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IBM Informix vs SQL Server 2014 Express 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

IBM Informix
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
25th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Embedded Database (10th)
SQL Server 2014 Express
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Informix is 1.8%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server 2014 Express is 0.4%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SQL Server 2014 Express0.4%
IBM Informix1.8%
Other97.8%
Relational Databases Tools
 

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.
Shubham-Agarwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - Projects at Cognizant
Migration to structured data has improved security and performance and enables faster insights
SQL Server 2014 Express could be improved by addressing its data limitations, especially for users with larger datasets that may not be suitable for production environments. Compared to the Enterprise or Standard versions, SQL Server 2014 Express does not provide the same functionalities or performance, so organizations with rapidly growing data should seek those options instead. Regarding needed improvements, I can say that integration with various ETL tools is essential, as we often need to use SSIS or other ETL tools to pull and transform data. It would be greatly beneficial if SQL Server 2014 Express could include functionality to integrate directly with APIs or other databases rather than relying on external ETL tools.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM Informix benefits users with high availability and good integration capabilities."
"We don't have any problems with the Informix Database."
"So far, we do not have a lot of issues. It's pretty problem-free."
"My advice is to take it; you will never regret it."
"It supports in-house-built applications in .NET and VB6"
"Replication is a valuable feature and easy to use."
"Every version is faster than the previous."
"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."
"SQL Server 2014 Express helped me gain a real-world application and practical database skills."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has positively impacted my organization by improving my knowledge in SQL coding and making my work faster."
"The best features of SQL Server 2014 Express are that it can be downloaded, it is open source, can be downloaded on any desktop, and it is a free version with no charge for downloads, making it highly useful for students and developers building applications for standalone or enterprise applications."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has positively impacted my organization by saving money since there are no licensing costs for some projects, allowing deployment of multiple small databases without purchasing any SQL licenses, resulting in faster delivery with quick setup that reduces cost and development time."
"My advice for anyone looking to use SQL Server 2014 Express is that if someone is using or planning to build an enterprise application, especially for .NET or Java, they should definitely consider SQL Server 2014 Express as it is the most reliable SQL server available, plus the support from Microsoft is consistently good."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has impacted my organization positively because it is time-saving."
"Using SQL Server 2014 Express is very simple, and the queries run very fast."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has impacted my organization positively because earlier I was using SharePoint, and in Power Apps, whenever we fetched the data, it took quite an ample amount of time to show the details from the back end, but when I started using SQL Server 2014 Express, it was much faster and helped me fetch more records at a time compared to the other data sources because of the indexing and primary keys."
 

Cons

"The solution really doesn't add new features very often. Other solutions are much more actively pushing out upgrades and improvements."
"It would be helpful to have IBM salespeople know that Informix exists, and sell it. Currently, it is completely ignored by IBM."
"Informix is very sturdy, but the problem for us is the marketing action around Informix."
"The pricing is a bit expensive."
"The technical support services need substantial improvement."
"The solution doesn't include functionality like data anonymization."
"This product could be made easier to use for beginners."
"This solution is in need of more current tools."
"SQL Server 2014 Express can be improved in terms of scalability, as it has CPU and memory restrictions and a 10 GB limit for the free version, which can lead to performance issues as the organization grows, requiring an upgrade to a paid edition."
"One area where SQL Server 2014 Express could be improved is its resource limitations, such as database size and memory usage, because they can become challenging as an application grows."
"Regarding improvements for SQL Server 2014 Express, I believe it is quite helpful, but I suggest enhancing security since it involves customer data and we do not want to lose data or have it misused."
"Whenever we put more data, the query time is more because it is not an Enterprise version and the data storage is limited to 10 GB, which is the only drawback I can identify."
"SQL Server 2014 Express's scalability has limitations for growth in data and users."
"The Express edition has limitations in database size and system resource usage, so performance may be reduced with large data volumes or heavy workloads."
"Additionally, SQL Server Management Studio takes a lot of time to start compared to the latest version."
"There are a few features in SQL Server 2014 Express that could be improved."
 

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."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
7%
Construction Company
31%
Healthcare Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

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 Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise14
 

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 needs improvement with SQL Server 2014 Express?
Regarding improvements for SQL Server 2014 Express, I believe it is quite helpful, but I suggest enhancing security since it involves customer data and we do not want to lose data or have it misuse...
What is your primary use case for SQL Server 2014 Express?
As a campaign analyst, my role involves getting targeted list members to send offers to them via mail, so I obtain data of people from the database where I use SQL Server 2014 Express. A specific e...
What advice do you have for others considering SQL Server 2014 Express?
My advice for others looking into using SQL Server 2014 Express is that it has excellent performance, it is free, offers better reliability, and scalability, so I recommend using it to save time fo...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

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
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Informix vs. SQL Server 2014 Express and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.