Adobe PhotoShop vs. Microsoft Access

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe PhotoShop
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Photoshop is the best known graphics product on the market.
$20
per month
Microsoft Access
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Access is a database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools.
$139.99
per PC
Pricing
Adobe PhotoShopMicrosoft Access
Editions & Modules
Single App
$20.00
per month
Microsoft Access
$139.99
per PC
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe PhotoShopMicrosoft Access
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe PhotoShopMicrosoft Access
Considered Both Products
Adobe PhotoShop
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
I've used Adobe Photoshop for many years now. Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and learn these other products to find out which I like better. While at home I use Apple Photos and I have tried paint.net a couple of times but due to the availability of Adobe …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
There is NOTHING like Photoshop to do a plethora of tasks that includes simple photo resizing to more complicated tasks like photo manipulation and logo creation and software wireframing. There are other programs who do one or two things well, but Photoshop gives the user so …
Microsoft Access
Chose Microsoft Access
I haven't really used another database product other than Microsoft Access since the mid-90s. I don't even remember which program I did use, but needless to say, it did not have as much functionality nor was it as user friendly as databases today. So I really can't say how …
Chose Microsoft Access
MS SQL is a more powerful tool but I love the reporting feature in MS Access. MS Excel is useful for complex calculations but to me, MS Access helps me organize that data. InfoPath is similar to MS Access in that you can create forms for data entry, but it does not include …
Chose Microsoft Access
Microsoft Access databases are more suitable for us because we are a smaller team. It's easy for us to export the reporting. It's also easy for people to create their own databases as well! Microsoft Access is honestly a one-stop-shop for us, and we figured we were not at a …
Chose Microsoft Access
Microsoft Access is a good data management tool. and it excels in that area, which is what we needed the most. It was simple to use and easy to learn. Database management can be done with multiple users in Access. And we can have reports for data summaries, or for any specific …
Features
Adobe PhotoShopMicrosoft Access
Relational Databases
Comparison of Relational Databases features of Product A and Product B
Adobe PhotoShop
-
Ratings
Microsoft Access
7.7
3 Ratings
3% below category average
ACID compliance00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Database monitoring00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Database locking00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Encryption00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Disaster recovery00 Ratings7.73 Ratings
Flexible deployment00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Multiple datatypes00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Adobe PhotoShopMicrosoft Access
Small Businesses
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 7.3 out of 10
InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS
Score 8.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
GIMP
GIMP
Score 8.1 out of 10
InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 7.3 out of 10
SAP IQ
SAP IQ
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe PhotoShopMicrosoft Access
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(194 ratings)
5.0
(99 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(31 ratings)
10.0
(15 ratings)
Usability
7.7
(19 ratings)
7.0
(5 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(3 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(54 ratings)
6.4
(5 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(6 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
4.0
(1 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe PhotoShopMicrosoft Access
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
Photoshop is a useful tool for everything from creating social media graphics to editing and sizing photos. There is a bit of a learning curve, so you need to have a bit of experience to master it and use it for a variety of tasks. You also need to have a good sense of file organization so you can find files quickly without losing track of them.
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Microsoft
As a Material Purchasing/Planning/inventory tracking application, Microsoft Access serves its purpose well. It's presentation is clean, data entry is simple and the ability to customize search fields is welcome. It does, however, come with some caveats; namely, when setting search filters and the need arises to back up a step or two, with Microsoft Access you have to reset, or "clear all", adding extra steps/time to a query.
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Pros
Adobe
  • The fact is that you may quickly pick things up on your own by spending time without using any other resources.
  • It is the program that brings the phrase "to make PhotoShop" to almost all languages. It's not just a photo editing program.
  • Practical and beautiful results are filtered by filtering the desired work without drowning in details.
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Microsoft
  • Very easy to create entity-relationship diagrams for various tables and designing mock layouts.
  • Really easy to navigate as it hold[s] the classic Microsoft UI. Another good thing is that it comes with the complete MS Office Suite.
  • It is really fast when joining multiple tables no matter what type of join.
  • Works on pretty much same SQL scripts so no need to learn a new language!
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Cons
Adobe
  • The effect applying time could be faster.
  • There could be a smarter way to make mockups using smart objects, maybe by directly selecting an area, and generative AI can automate a few steps.
  • If Photoshop can suggest the right stock imagery in case the generative AI doesn't get the right answer.
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Microsoft
  • Microsoft Access has not really changed at all for several years. It might be nice to see some upgrades and changes.
  • The help info is often not helpful. Need more tutorials for Microsoft Access to show how to do specific things.
  • Be careful naming objects such as tables, forms, etc. Names that are too long can get cut off in dialog boxes to choose a table, form, report, etc. So, I wish they would have resizable dialog boxes to allow you to see objects with long names.
  • I wish it could show me objects that are not in use in the database for current queries, tables, reports, forms, and macros. That way unused objects can be deleted without worrying about losing a report or query because you deleted the underlying object.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
We get a lot of use out of this software. It's vital for work with production in our industry and has a lot of cross-functionality - creating social media images, retouching photos, editing photos, creating gradients, and more. It's pretty fuss-free in that we haven't had to reach out to support and the program hasn't crashed on us. We are trained on the software (so again, this isn't for beginners), but for detail-oriented designers and creatives like ourselves - it's a no-brainer.
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Microsoft
I and the rest of my team will renew our Microsoft Access in the future because we use and maintain many different applications and databases created using Microsoft Access so we will need to maintain them in the future. Additionally, it is a standard at our place of work so it is at $0 cost to us to use. Another reason for renewing Microsoft Access is that we just don' t have the resources needed to extend into a network of users so we need to remain a single-desktop application at this time.
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Usability
Adobe
Adobe PhotoShop is a professional-grade tool that requires months/years to get a grasp of how to use it well. Even then, after over a decade of using Adobe PhotoShop both casually and professionally, I feel like I'm still unfamiliar with a large percentage of the available tools. Without a dedicated training program, it can be extremely overwhelming and/or you may not get good use out of it. That being said, once you do get comfortable with it, the layout and workspace are excellent with myriad shortcuts that speed up your workflow exponentially. Put in the time to learn it, and you'll love it.
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Microsoft
Microsoft Access is easy to use. It is compatible with spreadsheets. It is a very good data management tool. There is scope to save a large amount of data in one place. For using this database, one does not need much training, can be shared among multiple users. This database has to sort and filtering features which seem to be very useful.
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Reliability and Availability
Adobe
Adobe Photoshop is very reliable, but is never 100%. There have been times when Adobe Photoshop has had trouble opening, but nothing a little computer restart couldn't fix. I use Adobe Photoshop on a Mac for both work and at home on a daily basis, and I would be lost without it.
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Microsoft
I don't think the program has ever failed me. It is one of those programs where there is always a solution if you know where to look.
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Performance
Adobe
Speed can be an issue when you are dealing with large files for large format printing or billboards. When working on web images, speed is not an issue.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Adobe
While I never contacted Adobe directly, there is so much content out there in the form of YouTube videos, Lynda/LinkedIn learning that almost any issue, including bugs, can be worked around (and this method is generally faster as there's no turnaround time involved).
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Microsoft
While I have never contacted Microsoft directly for product support, for some reason there's a real prejudice against MS Access among most IT support professionals. They are usually discouraging when it comes to using MS Access. Most of this is due to their lack of understanding of MS Access and how it can improve one's productivity. If Microsoft invested more resources towards enhancing and promoting the use of MS Access then maybe things would be different.
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In-Person Training
Adobe
So, I received the training at the HQ and it was train the trainer training. A good time, I spent a week at their campus
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Adobe
I took a course so it really helped. I didn’t take the course until much later after beginning to use it, so I wish work would have sent me right off the bat. It would have alleviated a lot of frustratinon
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Microsoft
there is no key idea, since it is easy to implement Microsoft Access
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Alternatives Considered
Adobe
[Adobe] Photoshop offers the best photo editing as well as content creation. The layer-by-layer approach of [Adobe] Photoshop helps to work between two apps or even two PCs of entirely different Creative Cloud apps seamlessly. The stability and the speed of the tools in photoshop make it even better to make a canvas of creativity.
Read full review
Microsoft
Excel is a fantastic - robust application that can do so much so easily. Its easy to train and understand. However - excel does not provide a reporting function and that is typically where we will suggest a move to [Microsoft] Access. [Microsoft] Access requires a little more knowledge of data manipulation.
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Scalability
Adobe
It seems expensive compared to the free/cheap programs now available
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Adobe PhotoShop in general is a great time saver.
  • It does take a long time for the program to start up, however
  • The most difficult task is onboarding new employees into Adobe PhotoShop who don't have experience with it. It's an investment for their future so we see value in it.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Not having to recreate queries or reports every time you want to use them.
  • Once an item is created and saved as part of the database, you save manpower by not having to recreate them.
  • ROI from a usability standpoint is great. Solid product with great functionality that requires low maintenance usually.
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ScreenShots