Amazon RDS vs IBM Informix comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM are both solutions in the Relational Databases Tools category. Additionally, 98% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Amazon RDS

Read 58 Amazon RDS reviews

98% willing to recommend

IBM Informix

Read 17 IBM Informix reviews

1,149 Views
1,092 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Amazon RDS

IBM Informix

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon RDS and IBM Informix based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and others in Relational Databases Tools.

To learn more, read our detailed Relational Databases Tools Report (Updated: November 2025).

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Relational Databases Tools

November 2025

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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

Amazon RDS

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database as a Service (DBaaS) (1st)

IBM Informix

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Embedded Database (10th), Relational Databases Tools (24th)

Featured Reviews

reviewer2592669

Director Software Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

Positive experiences with database services, with minor room for feature enhancements observed

I don't really see any disadvantages of Amazon RDS. With Oracle, I think AWS doesn't provide the RAC stability. If you have Oracle installed in your own data centers, you can set up various clusters and we can set up the RACs, but in Amazon RDS, we cannot have the RAC feature of Oracle. They could add that feature. Amazon RDS has limitations regarding RAC. If we talk about installing Oracle in RDS, we cannot have the RAC, but if you deploy Oracle on GCP, then there is probably the RAC feature available. I observed that around two or three years back, but I'm not sure whether they have added the RAC feature in AWS. Amazon RDS is expensive compared to GCP. GCP also has the same features, and although it is quite extensive and feature-rich, I see Amazon RDS as slightly expensive compared to other clouds.

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Nasir Niamat

DB Consultant at i2c

Has offered a cost-effective option despite frequent technical issues and limited market demand

We find some bugs in IBM Informix. Maybe we are using it more aggressively than others. Every month or every second month, we find some bugs in it, which is not ideal. It should be rare, not this frequent. The good thing is they cover those bugs in the next release within weeks or days on demand. IBM Informix should become hybrid and should include AI features similar to other DBMS systems such as Snowflake, Redshift, and DataBricks. This would help its value rise with the market.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Amazon RDS gives us the ability to select as many tools, replicas, regions, and zones as we want."

"The product's most valuable features are option groups, S3 integration, automated and scheduled snapshots, and cross-region replication."

"Encryption is the most valuable feature."

"Amazon RDS handles database backup mechanisms and patch management."

"Being able to change the size of an RDS MySQL instance is amazing."

"I found it to be a stable solution."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."

"The dashboard and performance are the most valuable features of Amazon RDS."

More Amazon RDS pros

"The most valuable feature is concurrency and locking because my customers usually use databases in OLTP mode. So, for a large number of competitive users. Other features that are well valued are quick large-scale data types. It is better than Oracle."

"It is very easy to install IBM Informix, very easy to scale, and support is quite better."

"Every version is faster than the previous."

"It supports multiple applications and business intelligence tools."

"So far, we do not have a lot of issues. It's pretty problem-free."

"The stability is incredible. I have customers with uptimes of several years."

"IBM Informix benefits users with high availability and good integration capabilities."

"The initial setup is pretty easy."

More IBM Informix pros

Cons

"The solution is a bit expensive."

"The product must add more older versions of the database engines."

"The only thing that needs improvement would be the pricing of the solution."

"The backup and restore processes take more time compared to other providers. For instance, if DigitalOcean takes two minutes to restore or create a backup, AWS will take 2 to 3 minutes."

"They should add a feature for manual SQL patching in RDS."

"Some of the features will not be there. For example, some on-premises things we want to set up will not be supported there. There are some challenges that they are fixing."

"For improvements, Amazon RDS could work on more features for multi-availability zone deployment to enhance higher availability, and on simplifying migration for those transitioning from on-premises to cloud environments."

"I feel Amazon RDS should have a lot of functionalities to make monitoring within the database easier."

More Amazon RDS cons

"The support team could include local engineers to establish efficient communication. It will help us speed up the escalation process."

"This product could be made easier to use for beginners."

"The solution really doesn't add new features very often."

"The technical support services need substantial improvement."

"There should be more intelligence surrounding discovering data to be able to automatically create indexes."

"I experienced poor input/output (IO) performance."

"I would like to see backups from secondary servers."

"This solution is in need of more current tools."

More IBM Informix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The substantial initial credit and cost-effectiveness make Amazon an attractive option."

"The solution’s pricing could be cheaper."

"I would rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."

"The prices for different regions are different."

"The solution is fairly priced."

"The product is expensive."

"It is less expensive than SQL Server. We pay based on the usage on a monthly basis."

"On a scale from one to ten, where ten is the most expensive, and one is the cheapest, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."

More Amazon RDS pricing and cost advice

"The product has reasonable pricing. We purchase its yearly license."

"For me, it's always too expensive."

"The free edition can be enough to handle moderate-size implementations, but you may want a pay for edition to benefit from more functionality, such as replication."

"I am not aware of the licensing costs or terms."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

University

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

University

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	23

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon RDS?

The product's installation phase is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon RDS?

The pricing for Amazon RDS is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon RDS?

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Informix?

It supports multiple applications and business intelligence tools.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Informix?

There is a cost reason to move from IBM Informix. It is relatively cheaper than Oracle. The second reason is that moving the whole application to a new database would require significant cost. The ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Informix?

See all answers

Comparisons

MongoDB Atlas vs Amazon RDS

Compared 21% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs Amazon RDS

Compared 15% of the time

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Amazon RDS

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Amazon RDS

Compared 13% of the time

Google Cloud Spanner vs Amazon RDS

Compared 6% of the time

More Amazon RDS Competitors

SQL Server vs IBM Informix

Compared 28% of the time

Oracle Database vs IBM Informix

Compared 27% of the time

IBM Db2 Database vs IBM Informix

Compared 12% of the time

Actian Ingres vs IBM Informix

Compared 9% of the time

SAP HANA vs IBM Informix

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM Informix Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS

December 2025

Download Amazon RDS product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Informix

December 2025

Download IBM Informix product report

Also Known As

RDS

Informix

Overview

Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is a web service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. It provides cost-efficient, resizeable capacity for an industry-standard relational database and manages common database administration tasks.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

IBM Informix is a widely used and scalable relational database management system designed to handle large amounts of data and high transaction volumes. It is known to provide exceptional performance, thanks to its Parallel Data Query Engine (PDQ) that enables parallel processing of queries and operations, significantly reducing response times for complex queries and large data sets. Additionally, Informix supports online operations like backup, restore, index maintenance, and table reorganization, minimizing downtime and ensuring continuous availability.

Informix provides robust high availability and replication features, including shared-disk clustering, remote data replication, and high-availability data replication (HDR). These features ensure data redundancy, failover protection, and disaster recovery capabilities, making it a reliable choice for mission-critical applications. Furthermore, Informix offers specialized features for data warehousing and analytics, such as in-database analytics, data compression, and parallel load capabilities, making it suitable for business intelligence (BI) and data analysis applications.

Informix can be deployed as an embedded database, allowing it to be tightly integrated with applications and systems, reducing overhead and simplifying deployment. It includes workload management capabilities, enabling organizations to prioritize and manage different types of workloads, such as online transaction processing (OLTP) and analytical queries, ensuring efficient resource utilization and meeting service-level agreements (SLAs). Informix also provides robust security features, including role-based access control, data encryption, auditing, and compliance with industry standards like FIPS 140-2 and Common Criteria.

IBM

Sample Customers

Edmodo

Shaspa, Hildebrand, Kaifa, Ranhill Powertron, Federaci‹ Farmacutica (FedeFarma), Camden Council, The German Aerospace Center (DLR), Myers, Votorantim Group, Doosan Infracore, GreenIvory

Buyer's Guide

Relational Databases Tools

November 2025

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