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IBM Informix vs Actian Ingres

IBM Informix: Low-maintenance embeddable RDBMS with built-in TimeSeries, still quietly running retail and telco systems. Actian Ingres: One of the original relational databases, still sold by Actian for long-lived enterprise systems.

key differences

  • Horizontal scaling is addon in IBM Informix and none in Actian Ingres.
  • Only IBM Informix has full-text search, geospatial, json, online schema changes.
  • Only Actian Ingres has columnar storage.

choose ibm-informix for

  • +Retail store and point-of-sale back ends
  • +Smart-meter and utility time-series data
  • +Telecom provisioning systems
  • +Embedded databases inside OEM appliances

best at · OLTP, Time-series, IoT

choose ingres for

  • +Maintaining legacy Ingres/OpenROAD business applications
  • +Government and public-sector systems built on Ingres
  • +Lift-and-shift of on-prem Ingres to containers or cloud VMs

best at · OLTP, OLAP, HTAP

IBM InformixLow-maintenance embeddable RDBMS with built-in TimeSeries, still quietly running retail and telco systems.
Actian IngresOne of the original relational databases, still sold by Actian for long-lived enterprise systems.
overview
Primary model
Relational
Relational
Also supports
Time-Series, Document, Spatial
Columnar / OLAP
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
IBM (co-developed with HCLSoftware)
Actian (HCLSoftware)
First release
1981
1974
Latest version
15.0.1.18 (Sep 30, 2026)
12.1.0 (patch 34124) (Oct 23, 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary commercial license
ProprietaryActian commercial license
Free tier
✓
—
popularity
WhichDB Score
26.0
16.8
Rank
#115
#197
GitHub stars
–
–
Stack Overflow questions
2.3K
154
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Horizontal scaling
Addon
None
Multi-region
Active active
Read replicas
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Client server, Primary replica, Multi primary, Shared storage
Client server, Single node, Primary replica
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
—
✓
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
–
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
capabilities
Transactions
✓
✓
Joins
✓
✓
Secondary indexes
✓
✓
Full-text search
✓
—
Vector search
—
—
Geospatial
✓
—
JSON
✓
—
Change data capture
✓
✓
Triggers
✓
✓
Stored procedures
✓
✓
Materialized views
—
—
TTL / expiry
—
—
Pub/Sub
—
—
Columnar storage
—
✓
In-memory
—
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
✓
✓
Encryption at rest
✓
✓
Role-based access
✓
✓
Time travel
—
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
✓
—
Streaming ingest
—
—
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
SQL, SPL
SQL, QUEL
Client languages
C, Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, ESQL/C
C, Java, C#, Python, PHP
Best for
OLTP, Time-series, IoT, Embedded
OLTP, OLAP, HTAP
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

IBM Informix vs Actian Ingres: FAQ

What is the difference between IBM Informix and Actian Ingres?

IBM Informix: Low-maintenance embeddable RDBMS with built-in TimeSeries, still quietly running retail and telco systems. Actian Ingres: One of the original relational databases, still sold by Actian for long-lived enterprise systems. Horizontal scaling is addon in IBM Informix and none in Actian Ingres. Only IBM Informix has full-text search, geospatial, json, online schema changes. Only Actian Ingres has columnar storage.

When should I choose IBM Informix over Actian Ingres?

Choose IBM Informix for retail store and point-of-sale back ends; smart-meter and utility time-series data; and telecom provisioning systems. Choose Actian Ingres for maintaining legacy Ingres/OpenROAD business applications; government and public-sector systems built on Ingres; and lift-and-shift of on-prem Ingres to containers or cloud VMs.

Is IBM Informix or Actian Ingres more popular?

IBM Informix ranks #115 on the WhichDB Score (26.0/100) and Actian Ingres ranks #197 (16.8/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are IBM Informix and Actian Ingres open source?

No. IBM Informix is proprietary, closed-source software. No. Actian Ingres is proprietary, closed-source software. License: Actian commercial license.