Excel, Access, SQL, oh my!

As a professional who's full time job isn't creating software, you're likely faced with the question of whether to use Excel, Access, or something else for that project you're beginning or mulling over in your head. There is no simple answer, but the table below is intended to help compare and contrast your options.

Use	Spreadsheet (Excel)	Desktop Database (Access)	Server Database (SQL Server, MySQL) with Access/VB user interface
Validate basic user input (e.g., for a single field/cell	Yes	Yes	Yes (probably overkill by itself)
Complex user input validation or events (if field X = Y, and field Z is empty, perform some action)	Challenging to accomplish	Yes	Yes
Data arranged in a few columns without much repetition	Yes	Yes	Yes (probably overkill by itself)
More than 65,535 rows/records	No	Yes	Yes
Simple cross-references	Yes	Yes	Yes
Complex data analysis/queries	Limited	Yes	Yes
Events based on user actions (when user exits a field/cell do X, when they mouse over a field/cell do Y)	No	Yes	Yes
Multiple users, but generally accessing data at different times	Yes (but conflicts can occur)	Yes	Yes
Multiple users, accessing data at the same time	No	Yes (generally slow)	Yes
Frequent mass-update operations	Challenging to accomplish	Yes (can be slow if resource intensive)	Yes
Multiple user forms	No	Yes	Yes
Mail Merge with Word	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reporting	Challenging to accomplish	Yes	Yes
Automated backups	Challenging to accomplish	Challenging to accomplish	Yes
Record-level auditing	No	Challenging to accomplish	Yes
Ability to hide the inner workings of your project from the user	Challenging to accomplish	Yes (MDE files)	Yes
Level of Effort/Difficulty	Low	Moderate-to-High	High