DB-EnginesExtremeDB for everyone with an RTOSEnglish
Deutsch
Knowledge Base of Relational and NoSQL Database Management Systemsprovided by solid IT

DBMS > Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. RethinkDB

System Properties Comparison Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. RethinkDB

Please select another system to include it in the comparison.

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameMicrosoft Azure Cosmos DB infoformer name was Azure DocumentDB  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonRethinkDB  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionGlobally distributed, horizontally scalable, multi-model database serviceScalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offeringsWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQLDBMS for the Web with a mechanism to push updated query results to applications in realtime.
Primary database modelDocument store
Graph DBMS
Key-value store
Wide column store
Graph DBMSRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.Document store
Secondary database modelsSpatial DBMSDocument store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS infowith pgvector extension
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score27.71
Rank#27  Overall
#4  Document stores
#2  Graph DBMS
#3  Key-value stores
#3  Wide column stores
Score44.89
Rank#21  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Score636.25
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score2.66
Rank#107  Overall
#20  Document stores
Websiteazure.microsoft.com/­services/­cosmos-dbneo4j.comwww.postgresql.orgrethinkdb.com
Technical documentationlearn.microsoft.com/­azure/­cosmos-dbneo4j.com/­docswww.postgresql.org/­docsrethinkdb.com/­docs
DeveloperMicrosoftNeo4j, Inc.PostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerThe Linux Foundation infosince July 2017
Initial release201420071989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL2009
Current release5.20, May 202416.3, May 20242.4.1, August 2020
License infoCommercial or Open SourcecommercialOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses availableOpen Source infoBSDOpen Source infoApache Version 2
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesnonono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase 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.
  • PostgreSQL Flex @ STACKIT offers managed PostgreSQL Instances with adjustable CPU, RAM, storage amount and speed and several extensions available, in enterprise grade to perfectly match all application requirements. All 100% GDPR-compliant.
  • Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
Implementation languageJava, ScalaCC++
Server operating systemshostedLinux infoCan 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
Windows
Data schemeschema-freeschema-free and schema-optionalyesschema-free
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyes infoJSON typesyesyesyes infostring, binary, float, bool, date, geometry
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.yes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.no
Secondary indexesyes infoAll properties auto-indexed by defaultyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Luceneyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like query languagenoyes infostandard with numerous extensionsno
APIs and other access methodsDocumentDB API
Graph API (Gremlin)
MongoDB API
RESTful HTTP API
Table API
Bolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM infoObject Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languages.Net
C#
Java
JavaScript
JavaScript (Node.js)
MongoDB client drivers written for various programming languages
Python
.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
C infocommunity-supported driver
C# infocommunity-supported driver
C++ infocommunity-supported driver
Clojure infocommunity-supported driver
Dart infocommunity-supported driver
Erlang infocommunity-supported driver
Go infocommunity-supported driver
Haskell infocommunity-supported driver
Java infoofficial driver
JavaScript (Node.js) infoofficial driver
Lisp infocommunity-supported driver
Lua infocommunity-supported driver
Objective-C infocommunity-supported driver
Perl infocommunity-supported driver
PHP infocommunity-supported driver
Python infoofficial driver
Ruby infoofficial driver
Scala infocommunity-supported driver
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresJavaScriptyes infoUser defined Procedures and Functionsuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
TriggersJavaScriptyes infovia event handleryesClient-side triggers through changefeeds
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infoImplicit feature of the cloud serviceyes using Neo4j Fabricpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hashSharding inforange based
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyes infoImplicit feature of the cloud serviceCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version onlySource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsSource-replica replication
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodswith Hadoop integration infoIntegration with Hadoop/HDInsight on Azure*nonoyes
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemBounded Staleness
Consistent Prefix
Eventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infoConsistency level configurable on request level
Session Consistency
Causal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup
Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode
Immediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyes infoRelationships in graphsyesno
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataMulti-item ACID transactions with snapshot isolation within a partitionACIDACIDAtomic single-document operations
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyes infoMVCC based
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.nono
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights can be defined down to the item levelUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)fine grained access rights according to SQL-standardyes infousers and table-level permissions
More information provided by the system vendor
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB infoformer name was Azure DocumentDBNeo4jPostgreSQLRethinkDB
Specific characteristicsNeo4j delivers graph technology that has been battle tested for performance and scale...
» more
Competitive advantagesNeo4j is the market leader, graph database category creator, and the most widely...
» more
Typical application scenariosReal-Time Recommendations Master Data Management Identity and Access Management Network...
» more
Key customersOver 800 commercial customers and over 4300 startups use Neo4j. Flagship customers...
» more
Market metricsNeo4j boasts the world's largest graph database ecosystem with more than 140 million...
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsGPL v3 license that can be used all the places where you might use MySQL. Neo4j Commercial...
» more
News

Neo4j-Databricks Connector Delivers Deeper Insights, Faster GenAI Development
10 June 2024

This Week in Neo4j: Podcast, Testing, Knowledge Graph, GenAI and more
8 June 2024

Neo4j and Snowflake Bring Graph Data Science Into the AI Data Cloud
4 June 2024

RDF vs. Property Graphs: Choosing the Right Approach for Implementing a Knowledge Graph
4 June 2024

This Week in Neo4j: Importing Data, NODES, GenAI, Going Meta and more
1 June 2024

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
3rd partiesCData: Connect to Big Data & NoSQL through standard Drivers.
» more
Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
» 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

Redgate webinars: A series of key topics for new PostgreSQL users.
» more

Navicat for PostgreSQL is an easy-to-use graphical tool for PostgreSQL database development.
» more

Timescale: Calling all PostgreSQL users – the 2023 State of PostgreSQL survey is now open! Share your favorite extensions, preferred frameworks, community experiences, and more. Take the survey today!
» more

SharePlex is the reliable and affordable data replication solution for PostgreSQL migrations, high availability and more.
» more

Fujitsu Enterprise Postgres: An Enterprise Grade PostgreSQL with the flexibility of a hybrid cloud solution combined with industry leading security, availability and performance.
» more

pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring.
» more

Navicat Monitor is a safe, simple and agentless remote server monitoring tool for PostgreSQL and many other database management systems.
» more

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

More resources
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB infoformer name was Azure DocumentDBNeo4jPostgreSQLRethinkDB
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

PostgreSQL is the DBMS of the Year 2023
2 January 2024, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2022, defending the title from last year
3 January 2023, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2021
3 January 2022, Paul Andlinger, Matthias Gelbmann

show all

Meet some database management systems you are likely to hear more about in the future
4 August 2014, Paul Andlinger

show all

Recent citations in the news

Public Preview: DiskANN vector indexing and search in Azure Cosmos DB NoSQL | Azure updates
21 May 2024, Microsoft

Start your AI journey with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB—compete for $10K
9 May 2024, Microsoft

Public Preview: vCore-based Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB cross-region disaster recovery (DR) | Azure updates
21 May 2024, Microsoft

Building Planet-Scale .NET Apps with Azure Cosmos DB
4 June 2024, Visual Studio Magazine

Public preview: Change partition key of a container in Azure Cosmos DB (NoSQL API) | Azure updates
27 March 2024, Microsoft

provided by Google News

Neo4j employs knowledge graphs as part of the AI stack
11 June 2024, SiliconANGLE News

Neo4j graph analytics integrated with Snowflake's AI cloud – Blocks and Files
7 June 2024, Blocks and Files

Neo4j Announces Collaboration with Microsoft to Advance GenAI and Data Solutions USA - English - India - English
26 March 2024, PR Newswire

Neo4j announces collaboration with Snowflake for advanced AI insights and predictive analytics – Intelligent CIO North ...
7 June 2024, intelligentcio.com

Using Neo4j’s graph database for AI in Azure
4 April 2024, InfoWorld

provided by Google News

A New Era AI Databases: PostgreSQL with pgvectorscale Outperforms Pinecone and Cuts Costs by 75% with New Open-Source Extensions
12 June 2024, MarkTechPost

PostgreSQL is Now Faster than Pinecone, 75% Cheaper, with New Open Source Extensions
11 June 2024, PR Newswire

Timescale unveils high-performance AI vector database extensions for PostgreSQL
11 June 2024, SiliconANGLE News

PostgreSQL Tutorial: Definition, Commands, & Features
4 June 2024, Simplilearn

How To Schedule PostgreSQL Backups With GitHub Actions
6 June 2024, The New Stack

provided by Google News

An introduction to building realtime apps with RethinkDB
9 July 2022, devm.io

How to Use RethinkDB with Node.js Applications — SitePoint
16 December 2015, SitePoint

Stripe acquires team behind NoSQL database startup RethinkDB
5 October 2016, VentureBeat

RethinkDB is dead, and MongoDB isn't what killed it
24 January 2017, TechRepublic

How to deploy RethinkDB using Docker
14 February 2018, Packt Hub

provided by Google News



Share this page

Featured Products

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

Milvus logo

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

Present your product here