SQL rather than Access

My business stores collectible items for my customers. I was advised that my new web-accessible inventory database, which currently tracks about 5000 items (200 characters of information each), should be implemented using SQL rather than Access for performance and reliability issues. I have about 100 customers, who on average will probably access the database from the Internet less than an hour a month.

I want to know if there is any good reason I couldn't implement this database using Access? Would I then have much leeway to grow before database size, performance and reliability become an issue? What if we grow by a factor of 10 times?

Whoever advised this is completely wrong.
SQL Server is generally used for enterprise applications...i.e. where you keeping track of 500,000 plus records.

Access is perfectly capable of handling what you describe.

Access only really suffers from performance problems when you start trying to work with millions of records, with multiple connections being opened repeatedly.

Issues that may cause a problem:
1) When you are tracking millions of records.
2) When you are having multiple concurrent connections to the database (meaning multiple 10+ people hitting the database at the same time)
3) When database size gets upto or over 2GB in size.

So based on what you are doing (tracking 5000 items, allowing 100 customers to access it for less than an hour a month) To actually use SQL Server to do this would be extreme overkill.

Whoever suggested you move to SQL Server to handle this, obviously doesn't know what they are talking about.

I'll disagree a little. When Access is used as a backend database for asp web pages, performance goes down and problems go up when you have maybe 15-20 concurrent web users. This is because the web server uses it's drivers for all web users, unlike a stand-alone app where generally each user has their own connection.

In my remote hosted web environment it's a bit over $200/year to provide the stability of an SQL database vs. the sometimes flakeyness of an Access db, which to me is a no-brainer for a business related web.

If you're running your own server you could take a look at MSDE, which is distributed with Access. MSDE uses the same database engine as SQL Server so if or when you outgrow your Access you can port your app over to a SQL Server in about 5 minutes.
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You also have the option of using MySQL which is an open source database(read free). Much better then Access.

As Access grows in size its performance takes a nose dive, this is due to the fact that even if you want only one record it pulls the whole thing. So the problem gets compounded over time. Not to mention stability issues, compact and repairs as well as a host of other issues.

So I would say if you value your data don't use Access.