DB-EnginesextremeDB - Data management wherever you need itEnglish
Deutsch
Knowledge Base of Relational and NoSQL Database Management Systemsprovided by Redgate Software

DBMS > Microsoft Azure AI Search vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. Neo4j

System Properties Comparison Microsoft Azure AI Search vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. Neo4j

Please select another system to include it in the comparison.

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameMicrosoft Azure AI Search  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionSearch-as-a-service for web and mobile app developmentMicrosofts flagship relational DBMSScalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offerings
Primary database modelSearch engineRelational DBMSGraph DBMS
Secondary database modelsVector DBMSDocument store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score5.28
Rank#61  Overall
#7  Search engines
Score774.89
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score47.91
Rank#20  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Websiteazure.microsoft.com/­en-us/­services/­searchwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverneo4j.com
Technical documentationlearn.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­searchlearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverneo4j.com/­docs
DeveloperMicrosoftMicrosoftNeo4j, Inc.
Initial release201519892007
Current releaseV1SQL Server 2022, November 20225.23, August 2024
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercialcommercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses 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.
SQLServer Flex @ STACKIT offers a managed version of SQL Server with adjustable CPU, RAM, storage amount and speed, in enterprise grade to perfectly match all application requirements. All services are 100% GDPR-compliant.
Implementation languageC++Java, Scala
Server operating systemshostedLinux
Windows
Linux 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.noyes
Secondary indexesyesyesyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Lucene
SQL infoSupport of SQLnoyesno
APIs and other access methodsRESTful HTTP APIADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
Bolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM infoObject Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3
Supported programming languagesC#
Java
JavaScript
Python
C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnoTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javayes infoUser defined Procedures and Functions
Triggersnoyesyes infovia event handler
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infoImplicit feature of the cloud servicetables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationyes using Neo4j Fabric
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyes infoImplicit feature of the cloud serviceyes, but depending on the SQL-Server EditionCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version only
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnonono
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 integritynoyesyes infoRelationships in graphs
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datanoACIDACID
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.noyes
User concepts infoAccess controlyes infousing Azure authenticationfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)
More information provided by the system vendor
Microsoft Azure AI SearchMicrosoft SQL ServerNeo4j
News

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

Text2Cypher: The Impact of Difficult Example Selection
29 April 2025

This Week in Neo4j: MCP, Snowflake, GenAI, GraphRAG and more
26 April 2025

Is a Knowledge Graph a Graph Database?
25 April 2025

Transform Static Risk Assessment Into a Dynamic Data-Driven Strategy
22 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
Microsoft Azure AI SearchMicrosoft SQL ServerNeo4j
DB-Engines blog posts

MySQL is the DBMS of the Year 2019
3 January 2020, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

The struggle for the hegemony in Oracle's database empire
2 May 2017, Paul Andlinger

Microsoft SQL Server is the DBMS of the Year
4 January 2017, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

show all

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

Azure AI Foundry: Your GPS for the changing AI landscape
28 April 2025, Microsoft Azure

How agentic AI is driving AI-first business transformation for customers to achieve more
28 April 2025, The Official Microsoft Blog

UBS enhances in-house legal search using Azure AI Search and Azure OpenAI Service
25 March 2025, Microsoft

Creating better healthcare outcomes with Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Foundry
10 April 2025, Microsoft Azure

Announcing the Responses API and Computer-Using Agent in Azure AI Foundry
11 March 2025, Microsoft Azure

provided by Google News

Why SQL Server Is Still Worth It
24 March 2025, Redmondmag.com

The year ahead for SQL Server: Ground to cloud to fabric
15 January 2025, Microsoft

SQL Server 2019 installation for Lab
27 January 2025, Spiceworks Community

How to Recover Deleted Data from SQL Server without Backup
22 April 2025, Infosecurity Magazine

Ola Hallengren’s SQL Server Maintenance Solution in AWS
8 March 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

provided by Google News

3263: How Neo4j and Graph Databases Help Enterprises Make Smarter Decisions
1 May 2025, iHeart

Data Science Firm Neo4j Reportedly Prepping IPO
19 November 2024, PYMNTS.com

How Neo4j Uses Graph Technology With LLMs to Replace SaaS Applications
29 April 2025, Analytics India Magazine

Neo4j Surpasses $200M in Revenue, Accelerates Leadership in GenAI-Driven Graph Technology
19 November 2024, PR Newswire

Discover Graph Databases with Neo4j and PHP
7 November 2024, SitePoint

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.

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.

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.

Present your product here