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DBMS > CockroachDB vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. Neo4j

System Properties Comparison CockroachDB vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. Neo4j

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameCockroachDB  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionCockroachDB is a distributed database architected for modern cloud applications. It is wire compatible with PostgreSQL and backed by a Key-Value Store, which is either RocksDB or a purpose-built derivative, called Pebble.Microsofts flagship relational DBMSScalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offerings
Primary database modelRelational DBMSRelational DBMSGraph DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score4.40
Rank#65  Overall
#37  Relational DBMS
Score788.14
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score46.15
Rank#20  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Websitewww.cockroachlabs.comwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverneo4j.com
Technical documentationwww.cockroachlabs.com/­docslearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverneo4j.com/­docs
DeveloperCockroach LabsMicrosoftNeo4j, Inc.
Initial release201519892007
Current release24.1.0, May 2024SQL Server 2022, November 20225.23, August 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache 2.0, commercial license availablecommercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen 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.
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.
Implementation languageGoC++Java, Scala
Server operating systemsLinux
macOS
Windows
Linux
Windows
Linux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemedynamic schemayesschema-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.noyes
Secondary indexesyesyesyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Lucene
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes, wire compatible with PostgreSQLyesno
APIs and other access methodsJDBCADO.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
Supported programming languagesC#
C++
Clojure
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
Rust
C#
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
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnoTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javayes infoUser defined Procedures and Functions
Triggersnoyesyes infovia event handler
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodeshorizontal partitioning (by key range) infoall tables are translated to an ordered KV store and then broken down into 64MB ranges, which are then used as replicas in RAFTtables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationyes using Neo4j Fabric
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replication using RAFTyes, but depending on the SQL-Server EditionCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version only
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnonono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyCausal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup
Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesyesyes infoRelationships in graphs
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACIDACID
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.noyes
User concepts infoAccess controlRole-based access controlfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)
More information provided by the system vendor
CockroachDBMicrosoft SQL ServerNeo4j
News

Is Traditional SaaS Behind Us? The Graph + GenAI Revolution
18 March 2025

This Week in Neo4j: Knowledge Graph, Deepseek, Bloodhound, RAG and more
15 March 2025

Graph Database vs. Relational Database: What’s The Difference?
13 March 2025

How to Build a Knowledge Graph in 7 Steps
12 March 2025

Function Calling in Agentic Workflows
12 March 2025

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CockroachDBMicrosoft SQL ServerNeo4j
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