On October 1 Microsoft has released the new perpetual version of Access as part of Office 2024. This brings new features and a new support guarantee to the purchase version. The acquisition of Access was made even more restricted with this version.
New Features
According to Microsoft, Access 2024 has the following new features (compared to Access 2021):
Dataverse connector
Edge browser control
Large Address Aware
Code signing
Open queries in SQL view
Don't show the linked tables warning
Open more tables and connections
In the AFo Features section you can find articles on each of these features.
The perpetual versions of Office products are decoupled from Office 365 development a few months before their release and (generally speaking) contain those features that were already included in the 365 product at that time.
This is why Access 2024 does not have the new chart types that have been released for Access 365 a few days ago. It will (most likely) also not include the new Monaco editor for SQL that is currently in beta state.
However, this feature-cutting principle is not always strictly adhered to by Microsoft, e.g. Large Address Aware is also available in older perpetual versions of Access.
Support Guarantee
Although Office 2024 was officially released a few weeks later than the LTSC version, it has the same support end date: October 9, 2029
You can find out more about the support policy and cycles for the different Access versions in our article: Microsoft's Lifecycle Policy for Office/Access
Acquisition
Access was always included in the "Professional" editions of the perpetual versions of Office, not in the "Home" editions. However, Office 2024 is only available in two Home editions; there is no longer a Professional edition.
The only option to purchase Access as part of an Office 2024 package is Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024. Microsoft states that the LTSC = volume license would be suitable for "businesses with five or more users". In practice, volume licenses are mostly used by larger companies and organizations. They do not have a fixed price. You have to contact Microsoft Sales to find out or negotiate the conditions.
Therefore, with the elimination of the Professional version, individuals and smaller businesses really only have the option of purchasing perpetual Access 2024 as a standalone product. This is possible on this page.
Microsoft doesn't mention a version there, but it is always the latest perpetual version, and since October 1, 2024 it is Access 2024 that you get for 159 Euros/179.99 Dollar.
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