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DBMS > Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. SQLite

System Properties Comparison Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. SQLite

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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
Score50.39
Rank#23  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Score620.75
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score129.20
Rank#9  Overall
#6  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 release5.12, September 202316.0, September 20233.43.1  (11 September 2023), September 2023
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.
Neo4j Aura: Neo4j’s fully managed cloud service: The zero-admin, always-on graph database for cloud developers.Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed and hosted PostgreSQL® with 70+ extensions and orchestration tooling included.
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
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

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More resources
Neo4jPostgreSQLSQLite
DB-Engines blog posts

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Conferences and events

PostgreSQL 101: An introduction to Multi-Version Concurrency Control and Vacuum
Webinar with Q&A, 11am CT / 5pm BST, 24 October 2023

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