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DBMS > Apache Impala vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. ToroDB

System Properties Comparison Apache Impala vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. ToroDB

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameApache Impala  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonToroDB  Xexclude from comparison
ToroDB seems to be discontinued. Therefore it is excluded from the DB-Engines Ranking.
DescriptionAnalytic DBMS for HadoopMicrosofts flagship relational DBMSScalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offeringsWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQLA MongoDB-compatible JSON document store, built on top of PostgreSQL
Primary database modelRelational DBMSRelational DBMSGraph DBMSRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.Document store
Secondary database modelsDocument storeDocument store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
Document store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS infowith pgvector extension
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score12.45
Rank#40  Overall
#24  Relational DBMS
Score821.56
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score44.89
Rank#21  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Score636.25
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Websiteimpala.apache.orgwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverneo4j.comwww.postgresql.orggithub.com/­torodb/­server
Technical documentationimpala.apache.org/­impala-docs.htmllearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverneo4j.com/­docswww.postgresql.org/­docs
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top-level project, originally developed by ClouderaMicrosoftNeo4j, Inc.PostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developer8Kdata
Initial release2013198920071989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL2016
Current release4.1.0, June 2022SQL Server 2022, November 20225.20, May 202416.3, May 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache Version 2commercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses availableOpen Source infoBSDOpen Source infoAGPL-V3
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonononono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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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.
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Implementation languageC++C++Java, ScalaCJava
Server operating systemsLinuxLinux
Windows
Linux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
All OS with a Java 7 VM
Data schemeyesyesschema-free and schema-optionalyesschema-free
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyesyesyes infostring, integer, double, boolean, date, object_id
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.noyesyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.no
Secondary indexesyesyesyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Luceneyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like DML and DDL statementsyesnoyes infostandard with numerous extensions
APIs and other access methodsJDBC
ODBC
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
Bolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM infoObject Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesAll languages supporting JDBC/ODBCC#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyes infouser defined functions and integration of map-reduceTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javayes infoUser defined Procedures and Functionsuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
Triggersnoyesyes infovia event handleryesno
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingtables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationyes using Neo4j Fabricpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hashSharding
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication factoryes, but depending on the SQL-Server EditionCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version onlySource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsSource-replica replication
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyes infoquery execution via MapReducenonono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyCausal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup
Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode
Immediate ConsistencyEventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyesyes infoRelationships in graphsyesno
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datanoACIDACIDACIDno
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.noyesno
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users, groups and roles infobased on Apache Sentry and Kerberosfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)fine grained access rights according to SQL-standardAccess rights for users and roles
More information provided by the system vendor
Apache ImpalaMicrosoft SQL ServerNeo4jPostgreSQLToroDB
Specific characteristicsNeo4j delivers graph technology that has been battle tested for performance and scale...
» more
Competitive advantagesNeo4j is the market leader, graph database category creator, and the most widely...
» more
Typical application scenariosReal-Time Recommendations Master Data Management Identity and Access Management Network...
» more
Key customersOver 800 commercial customers and over 4300 startups use Neo4j. Flagship customers...
» more
Market metricsNeo4j boasts the world's largest graph database ecosystem with more than 140 million...
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsGPL v3 license that can be used all the places where you might use MySQL. Neo4j Commercial...
» more
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