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InterSystems IRIS vs MariaDB comparison

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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

InterSystems IRIS
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
27th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Database Management Systems (DBMS) (15th)
MariaDB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of InterSystems IRIS is 0.9%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 3.3%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MariaDB3.3%
InterSystems IRIS0.9%
Other95.8%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2892648 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer/Database Administrator at a transportation company with 201-500 employees
Robust multidimensional database has enabled smooth API integrations and modern data workflows
I think InterSystems IRIS is a continuation of the Caché legacy. Since I have been working with it since 2005 with Caché, I think it is a really amazing tool. It is a very robust and very scalable database. It is very good to work with, and I am already used to working with it. Where it falls a bit short is in the availability of manpower and professionals who work with InterSystems IRIS or Caché. There are few professionals who work with it. Another thing is the cost and the license cost. I think there could be some kind of package that could serve smaller companies and small and medium-sized companies. That would reach a larger slice of the market, because the cost to work with Caché, InterSystems IRIS, and so on is high. I would make this remark about putting together a package and a new product that could serve small and medium-sized companies. The area where InterSystems IRIS falls a bit short is in the cost and the licensing cost. The licensing cost is the main issue I have already mentioned.
AB
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
Has supported web application data needs but requires design adjustments to manage complex queries efficiently
Complex queries in MariaDB where the query needs to parse thousands of lines or data values face some performance issues. For small and medium-size volume, it is pretty good. If it goes beyond certain data and complex queries, we see performance issues. We tried the advanced replication feature between different regions, replicating data specifically residing on MariaDB to two different regions of MariaDB data, and there were some technical snags in terms of slowness and longer processing time. Point-in-time recovery in MariaDB is good for small databases. When data volume increases beyond 5 GB or 10 GB per day or runs into double-digit GBs, we found some performance issues. For data below 10 GB, it works fine. Performance is the primary focus area for MariaDB, particularly during transactions or complex query jobs where slow performance is observed. MariaDB is scalable and easy to scale.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"My final observation is that everyone should use InterSystems IRIS; it is an amazing tool on the market."
"InterSystems IRIS as a database is very efficient, with its best features being its speed and high performance, along with an easy understanding of its data searching functionalities."
"In my opinion, the best features that InterSystems IRIS offers are its very optimized database, which I found amazing, and the observability it provides for checking messages and how the data is being transferred, which I find very interesting."
"The best features InterSystems IRIS offers, in my experience, include being a really powerful engine and a really good database."
"The best features that InterSystems IRIS offers in my opinion are the speed in querying data, and due to our system, which requires a large query with a large volume of data, InterSystems IRIS stands out for its query speed, making my work easier."
"InterSystems IRIS has had a positive impact on my organization by improving performance and data security."
"The best features InterSystems IRIS offers are its powerful database and speed, which contribute greatly to my work."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is a relational database, which is fairly reliable...It is a stable solution."
"I would say that for most use cases it works fine."
"Installation is straightforward."
"MariaDB is a user-friendly solution. Performance wise, it's better than SQL. With SQL, I would need to write a number of queries. In contrast, MariaDB is light."
"This solution is user-friendly."
"For non-production purposes. I'm just using it for my personal project, so it works quite well. I haven't faced any errors yet."
"It's a very easy product to set up."
"It's easy to set up."
 

Cons

"The area where InterSystems IRIS falls a bit short is in the cost and the licensing cost."
"Python support can be enhanced further, as it's really clunky at the moment, considering that the use of Python is pretty much all over the world and nobody knows ObjectScript really thoroughly and deeply."
"InterSystems IRIS can be improved since its studio is very poor."
"InterSystems IRIS can be improved by addressing the lack of libraries, mainly mathematical ones, where we would save a lot of time on some formulas that we have to build by hand every time we need them."
"I cannot determine a very positive impact or a beneficial result from InterSystems IRIS, although this observability part is important because we were able to find problems much faster."
"The product needs more features and more functionality. It's imperative that it supports more platforms, and supports more operating systems."
"The stability could always continue to be improved upon."
"A well-known issue for a lot of different users is associated with write-intensive applications."
"The stability of the solution isn't perfect."
"The only potential area for improvement could be the pricing model, which might benefit from being more flexible or a bit cheaper."
"It doesn't have the same level of maturity metrics as Postgres."
"An improvement would be scaling it up to the levels of Oracle, especially when it comes to resilience, so that we can do higher transactions for two databases or power our operation."
"Lacks time series data and additional driving support would be helpful."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"MariaDB is available for free."
"It is free of charge."
"MariaDB is open-source and self-hosted."
"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."
"The price of this solution represents a very good compromise between the cost and what it offers."
"The tool is open-source."
"The solution is free, but if you want the enterprise version you will need to pay for some licenses but the cost is less than other solutions, such as Oracle."
"The cost is quite good. You can have the open source, free version, which has adequate capacity."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
30%
Comms Service Provider
18%
Healthcare Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise26
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with InterSystems IRIS?
InterSystems IRIS can be improved by addressing the lack of libraries, mainly mathematical ones, where we would save a lot of time on some formulas that we have to build by hand every time we need ...
What is your primary use case for InterSystems IRIS?
My main use case for InterSystems IRIS is hospital integrations. In hospital integrations, I use InterSystems IRIS for object conversions. Regarding this use case, I utilize TCP/IP, REST, and SOAP ...
What advice do you have for others considering InterSystems IRIS?
My advice to others who are considering using InterSystems IRIS is to use it without fear, take advantage of all the platform's resources, and follow the community that has many tips and solutions ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MariaDB?
MariaDB is in the pricey range, especially for huge databases handling terabytes of data. The cost depends on the volume of data and different features enabled during configuration, such as backup ...
What needs improvement with MariaDB?
The key area where MariaDB could be improved is its native GUI tooling; while the command-line interface works perfectly fine, the built-in visual tools for administration, management, and query de...
What is your primary use case for MariaDB?
My main use case for MariaDB was web applications, and I have been using MariaDB for just about a year now as I was in the development team. A specific web application where I used MariaDB is a hea...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Global Investment Bank, Parkview Medical Center
Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Find out what your peers are saying about InterSystems IRIS vs. MariaDB and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,351 professionals have used our research since 2012.