No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Actian Ingres vs SQL Server 2014 Express comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Actian Ingres
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
26th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (17th)
SQL Server 2014 Express
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
9th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Actian Ingres is 1.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server 2014 Express is 0.4%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SQL Server 2014 Express0.4%
Actian Ingres1.3%
Other98.3%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

GH
Sr Sales Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Reliable performance enhances operations with good technical support
We run the entire IRS system, the income system, and the tax system. We also manage the entire Absa banking system in Africa. There's a lot of database applications, similar to those used in banks and the IRS The most valuable features for us are reliability and performance. Our system is used…
Shubham-Agarwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - Projects at Cognizant
Migration to structured data has improved security and performance and enables faster insights
SQL Server 2014 Express could be improved by addressing its data limitations, especially for users with larger datasets that may not be suitable for production environments. Compared to the Enterprise or Standard versions, SQL Server 2014 Express does not provide the same functionalities or performance, so organizations with rapidly growing data should seek those options instead. Regarding needed improvements, I can say that integration with various ETL tools is essential, as we often need to use SSIS or other ETL tools to pull and transform data. It would be greatly beneficial if SQL Server 2014 Express could include functionality to integrate directly with APIs or other databases rather than relying on external ETL tools.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Ingres is the only database solution that has maintained a level of consistency and integrity about the way users interact with it."
"The most valuable features for us are reliability and performance."
"The deployment of our solution across a number of servers using Ingres .NET has meant that we can protect the database server behind a highly secure firewall and deploy the front end solutions on a normal web server."
"The best features of SQL Server 2014 Express are that it can be downloaded, it is open source, can be downloaded on any desktop, and it is a free version with no charge for downloads, making it highly useful for students and developers building applications for standalone or enterprise applications."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has impacted my organization positively because earlier I was using SharePoint, and in Power Apps, whenever we fetched the data, it took quite an ample amount of time to show the details from the back end, but when I started using SQL Server 2014 Express, it was much faster and helped me fetch more records at a time compared to the other data sources because of the indexing and primary keys."
"The transition from Excel to SQL Server 2014 Express has greatly improved our team's efficiency and data accuracy."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has provided a return on investment by saving money and time compared to other SQL servers such as MySQL and PostgreSQL, which are similar but more expensive and less user-friendly for non-technical clients."
"My advice for anyone looking to use SQL Server 2014 Express is that if someone is using or planning to build an enterprise application, especially for .NET or Java, they should definitely consider SQL Server 2014 Express as it is the most reliable SQL server available, plus the support from Microsoft is consistently good."
"SQL Server 2014 Express had a positive impact because it provided a cost-effective and reliable database solution for our work."
"SQL Server 2014 Express helped me gain a real-world application and practical database skills."
"Using SQL Server 2014 Express is very simple, and the queries run very fast."
 

Cons

"The ability to reset the log file without stopping the DBMS would be helpful for us."
"The seamless integration is a bit of an issue."
"There are a few features in SQL Server 2014 Express that could be improved."
"SQL Server 2014 Express could be improved by offering multiple authentication methods."
"SQL Server 2014 Express can be improved by increasing the maximum 10 gigabytes for a database, as it would be better if this limit were increased."
"The Express edition has limitations in database size and system resource usage, so performance may be reduced with large data volumes or heavy workloads."
"Additionally, SQL Server Management Studio takes a lot of time to start compared to the latest version."
"One area where SQL Server 2014 Express could be improved is its resource limitations, such as database size and memory usage, because they can become challenging as an application grows."
"SQL Server 2014 Express's scalability has limitations for growth in data and users."
"SQL Server 2014 Express can be improved as there are some resource limits. There are limitations on database size, memory, and CPU usage which restrict scalability."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Relational Databases Tools solutions are best for your needs.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
13%
Construction Company
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
28%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Actian Ingres?
The seamless integration is a bit of an issue. I would like to see more direct connectors and stuff like SQLAlchemy. It's there but isn't available as a standard, so it involves going to GitHub to ...
What is your primary use case for Actian Ingres?
We run the entire IRS system, the income system, and the tax system. We also manage the entire Absa banking system in Africa. There's a lot of database applications, similar to those used in banks ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Actian Ingres?
Initially, it's a lot less expensive than competitors. Price performance has always been a priority, ensuring we remain competitive in the market.
What needs improvement with SQL Server 2014 Express?
SQL Server 2014 Express can be improved in terms of scalability, as it has CPU and memory restrictions and a 10 GB limit for the free version, which can lead to performance issues as the organizati...
What is your primary use case for SQL Server 2014 Express?
The main use case for SQL Server 2014 Express is to create the database architecture for my work and during SQL Server 2014 Express interactions, which adds to my code level. I use Entity Framework...
What advice do you have for others considering SQL Server 2014 Express?
My advice to others considering SQL Server 2014 Express is that for small businesses, it is suitable for inventory tracking, simple reporting, product development, and test environments because it ...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Ingres, Ingres 2006
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Groupe Adeo, IsCool Entertainment
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Actian Ingres vs. SQL Server 2014 Express and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.