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DBMS > Derby vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison Derby vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameDerby infooften called Apache Derby, originally IBM Cloudscape; contained in the Java SDK as JavaDB  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionFull-featured RDBMS with a small footprint, either embedded into a Java application or used as a database server.Microsofts flagship relational DBMSScalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offeringsWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL
Primary database modelRelational DBMSRelational DBMSGraph DBMSRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
Document 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
Score5.30
Rank#66  Overall
#36  Relational DBMS
Score829.80
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score44.47
Rank#23  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Score645.05
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Websitedb.apache.org/­derbywww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverneo4j.comwww.postgresql.org
Technical documentationdb.apache.org/­derby/­manuals/­index.htmllearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverneo4j.com/­docswww.postgresql.org/­docs
DeveloperApache Software FoundationMicrosoftNeo4j, Inc.PostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developer
Initial release1997198920071989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL
Current release10.17.1.0, November 2023SQL Server 2022, November 20225.18.1, March 202416.2, February 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache version 2commercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses availableOpen Source infoBSD
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenononono
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.Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
Implementation languageJavaC++Java, ScalaC
Server operating systemsAll OS with a Java VMLinux
Windows
Linux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Data schemeyesyesschema-free and schema-optionalyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyesyes
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.yesyesyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.
Secondary indexesyesyesyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Luceneyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyesyesnoyes infostandard with numerous extensions
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
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesJavaC#
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
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresJava Stored ProceduresTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javayes infoUser defined Procedures and Functionsuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
Triggersyesyesyes infovia event handleryes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesnonetables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationyes using Neo4j Fabricpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesSource-replica replicationyes, but depending on the SQL-Server EditionCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version onlySource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensions
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnononono
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
Immediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesyesyes infoRelationships in graphsyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACIDACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyes
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.yesyesno
User concepts infoAccess controlfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard
More information provided by the system vendor
Derby infooften called Apache Derby, originally IBM Cloudscape; contained in the Java SDK as JavaDBMicrosoft SQL ServerNeo4jPostgreSQL
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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More resources
Derby infooften called Apache Derby, originally IBM Cloudscape; contained in the Java SDK as JavaDBMicrosoft SQL ServerNeo4jPostgreSQL
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