What can I use in place of Microsoft Access?

Online, Team, Real-time Access Alternative - Free Trial

Suddenly, thousands of users have turned their attention to Microsoft Access online alternatives. Why?

Table of Contents Show

WorkMap.ai (formerly HyperBase)
Google Tables
Zoho Creator
Knack
Google Forms
Conclusion For Microsoft Access Online Alternatives

When Microsoft Access was introduced, it pioneered the database app builder market. It fast became the de-facto standard worldwide. After that, however, the market evolved, the cloud and mobile being the new frontiers, and Access just couldn’t keep up. An online version was briefly launched, but it was a half-hearted effort and was soon discarded with Microsoft announced they would be retiring Access Online.

That is probably why the number of Google searches for Microsoft Access has shown a dramatic decrease, year on year.

As Microsoft’s fortunes have waned, a new crop of disruptive companies have emerged to introduce innovative new web and mobile based database app and business process workflow software.

We’ve curated a list of the most prominent Microsoft Access online alternatives to help speed up your decision making.

WorkMap.ai (formerly HyperBase)

WorkMap.ai (formerly HyperBase) from HyperOffice is one of the original Microsoft Access alternatives and has a very similar structure while providing the benefit of cloud access. Highlighted features:

Drag and drop web forms
Online data tables
Reports and queries for mining data
Workflow automation and notifications
Data exports and automations
Calculations
File uploads
PDF export
Multi layered permissions

Google Tables

Google Tables is a Google database like Access, but not quite. It is a modern platform which combines to modernity of no-code platforms like Airtable and the relational capabilities of traditional platforms like Microsoft Access. Unfortunately, Google Tables is still very much in pilot phase, and not available in many locations around the world.

QuickBase

QuickBase is one of the leaders in the low-code application building platform market. While its pricing starts at $500/mo, it is meant to let non-technical users build and collaborate on build apps. Among other specific features, it allows users to use publishing tools to create custom formats to present data.

Zoho Creator

Zoho is a tech juggernaut offering almost any application ever made. Zoho Creator, the online counterpart of Microsoft access, has a slick and easy to use interface. However, one of the few drawbacks reported from Zoho products, in general, is their lack of support.

Knack

Knack is one of the few providers specializing in database apps, while the other players also offer an entire range of business applications. Besides the fundamental features every database app builder offers, Knack lets you integrate with payment gateways, maps, and reports.

Caspio

Caspio is one of the most mature options on this list; besides awesome documentation and experience with A-class customers, their platform is highly visual. Of course, we could argue that it is ideal for non-technical users, but, for sure, it’s a very powerful and flexible tool for IT teams.

MySQL

Every database professional and developer knows about MySQL as it is the database backend of many applications. It offers incredible flexibility and power but is way beyond the reach of non-tech users.

Google Forms

Google Forms allows people to very easily build forms to gather all sorts of information online. However, it depends on Google Sheets as the place where the data is saved and manipulated. Since Google Sheets are spreadsheets, there are severe limitations regarding the application-like behavior you can achieve and the workflows that can be automated.