CrateDB vs IBM Db2
CrateDB
cratedb.com
IBM Db2
ibm.comSide by side
| Figure | CrateDB | IBM Db2 |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $630/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 17 | 7 |
| Spec score · Spatial Databases | 9.3 (#1) | 8.5 (#10) |
| Spec score · Distributed SQL Databases | 9.3 (#1) | 8.6 (#7) |
| Spec score · Columnar Databases | 9.2 (#2) | 8.3 (#8) |
| Spec score · Database Software | 9.0 (#10) | 8.6 (#22) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | Documented integrations include Tableau Cloud, Power BI, Kafka, StreamSets, DBeaver, Prometheus, Grafana, Airflow, Superset, Metabase, Excel and n8n. | IBM documents connections through drivers and integrations with DataStage, Segment, Cognos Analytics, Looker, Tableau, Excel, SPSS Statistics, SAS, and R. |
| Purpose | CrateDB is a real-time analytics database for live operational data. | IBM describes Db2 as an AI-powered database for low-latency transactions, real-time analytics, and mission-critical workloads. |
| Security | CrateDB describes authentication, authorization, encryption, audit logging and compliance certifications across managed and self-managed deployments. | IBM describes access controls, encryption for data in motion and at rest, behavior monitoring, and data masking features for Db2. |
| Support | Support options include a Discourse community, GitHub issues and feature requests, documentation and paid support plans. | The pricing page lists Community Support for Db2 AI Community and Enterprise Support for Db2 AI Standard and AI Advanced. |
Plans
CrateDB
- Shared FreeFree
- SharedPrice not published
- DedicatedPrice not published
- CrateDB Cloud Free PlanFree
- Open SourceFree
- CrateDB Cloud Shared$0.07 a month
- CrateDB Cloud Dedicated$0.25 a month
- Shared S2$53 a month
- Shared S4$103 a month
- Shared S6$153 a month
IBM Db2
- FreeFree
- Performance$630 a month
- Db2 AI CommunityFree
- Db2 Database SaaS FreeFree
- Db2 Database SaaS Performance$630 a month
- Db2 AI AdvancedPriced on request
- Db2 AI StandardPriced on request
In their own words
IBM Db2
IBM Db2 is a database for low-latency transactions, real-time analytics, and mission-critical workloads. It supports transactional, analytical, and operational work on the same database and can feed Db2 Warehouse and watsonx.data. AI-powered query optimization uses historical query patterns to adjust execution plans and automate tuning. Db2 12.1.2.0 adds a VECTOR type and SQL vector-distance queries for semantic search, retrieval-augmented generation, and recommendation systems. Db2 pureScale supports continuous availability on premises or in the cloud, with Pacemaker integration. Security features include access controls, encryption in transit and at rest, behavior monitoring, and data masking. IBM documents integrations with DataStage, Segment, Cognos Analytics, Looker, Tableau, Excel, SPSS Statistics, SAS, and R. Supported deployments include self-hosting and Amazon RDS for Db2. Free plans are available; Performance is listed at $630 a month, billed hourly.