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DBMS > Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. SurrealDB

System Properties Comparison Neo4j vs. PostgreSQL vs. SurrealDB

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameNeo4j  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonSurrealDB  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 SQLA fully ACID transactional, developer-friendly, multi-model DBMS
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.Document store
Graph 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
Score49.99
Rank#22  Overall
#1  Graph DBMS
Score650.90
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score0.99
Rank#223  Overall
#36  Document stores
#20  Graph DBMS
Websiteneo4j.comwww.postgresql.orgsurrealdb.com
Technical documentationneo4j.com/­docswww.postgresql.org/­docssurrealdb.com/­docs
DeveloperNeo4j, Inc.PostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerSurrealDB Ltd
Initial release20071989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL2022
Current release5.14, November 202316.1, November 2023
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoGPL version3, commercial licenses availableOpen Source infoBSDOpen Source
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 PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
Implementation languageJava, ScalaCRust
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
Linux
macOS
Windows
Data schemeschema-free and schema-optionalyesschema-free
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyes
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.
Secondary indexesyes infopluggable indexing subsystem, by default Apache Luceneyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLnoyes infostandard with numerous extensionsSQL-like query language
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
GraphQL
RESTful HTTP API
WebSocket
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
Deno
Go
JavaScript (Node.js)
Rust
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.
Triggersyes infovia event handleryes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesyes using Neo4j Fabricpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash
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 extensions
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 graphsyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
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.no
User concepts infoAccess controlUsers, roles and permissions. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)fine grained access rights according to SQL-standardyes, based on authentication and database rules
More information provided by the system vendor
Neo4jPostgreSQLSurrealDB
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: GraphAcademy, RDF, RAG, GTFS, Hume and more
9 December 2023

Unifying LLMs and Knowledge Graphs: Definitions, Use Cases & Best Practices
7 December 2023

This Week in Neo4j: RAG, Dashboards, QGIS Plugins, Needle and more
2 December 2023

Top 10 Sessions From NODES 2023
28 November 2023

This Week in Neo4j: Py2Neo, Time Series, Data Clusters, Graph Database Internals and more
25 November 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.

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More resources
Neo4jPostgreSQLSurrealDB
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)

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Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2022, defending the title from last year
3 January 2023, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2021
3 January 2022, Paul Andlinger, Matthias Gelbmann

Driving the Future of PostgreSQL Adoption
15 November 2021,  Umair Shahid, Percona (sponsor) 

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Recent citations in the news

Neo4j and AWS team up to enhance generative AI applications with graph database technology
21 November 2023, SiliconANGLE News

Neo4j Signs Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS to Enhance Generative AI Results While Addressing AI ...
21 November 2023, PR Newswire

Neo4j announces partnership with AWS to reduce AI hallucinations
21 November 2023, SDTimes.com

Neo4j Finds the Vector for Graph-LLM Integration
22 August 2023, Datanami

NoSQL Market Reach USD 86.3 Billion by 2032 at 28.1% CAGR | Top Players Such as - Riak, Neo4j and Objectivity
8 December 2023, EIN News

provided by Google News

OCI Database: Oracle Embraces PostgreSQL
7 December 2023, InfoQ.com

Data Flow Tutorial With Mage.ai | Part 4: PostgreSQL Database - Technical Articles
7 December 2023, Control.com

VMware and Google Cloud Announce Planned PostgreSQL-Compatible Database Solution for Traditional and ...
7 November 2023, VMware News

PostgreSQL Takes a New Turn
9 November 2023, The New Stack

Using Arrays in PostgreSQL: A Guide
2 August 2023, Built In

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Cloud, privacy and AI: Trends defining the future of data and databases
27 September 2023, Sifted

Introducing SurrealDB: A Quantum Leap in Database Technology
11 September 2023, TechRound

Huckletree to open two new London hubs
25 July 2023, BusinessCloud

Rust and the OS, the Web, Database and Other Languages
21 November 2022, The New Stack

Daily Crunch: Salesforce CEO admits ‘we hired too many people’ as company lays off +7,000 employees
4 January 2023, TechCrunch

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