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DuckDB vs IBM Informix 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

DuckDB
Ranking in Embedded Database
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Informix
Ranking in Embedded Database
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (25th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of DuckDB is 11.9%, up from 11.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Informix is 3.6%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
DuckDB11.9%
IBM Informix3.6%
Other84.5%
Embedded Database
 

Featured Reviews

MC
Senior Analytics Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Caching analytics queries has reduced repeated compute and supports faster embedded reporting
The use of DuckDB as a cache for analytics in an embedded analytics product is a valuable feature. It helps manage compute resources efficiently by preventing repeated computations of the same query. This has made it quite handy and quick to implement, which aligns with the fast-paced needs of our engineering team.
Nasir Niamat - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The use of DuckDB as a cache for analytics in an embedded analytics product is a valuable feature."
"DuckDB is very fast."
"It supports in-house-built applications in .NET and VB6"
"Informix can support huge quantities of data with less memory and less capacity."
"Replication, all levels of replication, query charting, and the MongoDB embedded are the most valuable features of this solution."
"My advice is to take it; you will never regret it."
"OLTP processing capacity and the availability of information with high availability implementation have been significantly improved."
"Every version is faster than the previous."
"The solution's stability, performance, enhanced functionality, and replication are all great features."
"IBM Informix benefits users with high availability and good integration capabilities."
 

Cons

"Sometimes we have memory issues that cause job failures, which we don't fully understand why, but we can rerun the jobs without problems."
"The pricing is a bit expensive."
"The solution really doesn't add new features very often."
"I experienced poor input/output (IO) performance."
"This product could be made easier to use for beginners."
"I really would love to have a QT plugin."
"This product could be made easier to use for beginners."
"Informix is very sturdy, but the problem for us is the marketing action around Informix."
"I would like to see backups from secondary servers."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"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."
"The product has reasonable pricing. We purchase its yearly license."
"I am not aware of the licensing costs or terms."
"For me, it's always too expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DuckDB?
We use the open-source version of DuckDB and don't have costs associated with it. There is a company that provides commercial software, but we use the open-source library, not the services.
What needs improvement with DuckDB?
Sometimes we have memory issues that cause job failures, which we don't fully understand why, but we can rerun the jobs without problems. There were also problems with binary formats in the previou...
What is your primary use case for DuckDB?
We use the concept of a feature store. We need the engine, and we use Feast as our feature store framework to build our feature store. We use the DuckDB engine as a data engine, which helps us move...
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 ...
What needs improvement with IBM Informix?
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 f...
What is your primary use case for IBM Informix?
We are using IBM Informix for OLTP systems. We are using IBM Informix although it is a technology that is not very popular compared to others. We are using it because our application was initially ...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Informix
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Shaspa, Hildebrand, Kaifa, Ranhill Powertron, Federaci‹ Farmacutica (FedeFarma), Camden Council, The German Aerospace Center (DLR), Myers, Votorantim Group, Doosan Infracore, GreenIvory
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, SQLite, Oracle and others in Embedded Database. Updated: April 2026.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.