Actian Zen vs. Chroma DB vs. Microsoft Access
| Product | Rating | Most Used By | Product Summary | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Actian Zen | Score6 out of 10 | Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees) | HCL Zen Edge Data Management (formerly Actian Zen) is a NoSQL and SQL (fully ANSI compliant) embedded database that runs on Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, macOS, in VMs and Containers with AES 256-bit encryption. Version footprints range from 5MB (client only) to 50 MB (embedded client-server) to 200MB (client-server, SaaS-ready) and support up to 64TB tables. NoETL between versions. Use C/C++/C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, Delphi, or Basic and connect to any ODBC/JDBC, ASP.Net source or… | $100 one-time fee per installation |
Chroma DB | N/A | N/A | An AI-native open-source embedding database, designed to make it easy to build LLM apps by making knowledge, facts, and skills pluggable for LLMs. It is free to use under an Apache 2.0 license. | $0 |
![]() Microsoft Access | Score7.5 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 |
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| Editions & Modules | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic |
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| Entry-level Setup Fee | Optional | No setup fee | No setup fee | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Additional Details | Visit store.actian.com or contact us at dbcic@actian.com. | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Actian Zen | Chroma DB | Microsoft Access | |
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| Considered Multiple Products | No answer on this topic | No answer on this topic | ![]() No answer on this topic |
| Key User Insights | |||
| Would buy again | |||
No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | 97% Would buy again 29 Answers | |
| Delivers good value for the price | |||
No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | 97% Delivers good value for the price 29 Answers | |
| Happy with the feature set | |||
No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | 93% Happy with the feature set 28 Answers | |
| Lived up to sales and marketing promises | |||
No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | 86% Lived up to sales and marketing promises 19 Answers | |
| Implementation went as expected | |||
No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | 91% Implementation went as expected 21 Answers | |
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| Relational Databases |
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| Actian Zen | Chroma DB | Microsoft Access | |
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| Small Businesses | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | Amazon RDS Score8.1 out of 10 |
| Medium-sized Companies | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | SingleStore Score8.2 out of 10 |
| Enterprises | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | SAP IQ Score5.5 out of 10 |
| All Alternatives | View all alternatives | View all alternatives | View all alternatives |
| Actian Zen | Chroma DB | Microsoft Access | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Likelihood to Recommend | - | - | 7.4 |
| Likelihood to Renew | - | - | 10.0 |
| Usability | - | - | 7.6 |
| Availability | - | - | 8.0 |
| Support Rating | - | - | 6.4 |
| Implementation Rating | - | - | 10.0 |
| Ease of integration | - | - | 8.0 |
| Product Scalability | - | - | 5.0 |
| Actian Zen | Chroma DB | Microsoft Access | |
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| Likelihood to Recommend | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | ![]()
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| Cons | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | ![]()
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| Likelihood to Renew | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | ![]()
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| Usability | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | ![]()
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| Reliability and Availability | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | ![]()
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| Support Rating | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | ![]()
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| Implementation Rating | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | ![]()
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| Alternatives Considered | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | ![]()
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| Return on Investment | No answers on this topic | No answers on this topic | ![]()
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| ScreenShots | Actian Zen Screenshots |








