Access | MSSQL | MySQL

As been stated, Access performance and dependability depends on the host and how they will work with you on application pooling, etc. Access's main problem is in concurrent connections. If in doubt, start off with MSSQL.

For example, I have a 14.5MB Access database powering my largest forum. 2 days ago it was running a sustained 80-120 active users and rarely dips below 20. Here are the stats as of today:

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We have 11507 Forum Members
Avg New Members per day: 50.36 (excluding today)
New Members today (so far): 26 | Yesterday: 40
# of Members Visiting Site Today: 415 (excluding new members)
Launch Date of Site: February 4th, 2004 (228 days of operation)
We have 5259 Posts in 883 Topics in 21 Forum(s)
Avg Posts Per Day: 23.07


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Now, I usually close the forum once every 2 weeks for an hour and compact/repair it. It took about a bit of working with the host to get it stable but our downtime is generally very little. However, always remember this:

Rule #1: You are only as good as your last SUCCESSFUL backup, which means you can recover from a crash.

One of the nice things about using Access is that I can download the database file and manipulate it very easily or zip it up and keep backups very easily. Yes, you can backup MSSQL databases as well, but Access is easy for general users since most people have MS Office and WinZip (or something similar).

I use a combination of an app from www.secondcopy.com and WebDrive to make daily and weekly backups of my databases from my host to my home/office test server. Its a cheap and easy solution. That way, I'm only out 1-2 days at the most. You can also do this with some ftp clients such as CuteFTP Pro but they are kinda limited in the backup functionality.

Again, MSSQL is by far superior in performance and scalability and should be the choice; however, Access can work with a little TLC.

Hy guys,