Dgraph vs NornicDB
Both are property graph databases queried with GraphQL. Dgraph (2015-12, Apache-2.0, Go) ranks #3 this month; NornicDB (2025-12, MIT, Go) ranks #60.
| Attribute | Dgraph | NornicDB |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Rank | #3 | #60 |
| Score | 67.6 | 46.5 |
| GitHub stars | 21.8k | 854 |
| Popularity | 79.7 | 52.6 |
| Activity | 77.2 | 65.0 |
| Community | 67.3 | 30.6 |
| 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 hybrid graph and vector database written in Go with Neo4j compatibility via the Bolt protocol. Supports Cypher queries, native vector search with GPU acceleration, and a tiered memory system with episodic, semantic, and procedural decay. Includes a versioned graph ledger with temporal validity and as-of reads. |
| Vendor | Istari | orneryd |
| Model | Property Graph | Property Graph |
| Kind | database | database |
| Category | Enterprise | Emerging |
| First released | 2015-12 | 2025-12 |
| Status | active | active |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Query languages | DQL, GraphQL | openCypher, GraphQL |
| gdotv support | yes | no |
Feature scores — not surveyed for NornicDB
| Feature | Dgraph | NornicDB |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | ✓ | — |
| 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
- NornicDB · website · github · full profile