DBMS > Milvus vs. Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. Weaviate
System Properties Comparison Milvus vs. Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. Weaviate
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| Name | Milvus Xexclude from comparison | Neo4j Xexclude from comparison | PostgreSQL Xexclude from comparison | Weaviate Xexclude from comparison | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description | A DBMS designed for efficient storage of vector data and vector similarity searches | 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 | An AI-native realtime vector database engine that integrates scalable machine learning models. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Primary database model | Vector DBMS | Graph DBMS | Relational DBMS with object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module. | Vector DBMS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secondary database models | Document store Graph DBMS with Apache AgeSpatial DBMS Vector DBMS with pgvector extension | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Website | milvus.io | neo4j.com | www.postgresql.org | github.com/weaviate/weaviate weaviate.io | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical documentation | milvus.io/docs/overview.md | neo4j.com/docs | www.postgresql.org/docs | weaviate.io/developers/weaviate | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Developer | Neo4j, Inc. | PostgreSQL Global Development Group www.postgresql.org/developer | Weaviate B.V. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Initial release | 2019 | 2007 | 1989 1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL | 2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current release | 2.3.4, January 2024 | 5.19, April 2024 | 16.2, February 2024 | 1.19, May 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| License Commercial or Open Source | Open Source Apache Version 2.0 | Open Source GPL version3, commercial licenses available | Open Source BSD | Open Source commercial license available with Weaviate Enterprise | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cloud-based only Only available as a cloud service | no | no | no | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) Database as a Service Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed. | Zilliz Cloud – Cloud-native service for Milvus | Neo4j Aura: Neo4j’s fully managed cloud service: The zero-admin, always-on graph database for cloud developers. | Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Implementation language | C++, Go | Java, Scala | C | Go | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Server operating systems | Linux macOS 10.14 or laterWindows with WSL 2 enabled | 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 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Data scheme | schema-free and schema-optional | yes | yes, maps to GraphQL interface | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Typing predefined data types such as float or date | Vector, Numeric and String | yes | yes | yes string, int, float, geo point, date, cross reference, fuzzy references | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 | yes specific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality. | no | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secondary indexes | no | yes pluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Lucene | yes | yes all data objects are indexed in a semantic vector space (the Contextionary), all primitive fields are indexed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SQL Support of SQL | no | no | yes standard with numerous extensions | GraphQL is used as query language | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| APIs and other access methods | RESTful HTTP API | 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 | GraphQL query language RESTful HTTP/JSON API | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Supported programming languages | C++ Go Java JavaScript (Node.js) Python | .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 | JavaScript / TypeScript Python | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Server-side scripts Stored procedures | no | yes User defined Procedures and Functions | user defined functions realized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc. | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Triggers | no | yes via event handler | yes | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Partitioning methods Methods for storing different data on different nodes | Sharding | yes using Neo4j Fabric | partitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash | Sharding | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Replication methods Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes | Causal Clustering using Raft protocol available in in Enterprise Version only | Source-replica replication other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MapReduce Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods | no | no | no | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consistency concepts Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system | Bounded Staleness Eventual Consistency Immediate Consistency Session Consistency Tunable Consistency | Causal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode | Immediate Consistency | Eventual Consistency | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Foreign keys Referential integrity | no | yes Relationships in graphs | yes | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transaction concepts Support to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of data | no | ACID | ACID | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Concurrency Support for concurrent manipulation of data | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Durability Support for making data persistent | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In-memory capabilities Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only. | yes | no | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| User concepts Access control | Role based access control and fine grained access rights | Users, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos) | fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard | API Keys OpenID Connect Discovery | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| More information provided by the system vendor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Milvus | Neo4j | PostgreSQL | Weaviate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Specific characteristics | Milvus is an open-source and cloud-native vector database built for production-ready... » more | Neo4j delivers graph technology that has been battle tested for performance and scale... » more | Weaviate is an open source vector database that is robust, scalable, cloud-native,... » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Competitive advantages | Highly available, versatile, and robust with millisecond latency. Supports batch... » more | Neo4j is the market leader, graph database category creator, and the most widely... » more | Flexible deployment - Free, open source or fully-managed cloud vector database service... » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Typical application scenarios | RAG: retrieval augmented generation Video media : video understanding, video deduplication.... » more | Real-Time Recommendations Master Data Management Identity and Access Management Network... » more | As a database supporting the development of generative AI and semantic search applications... » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Key customers | Milvus is trusted by thousands of enterprises, including PayPal, eBay, IKEA, LINE,... » more | Over 800 commercial customers and over 4300 startups use Neo4j. Flagship customers... » more | All companies that have data. » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Market metrics | As of January 2024, 25k+ GitHub stars 10M+ downloads and installations 3k+ enterprise... » more | Neo4j boasts the world's largest graph database ecosystem with more than 140 million... » more | As of mid 2023: Over 2 million open source downloads 3500+ Weaviate Slack community... » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Licensing and pricing models | Milvus was released under the open-source Apache License 2.0 in October 2019. Fully-managed... » more | GPL v3 license that can be used all the places where you might use MySQL. Neo4j Commercial... » more | Weaviate is open-source, and free to use. Weaviate is also available as a fully managed... » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| News | This Week in Neo4j: GraphRAG, Knowledge Graphs, Open Source AI, GraphQL and more This Week in Neo4j: Nodes 2024, Data Modelling, Events, Knowledge Graphs and more GQL is Here: Your Cypher Queries in a GQL World GQL: The ISO Standard for Graphs Has Arrived What Is Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 3rd parties | Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
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| Milvus | Neo4j | PostgreSQL | Weaviate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DB-Engines blog posts | Vector databases | 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 | Weaviate, an ANN Database with CRUD support Monitoring PostgreSQL with Redgate Monitor What Is Milvus Vector Database? Zilliz Unveils Game-Changing Features for Vector Search AI-Powered Search Engine With Milvus Vector Database on Vultr Milvus 2.4 Unveils Game-Changing Features for Enhanced Vector Search Zilliz Cloud boosts vector database performance provided by Google News Neo4j Announces Collaboration with Microsoft to Advance GenAI and Data Solutions USA - English - India - English Neo4j Is Planning IPO on Nasdaq, Largest Owner Greenbridge Says Using Neo4j’s graph database for AI in Azure Neo4j CTO says new Graph Query Language standard will have 'massive ripple effects' Leveraging Neo4j and Amazon Bedrock for an Explainable, Secure, and Connected Generative AI Solution | Amazon ... provided by Google News Automatically Generate Types for Your PostgreSQL Database Baffle Delivers Enterprise-Grade Data Security for PostgreSQL on Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora Introducing OCI Database with PostgreSQL: Completing Our Cloud Database Suite for Every Need Oracle Introduces PostgreSQL Running Native on OCI Your MySQL 5.7 and PostgreSQL 11 databases will be automatically enrolled into Amazon RDS Extended Support ... provided by Google News Build enterprise-ready generative AI solutions with Cohere foundation models in Amazon Bedrock and Weaviate vector ... Weaviate Partners with Snowflake to Bring Secure GenAI to Snowpark Container Services Weaviate Partners with Snowflake to Bring Secure GenAI to Snowpark Container Services Foley Represents Cortical Ventures in $50M Series B Round for Weaviate Getting Started with Weaviate: A Beginner's Guide to Search with Vector Databases provided by Google News | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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