Microsoft Access vs. SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), legacy

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Access
Score 7.6 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
SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), legacy
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
SAP® Adaptive Server® Enterprise (SAP ASE) was a solution that handled massive volumes of data and thousands of concurrent users to accelerate the growth of new data-driven business applications. SAP ASE is a legacy product. It is end of sale (EOS), and reached End of Mainstream Maintenance December 2020.N/A
Pricing
Microsoft AccessSAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), legacy
Editions & Modules
Microsoft Access
$139.99
per PC
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft AccessSAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), legacy
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
Microsoft AccessSAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), legacy
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Microsoft AccessSAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), legacy
Small Businesses
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft AccessSAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), legacy
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(98 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(15 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(4 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.4
(5 ratings)
9.7
(2 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 AccessSAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), legacy
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Microsoft Access can be easily implemented with training. It doesn't require expert level skill for basic reporting functions - but can be scaled to a complex database with sophisticated users. Its appropriate to consider if excel needs to be used to create reports, or if there are data entry needs - with corresponding reports.
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Discontinued Products
High-performance, high-concurrency transactions are well suited for ASE. ASE is lacking some features in my opinion such as history tables, however there are ways to implement them via workarounds or by using Replication Server. I do think the way the ASE parser and optimizer works are far superior to other products as it is a true cost-based optimizer and the order of the tables in the FROM clause does not really matter although a good SQL coder will place the tables in a meaningful order to make the SQL more readable. ASE is good for applications that require high availability and can be used for mission critical systems.
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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!
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Discontinued Products
  • Easy to setup and maintain
  • Reliable, rarely has major hiccups requiring reboots or crashes
  • Very responsive with complicated queries spanning various tablespaces and hundreds of millions of rows
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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.
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Discontinued Products
  • Full database encryption - need to utilize external keys vs internal - for better separation of duties.
  • History Tables.
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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.
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Discontinued Products
Our licenses are perpetual. It is the support that we will be renewing. We will renew because we continue to use and receive value from the product.
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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.
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Discontinued Products
It does almost everything we need and for the things it doesn't do natively, we are still able to do using other features. For example, natively history tables weren't supported but we were able to create them using triggers.
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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.
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Discontinued Products
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.
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Discontinued Products
Incredibly responsive, saving us countless hours in troubleshooting.
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Implementation Rating
Microsoft
there is no key idea, since it is easy to implement Microsoft Access
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Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Crystal is easier for report writing, but isn't a database solution. Salesforce is lovely, but much more expensive than an old copy of Microsoft Office. For a small budget, [Microsoft] Access was really the only viable option. I only wish it was easier to write complex reports.
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Discontinued Products
Much less effort than Oracle. Much better customer support than Oracle. Roughly equivalent to SQL Server in performance and ease of use. Much better customer service than SQL Server. Different ballpark from IQ. Same customer service.
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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.
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Discontinued Products
  • Negative - Costs a lot ... but so do they all.
  • Positive - It does what we need it to do.
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