Dgraph vs FaunaDB
Dgraph is a property graph database; FaunaDB is a multiple database. Dgraph (2015-12, Apache-2.0, Go) ranks #3 this month; FaunaDB (2016, Apache-2.0, Scala) ranks #84. They differ on 19 of 46 surveyed features.
| Attribute | Dgraph | FaunaDB |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Rank | #3 | #84 |
| Score | 67.6 | 41.4 |
| GitHub stars | 21.8k | — |
| Popularity | 79.7 | 37.5 |
| Activity | 77.2 | — |
| Community | 67.3 | 35.3 |
| Research | 62.3 | 49.6 |
| Fundamentals | ||
| Description | A distributed graph database with horizontal scaling and ACID transactions. Uses its own query language (DQL) derived from GraphQL, with automatic shard rebalancing across cluster nodes. | A distributed multi-model database with document and graph capabilities, accessed via its custom Fauna Query Language (FQL). Supported ACID transactions and global distribution. Service was shut down in 2025. |
| Vendor | Istari | Fauna Inc |
| Model | Property Graph | Multiple |
| Kind | database | database |
| Category | Enterprise | Emerging |
| First released | 2015-12 | 2016 |
| Status | active | deprecated — Service shut down in 2025. |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Scala |
| Query languages | DQL, GraphQL | FQL, GraphQL |
| gdotv support | yes | no |
Feature scores 19 of 46 rows differ
| Feature | Dgraph | FaunaDB |
|---|---|---|
| Community & Business | ||
| Active development | ✓ | · |
| Commercial support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live community | 0.5 | · |
| Open Source | ✓ | 0.5 |
| Pricing | · | ✓ |
| Trendiness | 0.25 | ✓ |
| Deployment | ||
| Containerization | ✓ | ✓ |
| Work as dedicated instance | ✓ | ✓ |
| Work as embedded | · | · |
| Testing in-memory version | ✓ | · |
| Platform | ||
| Operating on Linux | ✓ | ✓ |
| Operating on Windows | ✓ | · |
| SaaS offering | ✓ | ✓ |
| Operations | ||
| Automatic updates | · | · |
| Client side caching | · | · |
| Data versioning support | · | ✓ |
| Live backups | ✓ | ✓ |
| Distribution | ||
| Cluster Re-balancing | ✓ | · |
| Data Distribution | ✓ | ✓ |
| High-Availability | ✓ | ✓ |
| Query Distribution | ✓ | ✓ |
| Replication support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Developer Experience | ||
| Data types defined | ✓ | 0.5 |
| Logging/Auditing | 0.5 | ✓ |
| Object-Graph Mapper | · | · |
| Reactive programming | · | · |
| Documentation up-to-date | 0.5 | ✓ |
| Binary protocol | ✓ | · |
| CLI | · | ✓ |
| GUI | ✓ | · |
| Data Model | ||
| Multi-database | · | · |
| Graph-native data | ✓ | ✓ |
| REST API | ✓ | · |
| Query Language | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transactions | ||
| Granular locking | · | · |
| Multiple isolation levels | · | · |
| Read committed transaction | · | · |
| Transaction support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Schema & Security | ||
| Constraints | · | ✓ |
| Schema support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Secondary indexes | ✓ | ✓ |
| Server side procedures | · | ✓ |
| Triggers | · | · |
| Authentication | ✓ | ✓ |
| Authorization | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data encryption | ✓ | · |
Links
- Dgraph · website · github · full profile
- FaunaDB · website · full profile