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DBMS > Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs. Neo4j

System Properties Comparison Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs. Neo4j

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft Azure Synapse Analytics infopreviously named Azure SQL Data Warehouse  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionA 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.Elastic, large scale data warehouse service leveraging the broad eco-system of SQL ServerScalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offerings
Primary database modelRelational DBMSRelational DBMSGraph DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score2.56
Rank#97  Overall
#50  Relational DBMS
Score14.22
Rank#37  Overall
#23  Relational DBMS
Score47.91
Rank#20  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Websitecloud.google.com/­spannerazure.microsoft.com/­services/­synapse-analyticsneo4j.com
Technical documentationcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsdocs.microsoft.com/­azure/­synapse-analyticsneo4j.com/­docs
DeveloperGoogleMicrosoftNeo4j, Inc.
Initial release201720162007
Current release5.23, August 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourcecommercialcommercialOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesyesno
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Implementation languageC++Java, Scala
Server operating systemshostedhostedLinux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeyesyesschema-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 infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011yesno
APIs and other access methodsgRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC infoAt present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
Bolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM infoObject Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3
Supported programming languagesGo
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
C#
Java
PHP
.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnoTransact SQLyes infoUser defined Procedures and Functions
Triggersnonoyes infovia event handler
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingSharding, horizontal partitioningyes using Neo4j Fabric
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.yesCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version only
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflownono
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 integrityyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrityno infodocs.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­synapse-analytics/­sql-data-warehouse/­sql-data-warehouse-table-constraintsyes infoRelationships in graphs
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACID infoStrict serializable isolationACIDACID
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 controlAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)yesUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)
More information provided by the system vendor
Google Cloud SpannerMicrosoft Azure Synapse Analytics infopreviously named Azure SQL Data WarehouseNeo4j
News

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10 May 2025

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7 May 2025

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7 May 2025

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5 May 2025

Simplify Modern Application Development With GraphQL on Neo4j AuraDB
30 April 2025

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and for displaying vendor-provided information such as key customers, competitive advantages and market metrics.

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More resources
Google Cloud SpannerMicrosoft Azure Synapse Analytics infopreviously named Azure SQL Data WarehouseNeo4j
DB-Engines blog posts

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12 June 2019, Amy Hodler & Mark Needham, Neo4j (guest author)

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2 March 2016, Paul Andlinger

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22 December 2015, Emil Eifrem (guest author)

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Recent citations in the 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

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11 April 2025, Microsoft

Azure Synapse Analytics: Transforming Data Management
12 April 2025, Simplilearn.com

Doing more with less internally at Microsoft with Microsoft Azure
23 January 2025, Microsoft

MetLife securely speeds up customer product releases using Azure DevOps
17 October 2024, Microsoft

Azure Data Factory and Security: Protect your data today
6 March 2025, Plain Concepts

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

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7 May 2025, SD Times

provided by Google News



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