What are the other alternatives to MS Access to develop FE with advantages and disadvantages?

[DTO.]

Hello Everyone,

I found Access quite functional and well satisfied when it is combined with SQL Server or Oracle Back End.
Apart from Access, what would you recommend to develop applications for Front End which will be used by around 200-500 users?
And what advantages and disadvantages would it bring in comparison with Access ?



Thanks

[ranman256]

A web app design. Then all users wont need to install access.

[Minty]

As ranman suggests using a web based app is really the only obvious alternative.
Otherwise you are into commercially written apps.

Remember that you can use a free runtime version of Access if users don't have 365 or a full Office version.

[CJ_London]

Your question is a broad one.

Advantages and disadvantages depend on the organisation and user requirements

Agree with ranman- web app is probably the only real front end alternative. But at a considerably higher development cost. Which tool to develop a web app? Depends on experience/skills

Alternative access deployment strategies are to host fe and be on terminal server or Citrix. Benefits (as with a web app) include work from anywhere and from any device that has Remote Desktop (windows/apple/Linux, perhaps others). Also you only need to cater for one environment, with a web app you potentially need to cater for the different attributes of different browsers - which are subject to frequent change.

Number of users are a factor of the backend so should not be an issue for the front end.

Access provides a potentially richer user experience than a web app but is perhaps a matter of opinion and depends on the skills of the developer.

Data security may also be a concern. A web app is potentially more prone to cyber attack but an access front end could, if poorly designed, give up data access secrets more easily,

Performance. Since this is primarily dictated by the speed of connection and volume of data transferred between server and front end, this is down to the skill of the developer regardless of what the front end is created in, or the resources expended on band width, server configuration etc. Web connections will almost certainly be slower than a hard wired connection between fe and be.

There are web based dB development tools out there - just google ‘alternatives to access’ and read the reviews

[DTO.]

Thanks for valuable comments