Microsoft Access is great for template integration. Not a reliable database.
November 20, 2025

Microsoft Access is great for template integration. Not a reliable database.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Access

I use Microsoft Access for database management, templates, printing name badges and recording tallies.

Pros

  • Keeping one type of data, mainly text
  • sorting alphabetically reliably from A to Z
  • Keeping data in one strict format such as phone numbers in (999) 999-999 configuration

Cons

  • In my experience, tallies in records tab don't update accurately to reflect changes in database. You need to save the Microsoft Access file first, then the app will update the changes in tally.
  • For me, file doesn't save reliably
  • In my experience, sharing the Microsoft Access file in a team can corrupt the file
  • Can't copy from Excel directly into Microsoft Access across multiple columns, each entry goes into each cell, which is tedious
  • Can't import Excel file reliably into Microsoft Access database, it requires too many reformats
  • Google docs is more reliable for me, but not suitable for printing name tags
In my experience, Microsoft Access is Terribly unreliable. Tallies don't update until you save and close the file. When you reopen, the tallies update.

Also, in my experience, the file is hard to share between team mates, leading to corrupt files that can't be opened. Mac users can't open the file easily.
Microsoft Access is great integration with Microsoft Word templates such as reports and name tags.

Do you think Microsoft Access delivers good value for the price?

No

Are you happy with Microsoft Access's feature set?

No

Did Microsoft Access live up to sales and marketing promises?

No

Did implementation of Microsoft Access go as expected?

No

Would you buy Microsoft Access again?

No

Best suited for printing name badges and name tents from a database.
Decent for emergency need for database management.
Less appropriate for long-term use and record keeping.
Not great for team use, since file gets corrupted when shared in Dropbox and email.
Not compatible with sharing between devices with different version updates of the app.

Microsoft Access Feature Ratings

Relational Databases
2.6
ACID compliance
4
Database monitoring
4
Database locking
4
Encryption
1
Disaster recovery
1
Flexible deployment
1
Multiple datatypes
3

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