DBMS > Informix vs. PostgreSQL vs. PouchDB

System Properties Comparison Informix vs. PostgreSQL vs. PouchDB

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

A secure embeddable database from IBM, positioned besides IBM Db2 as a relatively low-cost product optimized for OLTP and Internet of Things data

Widely used open source RDBMS

Developed as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL

JavaScript DBMS with an API inspired by CouchDB

Primary database model

Relational DBMS

Since Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypes compatible with MongoDB

Relational DBMS

with object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.

Document store

Secondary database models

Document store
Spatial DBMS
Time Series DBMS

with Informix TimeSeries Extension

Document store
Graph DBMS

with Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS

with pgvector extension

DB-Engines Ranking measures the popularity of database management systems
Trend Chart

Score	16.28
Rank	#36	Overall
	#21	Relational DBMS

Score	652.16
Rank	#4	Overall
	#4	Relational DBMS

Score	2.18
Rank	#114	Overall
	#21	Document stores

Website

www.ibm.com/products/informix

www.postgresql.org

pouchdb.com

Technical documentation

informix.hcldoc.com
www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGU8G/welcomeIfxServers.html

www.postgresql.org/docs

pouchdb.com/guides

Developer

IBM, HCL Technologies

Effective May 1st, 2017, HCL took on development, technical support, and product management teams, and works jointly with IBM on product strategy, marketing, and sales.

PostgreSQL Global Development Group

www.postgresql.org/developer

Apache Software Foundation

Initial release

1984

1989

1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL

2012

Current release

14.10.FC5, November 2020

16.4, August 2024

7.1.1, June 2019

License

Commercial or Open Source

commercial

free developer edition available

Open Source

BSD

Open Source

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

DBaaS offerings (sponsored links)

Database as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.

PostgreSQL Flex @ STACKIT offers managed PostgreSQL Instances with adjustable CPU, RAM, storage amount and speed and several extensions available, in enterprise grade to perfectly match all application requirements. All 100% GDPR-compliant.

Implementation language

C, C++ and Java

JavaScript

Server operating systems

AIX
HP-UX
Linux
macOS
Solaris
Windows

FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows

server-less, requires a JavaScript environment (browser, Node.js)

Data scheme

yes

schema-free

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

yes

Since Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypes

yes

XML support

Some form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.

yes

specific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.

Secondary indexes

yes

via views

SQL

Support of SQL

yes

standard with numerous extensions

APIs and other access methods

JDBC
JSON API

MongoDB compatible
MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport)
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API

ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects

HTTP REST

only for PouchDB Server
JavaScript API

Supported programming languages

.Net
C
C++
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java

JDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl

JavaScript

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

yes

user defined functions

realized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.

View functions in JavaScript

Triggers

yes

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

Sharding

partitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash

Sharding

with a proxy-based framework, named couchdb-lounge

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication

Source-replica replication

other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions

Multi-source replication

also with CouchDB databases
Source-replica replication

also with CouchDB databases

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

yes

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Immediate Consistency

Eventual Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

yes

Transaction concepts

Support to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of data

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

by using IndexedDB, WebSQL or LevelDB as backend

In-memory capabilities

Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.

yes

User concepts

Access control

Users with fine-grained authentication, authorization, and auditing controls

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

More information provided by the system vendor

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Related products and services

3rd parties

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pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring.
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SharePlex is the reliable and affordable data replication solution for PostgreSQL migrations, high availability and more.
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We invite representatives of vendors of related products to contact us for presenting information about their offerings here.

More resources

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Conferences, events and webinars

more DBMS events

PASS Data Community Summit
Seattle, Washington, 4-8 November 2024

Recent citations in the news

Unlock the value of your Informix data for advanced analytics and AI with watsonx.data
24 April 2024, ibm.com

IBM Informix review: What you need to know about the software
12 December 2022, TechRepublic

IBM Informix Database in the Cloud
1 May 2009, AWS Blog

Q&A: IBM's Janet Perna
12 April 2024, ADT Magazine

Santa Clara University Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Finocchio Selected as One of the Year’s Eight Outstanding Directors by Bay Area Business Journals
25 February 2014, Santa Clara University

provided by Google News

Failing to connect Commento with PostgreSQL
1 October 2024, SitePoint

PostgreSQL 17 accelerates open source database with replication and JSON tables
26 September 2024, VentureBeat

How BCM One migrated data from an unencrypted Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL database instance to a new encrypted instance using AWS DMS
1 October 2024, AWS Blog

Google Equips PostgreSQL, Valkey Services for Vector Processing
3 October 2024, The New Stack

PostgreSQL 17 packs big performance and feature enhancements
26 September 2024, ZDNet

provided by Google News

Create Offline Web Apps Using Service Workers & PouchDB
7 March 2017, SitePoint

Building an Offline First App with PouchDB
10 March 2014, SitePoint

provided by Google News

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