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

DBMS > Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. SQLite

System Properties Comparison Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. SQLite

Please select another system to include it in the comparison.

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameNeo4j  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonSQLite  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionScalable, 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 SQLWidely used embeddable, in-process RDBMS
Primary database modelGraph DBMSRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.Relational DBMS
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
Score47.91
Rank#20  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Score674.32
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score117.77
Rank#10  Overall
#7  Relational DBMS
Websiteneo4j.comwww.postgresql.orgwww.sqlite.org
Technical documentationneo4j.com/­docswww.postgresql.org/­docswww.sqlite.org/­docs.html
DeveloperNeo4j, Inc.PostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerDwayne Richard Hipp
Initial release20071989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL2000
Current release5.23, August 202416.4, August 20243.46.1  (13 August 2024), August 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses availableOpen Source infoBSDOpen Source infoPublic Domain
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
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.
Implementation languageJava, ScalaCC
Server operating systemsLinux 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
server-less
Data schemeschema-free and schema-optionalyesyes infodynamic column types
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyes infonot rigid because of 'dynamic typing' concept.
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 infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Luceneyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLnoyes infostandard with numerous extensionsyes infoSQL-92 is not fully supported
APIs and other access methodsBolt 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
ADO.NET infoinofficial driver
JDBC infoinofficial driver
ODBC infoinofficial driver
Supported programming languages.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
Actionscript
Ada
Basic
C
C#
C++
D
Delphi
Forth
Fortran
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Lisp
Lua
MatLab
Objective-C
OCaml
Perl
PHP
PL/SQL
Python
R
Ruby
Scala
Scheme
Smalltalk
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyes infoUser defined Procedures and Functionsuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.no
Triggersyes infovia event handleryesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesyes using Neo4j Fabricpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hashnone
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesCausal Clustering using Raft protocol infoavailable in in Enterprise Version onlySource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsnone
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnonono
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 Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyes infoRelationships in graphsyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes infovia file-system locks
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 controlUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)fine grained access rights according to SQL-standardno
More information provided by the system vendor
Neo4jPostgreSQLSQLite
News

This Week in Neo4j: NODES, Knowledge Graph, Graph Analytics, MCP and more
10 May 2025

Aura Graph Analytics: A Technical Deep Dive
7 May 2025

Introducing Neo4j Aura Graph Analytics: Scalable, Easy-to-Deploy Graph Analytics for Any Data Source
7 May 2025

Agentic GraphRAG for Commercial Contracts
5 May 2025

Simplify Modern Application Development With GraphQL on Neo4j AuraDB
30 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
3rd parties
» more

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

More resources
Neo4jPostgreSQLSQLite
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

DB-Engines shares Q1 2025 database industry rankings and top climbers: Snowflake and PostgreSQL trending
1 May 2025, DB-Engines

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

show all

Big gains for Relational Database Management Systems in DB-Engines Ranking
2 February 2016, Matthias Gelbmann

show all

Recent citations in the news

NASA jettisons Neo4j database for Memgraph citing costs
7 May 2025, theregister.com

Neo4j goes serverless, bringing graph analytics to any data source
7 May 2025, SiliconANGLE

Latest Neo4j release aims to simplify graph technology
7 May 2025, TechTarget

Neo4j Launches Industry's First Graph Analytics Offering For Any Data Platform
7 May 2025, PR Newswire

Android Studio Meerkat Feature Drop, Neo4j Aura Graph Analytics, and more software development news
7 May 2025, SD Times

provided by Google News

MySQL at 30: Still important but no longer king
12 May 2025, InfoWorld

Understanding transaction visibility in PostgreSQL clusters with read replicas
2 May 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Over 1,500 PostgreSQL Servers Compromised in Fileless Cryptocurrency Mining Campaign
1 April 2025, The Hacker News

Fileless XMRig-C3 Cryptominer Targets PostgreSQL Servers
31 March 2025, wiz.io

Rapid7 Flags New PostgreSQL Zero-Day Connected to BeyondTrust Exploitation
13 February 2025, SecurityWeek

provided by Google News

Zero-latency SQLite storage in every Durable Object
26 September 2024, The Cloudflare Blog

Bcachefs, Btrfs, EXT4, F2FS & XFS File-System Performance On Linux 6.15
10 May 2025, Phoronix

SQLite re-implemented in Rust to achieve asynchronous I/O and other changes
12 December 2024, devclass

How to install SQLite on Windows
20 October 2024, theserverside.com

Google’s AI Tool Big Sleep Finds Zero-Day Vulnerability in SQLite Database Engine
4 November 2024, The Hacker News

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.

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

SingleStore logo

The data platform to build your intelligent applications.
Try it free.

Present your product here