For most organizations already using Microsoft 365, the best replacement for Access is Microsoft Power Apps, usually paired with Dataverse or SharePoint for data storage. It’s Microsoft’s own successor platform, it works with the licenses many businesses already pay for, and it lets you rebuild your Access forms and logic as apps that run in a browser, on a phone, or in Microsoft Teams.
The right choice depends on your situation:
- Power Apps with Dataverse fits databases with complex relationships, business rules, and security needs, and it scales well as you grow.
- Power Apps with SharePoint lists fits simpler databases with modest data volumes and keeps licensing costs low.
- SQL Server or Azure SQL fits large data volumes or heavy reporting, and you can even keep Access as the front end during a phased move.
Whatever platform you choose, the hardest part of a migration is rarely the technology. It’s untangling years of queries, VBA, and workarounds and making sure nothing important gets lost along the way. A good migration starts with a review of what your database actually does today, then rebuilds it in stages so your team never loses access to the data they rely on.
