DBMS > Alibaba Cloud PolarDB vs. HugeGraph vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. NebulaGraph vs. Neo4j

System Properties Comparison Alibaba Cloud PolarDB vs. HugeGraph vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. NebulaGraph vs. Neo4j

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

A cloud-native relational database compatible with MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle. Designed for business critical applications.

A fast-speed and highly-scalable Graph DBMS

Microsofts flagship relational DBMS

A distributed, linear scalable, high perfomant Graph DBMS

Scalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offerings

Primary database model

Secondary database models

Document store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS

DB-Engines Ranking measures the popularity of database management systems
Trend Chart

Score	0.59
Rank	#241	Overall
	#110	Relational DBMS

Score	0.13
Rank	#336	Overall
	#32	Graph DBMS

Score	824.29
Rank	#3	Overall
	#3	Relational DBMS

Score	2.14
Rank	#120	Overall
	#10	Graph DBMS

Score	44.46
Rank	#23	Overall
	#1	Graph DBMS

Website

www.alibabacloud.com/product/polardb

github.com/hugegraph
hugegraph.apache.org

www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server

github.com/vesoft-inc/nebula
www.nebula-graph.io

neo4j.com

Technical documentation

www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/polardb/product-overview

hugegraph.apache.org/docs

learn.microsoft.com/en-US/sql/sql-server

docs.nebula-graph.io

neo4j.com/docs

Developer

Alibaba

Baidu

Microsoft

Vesoft Inc.

Neo4j, Inc.

Initial release

2018

1989

2019

2007

Current release

0.9

SQL Server 2022, November 2022

5.19, April 2024

License

Commercial or Open Source

commercial

Open Source

Apache Version 2.0

commercial

restricted free version is available

Open Source

Apache Version 2.0 + Common Clause 1.0

Open Source

GPL version3, commercial licenses available

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

yes

DBaaS offerings (sponsored links)

Database as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.

SQLServer Flex @ STACKIT offers a managed version of SQL Server with adjustable CPU, RAM, storage amount and speed, in enterprise grade to perfectly match all application requirements. All services are 100% GDPR-compliant.

Neo4j Aura: Neo4j’s fully managed cloud service: The zero-admin, always-on graph database for cloud developers.

Implementation language

Java

C++

Java, Scala

Server operating systems

hosted

Linux
macOS
Unix

Linux
Windows

Linux

Can also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows

Data scheme

yes

Strong typed schema

schema-free and schema-optional

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

yes

XML support

Some form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.

yes

Secondary indexes

yes

also supports composite index and range index

yes

Nebula Graph internally uses the Key-Value store RocksDB for persistency. The vertices, edges, and their properties are stored as Key while their values are stored as Value. The primary indexes are per Key and secondary indexes are per Value.

yes

pluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Lucene

SQL

Support of SQL

yes

SQL-like query language

APIs and other access methods

JDBC
ODBC

Java API
RESTful HTTP API
TinkerPop Gremlin

ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)

Browser interface
console (shell)
Cypher Query Language
GO Object Graph Mapper
Java Object Graph Mapper
NGBatis

ORM framework for NebulaGraph and Spring-Boot
Proprietary native API
Python Object Graph Mapper
Query language nGQL

Bolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM

Object Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3

Supported programming languages

Java
Python

Groovy
Java
Python

C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic

.Net
C++
Go
Java
PHP
Python

.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

yes

asynchronous Gremlin script jobs

Transact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Java

user defined functions

yes

User defined Procedures and Functions

Triggers

yes

via event handler

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

Sharding

Implicit feature of the cloud service

yes

depending on used storage backend, e.g. Cassandra and HBase

tables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federation

Sharding

yes using Neo4j Fabric

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

yes

Implicit feature of the cloud service

yes

depending on used storage backend, e.g. Cassandra and HBase

yes, but depending on the SQL-Server Edition

Causal Clustering using Raft protocol

available in in Enterprise Version only

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

via hugegraph-spark

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Immediate Consistency

Eventual Consistency

Immediate Consistency

Causal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup
Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

yes

edges in graph

yes

Relationships in graphs

yes

Relationships in graphs

Transaction concepts

Support to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of data

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

using RocksDB

yes

In-memory capabilities

Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.

yes

User concepts

Access control

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

Users, roles and permissions

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

Role-based access control

Users, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)

More information provided by the system vendor

Specific characteristics

PolarDB, previously ApsaraDB for PolarDB, is a cloud-native relational database designed...
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NebulaGraph is a truly distributed, linearly scalable, lightning-fast graph database,...
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Neo4j delivers graph technology that has been battle tested for performance and scale...
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Competitive advantages

Webinar: Top Scientists Live: Tech Secrets to Double 11's Success Revealed. White...
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NebulaGraph boasts the world's only graph database solution that is able to host...
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Neo4j is the market leader, graph database category creator, and the most widely...
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Typical application scenarios

Creating a Robust Cloud-Based Database for Fintech, E-Commerce and Gaming. Learn...
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Social networking Fraud detection Knowledge graph Data warehouse management Anti...
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Real-Time Recommendations Master Data Management Identity and Access Management Network...
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Key customers

Companies from a variety of industries have implemented NebulaGraph Database in production,...
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Over 800 commercial customers and over 4300 startups use Neo4j. Flagship customers...
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Market metrics

At our very early stage, NebulaGraph has already received over 10,000 stars on GitHub...
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Neo4j boasts the world's largest graph database ecosystem with more than 140 million...
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Licensing and pricing models

Specification and pricing. You can use either of the following billing methods to...
» more

NebulaGraph is open source and free to use under Apache 2.0 license.
» more

GPL v3 license that can be used all the places where you might use MySQL. Neo4j Commercial...
» more

News

This Week in Neo4j: Podcast, GraphRAG, GraphQL, Chatbot and more
18 May 2024

Neo4j Joins the Connect with Confluent Partner Program
16 May 2024

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15 May 2024

New Security Feature in Neo4j Aura: Customer Managed Keys
15 May 2024

Safeguarding Elections: How Graph Technology Powers Groundbreaking Research on Political Ads
13 May 2024

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and for displaying vendor-provided information such as key customers, competitive advantages and market metrics.