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InterSystems IRIS vs SAP IQ 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
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.2
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Database Management Systems (DBMS) (12th)
SAP IQ
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
25th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of InterSystems IRIS is 0.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP IQ is 2.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
InterSystems IRIS0.9%
SAP IQ2.4%
Other96.7%
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.
KK
Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Works well with existing platform integration but could improve error messaging and technical support
I do not use SAP IQ's machine learning capabilities. I cannot assess the benefit of SAP IQ's distributed query processing for complex queries, as I am a non-technical operator. I am not sure if we use SAP IQ's data compression features. I think the compression we are doing is on the data storage level and not on the database level. I believe we do not use it, but I'm not certain. We do not utilize SAP IQ's support for unstructured data, as we do not have unstructured data. I do not have any strong opinions on SAP IQ's security features such as data encryption. It's not been something that has been much in focus, neither in our choice of the platform, nor in our daily operations. I guess they're satisfactory as they have not been a problem. I am not aware of the pricing and licensing of SAP IQ, as it's part of a bigger agreement, and I'm not the owner of that agreement. My impression is that SAP IQ is a rather expensive tool in terms of value for money. On a scale of 1-10, I rate SAP IQ a 7.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"InterSystems IRIS has had a positive impact on my organization by improving performance and data security."
"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."
"My final observation is that everyone should use InterSystems IRIS; it is an amazing tool on the market."
"The best features InterSystems IRIS offers are its powerful database and speed, which contribute greatly to my work."
"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 are its capability to function as both a relational and non-relational database, with performance and speed as specific functionalities that serve as differentiators."
"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."
"Unbeatable speed and compression with a colummn-structured relational database."
"IQ has enabled our company to load data from our data vendors in under one hour and eliminated multiple copies and hours of processing time."
"Columnar storage allows high compression, high load rates and high query performance."
"Save for a 100% guarantee, you will get the performance you are looking for with SAP IQ."
"Sybase IQ is a column based database, used for business intelligence, data warehousing, and data marts."
"The column-based technologies (basically all the database for ITP) are used for SAP IQ. It is used as a column-based solution."
"IQ is a very high-performance and high-transaction database."
"But I do not think that other products really have an advantage for warehousing over the SAP IQ solution."
 

Cons

"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."
"The area where InterSystems IRIS falls a bit short is in the cost and the licensing cost."
"InterSystems IRIS could be improved, particularly the internal interface of the database."
"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."
"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."
"The organization who owns the product does not support it well and appears not to be doing significant development for the future."
"The room for improvement would be the marketing of the product, because this product is much better than advertised."
"Customer Service: It has been good, but more can be done in this area."
"Very few people are familiar with this technology, as training programs are very expensive."
"There is very little documentation available."
"With various patches of v15.4 and v16.0, we had instances where the IQ server crashed under certain circumstances."
"Technical Support: 6/10 because at the time I was using it, Sybase Turkey were short on staff and not very experienced."
"Technical support for the product has become almost nonexistent for this product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Negotiate based on the features required."
"The only costs after standard licensing fees are for add-ons and upgrades."
"The cost of implementation is about $3,000."
"Negotiation is very important."
"It's not that costly. So, the pricing is cheap."
"Evaluate all options; check to see if you need expensive add-ons."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
26%
Comms Service Provider
16%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise16
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with InterSystems IRIS?
InterSystems IRIS has already improved in many areas, and I enjoy using it. My work is sufficient for what I use, and I do not have anything more specific to make InterSystems IRIS better.
What is your primary use case for InterSystems IRIS?
My main use case for InterSystems IRIS is to manage bugs in the system when they are in production. A quick, specific example of how I use InterSystems IRIS to manage bugs in production is when the...
What advice do you have for others considering InterSystems IRIS?
Regarding InterSystems IRIS's AI capabilities, I believe the governance and security are positive. In my experience with its governance and security, I feel my data is well-protected, which is ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP IQ?
IQ implementation costs about three thousand dollars. It's less expensive compared to alternatives like Teradata Base in terms of transactional efficiency.
What needs improvement with SAP IQ?
When it comes to SAP IQ, the areas that could be improved or enhanced include the error messaging and the locking capabilities, as that's where we often encounter problems. When there is an iss...
What is your primary use case for SAP IQ?
Our usual use cases for SAP IQ is that we have a Software-as-a-Service architecture where this database is the foundation for our SAP BusinessObjects platform. This is where it's getting its da...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Sybase IQ
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Global Investment Bank, Parkview Medical Center
ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.
Find out what your peers are saying about InterSystems IRIS vs. SAP IQ and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,523 professionals have used our research since 2012.