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DataStax Enterprise

A property graph database built on Apache Cassandra, forked from the Titan graph database. Uses TinkerPop for graph traversal and includes DataStax Studio for interactive querying and visualization.

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Overall rank
#50
First released
April 2016
License
Proprietary
Built with
Java

Details

Vendor
IBM
Type
Property Graph
Category
Established
License
Proprietary
Language
Java
Query Languages
GremlinCQL
Protocols
Native binary

Feature scores

Community & Business

Active development
✓
Updated within last 3 months
Commercial support
✓
Paid support available
Live community
25%
<25% of issues addressed
Open Source
0%
Closed source
Pricing
0%
No pricing information
Trendiness
25%
No description available

Deployment

Containerization
✓
Docker image available
Work as dedicated instance
✓
Can run as standalone server
Work as embedded
0%
Standalone only
Testing in-memory version
0%
No in-memory option

Platform

Operating on Linux
✓
Linux officially supported
Operating on Windows
50%
Docker image available
SaaS offering
✓
Cloud service available

Operations

Automatic updates
0%
Manual updates only
Client side caching
0%
No client-side caching
Data versioning support
0%
No versioning
Live backups
✓
Hot backup supported

Distribution

Cluster Re-balancing
✓
Auto-rebalancing supported
Data Distribution
✓
Data sharding supported
High-Availability
✓
HA mechanisms available
Query Distribution
✓
Distributed query execution
Replication support
✓
Replication available

Developer Experience

Data types defined
✓
Composite data types
Logging/Auditing
✓
Event logging supported
Object-Graph Mapper
✓
OGM/ORM available
Reactive programming
0%
No reactive programming
Documentation up-to-date
50%
Docs exist but outdated
Binary protocol
✓
Binary protocol available
CLI
✓
Command-line interface
GUI
✓
Visual interface available

Data Model

Multi-database
0%
Graph-only
Graph-native data
0%
Graph abstraction layer
REST API
0%
No REST API
Query Language
✓
Standard query language (Cypher/Gremlin)

Transactions

Granular locking
0%
No granular locking
Multiple isolation levels
0%
Read uncommitted only
Read committed transaction
0%
Not available
Transaction support
0%
No transactions

Schema & Security

Constraints
✓
Full constraint support
Schema support
✓
Schema definition tools
Secondary indexes
✓
Secondary indexes supported
Server side procedures
0%
No stored procedures
Triggers
✓
Event triggers supported
Authentication
✓
Authentication supported
Authorization
✓
Role-based access control
Data encryption
✓
Data encryption supported
Sources 6 references

Protocols Native binary

Both the DSE driver's execute_graph() and, in the current DSE 6.9 release, the bundled dse gremlin-console tool itself default to the Cassandra CQL native binary protocol (port 9042) rather than a separate Gremlin Server; the port-8182 TinkerPop Gremlin Server / remote.yaml WebSocket channel pass_A cited belongs to the legacy 'Classic' graph engine superseded by the CQL-native 'Core' engine, so Gremlin (WebSocket) is rejected.

License Proprietary

DataStax Enterprise is distributed under a commercial subscription agreement, not an open source license; matches the current catalogue value.

  • The Software is licensed, not sold. As between the parties, all intellectual property rights in the Software shall remain with DataStax or its licensors.
    Enterprise Agreement · reviewed 2026-08-02

Released 2016-04

Corrected from the catalogue's year-only '2016' to month precision: DataStax Enterprise Graph, the graph capability this entry covers, launched April 12, 2016 after beta testing with 10 customers.

Language Java

DataStax Enterprise nodes run as Java virtual machines on top of Apache Cassandra, which is itself a Java codebase; matches the current catalogue value.