Good Free Alternative To MS Access

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Consider the need to develop a lightweight desktop DB application on the Microsoft platforms   It could be done fairly easily with MS Access but I d like to be able to distribute it to others and I don t want to pay for a runtime license     Requirements    easy distribution to others no runtime licensing issues   Considerations and Candidates    Base from the OpenOffice suite  My concerns were around its stability   MySQL   writing custom DB code in C   or Python or whatever seems like a rather heavy-handed solution      Question  What are the low cost or free database alternatives to MS Access     See Also  Open Source Reporting Engines       Schnapple  Bruceatk kind of hit on what I m thinking of  it s not so much the DB engine as I want the other niceties that Access brings to the party   The nice form designer  the nice reporting engine etc   But you do raise a very good point about the installation footprint   I had considered that but I ve not made any firm decisions about which way I m going with this yet anyway   It ll probably be something fairly lightweight anyway and a small installation footprint would definitely be a plus      Remou   No I was unaware that the MS Access 2007 runtime is free  thanks for pointing that out   The last time I d bothered to investigate it  I don t remember when it was  I think it was a fairly expensive license for the runtime because I think they were trying to sell it to Corporate IT departments   And thanks to everyone else who responded as well  I was completely unaware of those other options you all pointed out

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What about Microsoft s Visual Studio Express  http   www microsoft com express default aspx SQL Server Express is also at that link

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You mentioned Python  have you considered Dabo   http   dabodev com   That would avoid much of the grunt work in a custom app

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VistaDB has an express version which is free to use and is syntax and driver compatible with SQL Server  VistaDB is a single file and only requires their driver  dll to work in your asp net or winforms project   Since it is syntax and datasource compatible you can upgrade to SQL Server if needed   from their site      VistaDB is a fully managed and   typesafe ASP NET and WinForms   applications using C   VB NET and   other CLR-compliant languages    VistaDB net

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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

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Kexi 2007 1 1  may be what you are looking for   Its express version is free but DB size limited   Full version cost  72   The description from its home page  Kexi is an easy to use application for visual database design for Linux and MS Windows  Kexi competes with MS Access  FoxPro  Oracle Forms and FileMaker    Visit http   www kexi-project org about html  for details

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Are you referring to the concept of a free database to distribute with an application  or an Access-like  single file  no installation  database   As in  things like SQL Server Express Edition require things like runtimes to be installed  databases to be created and mounted  entries on people s Start menus that they won t recognize  my wife asked why SQL Server was on her laptop the other day  whereas an Access database can be run in a single file    I guess what I m asking is do you want to think of the database as a document you write to or as an instance of something on someone else s machine

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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

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for sqlite  check out the firefox extension  It offers a serviceable GUI

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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

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NuBuilder  www nubuilder net  might be right   NuBuilder is a GPLv3-licensed PHP web application that requires MySQL as backend database  Users and programmers both use the web interface   They promote it as a free  web based MS Access alternative  I m creating my second NuBuilder application these days  The NuBuilder seems to be very actively developed  and I found it stable and well documented  provided you can stand video tutorials

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What about r Base   Way back in the day r Base was a very robust DOS  then Windows  RDMBS and this is pre-Access   pre-Paradox days   Its closest competitor was dBase but that wasnt fully relational  at the time    I developed some very nice r Base applications AND  like Access today  had a built in report generator  forms facility  queries and table manipulation     To my surprise  its still alive   http   www rbase com    Its got all that access offers  it seems   Might be something for you to consider

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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

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The issue is finding an alternative to MS Access that includes a visual  drag and drop development environment with a  reasonable  database where the whole kit and caboodle can be deployed free of charge   My first suggestion would be to look at this very complete list of MS Access alternatives  many of which are free   followed by a gander at this list of open source database development tools on osalt com   My second suggestion would be to check out WaveMaker  which is sort of an open source PowerBuilder for the cloud  disclaimer  I work there so should not be considered to be an unbiased source of information  -    WaveMaker combines a drag and drop IDE with an open source Java back end  It is licensed under the Apache license and boasts a 15 000-strong developer community

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In the context of a programming forum  we don t usually think of the programmer also needing the application portion of the database   Normally a programmer wants to use their own development environment for the business logic and front end  and just use the store  query  retrieval  and data processing capabilities of the database   If you really want all those other things  then you re talking about a much larger and more complicated run time environment   You re not going to find anything that s  lightweight  any more   Even MS Access itself no longer qualifies  because it s hardly light weight   It s just lucky in that a lot of users might already have it  making it appear to be light weight   This doesn t mean you won t find anything   Just that it s not likely to have the same level of maturity or distribution as Access  especially since the underlying access engine is already baked into Windows

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I think the database included with OpenOffice org has the form designer in it   I ve never tried writing code for it though   A forum post I saw had a link to a tutorial they said had some code in it   I started to set up a database for my wife and the interface was coming out pretty good as far as I could tell   oooForum org tutorial

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Oracle XE With Application Express    Has a nice web based gui  Is a  Real  database Will scale beyond a single desktop Offers a clear scale path beyond a small team Applications as web based  easily accessible  Can convert Excel spread sheets into Applications

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Are you aware that the Access 2007 runtime can be downloaded for free  Links for newer versions   2010 Runtime 2013 Runtime 2016 Runtime

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What you appear to be looking for is not just a database program  but a database with forms  reports  etc  basically an IDE of sorts   I would recommend trying OpenOffice org Base  which comes with the office suite  It s free and open source  It s nowhere near as polished as access  but it does pretty much the same things   Plus  if you know access  it will be at least somewhat familiar   http   www openoffice org   EDIT  Sorry  failed to read that you are considering OpenOffice org  With regard to stability  I ve had it crash and do some  odd  things when I played with it  but Access has done the same thing  The best way to find out is to play with it a bit and see if it suits you

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Apache Derby is a nice db alternative

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Of the Free Software alternatives these haven t been mentioned yet    Bond Rekall  not sure about the status of the Windows version currently though  Glom  Windows version under development    I d also keep an eye on what DB RAD tools the Flex Air community is coming up with  since with those tools it s possible to get unified desktop and web interfaces

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VistaDB is the only alternative if you going to run your website at shared hosting  almost all of them won t let you run your websites under Full Trust mode  and also if you need simple x-copy deployment enabled website

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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

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Much in line with Aurelio s answer  I now work in Ruby on Rails on some applications that I might formerly have done in MS Access   The back end database for a Rails App  is usually  MySql  works well enough and is available on most shared Web hosting  or PostgreSQL  the better choice when possible

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Gambas

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Also check out http   www sagekey com installation access aspx for great installation scripts for Ms Access  Also if you need to integrate images into your application check out DBPix at ammara com

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I d the same problem of you  I had a MS access application but I wanted to go to a web application accessible to everybody and without paying money to MS  So I decided to use MySql and Wavemaker  open source  to get the scope  I m very happy of this decision  and that s the result http   www mara-database org

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You may want to look into SQLite  http   sqlite org    All depends on your usage though  Concurrency for example is not its greatest virtue  But for example Firefox uses it to store settings etc

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The Access runtime license has never been all that expensive -- the cost for the developer tools extensions has been around  300 as long as I can remember  which would be as far back to the Access 2 Developers Toolkit  or ADT   but that gives you the ability to distribute your app with the runtime to an unlimited number of users  As long as your runtime app was used by three or more users  you d have been saving money  assuming a cost of  100 user to install a full copy of Access    The runtime for Access 2007 is completely free  but really  the cost before that was not all that great   Marc Gravell added  in what should have been a comment  in my opinion   Being free  though  is certainly an encouragement for people to try it out which the  300 price really would have discouraged

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