IBM Informix vs. Microsoft Access

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM Informix
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Informix is an embedded relational database offering from IBM.N/A
Microsoft Access
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Access is a database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools.
$139.99
per PC
Pricing
IBM InformixMicrosoft Access
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Microsoft Access
$139.99
per PC
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM InformixMicrosoft Access
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Best Alternatives
IBM InformixMicrosoft Access
Small Businesses
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
IBM InformixMicrosoft Access
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(7 ratings)
8.1
(98 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(15 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
6.4
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM InformixMicrosoft Access
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM
IBM Informix creates an effective and secure channel for easy and quick data management and transfer across other major Cloud platforms and other data storage systems. The analytical ability is also the best and most effective visual functionalities and the encryption and the data archiving functionalities are great and easy on reporting.
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Microsoft
Microsoft Access can be easily implemented with training. It doesn't require expert level skill for basic reporting functions - but can be scaled to a complex database with sophisticated users. Its appropriate to consider if excel needs to be used to create reports, or if there are data entry needs - with corresponding reports.
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Pros
IBM
  • Industry leading OLTP performance.
  • Excellent Data Warehouse performance from the basic engine. Outstanding Data Warehouse performance from the Informix Warehouse Accelerator module.
  • Best embedability among major RDBMS systems.
  • Scalable from the smallest Raspberry PI up to the largest monolithic systems and out to dozens of distributed nodes.
  • Hybrid data capabilities to merge relational data with time seriesv, geospacial data, JSON data and other non-traditional data types with performance comparable or better than systems dedicated to those data types.
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Microsoft
  • Very easy to create entity-relationship diagrams for various tables and designing mock layouts.
  • Really easy to navigate as it hold[s] the classic Microsoft UI. Another good thing is that it comes with the complete MS Office Suite.
  • It is really fast when joining multiple tables no matter what type of join.
  • Works on pretty much same SQL scripts so no need to learn a new language!
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Cons
IBM
  • It is very difficult to find a missing functionality in Informix, technically is great. I will again criticize the business side and how it has been managed over the past, I hope this could be improved with HCL's help. I know they are working hard, but we need to start letting the world know and revert their concept about its existence and that it is one of the best competitors within the data treatment, in the market. We need to start telling the world about success cases and stories showing this and backing up its strong technology.
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Microsoft
  • Microsoft Access has not really changed at all for several years. It might be nice to see some upgrades and changes.
  • The help info is often not helpful. Need more tutorials for Microsoft Access to show how to do specific things.
  • Be careful naming objects such as tables, forms, etc. Names that are too long can get cut off in dialog boxes to choose a table, form, report, etc. So, I wish they would have resizable dialog boxes to allow you to see objects with long names.
  • I wish it could show me objects that are not in use in the database for current queries, tables, reports, forms, and macros. That way unused objects can be deleted without worrying about losing a report or query because you deleted the underlying object.
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Likelihood to Renew
IBM
Informix is the best RDBMS on the market. Period.
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Microsoft
I and the rest of my team will renew our Microsoft Access in the future because we use and maintain many different applications and databases created using Microsoft Access so we will need to maintain them in the future. Additionally, it is a standard at our place of work so it is at $0 cost to us to use. Another reason for renewing Microsoft Access is that we just don' t have the resources needed to extend into a network of users so we need to remain a single-desktop application at this time.
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Usability
IBM
Server management is easy enough to be able to embed the engine in a device and let it run for years without maintenance.
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Microsoft
Microsoft Access is easy to use. It is compatible with spreadsheets. It is a very good data management tool. There is scope to save a large amount of data in one place. For using this database, one does not need much training, can be shared among multiple users. This database has to sort and filtering features which seem to be very useful.
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Reliability and Availability
IBM
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
I don't think the program has ever failed me. It is one of those programs where there is always a solution if you know where to look.
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Support Rating
IBM
The Informix product support team has won awards and is appreciated by the entire Informix user community.
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Microsoft
While I have never contacted Microsoft directly for product support, for some reason there's a real prejudice against MS Access among most IT support professionals. They are usually discouraging when it comes to using MS Access. Most of this is due to their lack of understanding of MS Access and how it can improve one's productivity. If Microsoft invested more resources towards enhancing and promoting the use of MS Access then maybe things would be different.
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Implementation Rating
IBM
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
there is no key idea, since it is easy to implement Microsoft Access
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Alternatives Considered
IBM
IBM Informix creates effective solutions for big data extraction and data transportation functionalities across the entire Cloud services and the Automation ability is the best. The security that IBM Informix provides for all our business data and other project information and contacts is effective and the reports are very clean and easy to understand.
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Microsoft
Crystal is easier for report writing, but isn't a database solution. Salesforce is lovely, but much more expensive than an old copy of Microsoft Office. For a small budget, [Microsoft] Access was really the only viable option. I only wish it was easier to write complex reports.
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Return on Investment
IBM
  • Although I do not own nor have visibility on my company's figures:
  • Informix generates consistent savings on DBA staffing, no need for many DBAs as other DBMS require.
  • The replication architecture allowed consistent savings in the infrastructure as well as developments and maintenance, the job is already done, no need to develop complex and costly solutions, it's just a matter of configuring it.
  • The advantages of hybrid development (i.e mixing SQL and NoSQL in the same database) is not just a marketing hype: it allowed us to solve with a brilliant solution, in one afternoon of coding, a functional problem we have been having for more than 10 years!
  • The biggest drawback is that IBM pricing may be constraining, it has too important gaps between the mid range and highrange in terms of pricing
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Microsoft
  • Not having to recreate queries or reports every time you want to use them.
  • Once an item is created and saved as part of the database, you save manpower by not having to recreate them.
  • ROI from a usability standpoint is great. Solid product with great functionality that requires low maintenance usually.
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