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DBMS > Apache IoTDB vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. Lovefield vs. Milvus vs. Neo4j

System Properties Comparison Apache IoTDB vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. Lovefield vs. Milvus vs. Neo4j

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameApache IoTDB  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonLovefield  Xexclude from comparisonMilvus  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionAn IoT native database with high performance for data management and analysis, deployable on the edge and the cloud and integrated with Hadoop, Spark and FlinkA 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.Embeddable relational database for web apps written in pure JavaScriptA DBMS designed for efficient storage of vector data and vector similarity searchesScalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offerings
Primary database modelTime Series DBMSRelational DBMSRelational DBMSVector DBMSGraph DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score1.18
Rank#173  Overall
#15  Time Series DBMS
Score2.89
Rank#103  Overall
#52  Relational DBMS
Score0.29
Rank#293  Overall
#133  Relational DBMS
Score2.31
Rank#113  Overall
#3  Vector DBMS
Score44.46
Rank#23  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Websiteiotdb.apache.orgcloud.google.com/­spannergoogle.github.io/­lovefieldmilvus.ioneo4j.com
Technical documentationiotdb.apache.org/­UserGuide/­Master/­QuickStart/­QuickStart.htmlcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsgithub.com/­google/­lovefield/­blob/­master/­docs/­spec_index.mdmilvus.io/­docs/­overview.mdneo4j.com/­docs
DeveloperApache Software FoundationGoogleGoogleNeo4j, Inc.
Initial release20182017201420192007
Current release1.1.0, April 20232.1.12, February 20172.3.4, January 20245.19, April 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache Version 2.0commercialOpen Source infoApache 2.0Open Source infoApache Version 2.0Open Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenoyesnonono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Zilliz Cloud – Cloud-native service for MilvusNeo4j Aura: Neo4j’s fully managed cloud service: The zero-admin, always-on graph database for cloud developers.
Implementation languageJavaJavaScriptC++, GoJava, Scala
Server operating systemsAll OS with a Java VM (>= 1.8)hostedserver-less, requires a JavaScript environment (browser, Node.js) infotested with Chrome, Firefox, IE, SafariLinux
macOS info10.14 or later
Windows infowith WSL 2 enabled
Linux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeyesyesyesschema-free and schema-optional
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyesVector, Numeric and Stringyes
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.nononono
Secondary indexesyesyesyesnoyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Lucene
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like query languageyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011SQL-like query language infovia JavaScript builder patternnono
APIs and other access methodsJDBC
Native API
gRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC infoAt present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API
RESTful HTTP APIBolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM infoObject Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3
Supported programming languagesC
C#
C++
Go
Java
Python
Scala
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
JavaScriptC++
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyesnononoyes infoUser defined Procedures and Functions
TriggersyesnoUsing read-only observersnoyes infovia event handler
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodeshorizontal partitioning (by time range) + vertical partitioning (by deviceId)ShardingnoneShardingyes using Neo4j Fabric
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication methods; using Raft/IoTConsensus algorithm to ensure strong/eventual data consistency among multiple replicasMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.noneCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version only
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsIntegration with Hadoop and Sparkyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflownonono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual Consistency
Strong Consistency with Raft
Immediate ConsistencyBounded Staleness
Eventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency
Session Consistency
Tunable Consistency
Causal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup
Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrityyesnoyes infoRelationships in graphs
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datanoACID infoStrict serializable isolationACIDnoACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes, by using IndexedDB or the cloud service Firebase Realtime Databaseyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yesnoyes infousing MemoryDByes
User concepts infoAccess controlyesAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)noRole based access control and fine grained access rightsUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)
More information provided by the system vendor
Apache IoTDBGoogle Cloud SpannerLovefieldMilvusNeo4j
Specific characteristicsMilvus is an open-source and cloud-native vector database built for production-ready...
» more
Neo4j delivers graph technology that has been battle tested for performance and scale...
» more
Competitive advantagesHighly available, versatile, and robust with millisecond latency. Supports batch...
» more
Neo4j is the market leader, graph database category creator, and the most widely...
» more
Typical application scenariosRAG: retrieval augmented generation Video media : video understanding, video deduplication....
» more
Real-Time Recommendations Master Data Management Identity and Access Management Network...
» more
Key customersMilvus is trusted by thousands of enterprises, including PayPal, eBay, IKEA, LINE,...
» more
Over 800 commercial customers and over 4300 startups use Neo4j. Flagship customers...
» more
Market metricsAs of January 2024, 25k+ GitHub stars 10M+ downloads and installations​ ​ 3k+ enterprise...
» more
Neo4j boasts the world's largest graph database ecosystem with more than 140 million...
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsMilvus was released under the open-source Apache License 2.0 in October 2019. Fully-managed...
» more
GPL v3 license that can be used all the places where you might use MySQL. Neo4j Commercial...
» more
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