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DBMS > Informix vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. Oracle

System Properties Comparison Informix vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. Oracle

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameInformix  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonOracle  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionA secure embeddable database from IBM, positioned besides IBM Db2 as a relatively low-cost product optimized for OLTP and Internet of Things dataMicrosofts flagship relational DBMSWidely used RDBMS
Primary database modelRelational DBMS infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypes compatible with MongoDBRelational DBMSRelational DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Spatial DBMS
Time Series DBMS infowith Informix TimeSeries Extension
Document store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
Document store
Graph DBMS infowith Oracle Spatial and Graph
RDF store infowith Oracle Spatial and Graph
Spatial DBMS infowith Oracle Spatial and Graph
Vector DBMS infosince Oracle 23
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score14.75
Rank#35  Overall
#21  Relational DBMS
Score774.89
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score1226.57
Rank#1  Overall
#1  Relational DBMS
Websitewww.ibm.com/­products/­informixwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverwww.oracle.com/­database
Technical documentationinformix.hcldoc.com
www.ibm.com/­support/­knowledgecenter/­SSGU8G/­welcomeIfxServers.html
learn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverdocs.oracle.com/­en/­database
DeveloperIBM, 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.MicrosoftOracle
Initial release198419891980
Current release14.10.FC5, November 2020SQL Server 2022, November 202223c, September 2023
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercial infofree developer edition availablecommercial inforestricted free version is availablecommercial inforestricted free version is available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
SQLServer Flex @ STACKIT offers a managed version of SQL Server with adjustable CPU, RAM, storage amount and speed, in enterprise grade to perfectly match all application requirements. All services are 100% GDPR-compliant.
Implementation languageC, C++ and JavaC++C and C++
Server operating systemsAIX
HP-UX
Linux
macOS
Solaris
Windows
Linux
Windows
AIX
HP-UX
Linux
OS X
Solaris
Windows
z/OS
Data schemeyesyesyes infoSchemaless in JSON and XML columns
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyes infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypesyesyes
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.yesyes
Secondary indexesyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyesyesyes infowith proprietary extensions
APIs and other access methodsJDBC
JSON API infoMongoDB compatible
MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport)
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
JDBC
ODBC
ODP.NET
Oracle Call Interface (OCI)
Supported programming languages.Net
C
C++
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
C
C#
C++
Clojure
Cobol
Delphi
Eiffel
Erlang
Fortran
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Lisp
Objective C
OCaml
Perl
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Scala
Tcl
Visual Basic
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyesTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) JavaPL/SQL infoalso stored procedures in Java possible
Triggersyesyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingtables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationSharding, horizontal partitioning
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replication
Source-replica replication
yes, but depending on the SQL-Server EditionMulti-source replication
Source-replica replication
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnonono infocan be realized in PL/SQL
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACIDACID infoisolation level can be parameterized
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yesyesyes infoVersion 12c introduced the new option 'Oracle Database In-Memory'
User concepts infoAccess controlUsers with fine-grained authentication, authorization, and auditing controlsfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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More resources
InformixMicrosoft SQL ServerOracle
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