Microsoft Access Online: How to Move Your Database to the Cloud

There is no true online or cloud version of Microsoft Access. Access is a Windows desktop application, and Microsoft discontinued its cloud-hosted Access offering, ending support for new Access Web Apps in 2017 and shutting down existing apps by April 2018. To use an Access database online with multiple users, the most reliable approach is to rebuild it as a cloud application on a platform like Caspio.

If you searched for “Microsoft Access online” hoping to find a hosted, web-based edition of Access, this guide explains why one doesn’t exist, reviews the four workarounds people try (and where each falls short), and explores the option that does work: rebuilding your Access database as a true cloud application.

Is There an Online Version of Microsoft Access?

No. There is no online version of Microsoft Access that Microsoft sells or hosts. Access is a Windows-only desktop application that runs on a local machine and stores its data in a single file (.accdb or .mdb). It does not run in a browser, nor run natively on macOS, and there is no Microsoft cloud service that turns an Access file into a web application.

The closest thing Microsoft ever offered was Access Web Apps and Access web databases hosted in SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365. However, those products were retired. Microsoft stopped allowing the creation of new Access-based web apps and web databases in June 2017 and shut down all remaining ones by April 2018. Today, Microsoft does not offer an “Access online” product. Instead, it directs customers to alternative tools and services, which we will cover below.

So, when people ask for “MS Access online,” what they usually need is a way to make their Access database available on the web and mobile devices, accessible to multiple users simultaneously, and no longer tied to a file on a single Windows PC. That is a real, solvable problem. It just is not solved by hosting Access itself.

Why Microsoft Access Has No Real Cloud Edition

Access was built as a desktop database, not a cloud platform. Its architecture, limitations, and Microsoft’s product strategy all point to the same reality: there is no browser-based version of Access, and Microsoft no longer offers one.

Access Is a Windows Desktop Application

Access was created in the 1990s as a desktop database for a single PC or a small workgroup sharing a file over a local network. The application runs on Windows, while the data is stored in an .accdb or .mdb file. Its architecture assumes a fast, reliable local connection to that file. There is no server tier that can simply be moved to the cloud and accessed through a browser because, in a traditional Access deployment, the “server” is the file itself, opened directly by each user’s desktop copy of Access.

That single-file design is also where Access reaches its practical limits. Microsoft documents a maximum database file size of 2 GB per file for both .accdb and .mdb files, along with a maximum of 255 concurrent users. In practice, shared Access databases often become unstable well before reaching those thresholds because the format is highly sensitive to network interruptions and file-locking conflicts. Even a brief connection drop during a write operation can lead to file corruption. Unfortunately, moving the file to a different location does not eliminate these limitations.

Microsoft Retired Access Web Apps and Access Services

Microsoft once offered a browser-based way to publish certain Access databases through SharePoint using Access Web Apps and Access web databases. That offering was eventually discontinued, leaving Access as a desktop-only product.

To be clear, the retirement affected only the cloud-hosted Access experience. The Access desktop application itself remains part of Microsoft 365 today. What never returned was a browser-based, Microsoft-hosted version of Access.

Microsoft Now Directs Access Users to Power Apps and Dataverse

Perhaps the clearest indication of Microsoft’s direction comes from its own guidance. When Microsoft retired Access Web Apps and Access web databases, it recommended that customers consider Power Apps for building no-code business solutions for the web and mobile devices.

In other words, Microsoft’s recommendation is not to run Access in the cloud; it’s to rebuild the solution as a different type of cloud application. That is the same conclusion this guide reaches. The real question is which platform you choose for that rebuild, and Power Apps is not the only, or necessarily the best, option for organizations moving beyond Access.

4 Ways People Try to Move Access Online (and Why They Fall Short)

When IT teams are told to “move Access to the cloud,” they usually consider one of four workarounds. Each can make an Access database more accessible, but none turns Access into a true web application. In every case, the same desktop database remains at the center of the solution, along with its inherent limitations.

Hosting the Access File on OneDrive or SharePoint

What it is: You store the .accdb file in a OneDrive folder or SharePoint document library, so it can be synced and accessed from anywhere.

When it sort of works: It requires virtually no migration effort and uses Microsoft 365 services many organizations already have. For a single user accessing their own database, it can be sufficient.

Why it falls short: Microsoft advises against using OneDrive or SharePoint document libraries for shared Access databases. If multiple users open the same database, sync conflicts, duplicate copies, and unexpected behavior can occur. Microsoft’s recommended multi-user approach is to split the database and place the back-end file on a shared network location, not cloud-synced storage. Access community experts are even more direct: using cloud-sync services for concurrent editing significantly increases the risk of corruption because Access is highly sensitive to network interruptions. In practice, this approach is best suited to single-user scenarios.

Remote Desktop (RDP) to a Windows Server

What it is: You install Access on a Windows server and allow users to connect through Remote Desktop, running the application remotely instead of on their local PCs.

When it sort of works: You retain full Access functionality. Every form, report, and line of VBA runs exactly as it does on the desktop, and deployment can be relatively quick.

Why it falls short: Each user requires Remote Desktop Services licensing in addition to Windows Server and infrastructure costs. More importantly, users are still interacting with a Windows desktop rather than a web application. The experience can be awkward on mobile devices and is sensitive to network latency. Most importantly, RDP changes where Access runs, not how it works. The database remains subject to the same file-size limits, concurrency challenges, and maintenance concerns.

Citrix or Virtual Desktops

What it is: A managed virtual desktop stack such as Citrix DaaS streams a Windows desktop running Access to users over the internet.

When it sort of works: IT teams gain centralized management, standardized environment, and easier administration.

Why it falls short: Virtual desktop platforms add another layer of infrastructure, licensing, and operational complexity. While they can improve manageability, they do not modernize the application itself. Users are still running the same Windows-based Access database through a virtual desktop, with no true web or mobile experience. For many organizations, deploying an enterprise virtualization platform simply to support a legacy database is difficult to justify.

Azure VM or Hosted Windows Desktop

What it is: You deploy a Windows virtual machine in Azure (or an Azure Virtual Desktop session host), install Access, and provide remote access to users.

When it sort of works: The application runs in Microsoft’s cloud and can be accessed from outside the office without maintaining on-premises infrastructure.

Why it falls short: Beyond infrastructure costs, organizations must manage patching, backups, security, and ongoing administration. While the database is now running in the cloud, it is still the same desktop application underneath. The limitations that drive organizations away from Access in the first place, such as file-based architecture, scalability constraints, and lack of a native web or mobile experience, remain unchanged.

The Workarounds at a Glance

Each workaround makes Access more accessible, but none transforms it into a true cloud application. The underlying database remains the same, along with many of its limitations.

Notice the pattern. Every workaround spends time, money, or both to relocate the Access file, yet none changes the underlying architecture or removes its limitations. That is why none of them is a real answer to “I need my Access database online.”

A Smarter Approach: Rebuild Your Access Database as a Cloud App

If hosting the file does not work, what does? Rebuilding the database as a true cloud application.

A cloud application is not a desktop file accessed remotely. It is a web application with its data in a managed cloud database, its interface delivered in any browser and on any phone, and its security, backups, and scaling handled by the platform rather than by individual desktop files.

When you rebuild an Access database this way, the problems that defined Access stop existing. There is no 2 GB file cap, because the data lives in a real cloud database. There is no practical concurrency ceiling, because the platform is designed for many simultaneous users. There is no corruption from a dropped network connection, no Windows-only lock, and no Remote Desktop latency because nobody is opening a shared file anymore. You also gain capabilities that Access was never designed to provide, including mobile access, role-based security, audit logging, REST APIs, and single sign-on options.

Best for: Teams that need their Access database available online across browsers and mobile devices, support for multiple concurrent users, and a platform that scales beyond the limits of a shared desktop database. Look for solutions like Caspio that provide fully hosted cloud applications or embeddable components, APIs for integration, and independently audited security controls, such as a SOC 2 Type II attestation and a HIPAA-compliant environment with a signed BAA where required. Start free today.

Microsoft ultimately reached the same conclusion when it directed Access users to Power Apps. The remaining question is which platform best fits a former Access environment. Power Apps is Microsoft’s official modernization path and is native to Microsoft 365, offering web and mobile application development with a low-code approach. However, it also comes with per-user-per-app licensing on top of Microsoft 365 (Power Apps Premium is $20 per user per month), capacity-based add-ons such as Dataverse storage billed around $40 per GB per month, premium connectors gated behind paid tiers, and a licensing model that has evolved over time.

Microsoft also removed the Per App Plan from its licensing guide for most new customers in January 2026. For organizations whose primary goal is to turn an Access database into a reliable cloud application, that licensing complexity is worth weighing against more straightforward alternatives.

How Caspio Turns Your Access Database Into a Cloud Application

Caspio is a no-code platform built for exactly the kind of work Access does: custom, form-driven, query-heavy relational database applications.

The difference is that Caspio delivers them as true cloud applications that run in a browser and on mobile devices, for an unlimited number of users, with security and compliance built in. For teams coming from Access, the model maps closely to how Access already works. Want to see it in action? Start a free 14-day trial.

In the meantime, here’s a look at how Caspio transforms a traditional Access database into a modern cloud application:

A Familiar Relational Model on a Microsoft SQL Server Backbone, on AWS

Caspio is built on Microsoft SQL Server and runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS). For organizations that previously used Access with a SQL Server back end, the underlying database concepts will feel familiar. Caspio can accommodate millions of records and thousands of simultaneous transactions per account, with capacity you scale up or down as needed. The relational model you already know carries straight over: tables, fields, data types, and relationships all have direct equivalents.

Browser and Mobile Access for Unlimited Users

Caspio applications run in modern web browsers and are responsive on phones and tablets. There is no Windows requirement, no Remote Desktop session, and no desktop software to install. Additionally, there is no practical concurrency ceiling. Where Access documents a 255-user maximum and becomes unstable well before that, Caspio supports unlimited concurrent users on a platform engineered for it.

Fully Hosted Cloud Apps That Caspio Runs for You

In Caspio, you rebuild your Access forms and reports as interactive elements: search forms, data entry forms, tabular and detail views, reports, charts, calendars, and more. With Flex, Caspio hosts the entire application in the cloud and gives it its own secure web address, so users simply log in, with nothing to install and no remote desktop window. If you would rather keep everything inside a site you already run, you can also embed those same components into your website, intranet, or portal. Either way, users get a clean web interface instead of a shared desktop file.

SOC 2 Type II Attestation and a HIPAA-Compliant Environment

Security and compliance are where a cloud platform differs most from a shared desktop file. A shared .accdb has no real audit trail and no fine-grained access control. Caspio provides audit trails, role-based access, record-level security, version history, two-factor authentication, and encryption both in transit and at rest.

Caspio undergoes annual independent SOC 2 Type II audits covering the trust service criteria of security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. For healthcare workloads, Caspio offers a HIPAA-compliant environment with administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for protected health information, and provides signed Business Associate Agreements (BAAs). If your Access database currently fails a HIPAA, SOC 2, or audit-log requirement, this is the gap that gets closed.

Integrations and AI

Modern business applications rarely operate in isolation. Caspio supports integrations through REST APIs, webhooks, Zapier, Make, n8n, and Keragon for healthcare, so your rebuilt database can connect to the rest of your stack the way an Access file never could. Caspio also brings three AI capabilities: the AI-Powered GPT Connect extension, the Caspio MCP Server, and the AI Assistant, so you can layer AI-driven features and automation onto the application you rebuild.

24/7 Human Support

When your business depends on the application, support matters. Caspio provides 24/7 live human support. A do-it-yourself workaround stack of RDP servers, CALs, virtual desktops, and synced file shares has no single owner to call when the Access file corrupts at month-end. With Caspio, the platform is supported around the clock. Try it free.

How Your Access Concepts Map to Caspio

How to Move From Microsoft Access to the Cloud With Caspio

Here is the practical, high-level path from a legacy Access file to a working cloud application. To learn more about migrating MS Access databases to cloud, check out our use case page.

1. Audit your Access database. Inventory every table, relationship, query, form, report, and any VBA or macros. Identify which forms and reports people actually use, what each query does, and where business logic lives. This creates the blueprint for your migration and provides an opportunity to retire outdated or unused components.
2. Export your data from Access. Export each table to Excel or CSV. Caspio’s documented import accepts Excel (.xlsx, .xlsm, .xltx, .xltm, .xlam) and CSV files, up to 255 fields each, with a maximum uncompressed size of 512 MB per file, and you can ZIP multiple files together to speed up the upload. As part of the export process, clean up duplicate records, inconsistent values and other obvious data-quality issues before moving the data into the new system.
3. Import into Caspio and rebuild your tables and relationships. Log in to Caspio, create a new app, and use “Start by Importing Data” to bring in your exported files. Caspio creates tables from your data, which you then refine: set proper data types, define keys, and establish the relationships that mirror your Access design.
4. Choose your deployment framework. Decide how the finished application will be delivered. With Flex, Caspio hosts the entire application in the cloud and provides a secure web address for users to access it directly. With Bridge, you embed individual components into a website, intranet or portal you already operate. Many teams start with Flex and add embedded components later as needed.
5. Rebuild forms and reports in the app. Recreate your data entry forms, search interfaces, and reports inside your Caspio app. With Flex, they become screens in a fully hosted application. With Bridge, the same components can be embedded into an existing website or portal. Either way, users gain a modern browser-based experience that works across desktop and mobile devices.
6. Add users, roles, and authentication. Configure authenticated access with role-based permissions and record-level security. SAML single sign-on is available on select plans; Caspio supports Enterprise SSO as a SAML-in service provider and can also act as a SAML-out identity provider, so you can fit into your existing identity setup.
7. Deploy and test. Publish the application and test every form, view, and report using real-world scenarios and data. If the application needs to exchange information with other systems, you can also configure integrations through the REST API, webhooks, or supported integration platforms. These integrations are optional and not required for deployment.
8. Run in parallel, validate, and cut over. Run the Caspio application alongside Access for a short period, validate that the data and outputs match, train your users, and then retire the Access file once you are confident in the new system. Running both systems in parallel helps minimize migration risk.

Ready to start? Try Caspio free for 14 days, no credit card required.

Microsoft Access in the Cloud vs. a True Cloud Application

Side by side, the difference between relocating a desktop file and rebuilding as a cloud application is clear.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there an online version of Microsoft Access?

There is no online version of Microsoft Access that Microsoft sells or hosts. Access is a Windows desktop application, and the cloud-hosted Access offering in SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365 was retired, with new web apps stopped in 2017 and all remaining web apps and web databases shut down by April 2018. To use an Access database online, you rebuild it as a cloud application on a platform like Caspio.

Can Microsoft Access run in the cloud?

Microsoft Access cannot run in the cloud as a web application, and there is no “MS Access online” edition that Microsoft hosts. You can host the .accdb file on cloud storage or run the desktop app on a cloud-based Windows machine through Remote Desktop, Citrix, or an Azure VM, but those are workarounds that still run the same fragile desktop file with its 2 GB cap and corruption risk. The reliable way to put Access in the cloud is to rebuild the database as a true cloud application.

Can I use Microsoft Access on OneDrive or SharePoint with multiple users?

Not reliably. Microsoft advises against opening an Access database from a OneDrive or SharePoint document library because if more than one person opens it, multiple copies can be created and unexpected behavior can occur. Cloud-synced storage makes Access effectively single-user and prone to corruption. For genuine multi-user access online, rebuild the database as a cloud application.

How do I make my Access database available online?

To make an Access database available online for multiple users on the web and mobile, rebuild it as a cloud application. Export your Access data, import it into a cloud platform such as Caspio, and recreate the forms, reports and workflows users need. This removes the 2 GB cap, the concurrency limits, and the Windows-only restriction. Start a free trial to try it on your own data.

Can I open a Microsoft Access database on a phone or Mac?

Access does not run natively on a phone or macOS because it is a Windows desktop application. There is also no Access mobile app for editing .accdb files. Once rebuilt as a cloud application, however, the system can be accessed through a web browser on phones, tablets, Macs and Windows devices.

What is the best way to move an Access database to the cloud?

The best way to move an Access database to the cloud is to rebuild it as a true cloud application rather than hosting the desktop file. Typical steps include auditing the existing database, exporting the data, importing it into a cloud platform, rebuilding forms and reports, configuring security and validating the new application before retiring Access.

How do I migrate a Microsoft Access database to Caspio?

Start by exporting your Access tables to Excel or CSV. Import the data into Caspio, configure the database structure, rebuild forms and reports, set up users and permissions, and test the application thoroughly. Many organizations run the new application alongside Access for a short period before completing the transition. You can try it free for 14 days, no credit card required.

Does moving Access to the cloud keep my forms and reports?

Access forms and reports do not transfer automatically, but they can be recreated in Caspio using web-based forms, reports, views, and dashboards. The result serves the same business purpose while providing a modern browser-based experience.

Get Your Access Database Online the Right Way

You came looking for Microsoft Access online. The honest answer is that it does not exist, and the workarounds keep you tied to the same fragile desktop file. The more reliable approach is to rebuild your database as a true cloud application: in the browser, on mobile, for unlimited users, on a familiar Microsoft SQL Server backbone, with a SOC 2 Type II attestation renewed through annual independent audits and a HIPAA-compliant environment with a signed BAA.

Caspio is designed for this kind of application, and pricing starts from $300 per month, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card commitment to get started. Start your free trial, explore the platform overview, or check out our use case page to learn more about migrating MS Access databases to the cloud.