Logs Supported History Tracking Supported Patch Management Supported Scheduling Supported Supports Database Clones Supported User Activity Monitoring Supported Virtual Machine Monitoring Supported
Integrations Absolute Poll Manager Supported Advanced Query Tool (AQT) Supported Astera Centerprise Supported CMAP Supported DBeaver Community Supported ERDPlus Supported JMP Statistical Software Supported Lyftrondata Supported Megaladata Supported Microsoft Power Query Supported PaperPath Supported Predator Software Supported Query Streams Supported RazorSQL Supported SEA Manager Supported Simcad Pro Supported Sysgem Logfile Concentrator Supported Toad Data Modeler Supported appRules Portal Supported Show More Integrations View All 153 Integrations	Integrations Absolute Poll Manager Supported Advanced Query Tool (AQT) Supported Astera Centerprise Supported CMAP Supported DBeaver Community Supported ERDPlus Supported JMP Statistical Software Supported Lyftrondata Supported Megaladata Supported Microsoft Power Query Supported PaperPath Supported Predator Software Supported Query Streams Supported RazorSQL Supported SEA Manager Supported Simcad Pro Supported Sysgem Logfile Concentrator Supported Toad Data Modeler Supported appRules Portal Supported Show More Integrations View All 886 Integrations
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