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IBM Informix vs MariaDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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

IBM Informix
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Embedded Database (9th)
MariaDB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Informix is 1.8%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 6.3%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Nazzareno Maria Rezzini - PeerSpot reviewer
Supports multiple business intelligence tools, but the technical support services need improvement
IBM Informix is a central database solution across various environments, supporting multiple applications and business intelligence tools The key areas for improvement revolve around understanding the current customer trends and demands, particularly in software and database requirements. The…
KumarManish - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy, cost-effective, and integrates seamlessly with other products
We had planned for an RDBMS version and not NoSQL. We use MariaDB Galera Cluster. It's a good product. It is cheap, scalable, performs well, and is efficient. We use GCP’s BigQuery for machine learning. We must follow the best practices of the tool. We missed some best practices like the storage engine and InnoDB. It was very difficult to identify why we were having performance issues. Then, we realized that some of our tables were still on MyISAM, the default storage engine. When we switched it back to the InnoDB, it was very smooth. InnoDB is the recommended one. We must follow the best practices given in the documentation during the initial setup. Overall, I rate the product a nine 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

"It supports in-house-built applications in .NET and VB6"
"The solution's stability, performance, enhanced functionality, and replication are all great features."
"The stability is incredible. I have customers with uptimes of several years."
"IBM Informix benefits users with high availability and good integration capabilities."
"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."
"So far, we do not have a lot of issues. It's pretty problem-free."
"Replication, all levels of replication, query charting, and the MongoDB embedded are the most valuable features of this solution."
"It supports multiple applications and business intelligence tools."
"The most valuable feature is that it uses multiple cores, which is better than some of the other databases."
"It's easy to set up."
"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is a cloud-based tool, so it is pretty fast."
"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is an open-source product and offers its users great online community support."
"I haven't faced any technical issues with the product, and it works fine."
"The solution's high availability is its most valuable aspect."
"The speed and functionality are the most valuable features."
"It delivers fast processing times, particularly for frequent select queries and insert/update operations."
 

Cons

"There should be more intelligence surrounding discovering data to be able to automatically create indexes."
"This solution is in need of more current tools."
"The solution lacks some functionality."
"It would be helpful to have IBM salespeople know that Informix exists, and sell it. Currently, it is completely ignored by IBM."
"I experienced poor input/output (IO) performance."
"The support team could include local engineers to establish efficient communication. It will help us speed up the escalation process."
"I would like to see backups from secondary servers."
"I really would love to have a QT plugin."
"It would be helpful if I could specify multiple drives for the database storage."
"It does not have tools for debugging procedures and functions."
"Could have more integration with user platforms."
"The PL/SQL performance is slow if you have big batch jobs running overnight."
"I am editing."
"The solution should do some fine-tuning on maybe the transaction per second so that users can get more than they can on the Microsoft SQL Server."
"The customer service and support are okay. But the response time is slow. Moreover, the material is not available freely."
"When we have had issues with accidental computer shutdown or a power outage, our MariaDB database was corrupted."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"For me, it's always too expensive."
"The product has reasonable pricing. We purchase its yearly license."
"I am not aware of the licensing costs or terms."
"I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price since there are some support costs involved, even though it isn't an open-source solution."
"This is an open-source product, which can be used free of charge."
"The cost is quite good. You can have the open source, free version, which has adequate capacity."
"The price of this solution represents a very good compromise between the cost and what it offers."
"This is an open source solution with no licensing fees."
"When it comes to MariaDB, it should have a more cost-effective license."
"The licensing cost is approximately $4000.00 per year and the licensing is based on the software and the number of posts that you make."
"MariaDB is available for free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Retailer
8%
University
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Informix?
It supports multiple applications and business intelligence tools.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Informix?
The product has reasonable pricing. We purchase its yearly license.
What needs improvement with IBM Informix?
The key areas for improvement revolve around understanding the current customer trends and demands, particularly in software and database requirements. The product's performance could be better com...
What do you like most about MariaDB?
The integration with other products is seamless.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MariaDB?
I have found the price of commercial MariaDB to be pretty steep, although not as high as Oracle. Customers often prefer the Community Edition because it's free.
What needs improvement with MariaDB?
The only potential area for improvement could be the pricing model, which might benefit from being more flexible or a bit cheaper.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Informix
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Shaspa, Hildebrand, Kaifa, Ranhill Powertron, Federaci‹ Farmacutica (FedeFarma), Camden Council, The German Aerospace Center (DLR), Myers, Votorantim Group, Doosan Infracore, GreenIvory
Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Informix vs. MariaDB and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
862,543 professionals have used our research since 2012.