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Actian PSQL vs IBM Informix comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 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

Actian PSQL
Ranking in Embedded Database
8th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Informix
Ranking in Embedded Database
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (28th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of Actian PSQL is 8.4%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Informix is 4.1%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Actian PSQL8.4%
IBM Informix4.1%
Other87.5%
Embedded Database
 

Featured Reviews

辺琢也 渡 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect at Dropbox
Easy configuration, with affordable pricing, and reliable
We use Actian PSQL for analytics purposes Actian PSQL is easy to configure and the performance is affordable. It would be great to have some sizing guides to configure the on-premise software to make it easier. We need to improve the security options for the on-premise option. I would like to…
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Actian PSQL is easy to configure and the performance is affordable."
"MySQL is too poor in functionality, Oracle is too big slow and the price is not quite good."
"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."
"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."
"Every version is faster than the previous."
"OLTP processing capacity and the availability of information with high availability implementation have been significantly improved."
"The solution is quite stable and reliable; we use it mainly due to its general stable nature."
"It supports in-house-built applications in .NET and VB6"
"It supports multiple applications and business intelligence tools."
 

Cons

"We need to improve the security options for the on-premise option."
"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."
"The solution doesn't include functionality like data anonymization."
"The solution really doesn't add new features very often. Other solutions are much more actively pushing out upgrades and improvements."
"In my opinion, the packages could be improved. The version I use doesn't allow for packages. I can do some general procedures, but no packages like in Oracle. So, develop separate modules in SQL language. This would be most beneficial for me."
"It would be helpful to have IBM salespeople know that Informix exists, and sell it. Currently, it is completely ignored by IBM."
"There should be more intelligence surrounding discovering data to be able to automatically create indexes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have found Actian PSQL to be affordable."
"The product has reasonable pricing. We purchase its yearly license."
"For me, it's always too expensive."
"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."
"I am not aware of the licensing costs or terms."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Comms Service Provider
12%
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

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

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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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 ...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

PSQL, Pervasive PSQL
Informix
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Datamatics, Medical Data Vision, Inferenda, Sheetz, SecureAlert, Zilliant
Shaspa, Hildebrand, Kaifa, Ranhill Powertron, Federaci‹ Farmacutica (FedeFarma), Camden Council, The German Aerospace Center (DLR), Myers, Votorantim Group, Doosan Infracore, GreenIvory
Find out what your peers are saying about Actian PSQL vs. IBM Informix and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.