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DBMS > dBASE vs. IBM Db2 vs. Informix vs. TimescaleDB

System Properties Comparison dBASE vs. IBM Db2 vs. Informix vs. TimescaleDB

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NamedBASE  Xexclude from comparisonIBM Db2 infoformerly named DB2 or IBM Database 2  Xexclude from comparisonInformix  Xexclude from comparisonTimescaleDB  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptiondBase was one of the first databases with a development environment on PC's. Its latest version dBase V is still sold as dBase classic, which needs a DOS Emulation. The up-to-date product is dBase plus.Common in IBM host environments, 2 different versions for host and Windows/LinuxA secure embeddable database from IBM, positioned besides IBM Db2 as a relatively low-cost product optimized for OLTP and Internet of Things dataA time series DBMS optimized for fast ingest and complex queries, based on PostgreSQL
Primary database modelRelational DBMSRelational DBMS infoSince Version 10.5 support for JSON/BSON documents compatible with MongoDBRelational DBMS infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypes compatible with MongoDBTime Series DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument store
RDF store infoin Db2 LUW (Linux, Unix, Windows)
Spatial DBMS infowith Db2 Spatial Extender
Document store
Spatial DBMS
Time Series DBMS infowith Informix TimeSeries Extension
Relational DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score12.24
Rank#43  Overall
#27  Relational DBMS
Score127.75
Rank#8  Overall
#5  Relational DBMS
Score19.46
Rank#35  Overall
#22  Relational DBMS
Score5.33
Rank#72  Overall
#4  Time Series DBMS
Websitewww.dbase.comwww.ibm.com/­products/­db2www.ibm.com/­products/­informixwww.timescale.com
Technical documentationwww.dbase.com/­support/­knowledgebasewww.ibm.com/­docs/­en/­db2informix.hcldoc.com
www.ibm.com/­support/­knowledgecenter/­SSGU8G/­welcomeIfxServers.html
docs.timescale.com
DeveloperAsthon TateIBMIBM, HCL Technologies infoEffective May 1st, 2017, HCL took on development, technical support, and product management teams, and works jointly with IBM on product strategy, marketing, and sales.Timescale
Initial release19791983 infohost version19842017
Current releasedBASE 2019, 201912.1, October 201614.10.FC5, November 20202.13.0, November 2023
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercialcommercial infofree version is availablecommercial infofree developer edition availableOpen Source infoApache 2.0
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenononono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageC and C++C, C++ and JavaC
Server operating systemsDOS infodBase Classic
Windows infodBase Pro
AIX
HP-UX
Linux
Solaris
Windows
z/OS
AIX
HP-UX
Linux
macOS
Solaris
Windows
Linux
OS X
Windows
Data schemeyesyesyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyes infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypesnumerics, strings, booleans, arrays, JSON blobs, geospatial dimensions, currencies, binary data, other complex data types
XML support infoSome form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.yes
Secondary indexesyesyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLnoyesyesyes infofull PostgreSQL SQL syntax
APIs and other access methodsnone infoThe IDE can access other DBMS or ODBC-sources.ADO.NET
JDBC
JSON style queries infoMongoDB compatible
ODBC
XQuery
JDBC
JSON API infoMongoDB compatible
MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport)
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesdBase proprietary IDEC
C#
C++
Cobol
Delphi
Fortran
Java
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Visual Basic
.Net
C
C++
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Scheme
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresno infoThe IDE can access stored procedures in other database systems.yesyesuser defined functions, PL/pgSQL, PL/Tcl, PL/Perl, PL/Python, PL/Java, PL/PHP, PL/R, PL/Ruby, PL/Scheme, PL/Unix shell
Triggersnoyesyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesnoneSharding infoonly with Windows/Unix/Linux VersionShardingyes, across time and space (hash partitioning) attributes
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesnoneyes infowith separate tools (MQ, InfoSphere)Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication
Source-replica replication with hot standby and reads on replicas info
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnononono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesyesyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datano infonot for dBase internal data, but IDE does support transactions when accessing external DBMSACIDACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yesno
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users and rolesfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardUsers with fine-grained authentication, authorization, and auditing controlsfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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More resources
dBASEIBM Db2 infoformerly named DB2 or IBM Database 2InformixTimescaleDB
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