Open source Cypher graph databases compared
Graph databases that speak Cypher or openCypher under a non-proprietary license.
32 active open source cypher graph databases are in the catalogue. They are written mostly in Java and C++, 32 are open source, and 8 carry survey feature scores. Kuzu, KatanaGraph, PandaDB are no longer active and listed separately below.
| Attribute | Neo4j | Memgraph | FalkorDB | ArcadeDB | Apache HugeGraph | AgensGraph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||||||
| Rank | #1 | #5 | #6 | #15 | #41 | #54 |
| Score | 83.3 | 64.6 | 64.6 | 60.7 | 51.0 | 48.4 |
| GitHub stars | 17.2k | 4.4k | 5.8k | 1.1k | 3.2k | 1.5k |
| Popularity | 97.3 | 67.0 | 63.1 | 54.1 | 76.9 | 57.2 |
| Activity | 86.7 | 82.1 | 80.0 | 78.6 | 44.4 | 53.3 |
| Community | 90.2 | 61.0 | 72.1 | 54.1 | 31.7 | 30.6 |
| Research | 98.6 | 61.1 | 54.3 | 72.1 | 49.6 | 49.6 |
| Fundamentals | ||||||
| Description | A property graph database that stores data as fixed-size records in linked lists for index-free adjacency traversal. Offers community and commercial editions with an extensive graph algorithms library. | An in-memory property graph database with ACID transactions and strong consistency. Includes the MAGE library of graph algorithms and supports real-time streaming ingestion. | A property graph database that runs as a Redis module, formerly RedisGraph. Uses GraphBLAS sparse matrix operations for query execution, enabling parallel graph traversal. | A multi-model database inspired by OrientDB, supporting graphs, documents, key-value, time-series, and search. Uses RAFT-based replication for high availability. | A TinkerPop 3-compliant property graph database with a pluggable storage layer supporting RocksDB, Cassandra, and HBase. Uses edge-cut partitioning for distributed graph processing. | A multi-model graph database built on PostgreSQL, supporting property graphs with JSON properties. Enables hybrid openCypher and SQL query processing on the same data. |
| Vendor | Neo4j Inc | Memgraph | FalkorDB | ArcadeDB | Apache Software Foundation | SKAI Worldwide |
| Model | Property Graph | Property Graph | Property Graph | Multiple | Property Graph | Property Graph |
| Kind | database | database | database | database | database | extension |
| Category | Established | Enterprise | Established | Growing | Established | Growing |
| First released | 2007 | 2020-05 | 2018-07 | 2021-09 | 2018-08 | 2016-11 |
| Status | active | active | active | active | active | active |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BUSL-1.1 | SSPL-1.0 | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | C++ | C | Java | Java | C |
| Query languages | Cypher, GQL | openCypher | openCypher | SQL, openCypher, Gremlin, GraphQL | Gremlin, openCypher | openCypher, SQL |
| gdotv support | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no |
Feature scores 37 of 46 rows differ
| Feature | Neo4j | Memgraph | FalkorDB | ArcadeDB | Apache HugeGraph | AgensGraph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community & Business | ||||||
| Active development | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Commercial support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Live community | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 0.75 |
| Open Source | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing | 0.5 | · | ✓ | ✓ | · | · |
| Trendiness | ✓ | 0.25 | 0.5 | · | ✓ | · |
| Deployment | ||||||
| Containerization | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| Work as dedicated instance | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Work as embedded | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Testing in-memory version | ✓ | 0.75 | ✓ | · | ✓ | · |
| Platform | ||||||
| Operating on Linux | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Operating on Windows | ✓ | 0.5 | 0.75 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SaaS offering | ✓ | ✓ | · | · | · | ✓ |
| Operations | ||||||
| Automatic updates | · | · | · | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| Client side caching | · | · | 0.5 | · | · | · |
| Data versioning support | · | · | · | · | · | · |
| Live backups | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Distribution | ||||||
| Cluster Re-balancing | · | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | · |
| Data Distribution | ✓ | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | · |
| High-Availability | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Query Distribution | ✓ | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | · |
| Replication support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Developer Experience | ||||||
| Data types defined | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Logging/Auditing | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Object-Graph Mapper | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ | · |
| Reactive programming | ✓ | · | 0.5 | ✓ | · | · |
| Documentation up-to-date | ✓ | 0.75 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Binary protocol | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| CLI | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| GUI | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data Model | ||||||
| Multi-database | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Graph-native data | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| REST API | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| Query Language | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transactions | ||||||
| Granular locking | ✓ | · | · | · | ✓ | · |
| Multiple isolation levels | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Read committed transaction | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transaction support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Schema & Security | ||||||
| Constraints | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Schema support | ✓ | 0.75 | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Secondary indexes | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Server side procedures | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Triggers | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Authentication | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Authorization | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data encryption | · | · | 0.5 | ✓ | · | · |
All 32 engines
| Name | Vendor | Model | Category | GitHub stars | License | Written in | Query languages | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LadybugDB | LadybugDB | Property Graph | Growing | 1.7k | MIT | C++ | openCypher | #8 |
| Apache AGE | Apache Software Foundation | Property Graph | Established | 4.8k | Apache-2.0 | C | openCypher, SQL | #13 |
| GFQL | Graphistry | Property Graph | Growing | 2.6k | BSD-3-Clause | Python | GFQL, openCypher | #19 |
| TuGraph | Ant Group | Property Graph | Established | 1.8k | Apache-2.0 | C++ | openCypher, GQL | #40 |
| Quine | thatDot | Property Graph | Emerging | 361 | MIT + Commons Clause | Scala | openCypher, Gremlin | #45 |
| GraphScope | Alibaba | Property Graph | Growing | 3.6k | Apache-2.0 | C++ | Gremlin, openCypher | #48 |
| TuringDB | Turing Biosystems | Property Graph | Emerging | 180 | BUSL-1.1 | C++ | openCypher | #53 |
| Lance Graph | LanceDB Inc | Property Graph | Emerging | 176 | Apache-2.0 | Rust | SQL, openCypher | #58 |
| NeuG | Alibaba | Property Graph | Emerging | 143 | Apache-2.0 | C++ | openCypher | #59 |
| NornicDB | orneryd | Property Graph | Emerging | 854 | MIT | Go | openCypher, GraphQL | #60 |
| Grafeo | GrafeoDB | Multiple | Emerging | 766 | Apache-2.0 | Rust | GQL, openCypher, SPARQL, Gremlin, GraphQL, SQL/PGQ | #85 |
| Bighorn | Kineviz | Property Graph | Emerging | 133 | MIT | C++ | openCypher | #89 |
| FalkorDBLite | FalkorDB | Property Graph | Emerging | 62 | SSPL-1.0 | Python | openCypher | #90 |
| RyuGraph | Predictable Labs | Property Graph | Emerging | 144 | MIT | C++ | openCypher | #93 |
| YugabyteDB MAGE | Yugabyte | Property Graph | Emerging | 10.5k | Apache-2.0 | C | openCypher, SQL | #95 |
| NodeDB | NodeDB-Lab | Multiple | Emerging | 196 | BUSL-1.1 | Rust | SQL, openCypher | #102 |
| GraphQLite | Colliery IO | Property Graph | Emerging | 475 | MIT | C | openCypher | #109 |
| LatticeDB | Jeff Hajewski | Property Graph | Emerging | 646 | MIT | Zig | Cypher | #114 |
| TurboLynx | POSTECH (DSLab) | Property Graph | Emerging | 25 | MIT | C++ | openCypher | #124 |
| ONgDB | Graph Foundation | Property Graph | Emerging | 440 | GPL-3.0 OR AGPL-3.0 | Java | Cypher | #128 |
| BangDB | BangDB | Other | Emerging | 59 | BSD-3-Clause | C++ | openCypher | #132 |
| KGLite | Kristian dF Kollsgård | Property Graph | Emerging | 37 | MIT | Rust | openCypher, Custom API | #133 |
| AstraeaDB | AstraeaDB | Property Graph | Emerging | 4 | MIT | Rust | GQL, Cypher | #138 |
| CodeMix Graph | Codemix | Property Graph | Emerging | 110 | MIT | TypeScript | Gremlin, openCypher | #142 |
| DozerDB | Graph Foundation | Property Graph | Emerging | 145 | GPL-3.0 | Java | Cypher | #150 |
| LoraDB | LoraDB | Property Graph | Emerging | 20 | BUSL-1.1 | Rust | Cypher | #151 |
No longer active
- Kuzu — Acquired by Apple in October 2025. Repository archived. Continued as LadybugDB and Bighorn forks.
- KatanaGraph — Katana Graph shut down in 2023. GitHub repositories archived.
- PandaDB — No development activity since 2022
- Graphflow — Research prototype from University of Waterloo. Succeeded by Kuzu.