Gremlin graph databases compared
Graph databases that support the Gremlin traversal language.
17 active gremlin graph databases are in the catalogue. They are written mostly in Java and C, 12 are open source, and 7 carry survey feature scores. BlazeGraph, ByteGraph, HGraphDB are no longer active and listed separately below.
| Attribute |  OrientDB |  Neptune |  Cosmos DB |  ArcadeDB |  JanusGraph |  Apache HugeGraph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||||||
| Rank | #5 | #7 | #10 | #21 | #35 | #37 |
| Score | 63.8 | 63.3 | 61.8 | 57.8 | 53.2 | 52.0 |
| GitHub stars | 5k | — | — | 1.1k | 5.8k | 3.1k |
| Popularity | 75.4 | 67.3 | 70.4 | 56.1 | 79.3 | 75.8 |
| Activity | 65.8 | 99.0 | — | 80.8 | 40.9 | 45.0 |
| Community | 65.5 | 53.9 | 59.9 | 36.6 | 37.1 | 38.7 |
| Research | 64.8 | 59.1 | 88.5 | 70.3 | 63.4 | 50.4 |
| Fundamentals | ||||||
| Description | A distributed multi-model database combining graph and document models with TinkerPop support. Features sharding for horizontal scaling and ACID transactions. | A fully managed graph database service from AWS supporting both property graph and RDF models. Available as Neptune Database (for transactional workloads) and Neptune Analytics (for analytical queries). | A globally distributed multi-model database service on Microsoft Azure with property graph support through the Apache Gremlin API. Offers multi-region replication and multiple consistency models. | A multi-model database inspired by OrientDB, supporting graphs, documents, key-value, time-series, and search. Uses RAFT-based replication for high availability. | An open-source distributed property graph database forked from the Titan codebase. Supports pluggable storage backends (Cassandra, HBase, BerkeleyDB) with ACID transactions and native TinkerPop integration. | 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. |
| Vendor | OrientDB Community | Amazon Web Services | Microsoft | ArcadeDB | The Linux Foundation | Apache Software Foundation |
| Model | Multiple | Multiple | Multiple | Multiple | Property Graph | Property Graph |
| Kind | database | database | database | database | database | database |
| Category | Enterprise | Enterprise | Enterprise | Growing | Established | Established |
| First released | 2010 | 2017-11 | 2017-05 | 2021-09 | 2017-04 | 2018-08 |
| Status | active | active | active | active | active | active |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | — | — | Java | Java | Java |
| Query languages | SQL, Gremlin | Gremlin, SPARQL, openCypher | Gremlin, SQL | SQL, openCypher, Gremlin, GraphQL | Gremlin | Gremlin, openCypher |
| gdotv support | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
Feature scores 33 of 46 rows differ
| Feature | OrientDB | Neptune | Cosmos DB | ArcadeDB | JanusGraph | Apache HugeGraph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community & Business | ||||||
| Active development | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Commercial support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | · |
| Live community | 0.5 | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open Source | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| Trendiness | 0.25 | ✓ | ✓ | · | 0.5 | ✓ |
| Deployment | ||||||
| Containerization | ✓ | · | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 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 | · | · | 0.5 | · | · | ✓ |
| Data Distribution | ✓ | · | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ |
| High-Availability | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Query Distribution | 0.5 | 0.5 | ✓ | · | · | ✓ |
| Replication support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Developer Experience | ||||||
| Data types defined | ✓ | 0.5 | · | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 |
| Logging/Auditing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Object-Graph Mapper | · | · | ✓ | · | · | ✓ |
| Reactive programming | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | · |
| Documentation up-to-date | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 0.75 | ✓ |
| Binary protocol | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLI | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| GUI | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Data Model | ||||||
| Multi-database | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| Graph-native data | · | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Query Language | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transactions | ||||||
| Granular locking | · | ✓ | · | · | 0.5 | ✓ |
| Multiple isolation levels | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Read committed transaction | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ |
| Transaction support | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Schema & Security | ||||||
| Constraints | · | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| Schema support | ✓ | 0.5 | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Secondary indexes | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Server side procedures | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | · | · |
| Triggers | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | · |
| Authentication | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Authorization | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data encryption | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | · |
All 17 engines
| Name | Vendor | Model | Category | GitHub stars | License | Written in | Query languages | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TinkerGraph | Apache TinkerPop | Property Graph | Established | 2.1k | Apache-2.0 | Java | Gremlin | #16 |
| YouTrackDB | JetBrains | Property Graph | Emerging | 426 | Apache-2.0 | Java | Gremlin, SQL | #18 |
| Aerospike Graph | Aerospike | Property Graph | Enterprise | 1.4k | AGPL-3.0 | C | Gremlin | #38 |
| GraphScope | Alibaba | Property Graph | Growing | 3.6k | Apache-2.0 | C++ | Gremlin, openCypher | #43 |
| Quine | thatDot | Property Graph | Emerging | 360 | MIT + Commons Clause | Scala | openCypher, Gremlin | #44 |
| DataStax Enterprise | IBM | Property Graph | Established | — | Proprietary | Java | Gremlin, CQL | #47 |
| PuppyGraph | PuppyQuery Inc | Property Graph | Growing | — | Proprietary | — | Gremlin, openCypher | #50 |
| Grafeo | GrafeoDB | Multiple | Emerging | 722 | Apache-2.0 | Rust | GQL, openCypher, SPARQL, Gremlin, GraphQL, SQL/PGQ | #80 |
| Huawei Graph Engine Service | Huawei Cloud | Property Graph | Enterprise | — | Proprietary | — | Gremlin, openCypher | #84 |
| Bitsy | LambdaZen | Property Graph | Emerging | 150 | Apache-2.0 | Java | Gremlin | #96 |
| CodeMix Graph | Codemix | Property Graph | Emerging | 110 | MIT | TypeScript | Gremlin, openCypher | #135 |
No longer active
- BlazeGraph — Last release in 2019. Project largely dormant, though still used by Wikidata.
- ByteGraph — ByteDance internal system. Not publicly available.
- HGraphDB — No human development activity since 2024
- G-Tran — Academic research prototype. No active development.
- ChronoGraph — Last meaningful commit several years ago. Minimal community.
- IBM System G — IBM discontinued System G. No longer available.