DBMS > Elasticsearch vs. HyperSQL vs. MongoDB vs. Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL
System Properties Comparison Elasticsearch vs. HyperSQL vs. MongoDB vs. Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL
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| Name | Elasticsearch Xexclude from comparison | HyperSQL  also known as HSQLDB Xexclude from comparison | MongoDB Xexclude from comparison | Neo4j Xexclude from comparison | PostgreSQL Xexclude from comparison | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description | A distributed, RESTful modern search and analytics engine based on Apache Lucene Elasticsearch lets you perform and combine many types of searches such as structured, unstructured, geo, and metric | Multithreaded, transactional RDBMS written in Java also known as HSQLDB | One of the most popular document stores available both as a fully managed cloud service and for deployment on self-managed infrastructure | Scalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offerings | Widely used open source RDBMS Developed as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Primary database model | Search engine | Relational DBMS | Document store | Graph DBMS | Relational DBMS with object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secondary database models | Document store Spatial DBMS Vector DBMS | Spatial DBMS Search engine integrated Lucene index, currently in MongoDB Atlas only.Time Series DBMS Time Series Collections introduced in Release 5.0Vector DBMS currently available in the MongoDB Atlas cloud service only | Document store Graph DBMS with Apache AgeSpatial DBMS Vector DBMS with pgvector extension | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Website | www.elastic.co/elasticsearch | hsqldb.org | www.mongodb.com | neo4j.com | www.postgresql.org | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical documentation | www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/index.html | hsqldb.org/web/hsqlDocsFrame.html | www.mongodb.com/docs/manual | neo4j.com/docs | www.postgresql.org/docs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Developer | Elastic | MongoDB, Inc | Neo4j, Inc. | PostgreSQL Global Development Group www.postgresql.org/developer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Initial release | 2010 | 2001 | 2009 | 2007 | 1989 1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current release | 8.6, January 2023 | 2.7.2, June 2023 | 7.0.5, January 2024 | 5.23, August 2024 | 16.4, August 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| License Commercial or Open Source | Open Source Elastic License | Open Source based on BSD license | Open Source MongoDB Inc.'s Server Side Public License v1. Prior versions were published under GNU AGPL v3.0. Commercial licenses are also available. | Open Source GPL version3, commercial licenses available | Open Source BSD | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cloud-based only Only available as a cloud service | no | no | no MongoDB available as DBaaS (MongoDB Atlas) | no | no | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) Database 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. | PostgreSQL Flex @ STACKIT offers managed PostgreSQL Instances with adjustable CPU, RAM, storage amount and speed and several extensions available, in enterprise grade to perfectly match all application requirements. All 100% GDPR-compliant. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Implementation language | Java | Java | C++ | Java, Scala | C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Server operating systems | All OS with a Java VM | All OS with a Java VM Embedded (into Java applications) and Client-Server operating modes | Linux OS X Solaris Windows | Linux Can 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 scheme | schema-free Flexible type definitions. Once a type is defined, it is persistent | yes | schema-free Although schema-free, documents of the same collection often follow the same structure. Optionally impose all or part of a schema by defining a JSON schema. | schema-free and schema-optional | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Typing predefined data types such as float or date | yes | yes | yes string, integer, double, decimal, boolean, date, object_id, geospatial | yes | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| XML support Some form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT. | no | no | yes specific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secondary indexes | yes All search fields are automatically indexed | yes | yes | yes pluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Lucene | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SQL Support of SQL | SQL-like query language | yes | Read-only SQL queries via the MongoDB Atlas SQL Interface | no | yes standard with numerous extensions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| APIs and other access methods | Java API RESTful HTTP/JSON API | HTTP API JDBC via HTTP JDBC ODBC | GraphQL HTTP REST Prisma proprietary protocol using JSON | Bolt protocol Cypher query language Java API Neo4j-OGM Object Graph MapperRESTful HTTP API Spring Data Neo4j TinkerPop 3 | ADO.NET JDBC native C library ODBC streaming API for large objects | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Supported programming languages | .Net Groovy Community Contributed Clients Java JavaScript Perl PHP Python Ruby | All languages supporting JDBC/ODBC Java | Actionscript unofficial driver C C# C++ Clojure unofficial driverColdFusion unofficial driverD unofficial driverDart unofficial driverDelphi unofficial driverErlang Go Groovy unofficial driverHaskell Java JavaScript Kotlin Lisp unofficial driverLua unofficial driverMatLab unofficial driverPerl PHP PowerShell unofficial driverProlog unofficial driverPython R unofficial driverRuby Rust Scala Smalltalk unofficial driverSwift | .Net Clojure Elixir Go Groovy Haskell Java JavaScript Perl PHP Python Ruby Scala | .Net C C++ Delphi Java JDBCJavaScript (Node.js) Perl PHP Python Tcl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Server-side scripts Stored procedures | yes | Java, SQL | JavaScript | yes User defined Procedures and Functions | user defined functions realized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Triggers | yes by using the 'percolation' feature | yes | yes in MongoDB Atlas only | yes via event handler | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Partitioning methods Methods for storing different data on different nodes | Sharding | none | Sharding Partitioned by hashed, ranged, or zoned sharding keys. Live resharding allows users to change their shard keys as an online operation with zero downtime. | yes using Neo4j Fabric | partitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Replication methods Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes | yes | none | Multi-Source deployments with MongoDB Atlas Global Clusters Source-replica replication | Causal Clustering using Raft protocol available in in Enterprise Version only | Source-replica replication other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MapReduce Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods | ES-Hadoop Connector | no | yes | no | no | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consistency concepts Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system | Eventual Consistency Synchronous doc based replication. Get by ID may show delays up to 1 sec. Configurable write consistency: one, quorum, all | Immediate Consistency | Eventual Consistency can be individually decided for each read operation Immediate Consistency default behaviour | Causal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode | Immediate Consistency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Foreign keys Referential integrity | no | yes | no typically not used, however similar functionality with DBRef possible | yes Relationships in graphs | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transaction concepts Support to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of data | no | ACID | Multi-document ACID Transactions with snapshot isolation | ACID | ACID | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Concurrency Support for concurrent manipulation of data | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Durability Support for making data persistent | yes | yes | yes optional, enabled by default | yes | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In-memory capabilities Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only. | Memcached and Redis integration | yes | yes In-memory storage engine introduced with MongoDB version 3.2 | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| User concepts Access control | fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard | Access rights for users and roles | Users, 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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Elasticsearch | HyperSQL also known as HSQLDB | MongoDB | Neo4j | PostgreSQL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Specific characteristics | MongoDB provides an integrated suite of cloud database and data services to accelerate... » more | Neo4j delivers graph technology that has been battle tested for performance and scale... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Competitive advantages | Built around the flexible document data model and unified API, MongoDB is a developer... » more | Neo4j is the market leader, graph database category creator, and the most widely... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Typical application scenarios | AI-enriched intelligent apps (Continental, Telefonica, Iron Mountain) Internet of... » more | Real-Time Recommendations Master Data Management Identity and Access Management Network... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Key customers | ADP, Adobe, Amadeus, AstraZeneca, Auto Trader, Barclays, BBVA, Bosch, Cisco, CERN,... » more | Over 800 commercial customers and over 4300 startups use Neo4j. Flagship customers... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Market metrics | Hundreds of millions downloads, over 150,000+ Atlas clusters provisioned every month... » more | Neo4j boasts the world's largest graph database ecosystem with more than 140 million... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Licensing and pricing models | MongoDB database server: Server-Side Public License (SSPL) . Commercial licenses... » more | GPL v3 license that can be used all the places where you might use MySQL. Neo4j Commercial... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| News | The Ethics of Generative AI: Understanding the Principles and Risks GraphSummit Europe 2024: Actionable Insights From Industry Leaders and Innovators This Week in Neo4j: Knowledge Graph, Data Loading, Olympics, CSV and more Neo4j Expands Cloud Database Capabilities to Power Enterprise-Scale Graph Deployments This Week in Neo4j: NODES 2024, GraphRAG, Graph Data, Knowledge Graph and more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Elasticsearch | HyperSQL also known as HSQLDB | MongoDB | Neo4j | PostgreSQL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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