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DBMS > AlaSQL vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Neo4j

System Properties Comparison AlaSQL vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Neo4j

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameAlaSQL  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft Azure SQL Database infoformerly SQL Azure  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionJavaScript DBMS libraryA horizontally scalable, globally consistent, relational database service. It is the externalization of the core Google database that runs the biggest aspects of Google, like Ads and Google Play.Database as a Service offering with high compatibility to Microsoft SQL ServerScalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offerings
Primary database modelDocument store
Relational DBMS
Relational DBMSRelational DBMSGraph DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score0.36
Rank#268  Overall
#41  Document stores
#122  Relational DBMS
Score2.56
Rank#97  Overall
#50  Relational DBMS
Score75.45
Rank#17  Overall
#12  Relational DBMS
Score47.91
Rank#20  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Websitealasql.orgcloud.google.com/­spannerazure.microsoft.com/­en-us/­products/­azure-sql/­databaseneo4j.com
Technical documentationgithub.com/­AlaSQL/­alasqlcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsdocs.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­azure-sqlneo4j.com/­docs
DeveloperAndrey Gershun & Mathias R. WulffGoogleMicrosoftNeo4j, Inc.
Initial release2014201720102007
Current releaseV125.23, August 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoMIT-LicensecommercialcommercialOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenoyesyesno
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Implementation languageJavaScriptC++Java, Scala
Server operating systemsserver-less, requires a JavaScript environment (browser, Node.js)hostedhostedLinux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeschema-freeyesyesschema-free and schema-optional
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or datenoyesyesyes
XML support infoSome form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.nonoyes
Secondary indexesnoyesyesyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Lucene
SQL infoSupport of SQLClose to SQL99, but no user access control, stored procedures and host language bindings.yes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011yesno
APIs and other access methodsJavaScript APIgRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC infoAt present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
Bolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM infoObject Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3
Supported programming languagesJavaScriptGo
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
C#
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnonoTransact SQLyes infoUser defined Procedures and Functions
Triggersyesnoyesyes infovia event handler
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesnoneShardingyes using Neo4j Fabric
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesnoneMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.yes, with always 3 replicas availableCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version only
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnoyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflownono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemnoneImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyCausal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup
Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrityyesyes infoRelationships in graphs
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datayes infoonly for local storage and DOM-storageACID infoStrict serializable isolationACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyes infoby using IndexedDB, SQL.JS or proprietary FileStorageyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yesno
User concepts infoAccess controlnoAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)fine grained access rights according to SQL-standardUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)
More information provided by the system vendor
AlaSQLGoogle Cloud SpannerMicrosoft Azure SQL Database infoformerly SQL AzureNeo4j
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7 May 2025

Introducing Neo4j Aura Graph Analytics: Scalable, Easy-to-Deploy Graph Analytics for Any Data Source
7 May 2025

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5 May 2025

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AlaSQLGoogle Cloud SpannerMicrosoft Azure SQL Database infoformerly SQL AzureNeo4j
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