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Firebird SQL vs InterBase 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

Firebird SQL
Ranking in Embedded Database
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (4th)
InterBase
Ranking in Embedded Database
10th
Average Rating
6.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.6
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of Firebird SQL is 14.0%, down from 23.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of InterBase is 4.0%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Firebird SQL14.0%
InterBase4.0%
Other82.0%
Embedded Database
 

Featured Reviews

SS
Research and Development Project Manager at Sixense Monitoring
Efficient data storage with reliable and easy management
We are working on monitoring software that involves making a lot of measurements with sensors. We store all the data in Firebird, which is why we use It primarily for data storage It's difficult to describe how it has improved our organization because we have been using Firebird for a very long…
reviewer1991775 - PeerSpot reviewer
Chapter Lead at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Has good disaster recovery capabilities, but its stability should be improved
The solution's developer is Embarcadero Technologies, but they are not doing a good job. We had a lot of problems in the last few years with database crashes, and they couldn't reproduce it. The database is a little bit more stable today. It seems like the database was developed at night and deployed to many companies and people. Sometimes, it seems rare. Three database administrators are needed for the administration and maintenance of InterBase. You can encrypt the whole database, but it slows down the performance. We used the solution's change synchronization feature three years ago, but it also crashed a lot. If you were notified about a change, sometimes the database hangs up. It wasn't working anymore. They said they would fix it, but we chose to do it ourselves. We no longer trust these features because it costs us hundreds and thousands of dollars if our database is broken for some hours. It was easy to integrate InterBase with other products and third-party solutions. For developing software, that's one thing. If you want to use an ORM (Object Relational Mapping), many software supports Oracle, Microsoft SQL, and My SQL but do not support InterBase. So, that's a problem. I would not recommend the solution to other users. Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution."
"The solution has worked perfectly; I've never run into issues or had to reach out to technical support for troubleshooting."
"I appreciate the fact that, once the database is embedded, it doesn't need to be administered, and removes the requirement for a specific server."
"The most valuable feature of Firebird SQL is the creation of databases."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution and can run on most operating systems, such as Linux, Unix, and Windows."
"The reliability and ease of management are very valuable."
"I like Firebird because it's very lightweight; it's very light and powerful, and I can do everything that I can with MS SQL Server and Oracle with Firebird, with very easy deployment on Linux, Mac OS, and Windows and great integration capabilities."
"I find the ease of deployment to be the most valuable aspect of this solution."
"The solution's disaster recovery capability is very nice because we have these just-in-time dumps."
 

Cons

"It is not easy to integrate the tool with Visual Studio."
"There aren't a lot of people using this solution — it's not very popular in the marketplace."
"This solution isn't very user-friendly, or intuitive, which could be improved when it is developed."
"It would be nice to have a graphical user interface to handle the product."
"In the next release, it should support JSON, XML, and replication with third-party tools."
"Firebird SQL's performance has slowed since Firebird SQL 3 or 3.5 versions, where they developed over-the-wire encryption."
"We would like to improve the management of very large databases."
"Technical support and performance could be better. We have some problems with this solution, but we don't know if the problem is with the database or the configuration. For example, sometimes, the users can't access the database."
"For InterBase, we want Embarcadero to build a stable product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is no licensing cost for this solution, as it is open-source."
"It is a public domain system as every customer can install it on their system without paying any license fee."
"The tool is open source."
"We are using the free solution, so there is no cost involved."
"I was using the free version of Firebird SQL."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution, which means it is a free product."
"It's open-source and free."
"There is a yearly maintenance fee for the use of the solution."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise3
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

How does Firebird SQL compare with PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL was designed in a way that provides you with not only a high degree of flexibility but also offers you a cheap and easy-to-use solution. It gives you the ability to redesign and audit yo...
What needs improvement with Firebird SQL?
We would like to improve the management of very large databases. We have databases up to three or four terabytes, and it's not so easy to manage such large databases.
What is your primary use case for Firebird SQL?
We are working on monitoring software that involves making a lot of measurements with sensors. We store all the data in Firebird, which is why we use It primarily for data storage.
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Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Elekt Labs, Streamsoft, wobe-systems GmbH, DRB Systems, Moscow City Hospital #31
OpusCapita, HeidiSQL, ArtGen, Zernpfennig Informatik, Broken Games, BS Software Development, BUSICOM, DK Corporation, Labrador Technologies, Bremmers Audio Design, Peace Keeper Enterprises, WideOrbit
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, SQLite, Oracle and others in Embedded Database. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.