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DBMS > Apache Impala vs. Neo4j vs. Sphinx vs. Sqrrl vs. TinkerGraph

System Properties Comparison Apache Impala vs. Neo4j vs. Sphinx vs. Sqrrl vs. TinkerGraph

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameApache Impala  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparisonSphinx  Xexclude from comparisonSqrrl  Xexclude from comparisonTinkerGraph  Xexclude from comparison
Sqrrl has been acquired by Amazon and became a part of Amazon Web Services. It has been removed from the DB-Engines ranking.
DescriptionAnalytic DBMS for HadoopScalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offeringsOpen source search engine for searching in data from different sources, e.g. relational databasesAdaptable, secure NoSQL built on Apache AccumuloA lightweight, in-memory graph engine that serves as a reference implementation of the TinkerPop3 API
Primary database modelRelational DBMSGraph DBMSSearch engineDocument store
Graph DBMS
Key-value store
Wide column store
Graph DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument store
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score13.77
Rank#40  Overall
#24  Relational DBMS
Score44.46
Rank#23  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Score5.98
Rank#56  Overall
#5  Search engines
Score0.08
Rank#348  Overall
#35  Graph DBMS
Websiteimpala.apache.orgneo4j.comsphinxsearch.comsqrrl.comtinkerpop.apache.org/­docs/­current/­reference/­#tinkergraph-gremlin
Technical documentationimpala.apache.org/­impala-docs.htmlneo4j.com/­docssphinxsearch.com/­docs
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top-level project, originally developed by ClouderaNeo4j, Inc.Sphinx Technologies Inc.Amazon infooriginally Sqrrl Data, Inc.
Initial release20132007200120122009
Current release4.1.0, June 20225.19, April 20243.5.1, February 2023
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache Version 2Open Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses availableOpen Source infoGPL version 2, commercial licence availablecommercialOpen Source infoApache 2.0
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonononono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Neo4j Aura: Neo4j’s fully managed cloud service: The zero-admin, always-on graph database for cloud developers.
Implementation languageC++Java, ScalaC++JavaJava
Server operating systemsLinuxLinux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
FreeBSD
Linux
NetBSD
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Linux
Data schemeyesschema-free and schema-optionalyesschema-freeschema-free
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesnoyesyes
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 infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Luceneyes infofull-text index on all search fieldsyesno
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like DML and DDL statementsnoSQL-like query language (SphinxQL)nono
APIs and other access methodsJDBC
ODBC
Bolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM infoObject Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3
Proprietary protocolAccumulo Shell
Java API
JDBC
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API
Thrift
TinkerPop 3
Supported programming languagesAll languages supporting JDBC/ODBC.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
C++ infounofficial client library
Java
Perl infounofficial client library
PHP
Python
Ruby infounofficial client library
Actionscript
C infousing GLib
C#
C++
Cocoa
Delphi
Erlang
Go
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
OCaml
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Smalltalk
Groovy
Java
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyes infouser defined functions and integration of map-reduceyes infoUser defined Procedures and Functionsnonono
Triggersnoyes infovia event handlernonono
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingyes using Neo4j FabricSharding infoPartitioning is done manually, search queries against distributed index is supportedSharding infomaking use of Hadoopnone
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication factorCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version onlynoneselectable replication factor infomaking use of Hadoopnone
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyes infoquery execution via MapReducenonoyesno
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual ConsistencyCausal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup
Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode
Immediate Consistency infoDocument store kept consistent with combination of global timestamping, row-level transactions, and server-side consistency resolution.none
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyes infoRelationships in graphsnonoyes infoRelationships in graphs
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datanoACIDnoAtomic updates per row, document, or graph entityno
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyesno
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes infoThe original contents of fields are not stored in the Sphinx index.yesoptional
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.noyes
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users, groups and roles infobased on Apache Sentry and KerberosUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)noCell-level Security, Data-Centric Security, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC)no
More information provided by the system vendor
Apache ImpalaNeo4jSphinxSqrrlTinkerGraph
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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and for displaying vendor-provided information such as key customers, competitive advantages and market metrics.

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