DB-EnginesextremeDB - solve IoT connectivity disruptionsEnglish
Deutsch
Knowledge Base of Relational and NoSQL Database Management Systemsprovided by Redgate Software

DBMS > Google Cloud Spanner vs. Neo4j vs. Oracle Berkeley DB

System Properties Comparison Google Cloud Spanner vs. Neo4j vs. Oracle Berkeley DB

Please select another system to include it in the comparison.

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparisonOracle Berkeley DB  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.Scalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offeringsWidely used in-process key-value store
Primary database modelRelational DBMSGraph DBMSKey-value store infosupports sorted and unsorted key sets
Native XML DBMS infoin the Oracle Berkeley DB XML version
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score2.56
Rank#97  Overall
#50  Relational DBMS
Score47.91
Rank#20  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Score1.72
Rank#131  Overall
#21  Key-value stores
#3  Native XML DBMS
Websitecloud.google.com/­spannerneo4j.comwww.oracle.com/­database/­technologies/­related/­berkeleydb.html
Technical documentationcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsneo4j.com/­docsdocs.oracle.com/­cd/­E17076_05/­html/­index.html
DeveloperGoogleNeo4j, Inc.Oracle infooriginally developed by Sleepycat, which was acquired by Oracle
Initial release201720071994
Current release5.23, August 202418.1.40, May 2020
License infoCommercial or Open SourcecommercialOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses availableOpen Source infocommercial license available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesnono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Implementation languageJava, ScalaC, Java, C++ (depending on the Berkeley DB edition)
Server operating systemshostedLinux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
AIX
Android
FreeBSD
iOS
Linux
OS X
Solaris
VxWorks
Windows
Data schemeyesschema-free and schema-optionalschema-free
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesno
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.noyes infoonly with the Berkeley DB XML edition
Secondary indexesyesyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Luceneyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011noyes infoSQL interfaced based on SQLite is available
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
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
.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
.Net infoFigaro is a .Net framework assembly that extends Berkeley DB XML into an embeddable database engine for .NET
others infoThird-party libraries to manipulate Berkeley DB files are available for many languages
C
C#
C++
Java
JavaScript (Node.js) info3rd party binding
Perl
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnoyes infoUser defined Procedures and Functionsno
Triggersnoyes infovia event handleryes infoonly for the SQL API
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingyes using Neo4j Fabricnone
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.Causal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version onlySource-replica replication
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflownono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate 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 integrityyes infoRelationships in graphsno
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACID infoStrict serializable isolationACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyes
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.noyes
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess 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)no
More information provided by the system vendor
Google Cloud SpannerNeo4jOracle Berkeley DB
News

This Week in Neo4j: NODES, Knowledge Graph, Graph Analytics, MCP and more
10 May 2025

Aura Graph Analytics: A Technical Deep Dive
7 May 2025

Introducing Neo4j Aura Graph Analytics: Scalable, Easy-to-Deploy Graph Analytics for Any Data Source
7 May 2025

Agentic GraphRAG for Commercial Contracts
5 May 2025

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

We invite representatives of system vendors to contact us for updating and extending the system information,
and for displaying vendor-provided information such as key customers, competitive advantages and market metrics.

Related products and services

We invite representatives of vendors of related products to contact us for presenting information about their offerings here.

More resources
Google Cloud SpannerNeo4jOracle Berkeley DB
DB-Engines blog posts

Applying Graph Analytics to Game of Thrones
12 June 2019, Amy Hodler & Mark Needham, Neo4j (guest author)

MySQL, PostgreSQL and Redis are the winners of the March ranking
2 March 2016, Paul Andlinger

The openCypher Project: Help Shape the SQL for Graphs
22 December 2015, Emil Eifrem (guest author)

show all

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

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
7 May 2025, SD Times

provided by Google News

Database Trends Report: SQL Beats NoSQL, MySQL Most Popular
5 March 2019, ADTmag

Which Are the Top Local Databases for React Native
15 October 2019, appinventiv.com

Fig. 2. XML Methods for Various XML DBMS Types
29 October 2024, ResearchGate

Margo I. Seltzer
12 December 2024, Berkman Klein Center

How to Set Up Virtual Domains and Virtual Users in Postfix
20 May 2016, Linux.com

provided by Google News



Share this page

Featured Products

RaimaDB logo

RaimaDB, embedded database for mission-critical applications. When performance, footprint and reliability matters.
Try RaimaDB for free.

Datastax Astra logo

Bring all your data to Generative AI applications with vector search enabled by the most scalable
vector database available.
Try for Free

SingleStore logo

The data platform to build your intelligent applications.
Try it free.

Milvus logo

Vector database designed for GenAI, fully equipped for enterprise implementation.
Try Managed Milvus for Free

Neo4j logo

See for yourself how a graph database can make your life easier.
Use Neo4j online for free.

Present your product here