Single-User Geodatabases

The single-user geodatabase is for individual GIS work in a desktop environment. It is available as either the file geodatabase or the Microsoft Access personal geodatabase. Both are available with all license levels of ArcGIS Desktop.

	File	Personal
Storage Technology	Uses local file structure	Microsoft Access (Jet Engine)
Licensing	ArcInfo ArcEditor ArcView	ArcInfo ArcEditor ArcView
Differentiating Characteristics	No versioning support 1 TB per table size limit (default)	No versioning support Max. of 2 GB of data

File Geodatabase

• Stored in a file system
• Has no theoretical size limit (A table can store up to 256 TB of data using a configuration keyword.)
• Can have more than one concurrent editor (provided they are editing in different tables, feature classes, or feature datasets)
• Can function as a child geodatabase in both one-way and checkout/check-in geodatabase replication

Read The Top Nine Reasons to Use a File Geodatabase [PDF].

Microsoft Access Personal Geodatabase

• Stored in a single Microsoft Access .dbf file
• Has a 2 GB size limit
• Supports only one editor at a time; no concurrent editing
• Can function as a child geodatabase in both one-way and checkout/check-in geodatabase replication

Multiuser geodatabases provide additional functionality that is not available in single-user geodatabases.