Buy Microsoft Access: Included with Office Professional Plus

To buy Microsoft Access, you need the right Office edition: in our shop, Access is not sold on its own and it is not part of the home editions. The database app comes with the Professional and Professional Plus editions of Office; the Office Professional Plus suites presented on this page include it as a one-time purchase, together with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

Buy Microsoft Access: why the license comes with Office Professional Plus

Many buyers start by looking for an Access key on its own. Microsoft distributes the database app within its professional editions, and on the second-hand market Access circulates inside complete Office Professional Plus suites.

This works in your favor. An Office Professional Plus license costs here between 12,90 € and 24,90 € depending on the version, and Access comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The key is sent by email, usually within minutes, activation takes place on Microsoft’s official servers, and the license is perpetual: you pay once and keep it.

• Office 2019 Professional Plus: Access 2019 included, 12,90 €
• Office 2021 Professional Plus: Access 2021 included, 19,90 €
• Office 2024 Professional Plus: Access 2024 included, 24,90 €
• Office 2016 Professional Plus: Access 2016 included, 16,99 €

What exactly is Microsoft Access?

Microsoft Access is the database management system of the Office suite. Where a spreadsheet lines up cells, Access organizes your information into related tables: customers, orders, products, members, files and so on. Its strength is to bring real database logic into an office tool: everything is built with the mouse, without developer skills, and the result looks like a small custom business application.

The four building blocks of an Access database

• Tables store each piece of data only once, without duplicates, thanks to relationships.
• Queries filter, combine and calculate, for example every customer in a given city with no order for a year.
• Forms provide guided data-entry screens that make the data you enter more reliable.
• Reports produce printable documents: lists, invoices, inventories, labels.

Macros and the VBA language then automate complete processes without leaving the app. Another practical advantage: the whole database fits in a single .accdb file, easy to copy, back up or send.

Who needs an Access database?

Access is aimed at organizations that have outgrown the spreadsheet without having the budget for business software or a dedicated server:

• Small businesses and tradespeople: customer files, quotes, job tracking, simple inventory management;
• Associations and clubs: members, fees, attendance, receipts and lists;
• Administrative teams: tracking files, equipment and training;
• Freelancers: contact base, service history, reminders.

Access also keeps internal applications built years ago alive: a recent Professional Plus license is enough to reopen these databases, maintain them and make them evolve.

Sharing an Access database on a local network

The app includes a splitting tool that separates the database into two files: a back end holding the tables, placed in a shared network folder, and a front end with forms, queries and reports, copied to each computer. Several colleagues can then view and enter data at the same time, each with their own interface. Two limits are worth knowing: an Access file is capped at 2 GB of data, and comfort decreases as the number of simultaneous users grows. In practice, a small business or an association rarely comes close to these limits.

Which Office edition includes Access?

The classic buying mistake is to choose a Home and Student suite, then discover that Access is not part of it. Here is the situation, with our live prices:

Office 2016 Professional and Office 2021 Professional, without Plus, also include Access. The price of Access is therefore that of the edition that contains it, and the complete office suite comes with it every time. Our Microsoft Office page compares every version, including those without Access.

Access or Excel: which one for your data?

Both apps handle data, but they do not play the same role, and since they come together in Professional Plus, you will not have to choose.

The rule is simple: if you keep copying the same information from one tab to another, if several people type into the same workbook or if duplicates pile up, the data part belongs in Access. Analysis and charts remain Excel’s territory, as explained on our page on how to buy Microsoft Excel.

Moving an Excel workbook to Access

Access imports Excel workbooks directly: the wizard turns each sheet into a table, detects column headers and suggests a type for each field. The usual approach takes four steps:

1. import the main worksheet as it is into a first table;
2. split repeated information into related tables, customer details on one side, orders on the other;
3. create a data-entry form to replace typing directly into cells;
4. rebuild lists and summaries as queries and reports.

Which version of Access should you choose in 2026?

The database engine changes little from one version to the next: databases created in Access 2016 open in Access 2024. The choice therefore comes down to price, how modern the interface is and how long the version is supported.

• Access 2019, with Office 2019 Professional Plus at 12,90 €: the entry-level option for an association or a first database;
• Access 2021, with Office 2021 Professional Plus at 19,90 €: a modern interface at a moderate price;
• Access 2024, with Office 2024 Professional Plus at 24,90 €: the current perpetual version, supported until October 2029, the one to favor for long-term equipment;
• Access 2016, with Office 2016 Professional Plus at 16,99 €: to stay consistent with computers already running Office 2016, including older versions of Windows.

Microsoft ended security updates for Office 2016 and 2019 in October 2025 and for Office 2021 on 13 October 2026; these versions keep working. The file format is the same from one version to the next, so a database created today in Access 2019 opens as it is in Access 2024 if you upgrade later. For a step-by-step tour of tables, queries and forms, see our complete guide to Microsoft Access.