Good Free Alternative To MS Access [closed]

Question

When people ask about a replacement for Access, a lot of them only think about the database, but what they are really asking about are all of the other features in Access. They usually don't care what database Access is using.

Some of the functionality provided by Access are: Forms, Query Building, Reports, Macros, Database Management, and some kind of language when you need to go beyond what the wizards provide.

SQLite, MySQL, and FireBird are free database back ends. They do not have those additional Access functions built into them. Any free alternatives to Access require you combining something like SQLite and a development language.

Probably the best free option would be SQLite and Visual Basic 2008 or C# 2008 Express Edition. This would have a heavy runtime dependency, so installing on a bare client could take quite the installer.

There really isn't a non-Access option for free with minimum runtime requirements. I wish there was.

I'll be interested in hearing if anybody knows any good alternatives.

Are you aware that the Access 2007 runtime can be downloaded for free?

Links for newer versions:

• 2010 Runtime
• 2013 Runtime
• 2016 Runtime

Schnapple asks:

Are you referring to the concept of a free database to distribute with an application, or an Access-like "single file, no installation" database?

Er, nobody who has any competence with Access application development would ever distribute a single MDB/ACCDB as application/data store. Any non-trivial Access application needs to be split into a front end with the forms/queries/reports (i.e., UI objects) and a back end (data tables only).

It's clear that what is needed here is a database application development tool like Access. None of the database-only answers are in any way responsive to that.

Please learn about Access before answering Access questions:

• Access is a database application development tool that ships with a default database engine called Jet.

• But an Access application can be built to work with data in almost any back end database, as long as there's an ISAM, or an ODBC or OLEDB driver for that database engine.

Microsoft itself has done a good job of obfuscating the difference between Access (development tool) and Jet (database engine), so it's not surprising that many people don't recognize the difference. But developers ought to use precise language, and when you mean the database engine, use "Jet", and when you mean the front-end development platform, use "Access".

One thing to keep in mind here is the MS Access product is much more than just the raw database engine. It provides a full application development platform, including form and menu designer, client application language and environment (VBA), and report designer. When you take all those things together, MS Access really has no peer.

But for the scope of this question, we're concerned with the raw database engine. With that in mind:

SQLlite,
Firebird,
VistaDB (not free),
SQL Server Compact Edition (not Express)
and now SQL Server LocalDB
all come to mind.

Another thought: while the original question does ask about desktop databases, its likely some people will land here looking for a database to use with a web site. It's important to remember that these are all in-process databases, and as such are rarely if ever appropriate for use on the web. If you want to build a web site, where it's common to need to support significant concurrent access, you generally want a database server engine, like MS SQL, Postgresql, MySQL, Oracle, or their brethren. At the same time, those server engines are rarely if ever appropriate for a single-user desktop application.

To be honest - there aren't any free alternatives to MS Access. At least if you mean database development tool (forms, reports, queries, VBA support etc.). If you think about MS Access as a database engine (you mean MS Jet or ACE in fact) then yes - you have a lot of possibilities. There are a lot of free database engines - the most popular are MySQL and PostgreSQL. I can recommend both - it depends what you want to do.

For writing database frontends C++ is one of the worst choices. You should consider MS Visual C#, MS Visual Basic .NET or... Even Java/Swing (if we are talking about desktop application). If you think about the web-enabled frontend - consider PHP (with MySQL or PostgreSQL on the backend) or ASP.NET (with MSSQL Server at the backend).

I strongly recommend you not to use C++ for such job. This language is very efficient and flexible, but advanced database frontend development with C++ is not the best idea. C++ is great in system programming, games development, maths and physics simulations, everywhere where efficiency is the key - like real-time applications etc. Frontends don't have to be daemons of speed - they should look nice and have advanced end-user features (like sorting, coloring etc.). If you are looking for free tools - maybe C# Express or Visual Basic.NET Express 2008 would be the proper choice? Or maybe Java/Swing (check the NetBeans IDE)? Maybe SharpDevelop? But not C++... Leave C++ for the things it suits the best.

Check out suneido.

I made a fairly complicated GIS app as an experiment with it some years ago (database, complex gui, reports, client/server). It was a pleasant experience (apart from some documentation issues...) and I became productive with it very fast.

I don't use it anymore mainly because:

• it's not really general purpose
• it's not cross platform (windows only)
• I decided to stop exploring exotic technologies and specialize in something more mainstream.