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IBM Informix vs Oracle Berkeley DB 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 Embedded Database
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (25th)
Oracle Berkeley DB
Ranking in Embedded Database
7th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Non-Relational Databases (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of IBM Informix is 3.8%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Berkeley DB is 5.7%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Oracle Berkeley DB5.7%
IBM Informix3.8%
Other90.5%
Embedded Database
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Emad Mokhatab - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution & Software System Architect at Shaparak
Easy to integrate and manage the setup phase
One of the things that I want to see in Oracle Berkeley DB is a driver for reactive programming. I think the tool's official driver for reactive programming, especially for Java, is the thing that Oracle needs to be more agile in, specifically in those areas of programming that other products are currently going into. Other tools have become more innovative in many areas. I know that Oracle has many responsibilities in maintaining the situation with the current projects and so on. I think it would be very cool if Oracle could make improvements to its projects, as it can help me with my current projects. One reason why I don't choose Oracle Berkeley DB is because we want to go for reactive programming, along with Project Reactor from Spring, but we don't have the official driver for it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution has made financial reporting possible by allowing financial people the opportunity to set Informix to "Auto Pilot" so that they can attend other duties."
"The solution's stability, performance, enhanced functionality, and replication are all great features."
"Replication is a valuable feature and easy to use."
"Informix can support huge quantities of data with less memory and less capacity."
"We don't have any problems with the Informix Database."
"Flexible Grid provides the ability to automatically create database objects, such as tables, indexes, and stored procedures on all nodes within the grid as a single operation."
"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."
"We always had predictability, and by using a custom-built data service layer with plugins, it provided us a lot of scalability, fast turnaround for our fast-moving business requirement and huge data."
"The tool's performance is good, and I don't have any problems with it."
"The product meets all the essential business requirements."
"As a key/value store, Oracle BDB is simple to use, and it provides ACID transactions for companies that cannot afford eventual consistency."
"This product helped us to develop a performance-critical DB backend module in the healthcare domain."
 

Cons

"Every month or every second month, we find some bugs in it, which is not ideal."
"For me, it's always too expensive. The problem is that Informix sometimes competes with free products, so yes, it's very expensive, but when we're talking about licensed products like SQL Server or anything, the midsize pricing could be significantly improved."
"I experienced poor input/output (IO) performance."
"The technical support services need substantial improvement."
"It would be helpful to have IBM salespeople know that Informix exists, and sell it. Currently, it is completely ignored by IBM."
"I really would love to have a QT plugin."
"The solution should offer replication. It would be helpful if the solution would allow us to access third-party tools."
"Continue extending the SQL language for compatibility with the competition's language, including Stored Procedure Language."
"The product's interface could be more intuitive and user-friendly."
"I think the tool's official driver for reactive programming, especially for Java, is the thing that Oracle needs to be more agile in, specifically in those areas of programming that other products are currently going into."
"There were some mid-term small releases that caused database crashes, but this was later fixed."
"Memory usage becomes a problem when the number of entries stored within the key/value store are quite high (hundreds of millions)."
"Environment corruption is a common problem found when a DB environment is used by more than one process on a machine at a time."
 

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."
"I am not aware of the licensing costs or terms."
"The product has reasonable pricing. We purchase its yearly license."
"There is a need to pay for the licenses and features of the tool."
"I rate the product's pricing a five out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Educational Organization
11%
University
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
 

Company Size

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

Questions from the Community

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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Berkeley DB?
There is a need to pay for the licenses and features of the tool. It can help other people use the tool properly.
What needs improvement with Oracle Berkeley DB?
One of the things that I want to see in Oracle Berkeley DB is a driver for reactive programming. I think the tool's official driver for reactive programming, especially for Java, is the thing that ...
What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Berkeley DB?
Giving out some free subscriptions and offering some premium plans for enterprise solutions that Oracle presents to the audience can help other people who want to use it. Being more agile in adapti...
 

Also Known As

Informix
Berkeley DB
 

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
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Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Informix vs. Oracle Berkeley DB and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.