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DBMS > CrateDB vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. Neo4j

System Properties Comparison CrateDB vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. Neo4j

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameCrateDB  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionDistributed Database based on LuceneA 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.Scalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offerings
Primary database modelDocument store
Spatial DBMS
Search engine
Time Series DBMS
Vector DBMS
Relational DBMSGraph DBMS
Secondary database modelsRelational DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score0.67
Rank#225  Overall
#37  Document stores
#5  Spatial DBMS
#17  Search engines
#19  Time Series DBMS
#16  Vector DBMS
Score2.56
Rank#97  Overall
#50  Relational DBMS
Score47.91
Rank#20  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Websitecratedb.comcloud.google.com/­spannerneo4j.com
Technical documentationcratedb.com/­docscloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsneo4j.com/­docs
DeveloperCrateGoogleNeo4j, Inc.
Initial release201320172007
Current release5.8.1, August 20245.23, August 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen SourcecommercialOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenoyesno
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Implementation languageJavaJava, Scala
Server operating systemsAll Operating Systems, including Kubernetes with CrateDB Kubernetes Operator supporthostedLinux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeFlexible Schema (defined schema, partial schema, schema free)yesschema-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.nono
Secondary indexesyesyesyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Lucene
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes, but no triggers and constraints, and PostgreSQL compatibilityyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011no
APIs and other access methodsADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
PostgreSQL wire protocol
Prometheus Remote Read/Write
RESTful HTTP API
gRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC infoAt present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API
Bolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM infoObject Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3
Supported programming languages.NET
Erlang
Go infocommunity maintained client
Java
JavaScript (Node.js) infocommunity maintained client
Perl infocommunity maintained client
PHP
Python
R
Ruby infocommunity maintained client
Scala infocommunity maintained client
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresuser defined functions (Javascript)noyes infoUser defined Procedures and Functions
Triggersnonoyes infovia event handler
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingShardingyes using Neo4j Fabric
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesConfigurable replication on table/partition-levelMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.Causal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version only
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnoyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflowno
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual Consistency
Read-after-write consistency on record level
Immediate ConsistencyCausal 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 integrityyes infoRelationships in graphs
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datano infounique row identifiers can be used for implementing an optimistic concurrency control strategyACID infoStrict serializable isolationACID
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.nono
User concepts infoAccess controlrights management via user accountsAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)Users, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)
More information provided by the system vendor
CrateDBGoogle Cloud SpannerNeo4j
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More resources
CrateDBGoogle Cloud SpannerNeo4j
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Recent citations in the news

ABB Revolutionizes Smart Charging with OPTIMAX® Cloud, Powered by CrateDB
21 January 2025, PR Newswire

Tech Mahindra, CrateDB Partner for Agentic AI in Industry
2 April 2025, Bisinfotech

Real-Time Analytics Database Company CrateDB Names Lars Färnström as New CEO
1 March 2023, Business Wire

Crate.io Expands CrateDB Cloud with the Launch of CrateDB Edge
15 April 2021, GlobeNewswire

Crate.io Launches New Tier Model for CrateDB Cloud
28 June 2022, datanami.com

provided by Google News

Google Cloud Introduces HDD Tier for Spanner Database, Cutting Cold Storage Costs by 80%
22 March 2025, infoq.com

New features make Google's Spanner a database for AI
1 August 2024, TechTarget

Google Cloud Spanner gets dual-region configuration option
23 July 2024, InfoWorld

Google Cloud adds graph and vector search features to Spanner database
2 August 2024, techzine.eu

Google Releases Spanner Graph into General Availability
19 February 2025, infoq.com

provided by Google News

NASA jettisons Neo4j database for Memgraph citing costs
7 May 2025, theregister.com

Neo4j goes serverless, bringing graph analytics to any data source
7 May 2025, SiliconANGLE

Latest Neo4j release aims to simplify graph technology
7 May 2025, TechTarget

Neo4j Launches Industry's First Graph Analytics Offering For Any Data Platform
7 May 2025, PR Newswire

Android Studio Meerkat Feature Drop, Neo4j Aura Graph Analytics, and more software development news
7 May 2025, SD Times

provided by Google News



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