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IBM Informix vs SAP HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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
9th
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
25th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP HANA
Ranking in Embedded Database
1st
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
93
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of IBM Informix is 3.6%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 11.1%, up from 9.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP HANA11.1%
IBM Informix3.6%
Other85.3%
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.
HP
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
Performs well with high database and reporting performance
We face difficulties replicating the AC DOCA table, which is a huge table, from S/4HANA to SAP HANA BAS, Business Application Studio, or HANA Studio using SLT. For developing Power BI reports using the AC DOCA table, we are replicating full data daily. We want to implement delta load, and while we used OData service for one client, the delta OData service link is not properly updating delta records. Licensing costs with SAP HANA are very high. Due to high pricing, many clients are moving from BW on SAP HANA and S/4HANA to Azure SQL. I have worked with several clients who have moved all data flows to Azure and developed Power BI queries on top of Azure. Many clients are also using Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The certification costs are also very high, more than ₹1,40,000 INR. Previously, it was ₹30,000 to ₹40,000. I want to pursue three certifications but am unable to do so due to the cost.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Every version is faster than the previous."
"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."
"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."
"So far, we do not have a lot of issues. It's pretty problem-free."
"The solution's stability, performance, enhanced functionality, and replication are all great features."
"Replication, all levels of replication, query charting, and the MongoDB embedded are the most valuable features of this solution."
"The solution's stability, performance, enhanced functionality, and replication are all great features."
"The solution is quite stable and reliable; we use it mainly due to its general stable nature."
"The memory is the solution's most valuable feature. It's the main feature of HANA. Others are still the regular IT databases that are on storage and are therefore much slower than HANA. The solution is quite fast."
"If you want to scale with new processes and new reports, that's fairly easy."
"The solution is very stable."
"The in-memory database is excellent."
"It's sufficed all of our requirements. We primarily needed it to run SAP applications, like NetWeaver or S/4HANA, and it has been really good at that."
"The memory is the solution's most valuable feature; it's the main feature of HANA, and the solution is quite fast."
"This solution did improve my organization, as we had some changes to better our organization, especially in the procurement process."
"It is difficult for me to narrow down what the best features are in SAP HANA because they work together to provide the overall functionality of the solution. However, the Fiori application is very good."
 

Cons

"The solution lacks some functionality."
"There should be more intelligence surrounding discovering data to be able to automatically create indexes."
"The solution really doesn't add new features very often."
"Continue extending the SQL language for compatibility with the competition's language, including Stored Procedure Language."
"This product could be made easier to use for beginners."
"I really would love to have a QT plugin."
"I would like to see backups from secondary servers."
"The solution doesn't include functionality like data anonymization."
"The documentation can be improved in the future."
"High availability and disaster recovery are very poor in HANA."
"The product is very demanding on memory requirements."
"There could be better management for faster updates, last year there were some changes in India to the e-invoicing feature."
"In terms of improvement, the speed is not as good as we thought it would be. That is why we are trying different solutions that will be built with different technologies."
"SAP HANA is a very proprietary tool and there's not as much support available for it as there is for an SQL Server (which is more popular)."
"Ease of use could be improved in SAP HANA. I like SAP because SAP solutions can be used by anyone, which means even laymen can start working on SAP tools, but in SAP HANA modeling, you'll need to know some other technologies and sequel scripting, and you need a separate skillset, so if you don't have the skillset, you won't be able to work on SAP HANA. Making SAP HANA low-code would make it even better."
"Needs graphical programming without coding."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product has reasonable pricing. We purchase its yearly license."
"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."
"There is a yearly subscription to use SAP HANA. There is a fee for maintenance."
"The licensing cost for SAP HANA is approximately $200 per user per month."
"Its licensing is expensive for SMEs and large enterprises alike."
"The solution's license is very expensive so I rate pricing a one out of ten."
"The price of the solution could be reduced, it is expensive."
"SAP HANA is an expensive product."
"SAP HANA is very expensive here in China. My company bought the SAP ERP suite, which includes SAP HANA. For others who use SAP HANA as an analytical database, CPU numbers will affect the pricing, so as a solution, it's costly."
"We pay for a maintenance license, and the licensing cost is high. In general, it is a very expensive solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
7%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise63
 

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 are the biggest benefits of using SAP HANA?
Based on my work with SAP HANA, the biggest benefit that it can bring to your business is total data management. This product is by SAP - a company that serves almost all needs a client may have co...
Is SAP HANA’s customer and technical support reliable?
We have been using SAP HANA for a fairly short period of time and have only taken advantage of their customer support. So far, we have not had issues that required specialized help from technical s...
Is SAP HANA difficult to set up and start using?
SAP HANA is fairly easy to set up, however, I do not think a complete beginner can do it. You certainly need some preparation - either you need to have experience with similar solutions, or with ot...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Informix
SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
 

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
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Informix vs. SAP HANA and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.