Since its introduction in 1992, Microsoft Access has become one of the most versatile applications in the Office suite. This versatility is evidenced by the rich set of tools that even the most experienced database user can take advantage of, while offering the same level of simplicity as the other Office applications for first-time database users.

Access comes with an integrated development environment (IDE), including incremental compilation, a fully interactive visual debugger, breakpoints, and single step-through. These capabilities combine to make Microsoft Access an extremely powerful platform for developing client-server database solutions.

Unfortunately, MS Access is very limited compared to MySQL and SQL Server. Access does not support many multiple connections to the database and does not perform as fast as MySQL and SQL Server. For very small web applications, Access may be perfect, especially given its low price, but for large numbers of database calls from multiple users visiting your web site, Access can be unreliable and slow.

• Microsoft Access Resources