What IBPhoenix does

IBPhoenix Ltd. is an Ireland-registered private limited company (Company Reg. No. 753435) that develops and sells proprietary tools, plugins, and distributions for the Firebird relational database, along with technical publications and consulting services. Its portfolio is organized into four categories: Firebird Utilities (FBOpt for database migration and optimization, FBLoader for high-performance CSV import, IBReplicator for cross-version replication across Firebird/InterBase/Oracle, FBUpkeep for server maintenance, and a GUI backup tool); Firebird Plugins (Firelink for ODBC-based cross-database linkage from stored procedures, an AES128/AES256 Encryption Plugin, and a machine-optimized Trace Plugin using protobuf output); Firebird Distributions (PhoenixVault, a secure embedded Firebird 5 engine with license-tied encryption for local-first applications, and a Firebird 2.5 Maintenance Subscription providing the only commercially available security patches for the Firebird 2.5 EOL branch); and Publications (The Firebird Book, a 1,442-page reference by Helen Borrie, the Practical Firebird Performance Diagnostics ebook, and the EmberWings quarterly magazine now stewarded by the Firebird Foundation).

The company's technology stack is deeply specialized around the Firebird engine. Notable proprietary components include Firebird 2.5 build backports addressing recent CVEs (including high-severity issues CVE-2026-35215, CVE-2026-33337, CVE-2026-28212, and CVE-2025-54989), 64-bit transaction ID builds to extend Firebird 2.5's 32-bit counter, and license-tied encryption key management in PhoenixVault. Integration scope covers Firebird (all versions), InterBase 5.x+, and Oracle V9+ via ODBC. The company's competitive credibility rests on a small team of recognized Firebird experts, including Helen Borrie (writer-in-residence and Firebird Foundation Secretary), Paul Reeves (France), and Pavel Cisar (Czech Republic).

IBPhoenix operates a hybrid revenue model. Perpetual commercial licenses for utilities and plugins are sold through a self-service e-commerce storefront (shop.ibphoenix.com) with EUR/USD/GBP pricing, priced at €40–€135 for individual utilities and plugins and €150/€130 for IBReplicator server/replicant licenses. Recurring revenue comes from three subscription products: the Firebird 2.5 Security Maintenance at €240/year, Standard Support at €3,500/year (4-hour response, one designated contact), and Premium Support at €11,000/year (2-hour response, up to 10 contacts, bundled tooling access). Professional services include consulting at €125/hour and emergency assistance at €150/hour (4-hour minimum), both sold via direct engagement. Publications and the EmberWings magazine are distributed either free or donation-supported. Customers are horizontal Firebird users, developers, and enterprise operators, with a specific sub-segment of organizations anchored on the legacy Firebird 2.5 branch.

Name

IBPhoenix

Legal name

IBPhoenix Ltd.

Website

https://ibphoenix.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

IBPhoenix Ltd. is an Ireland-based private company that develops proprietary utilities, plugins, and embedded distributions for the Firebird relational database, and sells support contracts, consulting, and technical publications to Firebird users, developers, and enterprise operators globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Cardiff By The Sea

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Software Licenses: Perpetual commercial licenses for utilities (FBOpt €99, FBLoader €99, Firebird Database Backup €40), plugins (Firelink €135, Trace Plugin €135, Encryption Plugin €135 single server or €2,500 unlimited), and IBReplicator (Server License €150, Replicant License €130).
2. Annual Subscriptions: Firebird 2.5 Security Maintenance Subscription at €240/year providing security-patched builds. Standard Support contract at €3,500/year with 4-hour response time. Premium Support contract at €11,000/year with 2-hour response time and free access to IBPhoenix tools and ebooks.
3. Consulting Services: Technical consulting services at €125/hour for performance, database design, debugging, and application design reviews. Emergency assistance at €150/hour with 4-hour minimum.
4. Publications: The Firebird Book (2nd Edition) and Practical Firebird Performance Diagnostics available as free downloads with optional donations. Revenue from The Firebird Book sales supports the Helen Borrie Memorial Award.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

IBPhoenix develops and sells proprietary Firebird database utilities, plugins, distributions, and security-maintenance subscriptions, and additionally provides paid support contracts, expert consulting services, and technical publications (The Firebird Book, ebooks, and the EmberWings magazine) for organizations running the Firebird relational database management system.

Product overview

IBPhoenix provides a comprehensive suite of Firebird database tools, plugins, and publications. The product portfolio includes: Firebird Utilities (FBOpt for database migration/optimization, FBLoader for CSV import, IBReplicator for replication, FBUpkeep for maintenance, Firebird Database Backup); Firebird Plugins (Firelink for ODBC connectivity, Encryption Plugin for AES128/256 encryption, Trace Plugin for advanced event monitoring); Firebird Distributions (PhoenixVault secure embedded engine, Firebird 2.5 Maintenance Subscription); and Publications (The Firebird Book, Practical Firebird Performance Diagnostics, EmberWings magazine). Products are available as both free trials and commercial licenses.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• EmberWings: Quarterly magazine about Firebird, originally launched by IBPhoenix in March 2024 and later transferred to the Firebird Foundation as the official publication for the Firebird Project

Products and services

• IBReplicator Proprietary replication utility for Firebird databases that enables organizations to replicate data between Firebird instances for high availability, distribution, and disaster-recovery scenarios. Targeted at DBA and IT teams running production Firebird deployments.
• FBLoader High-volume data loading utility for Firebird that enables fast bulk inserts and migrations. Used by developers and DBAs performing data migrations or batch loads into Firebird databases.
• FBOpt Database optimization utility for Firebird used to tune and improve performance of Firebird databases. Targeted at DBAs and developers responsible for Firebird performance management.
• Encryption Plugin Proprietary Firebird plugin providing database encryption capabilities for Firebird deployments that require data-at-rest encryption beyond the open-source baseline. Targeted at organizations with security or compliance requirements for Firebird databases.
• Trace Plugin Proprietary Firebird tracing/auditing plugin used to capture and analyze database activity for monitoring, troubleshooting, and audit purposes. Used by DBAs and security/compliance teams running Firebird.
• Firelink Plugin Proprietary Firebird connectivity plugin that extends the database's connectivity options. Targeted at developers integrating Firebird into applications or systems.
• PhoenixVault Proprietary backup and restore utility for Firebird databases that supports backup, restore, and related administrative operations. Used by DBAs and IT operations teams managing Firebird backups.
• Firebird 2.5 Security Maintenance Subscription Annual subscription providing ongoing security patches and updates for legacy Firebird 2.5 deployments that are past end-of-life in the open-source project. Targeted at organizations running legacy Firebird 2.5 systems that require continued security coverage.
• Standard Support Contract Entry-tier paid support contract providing professional assistance for Firebird database deployments, including issue resolution and guidance. Targeted at organizations needing reliable access to Firebird expertise.
• Premium Support Contract Higher-tier paid support contract providing enhanced professional support for Firebird database deployments, including priority response and more comprehensive coverage. Targeted at organizations with mission-critical Firebird deployments.
• Firebird Consulting Services Paid professional consulting and emergency assistance services for organizations running Firebird databases, covering troubleshooting, performance tuning, migrations, and architecture guidance. Targeted at organizations needing senior Firebird expertise on demand.
• The Firebird Book Comprehensive reference book on the Firebird relational database management system, authored by Helen Borrie and sold via IBPhoenix. Targeted at Firebird developers, DBAs, and technical readers.
• EmberWings Magazine Firebird-focused periodical publication sold via IBPhoenix, providing news, articles, and technical content for the Firebird community. Targeted at Firebird developers, DBAs, and enthusiasts.

Quantifiable outcome

• Security-patched Firebird 2.5 builds addressing critical CVEs including CVE-2026-35215, CVE-2026-33337, CVE-2026-28212, CVE-2025-54989 (High severity), and CVE-2026-28214 (Medium severity)

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Firebird FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2024IBPhoenix launched EmberWings magazine in March 2024. After releasing three issues, publication was transferred to the Firebird Foundation where it now serves as the official publication for the Firebird Project. IBPhoenix continues to contribute content and support the magazine's production.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• IBExpert (by Mitec): IBExpert is a Firebird and InterBase database administration and development tool. It directly competes with IBPhoenix's utility portfolio (FBOpt, FBLoader, IBReplicator) targeting the same Firebird/InterBase administrator and developer segment.
• EMS Software (SQL Manager): EMS SQL Manager offers tools specifically for Firebird and InterBase administration. It competes head-to-head with IBPhoenix's Firebird utilities and plugins for the same database administrator and developer buyer.
• Upscene Productions: Upscene's Database Workbench supports Firebird and InterBase among other databases. It is a direct peer in the multi-database administration tool category, sharing IBPhoenix's target customer of Firebird/InterBase developers.
• SQL Maestro Group: SQL Maestro produces database management tools with Firebird and InterBase support, including SQL Maestro for Firebird. It directly competes with IBPhoenix's utility and plugin portfolio for the same database administrator segment.

Broad incumbents

• Redgate Software: Redgate is the leading commercial database tooling vendor for SQL Server with a comparable portfolio of utilities, backup, monitoring, and schema comparison tools. It is a broad incumbent operating in the same database tools category as IBPhoenix but focused on a different DB ecosystem.
• Navicat: Navicat Premium is a cross-database administration and development tool supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, and others. It operates in the same database tooling category as IBPhoenix but at much broader scope and scale.
• DbVisualizer: DbVisualizer is a cross-database administration tool supporting major database platforms. It overlaps with IBPhoenix's utility category for developers and DBAs but serves a much broader multi-database audience.
• DataGrip (JetBrains): DataGrip is JetBrains' database IDE supporting many database engines. It competes in the developer-facing database tooling space alongside IBPhoenix's utilities but with much broader database support and platform reach.

Emerging players

• DBeaver: DBeaver is an open-source multi-database administration tool with broad engine support. It provides free alternatives to IBPhoenix's utilities for many Firebird use cases and competes at the open-source tooling layer.
• HeidiSQL: HeidiSQL is a popular open-source database administration tool primarily for MySQL/PostgreSQL/MSSQL. It represents the free/open-source tooling alternative category that pressures IBPhoenix's commercial utility pricing.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about IBPhoenix