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IBM Informix vs Oracle Database In-Memory 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 Embedded Database
9th
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
25th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Database In-Memory
Ranking in Embedded Database
2nd
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
11th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of IBM Informix is 3.5%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Database In-Memory is 11.9%, up from 8.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Oracle Database In-Memory11.9%
IBM Informix3.5%
Other84.6%
Embedded Database
 

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.
Hosney Osman - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Solution Architect at Vodafone
Real-time analytics have transformed response times and support huge data volumes with compression
I do not have any comment related to the improvement of the solution; for sure, it needs improvement, but for my use cases, it is very sufficient, and I think for the biggest companies, it needs a very powerful infrastructure. The area where improvement is required the most in the product is the UI. The problem with the UI is that it is not complex for understanding, but it needs some training to know what each button does, how it works, and the many variables needed.

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."
"Overall, this is a great product. It works really well, is very stable, and is very scalable."
"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."
"Replication is a valuable feature and easy to use."
"OLTP processing capacity and the availability of information with high availability implementation have been significantly improved."
"For IoT business cases, having Informix Enterprise Edition work on edge computers, like Raspberry Pi and using Informix replication, makes complex situations simple to build and maintain."
"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."
"Performance is probably the number one feature, because when we use it for OLTP, the response for the end-user is pretty fast, with website response times in micro milliseconds instead of waiting a few seconds for a page to load."
"The valuable features of Oracle Database In-Memory include its capability to bypass disk storage for faster memory operations, which is critical for transactions and analytics."
"Overall, it's a very good solution."
"We have recently deployed our database on cloud with Oracle Database In-Memory; we have a single standby on cloud, and on contingency occasions, we switch over to cloud and use it for four to five months."
"I've been an Oracle customer with different companies, and one of the key things that stands out for Oracle is the support, because I also work with other database vendors and that's the biggest differentiator."
"The product offers high scalability."
"The on-premise version is stable. We have different teams and resources for the server side, for admin, and for development. We can easily take care of all the services and applications."
"The scalability of the solution is very good, and it's able to support large amounts of data once the architecture is in place."
 

Cons

"There should be more intelligence surrounding discovering data to be able to automatically create indexes."
"Every month or every second month, we find some bugs in it, which is not ideal."
"I experienced poor input/output (IO) performance."
"For me, it's always too expensive. The problem is that Informix sometimes competes with free products, so yes, it's very expensive, but when we're talking about licensed products like SQL Server or anything, the midsize pricing could be significantly improved."
"Informix is very sturdy, but the problem for us is the marketing action around Informix."
"It would be helpful to have IBM salespeople know that Informix exists, and sell it. Currently, it is completely ignored by IBM."
"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."
"The solution should offer replication. It would be helpful if the solution would allow us to access third-party tools."
"Personally, this solution wouldn't be my top choice, as it makes things difficult."
"We use some partitions in In-Memory. We have a very large table and a low dose. It is very expensive in data to load all of them into In-Memory. It takes up more memory slots in the server, as well as a lot of RAM. We use last partitions on the table. We always need to create a script and make a schedule that can load a last partition in In-Memory. Oracle doesn't have features to do this automatically. I would like them to allow us to load last partitions, as well as other table partitions, in In-Memory. I think a good feature would do that automatically, letting you see a table, load a large partition, and monitor loading memory. It's quite a good feature."
"I would like Oracle Database In-Memory to include a data replication feature."
"Oracle Database In-Memory appliance-based solutions can be restrictive for some applications, as they may require more flexibility in the database design to be tuned and sized to the customer's needs."
"They should improve the solution's scalability for large databases."
"They should lower the price. My customers think that it's too expensive."
"It's good and it functions, but it's not the easiest add-on to Database to work with."
"The solution is very expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 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 solution's pricing is high."
"The pricing is pretty good so I rate it an eight out of ten."
"The product is expensive."
"Database In-Memory is priced a bit higher than its competitors like Microsoft."
"Oracle Database In-Memory is expensive."
"There is a need to make a yearly payment towards the licensing costs, after which there is any to pay towards the support cost attached to the solution."
"The platform's licensing cost needs improvement."
"It's quite costly and it comes with a fixed price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Construction Company
7%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
 

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 Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise23
 

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 Oracle Database In-Memory?
I do not have any comment related to the improvement of the solution; for sure, it needs improvement, but for my use cases, it is very sufficient, and I think for the biggest companies, it needs a ...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Database In-Memory?
The major use case for Oracle Database In-Memory is real-time applications that need a fast response between the application and the database directly without any latency.
 

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
Shanghai Customs
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Informix vs. Oracle Database In-Memory and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.