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DBMS > FoundationDB vs. Google Cloud Datastore vs. Milvus vs. Neo4j

System Properties Comparison FoundationDB vs. Google Cloud Datastore vs. Milvus vs. Neo4j

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameFoundationDB  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Datastore  Xexclude from comparisonMilvus  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparison
Created as commercial project in 2013, FoundationDB has been acquired by Apple in March 2015 and was withdrawn from the market. As a consequence, the product was removed from the DB-Engines ranking. In April 2018, Apple open-sourced FoundationDB and it therefore reappears in the ranking.
DescriptionOrdered key-value store. Core features are complimented by layers.Automatically scaling NoSQL Database as a Service (DBaaS) on the Google Cloud PlatformA DBMS designed for efficient storage of vector data and vector similarity searchesScalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offerings
Primary database modelDocument store infosupported via specific layer
Key-value store
Relational DBMS infosupported via specific SQL-layer
Document storeVector DBMSGraph DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score0.94
Rank#192  Overall
#32  Document stores
#29  Key-value stores
#89  Relational DBMS
Score3.98
Rank#70  Overall
#12  Document stores
Score2.85
Rank#95  Overall
#5  Vector DBMS
Score42.70
Rank#21  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Websitegithub.com/­apple/­foundationdbcloud.google.com/­datastoremilvus.ioneo4j.com
Technical documentationapple.github.io/­foundationdbcloud.google.com/­datastore/­docsmilvus.io/­docs/­overview.mdneo4j.com/­docs
DeveloperFoundationDBGoogleNeo4j, Inc.
Initial release2013200820192007
Current release6.2.28, November 20202.4.4, May 20245.23, August 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache 2.0commercialOpen Source infoApache Version 2.0Open Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenoyesnono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Zilliz Cloud – Cloud-native service for MilvusNeo4j Aura: Neo4j’s fully managed cloud service: The zero-admin, always-on graph database for cloud developers.
Implementation languageC++C++, GoJava, Scala
Server operating systemsLinux
OS X
Windows
hostedLinux
macOS info10.14 or later
Windows infowith WSL 2 enabled
Linux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeschema-free infosome layers support schemasschema-freeschema-free and schema-optional
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateno infosome layers support typingyes, details hereVector, Numeric and Stringyes
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 indexesnoyesnoyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Lucene
SQL infoSupport of SQLsupported in specific SQL layer onlySQL-like query language (GQL)nono
APIs and other access methodsgRPC (using protocol buffers) API
RESTful HTTP/JSON API
RESTful HTTP APIBolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM infoObject Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3
Supported programming languages.Net
C
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
PHP
Python
Ruby
Swift
.Net
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresin SQL-layer onlyusing Google App Enginenoyes infoUser defined Procedures and Functions
TriggersnoCallbacks using the Google Apps Enginenoyes infovia event handler
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingShardingShardingyes using Neo4j Fabric
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyesMulti-source replication using PaxosCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version only
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnoyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflownono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemLinearizable consistencyImmediate Consistency or Eventual Consistency depending on type of query and configuration infoStrong Consistency is default for entity lookups and queries within an Entity Group (but can instead be made eventually consistent). Other queries are always eventual consistent.Bounded Staleness
Eventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency
Session Consistency
Tunable Consistency
Causal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup
Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityin SQL-layer onlyyes infovia ReferenceProperties or Ancestor pathsnoyes infoRelationships in graphs
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACID infoSerializable Isolation within Transactions, Read Committed outside of TransactionsnoACID
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.noyes
User concepts infoAccess controlnoAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)Role based access control and fine grained access rightsUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)
More information provided by the system vendor
FoundationDBGoogle Cloud DatastoreMilvusNeo4j
Specific characteristicsMilvus is an open-source and cloud-native vector database built for production-ready...
» more
Neo4j delivers graph technology that has been battle tested for performance and scale...
» more
Competitive advantagesHighly available, versatile, and robust with millisecond latency. Supports batch...
» more
Neo4j is the market leader, graph database category creator, and the most widely...
» more
Typical application scenariosRAG: retrieval augmented generation Video media : video understanding, video deduplication....
» more
Real-Time Recommendations Master Data Management Identity and Access Management Network...
» more
Key customersMilvus is trusted by thousands of enterprises, including PayPal, eBay, IKEA, LINE,...
» more
Over 800 commercial customers and over 4300 startups use Neo4j. Flagship customers...
» more
Market metricsAs of January 2024, 25k+ GitHub stars 10M+ downloads and installations​ ​ 3k+ enterprise...
» more
Neo4j boasts the world's largest graph database ecosystem with more than 140 million...
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsMilvus was released under the open-source Apache License 2.0 in October 2019. Fully-managed...
» more
GPL v3 license that can be used all the places where you might use MySQL. Neo4j Commercial...
» more
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