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DBMS > CouchDB vs. Neo4j vs. OrientDB vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison CouchDB vs. Neo4j vs. OrientDB vs. PostgreSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameCouchDB infostands for "Cluster Of Unreliable Commodity Hardware"  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparisonOrientDB  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionA native JSON - document store inspired by Lotus Notes, scalable from globally distributed server-clusters down to mobile phones.Scalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offeringsMulti-model DBMS (Document, Graph, Key/Value)Widely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL
Primary database modelDocument storeGraph DBMSDocument store
Graph DBMS
Key-value store
Relational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.
Secondary database modelsSpatial DBMS infousing the Geocouch extensionDocument 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
Score9.30
Rank#45  Overall
#7  Document stores
Score44.46
Rank#23  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Score3.19
Rank#93  Overall
#16  Document stores
#7  Graph DBMS
#14  Key-value stores
Score645.54
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Websitecouchdb.apache.orgneo4j.comorientdb.orgwww.postgresql.org
Technical documentationdocs.couchdb.org/­en/­stableneo4j.com/­docswww.orientdb.com/­docs/­last/­index.htmlwww.postgresql.org/­docs
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top-level project, originally developed by Damien Katz, a former Lotus Notes developerNeo4j, Inc.OrientDB LTD; CallidusCloud; SAPPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developer
Initial release2005200720101989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL
Current release3.3.3, December 20235.19, April 20243.2.29, March 202416.2, February 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache version 2Open Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses availableOpen Source infoApache version 2Open Source infoBSD
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenononono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageErlangJava, ScalaJavaC
Server operating systemsAndroid
BSD
Linux
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Linux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
All OS with a Java JDK (>= JDK 6)FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Data schemeschema-freeschema-free and schema-optionalschema-free infoSchema can be enforced for whole record ("schema-full") or for some fields only ("schema-hybrid")yes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or datenoyesyesyes
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.nonoyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.
Secondary indexesyes infovia viewsyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Luceneyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLnonoSQL-like query language, no joinsyes infostandard with numerous extensions
APIs and other access methodsRESTful HTTP/JSON APIBolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM infoObject Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3
Tinkerpop technology stack with Blueprints, Gremlin, Pipes
Java API
RESTful HTTP/JSON API
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesC
C#
ColdFusion
Erlang
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Lisp
Lua
Objective-C
OCaml
Perl
PHP
PL/SQL
Python
Ruby
Smalltalk
.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
.Net
C
C#
C++
Clojure
Java
JavaScript
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresView functions in JavaScriptyes infoUser defined Procedures and FunctionsJava, Javascriptuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
Triggersyesyes infovia event handlerHooksyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infoimproved architecture with release 2.0yes using Neo4j FabricShardingpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replication
Source-replica replication
Causal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version onlyMulti-source replicationSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensions
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyesnono infocould be achieved with distributed queriesno
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
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyes infoRelationships in graphsyes inforelationship in graphsyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datano infoatomic operations within a single document possibleACIDACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayes infostrategy: optimistic lockingyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.nono
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users can be defined per databaseUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)Access rights for users and roles; record level security configurablefine grained access rights according to SQL-standard
More information provided by the system vendor
CouchDB infostands for "Cluster Of Unreliable Commodity Hardware"Neo4jOrientDBPostgreSQL
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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