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DBMS > Microsoft SQL Server vs. Neo4j

System Properties Comparison Microsoft SQL Server vs. Neo4j

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Our visitors often compare Microsoft SQL Server and Neo4j with MongoDB, PostgreSQL and Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB.

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonNeo4j  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionMicrosofts flagship relational DBMSScalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offerings
Primary database modelRelational DBMSGraph DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score920.09
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score51.10
Rank#22  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Websitewww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverneo4j.com
Technical documentationdocs.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverneo4j.com/­docs
DeveloperMicrosoftNeo4j, Inc.
Initial release19892007
Current releaseSQL Server 2022, November 20225.8, May 2023
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenono
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.
Implementation languageC++Java, Scala
Server operating systemsLinux
Windows
Linux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeyesschema-free and schema-optional
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyes
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
Secondary indexesyesyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Lucene
SQL infoSupport of SQLyesno
APIs and other access methodsADO.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#
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 proceduresTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javayes infoUser defined Procedures and Functions
Triggersyesyes infovia event handler
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodestables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationyes using Neo4j Fabric
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyes, 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 methodsnono
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 integrityyesyes infoRelationships in graphs
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yes
User concepts infoAccess controlfine 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 SQL ServerNeo4j
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

This Week in Neo4j: Advanced Cypher, Data Analysis, Graphyx, GraphQL APIs, and More
27 May 2023

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20 May 2023

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13 May 2023

Neo4j AuraDB Enterprise Now Available on Microsoft Azure
9 May 2023

Native vs. Non-Native Graph Database
8 May 2023

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 partiesNavicat Monitor is a safe, simple and agentless remote server monitoring tool for SQL Server and many other database management systems.
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DBHawk: Secure access to SQL, NoSQL and Cloud databases with an all-in-one solution.
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Navicat for SQL Server gives you a fully graphical approach to database management and development.
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We invite representatives of vendors of related products to contact us for presenting information about their offerings here.

More resources
Microsoft SQL ServerNeo4j
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