DB-EnginesextremeDB - Data management wherever you need itEnglish
Deutsch
Knowledge Base of Relational and NoSQL Database Management Systemsprovided by Redgate Software

DBMS > Apache Impala vs. GraphDB vs. Neo4j

System Properties Comparison Apache Impala vs. GraphDB vs. Neo4j

Please select another system to include it in the comparison.

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameApache Impala  Xexclude from comparisonGraphDB infoformer name: OWLIM  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionAnalytic DBMS for HadoopEnterprise-ready RDF and graph database with efficient reasoning, cluster and external index synchronization support. It supports also SQL JDBC access to Knowledge Graph and GraphQL over SPARQL.Scalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offerings
Primary database modelRelational DBMSGraph DBMS
RDF store
Graph DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument store
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score11.22
Rank#41  Overall
#25  Relational DBMS
Score2.57
Rank#95  Overall
#7  Graph DBMS
#3  RDF stores
Score47.59
Rank#20  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Websiteimpala.apache.orgwww.ontotext.comneo4j.com
Technical documentationimpala.apache.org/­impala-docs.htmlgraphdb.ontotext.com/­documentationneo4j.com/­docs
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top-level project, originally developed by ClouderaOntotextNeo4j, Inc.
Initial release201320002007
Current release4.1.0, June 202210.4, October 20235.23, August 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache Version 2commercial infoSome plugins of GraphDB Workbench are open sourcedOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Implementation languageC++JavaJava, Scala
Server operating systemsLinuxAll OS with a Java VM
Linux
OS X
Windows
Linux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeyesschema-free and OWL/RDFS-schema support; RDF shapesschema-free and schema-optional
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyes
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.nono
Secondary indexesyesyes, supports real-time synchronization and indexing in SOLR/Elastic search/Lucene and GeoSPARQL geometry data indexesyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Lucene
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like DML and DDL statementsstored SPARQL accessed as SQL using Apache Calcite through JDBC/ODBCno
APIs and other access methodsJDBC
ODBC
GeoSPARQL
GraphQL
GraphQL Federation
Java API
JDBC
RDF4J API
RDFS
RIO
Sail API
Sesame REST HTTP Protocol
SPARQL 1.1
Bolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM infoObject Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3
Supported programming languagesAll languages supporting JDBC/ODBC.Net
C#
Clojure
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyes infouser defined functions and integration of map-reducewell-defined plugin interfaces; JavaScript server-side extensibilityyes infoUser defined Procedures and Functions
Triggersnonoyes infovia event handler
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingnoneyes using Neo4j Fabric
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication factorMulti-source replicationCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version only
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyes infoquery execution via MapReducenono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual ConsistencyImmediate Consistency, Eventual consistency (configurable in cluster mode per master or individual client request)Causal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup
Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyes infoConstraint checkingyes infoRelationships in graphs
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datanoACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.no
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users, groups and roles infobased on Apache Sentry and KerberosDefault Basic authentication through RDF4J client, or via Java when run with cURL, default token-based in the Workbench or via Rest API, optional access through OpenID or Kerberos single sign-on.Users, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)
More information provided by the system vendor
Apache ImpalaGraphDB infoformer name: OWLIMNeo4j
News

Transform Static Risk Assessment Into a Dynamic Data-Driven Strategy
22 April 2025

LLM Knowledge Graph Builder Back-End Architecture and API Overview
14 April 2025

Build an Intelligent Movie Search With Neo4j and Vertex AI
14 April 2025

This Week in Neo4j: NODES, GraphRAG, Agents, Knowledge Graph and more
12 April 2025

Google Cloud & Neo4j: Teaming Up at the Intersection of Knowledge Graphs, Agents, MCP, and Natural Language Interfaces
9 April 2025

We invite representatives of system vendors to contact us for updating and extending the system information,
and for displaying vendor-provided information such as key customers, competitive advantages and market metrics.

Related products and services

We invite representatives of vendors of related products to contact us for presenting information about their offerings here.

More resources
Apache ImpalaGraphDB infoformer name: OWLIMNeo4j
DB-Engines blog posts

Applying Graph Analytics to Game of Thrones
12 June 2019, Amy Hodler & Mark Needham, Neo4j (guest author)

MySQL, PostgreSQL and Redis are the winners of the March ranking
2 March 2016, Paul Andlinger

The openCypher Project: Help Shape the SQL for Graphs
22 December 2015, Emil Eifrem (guest author)

show all

Recent citations in the news

Apache Impala becomes Top-Level Project
28 November 2017, SD Times

Hudi: Uber Engineering’s Incremental Processing Framework on Apache Hadoop
12 March 2017, Uber

Cloudera brings Apache Iceberg data lake format to its Data Platform
30 June 2022, SiliconANGLE

Apache Doris just ‘graduated’: Why care about this SQL data warehouse
24 June 2022, InfoWorld

Apache Iceberg Changes Everything: What's Underneath?
28 August 2023, Spiceworks

provided by Google News

Semantic Web Company and Ontotext merge to form Graphwise
23 October 2024, Blocks and Files

Semantic Web Company and Ontotext Merge to Create Knowledge Graph and AI Powerhouse Graphwise
23 October 2024, PR Newswire

Ontotext Platform 3.0 for Enterprise Knowledge Graphs Released
18 December 2019, KDnuggets

A Content Management Platform and a Graph Database Come Together in the New Company: Graphwise
28 October 2024, The Recursive

Ontotext's GraphDB 10 Brings Modern Data Architectures to the Mainstream with Better Resilience and Еаsier Operations
5 July 2022, PR Newswire

provided by Google News

Neo4j Surpasses $200M in Revenue, Accelerates Leadership in GenAI-Driven Graph Technology
19 November 2024, PR Newswire

Free Software Foundation rides to defend AGPLv3 against Neo4j license add-ons
4 March 2025, theregister.com

Data Science Firm Neo4j Reportedly Prepping IPO
19 November 2024, PYMNTS.com

Discover Graph Databases with Neo4j and PHP
7 November 2024, SitePoint

Swedish company accelerates toward IPO with $50M investment at $2B valuation - ArcticStartup
28 November 2024, ArcticStartup

provided by Google News



Share this page

Featured Products

SingleStore logo

The data platform to build your intelligent applications.
Try it free.

RaimaDB logo

RaimaDB, embedded database for mission-critical applications. When performance, footprint and reliability matters.
Try RaimaDB for free.

Neo4j logo

See for yourself how a graph database can make your life easier.
Use Neo4j online for free.

Datastax Astra logo

Bring all your data to Generative AI applications with vector search enabled by the most scalable
vector database available.
Try for Free

Milvus logo

Vector database designed for GenAI, fully equipped for enterprise implementation.
Try Managed Milvus for Free

Present your product here