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IBM Informix vs SAP HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 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

IBM Informix
Ranking in Embedded Database
10th
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
SAP HANA
Ranking in Embedded Database
1st
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
93
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of IBM Informix is 3.8%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 12.8%, up from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP HANA12.8%
IBM Informix3.8%
Other83.4%
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.
Bassem Mohammed - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Application Manager at TBTD
Integrated business processes have improved real-time analytics and financial performance
Whether I or my customers utilize SAP HANA's real-time analytics depends on the data needed to be displayed, and then choosing how to transfer the data to the analytic object, data source, or database to be displayed in the reports. It may be near real-time, real-time, or running batch every day. There are tools for integration between third-party systems, such as OData or APIs from SAP to get in or push data to other systems. Support for both structured and unstructured data helps organizations unify data sources depending on the needed data to be displayed. There are many ways to store it for report displays, but structured data will be better than unstructured data.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is very easy to install IBM Informix, very easy to scale, and support is quite better."
"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."
"IBM Informix benefits users with high availability and good integration capabilities."
"Replication is a valuable feature and easy to use."
"Overall, this is a great product. It works really well, is very stable, and is very scalable."
"OLTP processing capacity and the availability of information with high availability implementation have been significantly improved."
"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 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."
"Technically it resembles Oracle, but as a somewhat lighter version."
"Using SAP HANA has reduced a lot of paperwork that we would typically be doing and the communication we have with our suppliers."
"SAP saves you from asking to bring an entire assembly with a lot of parts."
"SAP HANA is a stable solution."
"The in-memory database is a good and valuable feature."
"The solution is very good and has covered all functional areas needed in this type of solution."
"It's very convenient and very innovative."
"On the basis of my experience, SAP HANA is better than other solutions."
 

Cons

"Continue extending the SQL language for compatibility with the competition's language, including Stored Procedure Language."
"I really would love to have a QT plugin."
"Every month or every second month, we find some bugs in it, which is not ideal."
"The pricing is a bit expensive."
"The solution lacks some functionality."
"Informix is very sturdy, but the problem for us is the marketing action around Informix."
"This solution is in need of more current tools."
"The solution should offer replication. It would be helpful if the solution would allow us to access third-party tools."
"The only downside of the product is that it is an expensive solution that needs to consider lowering its prices to improve the product."
"SAP HANA is a very proprietary tool and there's not as much support available for it as there is for an SQL Server (which is more popular)."
"There's an issue in the partition. When you record more than two million records, partitioning does not work well. In Oracle it's easy. SAP must resolve this issue in order to be more competitive with Oracle."
"If the developers were to enhance or improve the application logic while processing the transactions, that would be great."
"There could be better management for faster updates, last year there were some changes in India to the e-invoicing feature."
"I would like to see improvement on the feedback from the road-map; it is currently extremely hard to get insight in this area."
"The solution is very expensive, however. The pricing depends on the number of users and many other factors that affect licensing."
"The price of the solution could be reduced, it is expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For me, it's always too expensive."
"I am not aware of the licensing costs or terms."
"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."
"The cost of SAP HANA is high, and I would rate the price at eight out of ten."
"The price is on the expensive side, at eight out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"The pricing for SAP HANA is high. You pay a lot for the license, and you also have to pay for some add-ons."
"There is an annual payment needed to use the solution."
"The licensing cost for SAP HANA is approximately $200 per user per month."
"It is expensive."
"There is a yearly subscription to use SAP HANA. There is a fee for maintenance."
"SAP HANA is expensive, but unfortunately, we do not have any alternatives."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
6%
 

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 Business26
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise64
 

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 are the biggest benefits of using SAP HANA?
Based on my work with SAP HANA, the biggest benefit that it can bring to your business is total data management. This product is by SAP - a company that serves almost all needs a client may have co...
Is SAP HANA’s customer and technical support reliable?
We have been using SAP HANA for a fairly short period of time and have only taken advantage of their customer support. So far, we have not had issues that required specialized help from technical s...
Is SAP HANA difficult to set up and start using?
SAP HANA is fairly easy to set up, however, I do not think a complete beginner can do it. You certainly need some preparation - either you need to have experience with similar solutions, or with ot...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Informix
SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
 

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
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Informix vs. SAP HANA and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.