Forum Discussion
Dataverse or Sharepoint list for Access
First, either whoever told you that about remote data sources was totally uninformed, or perhaps you misunderstood what was said. Access works well with a number of remote data sources, although good design is critical to doing so successfully. In the narrow sense that a higher level of professional development is needed when working with remote data sources, one might say that it is harder.
Don't use SharePoint unless you have a very small application. A small number of tables and fewer than 8 or 10 thousand records in tables. Some larger tables are possible, but performance is less than ideal.
Dataverse is relatively new for Access. You'll find, I think, that it is more challenging for that reason. However, it is probably more robust than SharePoint.
If it were me, though, I'd look at SQL Azure or another remotely hosted SQL Server for the back end.
Given those considerations, you need to perform your own due diligence with each.
Thanks for the clarification as I was told the wrong information by an Access user. I am very familiar with SharePoint lists and have a basic understanding of Dataverse. I found the GUI and workflow for the latter very clunky. My organization is a non-profit so there is no budget for the resources to support an SQL backend. The database I am building is for a small team - about 30 or less users. I don't think I will have more than 10 tables and less than 3,000 records, so SharePoint lists should do the trick.
Thanks for your response.
- SQL Server Express is free, if you have a way to install it. A cheap Windows hosting site that would support a SQL Server database could be as little as $5 -- $8 a month US. A SQL Azure database would be in that same price range.