ACCDB vs. MDB

Microsoft Access

Before discussing the differences between ACCDB and MDB, it is important to know about Microsoft Access.

Microsoft Access is one of the most popular Database Management Systems. Access has powerful software development tools and a simple user interface to help manage and analyze large amounts of data.

MDB

MDB (short for Microsoft Access Database) was Access’s default file format until 2007 when ACCDB replaced it. However, despite being its predecessor, MDB has certain advantages over ACCDB:

• MDB is equipped with backward compatibility, so it is still a better option when working in a mixed-version environment.
• MDB supports user-level security, unlike ACCDB.
• MDB allows database replication while ACCDB does not.
• We can link a table from an MDB to ACCDB, but not vice versa.

ACCDB

ACCDB or Access Database is the default file extension used by the recent versions of Access. Compared to MDB, ACCDB has the following advantages:

• ACCDB provides better integration with SharePoint and Outlook when compared to MDB.
• Unlike MDB, ACCDB allows the use of multi-valued fields, making it easier to store multiple choices in the same field.
• ACCDB provides improved encryption of database contents compared to MDB.
• ACCDB’s attachment feature enables the storage of all kinds of documents in the database.