InterBase 7 Prices

Pricing for IB 7.0 is mostly unchanged from IB 6.x, except for a few items, listed below. For InterBase 7.1, there is a new unlimited users license for $3999 which makes InterBase cheaper than DB2, Microsoft, and SQL Server in nearly every licensing case. Also:

• There are two new licenses: An unlimited user and a 50 user license.
• There is an additional CPU license which was unavailable in IB 6.x (since IB 7 supports SMP, and IB 6.x did not).
• Printed documentation is now optional.
• Beginning with IB 7.1, there is no longer a separate media kit to purchase. The media kit is included with the server license.

The price for IB 7.1 is much lower than for IB 6.x when the new unlimited user and 50 user license and inflation are considered — plus you also save $50 on the media kit.

This information is copied from Borland’s online store. All prices are in U.S. dollars. Errors are probably mine. You may be able to get further discounts if you are buying a large number of licenses — contact your Borland sales representative for details. I’m also providing the 6.x prices for comparison.

To use InterBase 7.1 on a network, you need a server activation license and probably additional user licenses (a server license includes one simultaneous user license). InterBase 7 will use a single CPU unless additional CPU licenses are purchased.

Comparison to Other DB Servers

I’m examining "server" editions only here — including "desktop" or "personal" editions would make this article way too long. These are all list prices in U.S. dollars — resellers may discount any of the DBs here, including IB.

IBM DB/2 costs $14250 per processor for the Workgroup Unlimited Edition, or $20000 per processor for the Enterprise Edition (less for EE on Linux). Alternately, you can pay $999 + $249 per concurrent user for the Workgroup Edition — no per-concurrent user license seems to be available for the Enterprise Edition. However, there is an "Internet license" for Workgroup Edition, which costs $999 + $249 + ($3000 * number of processors). You can read about the difference between DB/2 editions here.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 costs $4999 per processor for the Standard Edition or $19999 per processor for the Enterprise Edition. Alternately, you can pay $2249 per 10 users for Standard Edition and $11099 per 25 users for Enterprise Edition. The difference between the editions is described here.

Oracle 9i costs $15000 per processor for the Standard Edition or $40000 per processor for the Enterprise Edition, except for the special case of Standard Edition for one processor only, which is $5,995. Alternately, you can pay $400 per named user (NB: "named user" licenses are different than the concurrent user licenses offered by Borland, IBM, and Microsoft) for the Standard Edition or $800 per named user for the Enterprise Edition, but their annoying site doesn’t work well without cookies and I’m having a hard time finding a useful page which is actually linkable for the prices. You can read about the difference between Oracle editions here.

Now let’s look at some sample license costs. For price calculation information please see the html source code for this table.

Important note: If you are buying more than just a few copies of any DB server, you can probably get a discount from list prices. For InterBase, contact your Borland salesperson [U.S.; worldwide].

* Printed documentation is optional with the IB 7 media kit, included with the IB 6.5 media kit (guess Borland got tired of losing money on it). The IB 6.5 media kit upgrade price was for a download. The IB 7 media kit upgrade price is for a physical shipment.

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