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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Access

    Score7.5 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft 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

    Power Apps

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/APowerApps is a low code / rapid application development product from Microsoft that allows users to quickly build apps.

    $20

    per month per user

    Pricing
    Microsoft AccessPower Apps
    Editions & Modules
    Microsoft Access
    $139.99
    per PC
    Power Apps Premium
    $20
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft AccessPower Apps
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft AccessPower Apps
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    Chose Power Apps
    Much cheaper, much more customizable, and easier to use. There is not much of a learning curve and the licensing cost is much cheaper. PowerApps does one thing very well, whereas other platforms are mediocre. There is much more customization possible for your in-house workflows …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    29 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    21 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    29 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    18 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    28 Answers
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    19 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    86%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    19 Answers
    81%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    21 Answers
    84%
    Implementation went as expected
    16 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft AccessPower Apps
    Relational Databases
    Comparison of Relational Databases features of Microsoft Access and Power Apps
    Feature
    Microsoft Access
    7.7
    3 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Power Apps
    -
    Ratings
    ACID compliance7.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Database monitoring8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Database locking8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Encryption7.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Disaster recovery7.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Flexible deployment8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple datatypes8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Low-Code Development
    Comparison of Low-Code Development features of Microsoft Access and Power Apps
    Feature
    Microsoft Access
    -
    Ratings
    Power Apps
    7.8
    24 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Visual Modeling00 Ratings7.722 Ratings
    Drag-and-drop Interfaces00 Ratings7.423 Ratings
    Platform Security00 Ratings8.523 Ratings
    Platform User Management00 Ratings7.923 Ratings
    Reusability00 Ratings7.423 Ratings
    Platform Scalability00 Ratings7.622 Ratings
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    Microsoft AccessPower Apps
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    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft AccessPower Apps
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.4
    (102 ratings)
    8.2
    (26 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (15 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.6
    (8 ratings)
    7.9
    (7 ratings)
    Availability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.4
    (5 ratings)
    9.7
    (6 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft AccessPower Apps
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Power Apps is ideal for scenarios that are neither too complex nor too large. It is easy to begin development in Power Apps, as it is one of the best tools for low-code development. Power Apps can be implemented for complex scenarios as well, provided there is strong knowledge of the tool and ample time for planning. Our applications benefit from Power Apps' cross-platform support, making it easy to use on any device, including desktops, laptops, and mobile devices.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    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!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Power Apps has formats that are pre-built that don't require any coding which makes it easier to achieve your vision. This does become a challenge if your App needs don't fit into that format.
    • We deal with a ton of data so the fact that you can connect to any data source in addition to their pre-stablished data connections makes the process a breeze.
    • The online learning resources and tutorials are helpful as well for those who are tech savvy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Sometimes the cost of solutions is greater than the benefit. Licensing is expensive relative to the scope of some business user-created personal or team-level solutions.
    • While there is a starter-kit for Governance, it is complicated to stand up and requires dedicated resources to provide on-going governance operations. Many organizations are not going to be able to dedicate resources to governance and this causes the sprawl, solution duplication, silos, unneeded and unplanned licensing expenses, and a general "wild wild west" environment.
    • There needs to be better direction and best practices given around Power Platform Environment utilization and optimization.
    • The accessibility to the platform and ease for business partners to independantly create solutions is both a benefit and a negative. When the business outcome needed is a good fit for PowerApps it is a quick win, but when not a good fit it becomes a frustration for the business partner attempting to make the platform do something it is not well-suited for. The business partner entangles tech teams in the effort which drains resources and provides a lack-luster solution. All of this to say, it would be beneficial to have some tools that business partners could leverage to determine\understand if the type of business outcome they need is well suited to PowerApps or not.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    PowerApps is a great solution and I have spent the last year familiarizing myself with the platform and building custom applications to complete a whole range of tasks such as asset management, custom invoice generation, and item restriction tracking. We as a company have barely begun to scratch the surface of what can be achieved with PowerApps.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The community forums are extremely responsive to questions asked, there is a good body of online documentation and many community posts to draw from. Although the platform has changed, which means some of the posts are out of date and the solutions provided aren't relevant. Of relevance, I read over 400 articles plus documentation to get this first app built in SharePoint, move it to SQL and make it work exactly the way it should.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    there is no key idea, since it is easy to implement Microsoft Access
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    1. PowerApps functionality comes with E1 over E3 License without adding extra costs 2. For Nintex you pay (at the beginning) for each workflow, so my intention would be, to do no workflows to prevent additional costs, but I want a platform with a fair price that allows me to create workflows without thinking about the price for each workflow and we use only some workflow and relative easy workflows and forms as a medium-sized company. 3. PowerApps provides a lot of functionality without needing to invest in premium features directly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Automation of manual processes brings an ROI on labor costs.
    • Intake of data provides clean database design.
    • Connectivity to data-lake provides insights and trends into the data.
    • Able to scale operations with efficiencies provided by the app.
    • Can mature the process and workflows to do more.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots