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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

    Tableau Prep

    Score6.5 out of 10
    N/ATableau Prep enables users to get to the analysis phase faster by helping them quickly combine, shape, and clean their data. According to the vendor, a direct and visual experience helps provide users with a deeper understanding of their data, smart features make data preparation simple, and integration with the Tableau analytical workflow allows for faster speed to insight. Tableau Prep allows users to connect to data on-premises or in the cloud, whether it’s a database or a…

    $15

    per month billed annually per user

    Pricing
    Microsoft AccessTableau Prep
    Editions & Modules
    Microsoft Access
    $139.99
    per PC
    Viewer
    $15
    per month billed annually per user
    Explorer
    $42
    per month billed annually per user
    Creator
    $70
    per month billed annually per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft AccessTableau Prep
    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 AccessTableau Prep
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Tableau
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    29 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    29 Answers
    83%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    28 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    86%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    19 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    21 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft AccessTableau Prep
    Relational Databases
    Comparison of Relational Databases features of Microsoft Access and Tableau Prep
    Feature
    Microsoft Access
    7.7
    3 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Tableau Prep
    -
    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
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft AccessTableau Prep
    Small Businesses
    Amazon RDS
    Score8.1 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    SingleStore
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Toad Data Point
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SAP IQ
    Score5.4 out of 10
    Datameer
    Score8.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft AccessTableau Prep
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.4
    (102 ratings)
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (15 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    7.6
    (8 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.4
    (5 ratings)
    5.3
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft AccessTableau Prep
    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
    Tableau
    If your data sets are coming in without much stewardship then Tableau Prep can help to clean the data before you start trying to create visualizations for your end users. You will save a lot of time this way - rather than seeing problems once you are creating dashboards. If you don't have large data sets or your data is relatively simple, then Tableau Prep may not be needed.
    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
    Tableau
    • Display the raw data coming in from the data warehouse
    • Point out situations that might be erroneous
    • Show the distribution of raw data figures
    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
    Tableau
    • Use of Macros within Workflow (and more types of automation)
    • Join Editor also giving a SQL Update Query
    • More types of visuals
    Incentivized
    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
    Tableau
    It is a valuable tool for generating and cleaning files for multiple purposes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Tableau
    It works well and is user friendly for the basics but needs more options for bring in data (using SQL queries for example) and export format options.
    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
    Tableau
    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
    Tableau
    I have not really had to reach out for any kind of customer support for Tableau Prep, so I can't really say. However, the support that Tableau has given for their other products has been great, so I would assume it would be the same here. They are also constantly adding new features and providing software updates, and that is always a plus.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    there is no key idea, since it is easy to implement Microsoft Access
    Read full review
    Tableau
    Live connections to cloud services (Google Sheets for example) and cloud hosted databases (cloud hosted SIS for example) for scheduled flows are not supported
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Tableau
    Before Prep, we had to do all the data joining and connecting in a Tableau Workbook. Not only did this cause workbooks connected with live data to run frustratingly slowly, a new connection and set-up had to be established every time a new workbook as created, even if you were working with the same data. The extracts produced by Prep allow several workbooks to be working from the same data set-up without any additional work, saving time and stress.
    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
    Tableau
    • Quicker data sets for online reports
    • More efficient data cleaning Ad Hoc reports
    • Costly if using data management to schedule data pull and cleaning (priced per viewer accounts not creator accounts)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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