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DBMS > Google Cloud Spanner vs. Neo4j vs. Realm

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

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparisonRealm  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 offeringsA DBMS built for use on mobile devices that’s a fast, easy to use alternative to SQLite and Core Data
Primary database modelRelational DBMSGraph DBMSDocument store
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
Score6.80
Rank#51  Overall
#8  Document stores
Websitecloud.google.com/­spannerneo4j.comrealm.io
Technical documentationcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsneo4j.com/­docsrealm.io/­docs
DeveloperGoogleNeo4j, Inc.Realm, acquired by MongoDB in May 2019
Initial release201720072014
Current release5.23, August 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourcecommercialOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses availableOpen Source
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesnono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageJava, Scala
Server operating systemshostedLinux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Android
Backend: server-less
iOS
Windows
Data schemeyesschema-free and schema-optionalyes
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 indexesyesyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Luceneyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011nono
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
Java infowith Android only
Objective-C
React Native
Swift
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnoyes infoUser defined Procedures and Functionsno inforuns within the applications so server-side scripts are unnecessary
Triggersnoyes infovia event handleryes infoChange Listeners
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 onlynone
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
Immediate Consistency
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 infoIn-Memory realm
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)yes
More information provided by the system vendor
Google Cloud SpannerNeo4jRealm
News

Run Cypher From Java
13 May 2025

Integrating Neo4j With LangChain4j for GraphRAG Vector Stores and Retrievers
12 May 2025

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

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More resources
Google Cloud SpannerNeo4jRealm
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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

Neo4j Brings Graph Analytics to Any Data Platform
14 May 2025, CDOTrends

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

provided by Google News

Cloud Firestore vs Realm Platform
21 December 2022, Netguru

Danish CEO explains Silicon Valley learning curve for European entrepreneurs
6 October 2016, The Business Journals

Is Swift the Future of Server-side Development?
12 September 2017, solutionsreview.com

Java Synthetic Methods — What are these ?
27 February 2021, DataDrivenInvestor

Kotlin Programming Language Will Surpass Java On Android Next Year
15 October 2017, Fossbytes

provided by Google News



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