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IBM Informix vs Teradata comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 4, 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 Relational Databases Tools
23rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Embedded Database (10th)
Teradata
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
Customer Experience Management (6th), Backup and Recovery (15th), Data Integration (15th), Data Warehouse (3rd), BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (8th), Marketing Management (5th), Cloud Data Warehouse (3rd), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Informix is 1.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Teradata is 4.0%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Teradata4.0%
IBM Informix1.8%
Other94.2%
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.
David Durand Velásquez - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Delivers consistent performance and enables advanced analytics across complex data environments
Teradata stands out as a solid platform for managing and analyzing large volumes of data. Its architecture allows information to be processed efficiently while maintaining stable performance, even in highly demanding environments. One of its most notable strengths is the ability to run complex queries at high speed, which is essential for organizations that require timely and reliable analytics. Teradata offers a well-integrated ecosystem that supports working with different types of data and enables scalability as organizational needs grow. Its focus on advanced analytics, integration with modern business intelligence tools, and the ability to operate both on-premise and in the cloud make it a versatile solution for data warehousing and large-scale processing. Teradata's stability, technological maturity, and the availability of strong documentation and best practices are noteworthy. I consider Teradata to be a tool with great potential for any organization looking to enhance its analytical capabilities, optimize data processing, and move toward more data-driven decision-making. Teradata stands out as a solid platform for managing a large volume of data in different projects. Its architecture allows information to be processed efficiently while maintaining stable performance, even in high-demanding environments. A well-integrated AI ecosystem that supports working with different types of data and enables scalability as organizational needs grow across different kinds of enterprises or organizations. The focus on advanced analytics integration with modern business intelligence tools is particularly valuable. Teradata combines a powerful parallel process and optimizing SQL engine with a highly scalable architecture allowing businesses to execute complex queries and analytics in real-time. It supports multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments, giving organizations flexibility to choose the setup that best aligns with their strategy. One of the biggest strengths is the ability to unify disparate data sources and support high concurrency, enabling different teams, such as analytics, operations, BI, and data science, to access consistent, trusted data across the enterprise.

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."
"It supports multiple applications and business intelligence tools."
"The initial setup is pretty easy."
"It is very easy to install IBM Informix, very easy to scale, and support is quite better."
"Every version is faster than the previous."
"The stability is incredible. I have customers with uptimes of several years."
"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."
"So far, we do not have a lot of issues. It's pretty problem-free."
"The feature that we find most valuable is its ability to perform Massive Parallel Processing."
"It has given our business the ability to gain insights into the data and create data labs for analysis and PoCs."
"It is a highly robust software solution."
"Teradata combines a powerful parallel process and optimizing SQL engine with a highly scalable architecture allowing businesses to execute complex queries and analytics in real-time."
"The product's scalability is great. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"I like writing preformance queries for preprocessing on AWS Cloud."
"The best features Teradata offers, in my experience, include fast performance during multi-parallel processing, very good scalability, support for linear scalability, and its suitability for handling large volumes of data; additionally, it facilitates data integration, where we integrate and analyze data from various sources, making it a powerful and high-quality reliable solution for the company."
"IntelliFlex is easy to scale - one of its best features is that you can upscale it to the size you want."
 

Cons

"The support team could include local engineers to establish efficient communication. It will help us speed up the escalation process."
"The solution really doesn't add new features very often."
"Every month or every second month, we find some bugs in it, which is not ideal."
"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 lacks some functionality."
"It would be helpful to have IBM salespeople know that Informix exists, and sell it. Currently, it is completely ignored by IBM."
"This product could be made easier to use for beginners."
"The pricing is a bit expensive."
"There is a need to improve performance in high transaction processes, as well as the reporting system."
"Data ingestion is done via external utilities and not by the query language itself. It would be more convenient to have that functionality within its SQL dialect."
"There are some ways that the handling of unstructured data could be improved."
"I choose 8 out of 10 for Teradata because there is always the scope for improvement."
"I would not say it was very performance efficient, but it was definitely good."
"​The initial setup was complex as we had to rewrite a lot of the code.​"
"Query language and its functionality are rather limited, compared to Oracle or even SQL Server. However, it is possible to perform any kind of logic in it (though some workarounds may be required)."
"From my perspective, it would be good if they gave better ITIN/R plugins to use the data for AI modeling, or data science modeling. We can do it now; however, it could be more elegant in terms of interfacing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For me, it's always too expensive."
"The product has reasonable pricing. We purchase its yearly license."
"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."
"Teradata's licensing is on the expensive side."
"The initial cost may seem high, but the TCO is low."
"I am using the free version of Teradata."
"I rate the product price a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive."
"Teradata is expensive, so it's typically marketed to big customers. However, there have been some changes, and Teradata is now offering more flexible pricing models and equipment leasing. They've added pay-as-you-go and cloud models, so it's changing, but Teradata is generally known as an expensive high-end product."
"The product cost is high for what the client gets. There may be more cost-effective solutions for small and medium-sized organizations."
"Teradata is currently making improvements in this area."
"The price of Teradata could be less expensive."
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Comparison Review

it_user232068 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Data Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Aug 5, 2015
Netezza vs. Teradata
Original published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/should-i-choose-net Two leading Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) architectures for Data Warehousing (DW) are IBM PureData System for Analytics (formerly Netezza) and Teradata. I thought talking about the similarities and differences…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
23%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Healthcare Company
5%
 

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 Enterprise13
Large Enterprise52
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Informix?
It supports multiple applications and business intelligence tools.
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...
Comparing Teradata and Oracle Database, which product do you think is better and why?
I have spoken to my colleagues about this comparison and in our collective opinion, the reason why some people may declare Teradata better than Oracle is the pricing. Both solutions are quite simi...
Which companies use Teradata and who is it most suitable for?
Before my organization implemented this solution, we researched which big brands were using Teradata, so we knew if it would be compatible with our field. According to the product's site, the comp...
Is Teradata a difficult solution to work with?
Teradata is not a difficult product to work with, especially since they offer you technical support at all levels if you just ask. There are some features that may cause difficulties - for example,...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Informix
IntelliFlex, Aster Data Map Reduce, , QueryGrid, Customer Interaction Manager, Digital Marketing Center, Data Mover, Data Stream Architecture, Teradata Vantage Enterprise (DIY)
 

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
Netflix
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Informix vs. Teradata and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,455 professionals have used our research since 2012.