DBMS > Graph Engine vs. GraphDB vs. Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. RDF4J
System Properties Comparison Graph Engine vs. GraphDB vs. Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. RDF4J
| Editorial information provided by DB-Engines | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Name | Graph Engine  former name: Trinity Xexclude from comparison | GraphDB former name: OWLIM Xexclude from comparison | Neo4j Xexclude from comparison | PostgreSQL Xexclude from comparison | RDF4J formerly known as Sesame Xexclude from comparison | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description | A distributed in-memory data processing engine, underpinned by a strongly-typed RAM store and a general distributed computation engine | Enterprise-ready RDF and graph database with efficient reasoning, cluster and external index synchronization support. It supports also SQL JDBC access to Knowledge Graph and GraphQL over SPARQL. | 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 | RDF4J is a Java framework for processing RDF data, supporting both memory-based and a disk-based storage. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Primary database model | Graph DBMS Key-value store | Graph DBMS RDF 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. | RDF store | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secondary database models | Document store Graph DBMS with Apache AgeSpatial DBMS Vector DBMS with pgvector extension | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | www.graphengine.io | www.ontotext.com | neo4j.com | www.postgresql.org | rdf4j.org | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical documentation | www.graphengine.io/docs/manual | graphdb.ontotext.com/documentation | neo4j.com/docs | www.postgresql.org/docs | rdf4j.org/documentation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Social network pages |      | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Developer | Microsoft | Ontotext | Neo4j, Inc. | PostgreSQL Global Development Group www.postgresql.org/developer | Since 2016 officially forked into an Eclipse project, former developer was Aduna Software. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Initial release | 2010 | 2000 | 2007 | 1989 1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL | 2004 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current release | 10.4, October 2023 | 5.20, May 2024 | 16.3, May 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| License Commercial or Open Source | Open Source MIT License | commercial Some plugins of GraphDB Workbench are open sourced | Open Source GPL version3, commercial licenses available | Open Source BSD | Open Source Eclipse Distribution License (EDL), v1.0. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cloud-based only Only available as a cloud service | no | no | no | 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. |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Implementation language | .NET and C | Java | Java, Scala | C | Java | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Server operating systems | .NET | All OS with a Java VM Linux OS X 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 | Linux OS X Unix Windows | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Data scheme | yes | schema-free and OWL/RDFS-schema support; RDF shapes | schema-free and schema-optional | yes | yes RDF Schemas | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Typing predefined data types such as float or date | yes | yes | yes | 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, supports real-time synchronization and indexing in SOLR/Elastic search/Lucene and GeoSPARQL geometry data indexes | yes pluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Lucene | yes | yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SQL Support of SQL | no | stored SPARQL accessed as SQL using Apache Calcite through JDBC/ODBC | no | yes standard with numerous extensions | no | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| APIs and other access methods | RESTful HTTP API | GeoSPARQL GraphQL GraphQL Federation Java API JDBC RDF4J API RDFS RIO Sail API Sesame REST HTTP Protocol SPARQL 1.1 | 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 | Java API RIO RDF Input/OutputSail API SeRQL Sesame RDF Query LanguageSesame REST HTTP Protocol SPARQL | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Supported programming languages | C# C++ F# Visual Basic | .Net C# Clojure Java JavaScript (Node.js) PHP Python Ruby Scala | .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 | Java PHP Python | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Server-side scripts Stored procedures | yes | well-defined plugin interfaces; JavaScript server-side extensibility | yes User defined Procedures and Functions | user defined functions realized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc. | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Triggers | no | no | yes via event handler | yes | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Partitioning methods Methods for storing different data on different nodes | horizontal partitioning | none | yes using Neo4j Fabric | partitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash | none | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Replication methods Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes | Multi-source replication | Causal Clustering using Raft protocol available in in Enterprise Version only | Source-replica replication other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions | none | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MapReduce Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods | no | no | no | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consistency concepts Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system | Immediate Consistency, Eventual consistency (configurable in cluster mode per master or individual client request) | Causal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode | Immediate Consistency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Foreign keys Referential integrity | no | yes Constraint checking | yes Relationships in graphs | yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transaction concepts Support to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of data | no | ACID | ACID | ACID | ACID Isolation support depends on the API used | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Concurrency Support for concurrent manipulation of data | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Durability Support for making data persistent | optional: either by committing a write-ahead log (WAL) to the local persistent storage or by dumping the memory to a persistent storage | yes | yes | yes | yes in-memory storage is supported as well | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In-memory capabilities Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only. | yes | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| User concepts Access control | Default Basic authentication through RDF4J client, or via Java when run with cURL, default token-based in the Workbench or via Rest API, optional access through OpenID or Kerberos single sign-on. | Users, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos) | fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| More information provided by the system vendor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Graph Engine former name: Trinity | GraphDB former name: OWLIM | Neo4j | PostgreSQL | RDF4J formerly known as Sesame | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Specific characteristics | Ontotext GraphDB is a semantic database engine that allows organizations to build... » more | Neo4j delivers graph technology that has been battle tested for performance and scale... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Competitive advantages | GraphDB allows you to link text and data in big knowledge graphs. It’s easy to experiment... » more | Neo4j is the market leader, graph database category creator, and the most widely... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Typical application scenarios | Metadata enrichment and management, linked data publishing, semantic inferencing... » more | Real-Time Recommendations Master Data Management Identity and Access Management Network... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Key customers | GraphDB provides a platform for building next-generation AI and Knowledge Graph... » more | Over 800 commercial customers and over 4300 startups use Neo4j. Flagship customers... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Market metrics | GraphDB is the most utilized semantic triplestore for mission-critical enterprise... » more | Neo4j boasts the world's largest graph database ecosystem with more than 140 million... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Licensing and pricing models | GraphDB Free is a non-commercial version and is free to use. GraphDB Enterprise edition... » more | GPL v3 license that can be used all the places where you might use MySQL. Neo4j Commercial... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| News | Riding the Databricks Wave with Hybrid Knowledge Graphs Matching Skills and Candidates with Graph RAG A Triple Store RAG Retriever Integrating GraphDB with Relational Database Systems Understanding the Graph Center of Excellence | This Week in Neo4j: Llamaindex, Semantic Search, Graph Database, Entity Resolution and more Neo4j-Databricks Connector Delivers Deeper Insights, Faster GenAI Development This Week in Neo4j: Podcast, Testing, Knowledge Graph, GenAI and more Neo4j and Snowflake Bring Graph Data Science Into the AI Data Cloud RDF vs. Property Graphs: Choosing the Right Approach for Implementing a Knowledge Graph | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
We invite representatives of system vendors to contact us for updating and extending the system information, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Related products and services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3rd parties | Navicat Monitor is a safe, simple and agentless remote server monitoring tool for PostgreSQL and many other database management systems. » more Redgate webinars: A series of key topics for new PostgreSQL users. » more Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools. » more SharePlex is the reliable and affordable data replication solution for PostgreSQL migrations, high availability and more. » more Navicat for PostgreSQL is an easy-to-use graphical tool for PostgreSQL database development. » more pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring. » more Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL » more CYBERTEC is your professional partner in PostgreSQL topics for over 20 years. As our main aim is to be your single-source all-in-one IT service provider, we offer a wide range of products and services. Visit our website for more details. » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
We invite representatives of vendors of related products to contact us for presenting information about their offerings here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| More resources | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Graph Engine former name: Trinity | GraphDB former name: OWLIM | Neo4j | PostgreSQL | RDF4J formerly known as Sesame | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DB-Engines blog posts | Applying Graph Analytics to Game of Thrones MySQL, PostgreSQL and Redis are the winners of the March ranking The openCypher Project: Help Shape the SQL for Graphs | PostgreSQL is the DBMS of the Year 2023 Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2022, defending the title from last year Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Recent citations in the news | Trinity Open source Microsoft Graph Engine takes on Neo4j IBM releases Graph, a service that can outperform SQL databases The graph analytics landscape 2019 - DataScienceCentral.com Aerospike Is Now a Graph Database, Too provided by Google News | Ontotext's GraphDB Solution Now Available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace Ontotext's GraphDB 10 Brings Modern Data Architectures to the Mainstream with Better Resilience and Еаsier Operations Ontotext Platform 3.0 for Enterprise Knowledge Graphs Released It's just semantics: Bulgarian software dev Ontotext squeezes out GraphDB 9.1 Ontotext's GraphDB 8.10 Makes Knowledge Graph Experience Faster and Richer provided by Google News | Neo4j employs knowledge graphs as part of the AI stack Neo4j Announces Collaboration with Microsoft to Advance GenAI and Data Solutions USA - English - India - English Neo4j graph analytics integrated with Snowflake’s AI cloud Using Neo4j’s graph database for AI in Azure Neo4j Is Planning IPO on Nasdaq, Largest Owner Greenbridge Says provided by Google News | PostgreSQL is Now Faster than Pinecone, 75% Cheaper, with New Open Source Extensions Timescale unveils high-performance AI vector database extensions for PostgreSQL PostgreSQL Tutorial: Definition, Commands, & Features Raise the bar on AI-powered app development with Azure Database for PostgreSQL How to implement a better like, views, comment counters in PostgreSQL? provided by Google News | GraphDB Goes Open Source Ontotext's GraphDB 8.10 Makes Knowledge Graph Experience Faster and Richer provided by Google News | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Share this page
