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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
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
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) (5th)
 

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 SAP HANA is 11.9%, up from 9.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP HANA11.9%
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.
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

"My advice is to take it; you will never regret it."
"It supports in-house-built applications in .NET and VB6"
"The initial setup is pretty easy."
"The initial setup is very simple."
"Replication is a valuable feature and easy to use."
"Informix can support huge quantities of data with less memory and less capacity."
"It supports multiple applications and business intelligence tools."
"It is very easy to install IBM Informix, very easy to scale, and support is quite better."
"The most valuable features I have found are speed, dashboard, and reporting."
"Once you try to do any queries against this database you can get the result very fast."
"This product covers almost everything, and it's scalable and very innovative."
"All features are valuable."
"The most valuable feature of SAP HANA is the modeling of the databases."
"This is a feature-rich product and I like all of them."
"Integration is the most valuable feature we use SAP HANA for."
"The solution has been good in our use case; everything has been operating well."
 

Cons

"The support team could include local engineers to establish efficient communication. It will help us speed up the escalation process."
"I really would love to have a QT plugin."
"This solution is in need of more current tools."
"I would like to see backups from secondary servers."
"The solution should offer replication. It would be helpful if the solution would allow us to access third-party tools."
"I experienced poor input/output (IO) performance."
"The product needs a lot more marketing involvement from IBM."
"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."
"The pricing is expensive."
"A documents preview could be helpful."
"The performance and integration with other products are areas in need of improvement."
"I don't like the presentation layer tools on the analytics side, it's too complex."
"The pricing could be better."
"In a future release, SAP HANA should add a module for taxation, such as income tax and withholding tax."
"Technical support has been more helpful than before but still need improvement."
"The high price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"For me, it's always too expensive."
"The product has reasonable pricing. We purchase its yearly license."
"We pay for a maintenance license, and the licensing cost is high. In general, it is a very expensive solution."
"It is expensive."
"The price of this product is good."
"While the cost of the license may seem high, it is important to note that the benefits of the solution far outweighs the cost."
"Setup and licensing require planning and proper budgeting, as it is not cheap."
"The licensing cost for SAP HANA is approximately $200 per user per month."
"The tool is expensive compared to other products, like Oracle R or Microsoft, but it offers a range of all the company's functions."
"Its licensing is expensive for SMEs and large enterprises alike."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
7%
Manufacturing Company
15%
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: June 2026.
900,838 professionals have used our research since 2012.