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IBM Informix vs MariaDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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 (9th)
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 (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 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 MariaDB is 3.5%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MariaDB3.5%
IBM Informix1.8%
Other94.7%
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.
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

"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."
"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."
"It is very easy to install IBM Informix, very easy to scale, and support is quite better."
"It supports in-house-built applications in .NET and VB6"
"The stability is incredible. I have customers with uptimes of several years."
"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."
"The solution is quite stable and reliable; we use it mainly due to its general stable nature."
"The technical support of MariaDB is very helpful, and they came and tuned our queries with one-to-one assistance."
"I like the global transaction IDs (GTIDs) feature. It's quite reliable for replication between a master and a replica server, and it's a feature that MySQL also has but implemented differently."
"It is very simple to install, and the commands are exactly the same as MySQL."
"I haven't faced any technical issues with the product, and it works fine."
"From the user's perspective, the performance of the columnar queries is very good in terms of the database when comparing it to the Oracle, and MySQL."
"Visual Studio offers unit testing integration and extensive searching capabilities."
"Easy to use and available in most environments."
"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."
 

Cons

"Every month or every second month, we find some bugs in it, which is not ideal."
"The technical support services need substantial improvement."
"I experienced poor input/output (IO) performance."
"The solution should offer replication. It would be helpful if the solution would allow us to access third-party tools."
"It would be helpful to have IBM salespeople know that Informix exists, and sell it. Currently, it is completely ignored by IBM."
"Continue extending the SQL language for compatibility with the competition's language, including Stored Procedure Language."
"Informix is very sturdy, but the problem for us is the marketing action around Informix."
"I really would love to have a QT plugin."
"It requires enterprise integration improvements from the security, and audit perspective (AD integration etc.). Also, existing integration into BI tools is not present."
"Complex queries in MariaDB where the query needs to parse thousands of lines or data values face some performance issues."
"It is not suitable for mission-critical applications, but it is stable for other applications."
"There could be a command-line prompt for repairing the database and fixing indexes, similar to what was available in the old MyISAM storage engine."
"Replication could be better, and it's not so simple. It would be better if they had a replication server."
"It would be good to have tools for debugging procedures and functions."
"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 design feel outdated compared to some competitors."
"There is not much support available."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product has reasonable pricing. We purchase its yearly license."
"I am not aware of the licensing costs or terms."
"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."
"The price of this solution represents a very good compromise between the cost and what it offers."
"We pay for a yearly license."
"My company uses the free version of the solution."
"The licensing cost is approximately $4000.00 per year and the licensing is based on the software and the number of posts that you make."
"The tool is open-source."
"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 product is not expensive."
"When it comes to MariaDB, it should have a more cost-effective license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
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 Business28
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise26
 

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 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?
Sometimes, complex queries that were supported in Oracle are not available in MariaDB. Advanced indexing is not available. Oracle is very advanced compared to MariaDB, and those advanced features a...
What is your primary use case for MariaDB?
My client has been using MariaDB for the last four years. We are using MariaDB in the cloud.
 

Comparisons

 

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
Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Informix vs. MariaDB and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.