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Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access

Overview

What is Microsoft Access?

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.

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Recent Reviews
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

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Pricing

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Microsoft Access

$139.99

On Premise
per PC

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

Workflow Builder for Microsoft Access Demo

YouTube

Use a File Dialog in Microsoft Access

YouTube

Open Source Simple LIMS Software for Small Lab Demo

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Microsoft Access Electronic Signature Capture Database Template

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Microsoft Access Database Tutorial - User form Login Security Demo

YouTube

Microsoft Access Project Management Database Template

YouTube
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Product Details

What is Microsoft Access?

Microsoft Access Video

What is Microsoft Access?

Microsoft Access Competitors

Microsoft Access Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Claris FileMaker are common alternatives for Microsoft Access.

Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of Microsoft Access are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(826)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 97)
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Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used Microsoft Access as our main tool for our database management. It helps us to attend to the day-to-day tasks that a company needs to perform in order to function. Being a software company ourselves, We not only use it to store our company data but also some client information as well and do not have any negative outlook towards it yet.
Dhiman Roy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft Access is one the best software in the database management system. In an organisation when one wants to make a report, Microsoft Access helps to do it perfectly. It is a software where graphic interface, Excel sheets are perfectly maintained. I am fully satisfied with the software. The software is very easy to use.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
As a corporate trainer, it was my job to learn how a company would implement Microsoft Access and then train its employees how to build, use, and access the data relevant to their job. It was used for specific departments to collate information, collaborate with other employees and serve as the next step when excel could not provide a reporting function.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[Microsoft] Access has all of the functionalities needed to build concise applications for small offices or needs. The ability to utilize other database platforms like SQL Server is a plus. The ability to create full functioning applications in less than an hour is a big plus. There isn't much you can't do with [Microsoft] Access if you understand that it isn't meant to be an enterprise tool.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Having worked as a Data Analyst at a reputed retail company, Microsoft Access was one of the major tools that were used for database design, creating entity-relationship diagrams, creating mock layouts of the data schema, and writing queries to retrieve data. At the moment, Microsoft Access was being widely used across the organization. The main reason for using Microsoft Access was its usability and its usual Microsoft user interface that made it easier for nontechnical folks to write queries as well.
Peggi Wolfe | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I work in the global programs department at a state university. I am not an expert, I don't know coding, but I do have extensive experience with Microsoft Access. Microsoft Access is being used in our department for databases to keep data about attendance at events, services performed, club dues and fees, the department bank account, and department orders. (I don't know if anyone else at the university uses it; most use MS Excel). I not only use Microsoft Access in my current position, I also used it extensively in my previous position (medical researcher) and built for the department an orders database, cell storage and retrieval database and a database for shipments of standardized adult bone marrow stem cells in liquid nitrogen to researchers all over the world. I am the only one in our current department who knows how to use Microsoft Access and thus I'm the only one who uses it, but I use it for the benefit of the department by quickly pulling up information that has to be tracked for reports needed for grants that we work under and other types of information. I designed and created all the elements used in the databases, tables, forms, reports, and macros. I've input all the data from the different events, clubs, services, and departmental accounts. I recently created the orders database so that the person in our department who does the orders can quickly enter all the order information that is input into our university order system into the database and then quickly find specific info about those orders. I find Microsoft Access helps our department function more efficiently.


Alicia Barevich, bCRE, bCEE | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use [Microsoft] Access to manage our projects and sales contacts for our small book publishing company. It is the only source of data for the company, which only has a few employees. It tracks sales pipeline, payments, projects, royalties, and everything else. Reports, queries and forms are at the center of everything that happens in the company.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Microsoft Access for abstracting data [from] multiple data resources and creating different sorts of management presentations in forms of graphical and rationale outputs. There are various applications and databases linked with Microsoft Access tool in our organization including Excel, MS SharePoint and cloud storages. It has made [...] things easier in many ways as the data is being managed and reports are being generated in [an] automated way for large data as compared to looking up and abstracting for every input manually through VLOOKUPs and using numerous formulas. We are using MS Access in all of our departments across the company and users have access to the centralized domain as per their job roles through SSO.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I personally prefer to use Microsoft Access over Excel for specific data analysis tasks. I find it easier and more effective to use to cross reference and/or combine differs sets of data. For example, I often have to analyze benefit enrollment data by different demographic characteristics.
Niloofar Keshvari Nia | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have been using Microsoft Access in creating simple and medium-sized projects for many years. It’s easy to use the DB management tool for creating business applications. MS Access [has been] used in our finance department for a long time. We use it along with Microsoft Visual Basic and its features when building new applications to build and develop better apps. The launch time of new applications has been greatly reduced and this has increased the efficiency of the work.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[Microsoft] Access is being used by various departments in the organization. I use it to combine databases with joins, such as combining data within 2 Excel files. It is very useful, because a lot of people at the company manually combine data, or use vlookup. Vlookup is good sometimes, but you only get the first occurrence of the match, whereas doing a join in Access lets you get all matches so you can decide what needs to be kept
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft Access is being used in selective departments as of now [...] but is [...] being used in almost all branches of our company. We have data coming in from multiple sources, and Microsoft Access makes it really easy to collate and format the data [...] so that it can be processed into usable forms.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Microsoft Access to backlog data and information for our entire company. Microsoft Access helps keep information in a concise location for easy reference. This way, we don't have to spend hours going through filing cabinets or folders when looking for old information.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
For a long time, we used Microsoft Access [for] many [in-house] applications from engineering requests to IT Assets[,] etc. Over time, we migrated many of [these applications] to MS SQL server or the cloud. However, we continue to use MS Access with ODCB Data as MS Access provide[s] a quick way to build fully functional applications with the least amount of effort.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft Access is available to all employees through our Enterprise subscription to Office 365. Access is extremely powerful and a life saver when it comes to working with data, but it can be a bit intimidating at first to get to know.

I was able to self-teach myself the basics of the program and was able to find another power-user of the program at my university to help answer specific questions I had come up about linking to data sources on campus.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Microsoft Access for low code, relational database applications where users are creating, reading, updating, and deleting data (CRUD). Access provides SQL implementation and relational database functionality in a somewhat easy-to-use environment which makes it superb to excel for data management activities. The benefits to access are that is locally stored and a standalone applications with a easy-to-user interface which makes it hard to compete against. Likewise, due to the underlying SQL and relational database architecture, it tends to handle larger sets of data much better than Microsoft Excel.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft Access is being used in our organization as organized data access tool from databases of different functions of organization to abstract graphical reports and information distribution. We usually get data and records from different resources and use MS Access to format and compile gathered data in presenting manner. We are using Microsoft Access in IT and Engineering departments of the organization and have benefitted by this easy to use and comprehensive data access tool.
Joe Gill | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Many different use cases can be applied to Microsoft Access. More recently we have been using this to perform automatic joins when the input files will not change. This will eliminate the need for end users to utilize vlookups as they would normally. Since these types of joins can happen at any level of the organization, we are using access for the more localized locations where network connectivity isn't available and they can rely on a local database structure.
March 15, 2021

Teaching with Access

Balázs Kiss | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Microsoft Access in some of our projects, and for educational purposes mainly. The graphical interface seems to help students understand RDBMS concepts a bit easier, and also allows quick database design. This is a nice tool for smaller projects and bigger products as well - being able to download it from the cloud and part of Office 365 makes it an excellent candidate for "first database".
Che Odom | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used departmentally for our sales and marketing team to track our client and project history in lieu of previously using Salesforce. The business need that it addresses is creating an accurate and inexpensive database for that team to track our historical projects and clients, and track current pursuits and sales.
Thairy Ollarves | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft Access is being used only by a department of the company, which is responsible for working with the information databases. It has not presented problems.
The grouping of data in an organized way adapts to the company designed a set of real strategies aimed at improving the profitability of the company. To date, the results have been positive because since they agreed it was implemented, the company's profit has improved. Microsoft Access adapts well in departments where databases do not have much content, or where we do not have to have completed programs or require working with many variables. It is a program that has all the work tools required by the organization to function properly and fulfill the planned tasks.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We get data from a lot of different sources for reporting purposes. MS Access helps us bring the data files into a proper relational table structure, link it and output it for reporting purposes. In other cases, it is used as our query and reporting tool linked with our data warehouse kept in SQL Server. In such cases, MS Access is used as a middle layer of data manipulation before pushing it to Excel for data visualisation.
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