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DBMS > Neo4j vs. OrientDB vs. PostgreSQL vs. Riak KV

System Properties Comparison Neo4j vs. OrientDB vs. PostgreSQL vs. Riak KV

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameNeo4j  Xexclude from comparisonOrientDB  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonRiak KV  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionScalable, ACID-compliant graph database designed with a high-performance distributed cluster architecture, available in self-hosted and cloud offeringsMulti-model DBMS (Document, Graph, Key/Value)Widely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQLDistributed, fault tolerant key-value store
Primary database modelGraph DBMSDocument store
Graph DBMS
Key-value store
Relational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.Key-value store infowith links between data sets and object tags for the creation of secondary indexes
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS infowith pgvector extension
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score44.47
Rank#23  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Score3.27
Rank#97  Overall
#16  Document stores
#6  Graph DBMS
#15  Key-value stores
Score645.05
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score4.44
Rank#80  Overall
#9  Key-value stores
Websiteneo4j.comorientdb.orgwww.postgresql.org
Technical documentationneo4j.com/­docswww.orientdb.com/­docs/­last/­index.htmlwww.postgresql.org/­docswww.tiot.jp/­riak-docs/­riak/­kv/­latest
DeveloperNeo4j, Inc.OrientDB LTD; CallidusCloud; SAPPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerOpenSource, formerly Basho Technologies
Initial release200720101989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL2009
Current release5.18.1, March 20243.2.29, March 202416.2, February 20243.2.0, December 2022
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses availableOpen Source infoApache version 2Open Source infoBSDOpen Source infoApache version 2, commercial enterprise edition
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenononono
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.Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
Implementation languageJava, ScalaJavaCErlang
Server operating systemsLinux infoCan also be used server-less as embedded Java database.
OS X
Solaris
Windows
All OS with a Java JDK (>= JDK 6)FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Linux
OS X
Data schemeschema-free and schema-optionalschema-free infoSchema can be enforced for whole record ("schema-full") or for some fields only ("schema-hybrid")yesschema-free
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyesno
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 infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.no
Secondary indexesyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Luceneyesyesrestricted
SQL infoSupport of SQLnoSQL-like query language, no joinsyes infostandard with numerous extensionsno
APIs and other access methodsBolt protocol
Cypher query language
Java API
Neo4j-OGM infoObject Graph Mapper
RESTful HTTP API
Spring Data Neo4j
TinkerPop 3
Tinkerpop technology stack with Blueprints, Gremlin, Pipes
Java API
RESTful HTTP/JSON API
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
HTTP API
Native Erlang Interface
Supported programming languages.Net
Clojure
Elixir
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
.Net
C
C#
C++
Clojure
Java
JavaScript
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
C infounofficial client library
C#
C++ infounofficial client library
Clojure infounofficial client library
Dart infounofficial client library
Erlang
Go infounofficial client library
Groovy infounofficial client library
Haskell infounofficial client library
Java
JavaScript infounofficial client library
Lisp infounofficial client library
Perl infounofficial client library
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala infounofficial client library
Smalltalk infounofficial client library
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyes infoUser defined Procedures and FunctionsJava, Javascriptuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.Erlang
Triggersyes infovia event handlerHooksyesyes infopre-commit hooks and post-commit hooks
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesyes using Neo4j FabricShardingpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hashSharding infono "single point of failure"
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version onlyMulti-source replicationSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsselectable replication factor
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnono infocould be achieved with distributed queriesnoyes
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemCausal and Eventual Consistency configurable in Causal Cluster setup
Immediate Consistency in stand-alone mode
Immediate ConsistencyEventual Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyes infoRelationships in graphsyes inforelationship in graphsyesno infolinks between data sets can be stored
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACIDACIDno
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyes
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.no
User concepts infoAccess controlUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)Access rights for users and roles; record level security configurablefine grained access rights according to SQL-standardyes, using Riak Security
More information provided by the system vendor
Neo4jOrientDBPostgreSQLRiak KV
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

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This Week in Neo4j: GenAI, Workshop Recordings, Graph Data Science Book and more
6 April 2024

This Week in Neo4j: Vectors, Knowledge Graphs, Clustering, Social Networks and more
30 March 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.

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