DB2
Ranked 14 of 22 databases by recommenders
People praise DB2 as a well-regarded, excellent database, especially for banking and mainframe work. Critics say IBM has mishandled it and that it can be quirky.
People praise DB2 as a well-regarded, excellent database, especially for banking and mainframe work. Critics say IBM has mishandled it and that it can be quirky.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 62%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Well-regarded, excellent database overall
“DB2 was (still is) an excellent database that IBM has completely fumbled.”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “Oracle slashes 30k jobs with a cold 6 a.m. email” “Db2, for example, is a well-respected database.”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “IBM to acquire Confluent” “DB/2 and Informix were also regarded as good.”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “Oracle slashes 30k jobs with a cold 6 a.m. email” Strong for mainframe and banking work
“Given the option, I would go with DB 2 on z/OS instead of COBOL, for example.”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “AI migrated legacy COBOL programs to Java, bugs included” “use a set of well-developed tools and frameworks like DB2 and CICS”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “IBM Z17 Time Synchronization Resiliency Enhancements” “I still like DB2, but only for banking/finance core stuff”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “TCP Use-After-Free: CVE-2026-98432 / CVSS 9.8”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
IBM mishandled it and pushed sales
“DB2 was (still is) an excellent database that IBM has completely fumbled.”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “Oracle slashes 30k jobs with a cold 6 a.m. email” “they openly told me that they just wanted to sell DB2”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “IBM to acquire Confluent” “they extract money from companies trapped on Db2”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “IBM Unveils Next Generation Dual-Architecture Processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE” Hard to justify for new projects
“There's very little technical reason to use any of those at this point.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “'Source available' is not open source, and that's okay” “I wouldn't ever advocate for standing up a new Oracle or DB2 machine”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “Looking Ahead to Postgres 19” “Vercel is similar to adopting Oracle, MS SQL Server, DB2”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “The upsell game – Vercel upselling tactics revealed”
Other databases people recommend
The four most recommended other databases, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PostgreSQL | 816 | 233 | 78% | 13 | 10 yrs42 owners | Approved |
| MySQL | 124 | 107 | 54% | 12 | — | — |
| Microsoft SQL Server | 73 | 59 | 55% | 12 | 20 yrs6 owners | — |
| Microsoft Access | 62 | 39 | 61% | 12 | — | — |
| DB2This page | 13 | 8 | 62% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
All 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I still like DB2, but only for banking/finance core stuff”
“I've heard the exact same thing about DB2, Sybase and Terradata over the years.”
“A bit of hyperbole by me since db2 was made in 1983.”
“they extract money from companies trapped on Db2”
“Given the option, I would go with DB 2 on z/OS instead of COBOL, for example.”
“In terms of sql there’s nothing i miss that postgresql has.”
“I wouldn't ever advocate for standing up a new Oracle or DB2 machine”
“Vercel is similar to adopting Oracle, MS SQL Server, DB2”
“It's pretty damn rock solid even on Linux these days.”
“DB2 had/has excellent data compression capabilities, achieving ratios for OLTP that would only be equaled by later OLAP columnar systems.”
“You'd never say that if you've been on the inside of a mainframe DB2.”
“The result was a lot of lock contention with DB2 if you were not careful.”
“I found it to be actually rather pleasant to work with.”
“DB/2 and Informix were also regarded as good.”
“DB2 was crazy good for certain use cases but very weird.”
“DB2 was (still is) an excellent database that IBM has completely fumbled.”
“kept the language (Cobol) and DB2 intact (moved to DB2LUW)”
“There's very little technical reason to use any of those at this point.”
“use a set of well-developed tools and frameworks like DB2 and CICS”
“Db2, for example, is a well-respected database.”
“they openly told me that they just wanted to sell DB2”
“I would never trust this in high stakes domains over DB2”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.