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DBMS > Dgraph vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. Neo4j

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

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameDgraph  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionDistributed and scalable native Graph DBMSA 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 modelGraph DBMSRelational DBMSGraph DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score1.25
Rank#160  Overall
#15  Graph DBMS
Score2.56
Rank#97  Overall
#50  Relational DBMS
Score47.91
Rank#20  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Websitedgraph.iocloud.google.com/­spannerneo4j.com
Technical documentationdgraph.io/­docscloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsneo4j.com/­docs
DeveloperDgraph Labs, Inc.GoogleNeo4j, Inc.
Initial release201620172007
Current release5.23, August 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache 2.0commercialOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenoyesno
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageGoJava, Scala
Server operating systemsLinux
OS X
Windows
hostedLinux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeschema-freeyesschema-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 SQLnoyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011no
APIs and other access methodsGraphQL query language
gRPC (using protocol buffers) API
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 languagesC#
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnonoyes infoUser defined Procedures and Functions
Triggersnonoyes infovia event handler
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesyesShardingyes using Neo4j Fabric
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesSynchronous replication via RaftMulti-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 systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate 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 dataACIDACID 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.no
User concepts infoAccess controlno infoPlanned for future releasesAccess 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
DgraphGoogle Cloud SpannerNeo4j
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More resources
DgraphGoogle Cloud SpannerNeo4j
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Recent citations in the news

Dgraph on AWS: Setting up a horizontally scalable graph database
1 September 2020, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Graph database reinvented: Dgraph secures $11.5M to pursue its unique and opinionated path
31 July 2019, ZDNET

Popular Open Source GraphQL Company Dgraph Secures $6M in Seed Round with New Leadership
20 July 2022, PR Newswire

Dgraph raises $11.5 million for scalable graph database solutions
31 July 2019, VentureBeat

Top Open Source Graph Databases
3 June 2024, MarkTechPost

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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
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