Artavolo vs Microsoft Access
A Microsoft Access alternative, hosted in Europe
Microsoft Access: Microsoft's desktop database, in use since 1992, often still holding a company's core records. Artavolo is where your team and your AI agents work on the same tables, with no record limit, in our cloud in Germany or on your own server. Here is how they compare, with sources, and where Microsoft Access is ahead.
| Artavolo | Microsoft Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | In the browser, on any computer or phone: our cloud in Germany, or your own server | Windows desktops, a file on a shared drive |
| Working together | Everyone in the same base at once, changes shown live | A shared file; on the web only through other tools |
| Phones and Macs | Any browser, laid out for phones | No |
| Size | No record limit; files up to the plan’s storage | 2 GB per database file |
| AI agents | Each with its own access; their changes can wait for a person to accept them, and everything one did can be undone | See Microsoft Access’s own AI features |
| Where Microsoft Access is ahead | Forms and reports designed exactly as you want them, with VBA behind them. | |
| Works without a network. |
Why teams look elsewhere
What people moving from Microsoft Access tell us about
- It runs only on Windows, and the file on a shared drive does not reach phones, Macs or people outside the office.
- The developers who built the forms and VBA have moved on.
- A 2 GB limit per file.
What Artavolo adds
Tables for people and AI agents
- No record limit on any plan, and the same price in our cloud in Germany or on your own server.
- Grid, kanban, calendar, gallery, timeline, forms and dashboards, and interfaces for people who should see one page and nothing else.
- AI chat that changes records as the person asking, and AI agents whose changes wait for review.
- An append-only audit log of every change, a 30-day trash, and an export of any table at any time.
- Airtable’s API at the same paths, Zapier, Make and n8n apps, and webhooks.
Moving
From Microsoft Access in an afternoon
Export from Microsoft Access (The database file itself: .mdb or .accdb), and bring the files in: what comes over is shown before anything is made, and a report says what came over and what to rebuild.
- Every table, from Access 97 to 2019
- Relationships as links between tables
- AutoNumber, Currency, Yes/No, Date/Time, Memo and Hyperlink fields typed as such
- Attachment fields with their files
Questions
Asked by teams on Microsoft Access
Yes: Access 97, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2010 and later, .mdb and .accdb, with database passwords. It is read in your browser.
Yes: each relationship becomes a link from the child table to the parent's record (Orders.CustomerID becomes a Customer link), and records whose parent is gone are counted in the report.
They are listed by name in the report, to rebuild as interfaces, form views and dashboards. In a migration package we rebuild them for you.