Dgraph vs Gaffer
Dgraph is a property graph database; Gaffer is a other database. Dgraph (2015-12, Apache-2.0, Go) ranks #3 this month; Gaffer (2015-12, Apache-2.0, Java) ranks #66. They differ on 19 of 46 surveyed features.
| Attribute | Dgraph | Gaffer |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Rank | #3 | #66 |
| Score | 73.6 | 44.4 |
| GitHub stars | 21.8k | 1.8k |
| Popularity | 82.0 | 57.9 |
| Activity | 70.1 | 42.8 |
| Community | 73.5 | 30.3 |
| Research | 64.3 | — |
| 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 graph database framework with pluggable storage backends (Accumulo, HBase, Parquet). Developed by GCHQ for large-scale graph analysis with built-in timestamp management. |
| Vendor | Istari | GCHQ |
| Model | Property Graph | Other |
| Kind | database | query-engine |
| Category | Enterprise | Established |
| First released | 2015-12 | 2015-12 |
| Status | active | deprecated — Repository archived by GCHQ; last change June 2025. |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Query languages | DQL, GraphQL | Custom API |
| gdotv support | yes | no |
Feature scores 19 of 46 rows differ
| Feature | Dgraph | Gaffer |
|---|---|---|
| Community & Business | ||
| Active development | ✓ | ✓ |
| Commercial support | ✓ | · |
| Live community | 0.5 | · |
| Open Source | ✓ | ✓ |
| 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
- Gaffer · website · github · full profile