What is it?

  • SQLite is a self-contained, high-reliability, embedded, full-featured, public-domain, SQL database engine. SQLite is one of the most used database engines in the world.

  • Microsoft Access (often called Access) is a database management system from Microsoft that combines the backend relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface frontend for data manipulation and queries.

Developers

  • SQLite was built by Dwayne Richard Hipp and released in 2000.
  • Access is built and marketed by Microsoft as a member of the Microsoft Office suite of applications, included in the Professional and higher editions or sold separately.

Pricing

  • SQLite is free to use.
  • Access is a commercial product.

Server operating systems:

  • SQLite is server-less. You can store and get it run on any operating systems.
  • Microsoft Access can only run on Windows.

Supported Languages:

  • Access supports several programming languages:
    • C
    • C#
    • C++
    • Delphi
    • Java (JDBC-ODBC)
    • VBA
    • Visual Basic.NET
  • While SQLite works with almost every programming language you can think of:
    • Actionscript
    • Ada
    • Basic
    • C
    • C#
    • C++
    • D
    • Delphi
    • Forth
    • Fortran
    • Haskell
    • Java
    • JavaScript
    • Lisp
    • Lua
    • MatLab
    • Objective-C
    • OCaml
    • Perl
    • PHP
    • PL/SQL
    • Python
    • R
    • Ruby
    • Scala
    • Scheme
    • Smalltalk
    • Tcl

Stored Procedure support

  • Access supports stored procedure, while SQLite doesn’t have that concept.

Pros

Access:

  • It has a built-in visual frontend tool. You don’t need to find another tool for it. You can query and manipulate large amounts of data without knowing SQL.
  • It’s well integrated with other MS Office products, Excel, Visual Basic, and SQL Server, so migration within the Microsoft world is built-in.
  • .NET-friendly – Access is a go-to choice for users who plan to develop software using .NET
  • Multi-user support. Even though it’s not really a good feature but it does support.
  • Widely popular — Microsoft Access is the most popular desktop database system in the world.

SQLite:

  • It’s free
  • It’s lightweight and fast.
  • It is truly a stable cross-platform database.
  • Zero-configuration needed

Cons

Access:

  • Not free. It’s pay to play.
  • It’s not multi-platform.
  • Limited customization. Microsoft has a lot of prebuilt Access templates you can download. But you can’t change anything in the underlying structure, which makes it hard to tweak for your application.
  • Microsoft Access does not have full parity with a traditional SQL Database so many functions are unavailable and any existing SQL must typically be rewritten to use in Access.
  • It has low performance when dealing with large databases.

SQLite:

  • Lack of built-in data encryption.
  • SQLite is a single-user DBMS. If a multi-user system is required, then an alternative is required.
  • It’s not designed to handle really large scale database.

Final thought

Both SQLite and Access are good for small-scale datasets but if you need something quick for desktop and use Windows, Access might be a good option. If you build a mobile application, embedded devices and the internet of things, or use other OS, go for SQLite.

Need a good GUI Tool for SQLite? Try TablePlus. It provides a modern, native GUI client for you to access, query, edit, and save your SQLite databases in a fast and secure way.

Download TablePlus for Mac. It’s free anyway.

Not on Mac? Download TablePlus for Windows.

TablePlus for SQLite