Neo4j vs pg_ladybug
Both are property graph databases queried with Cypher. Neo4j (2007, GPL-3.0, Java) ranks #1 this month; pg_ladybug (2026-07, PostgreSQL, C) ranks #156.
| Attribute | Neo4j | pg_ladybug |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Rank | #1 | #156 |
| Score | 88.8 | 8.7 |
| GitHub stars | 17.3k | 5 |
| Popularity | 98.6 | 26.1 |
| Activity | 86.5 | 38.6 |
| Community | 73.8 | 34.6 |
| Research | 98.7 | 50.0 |
| Fundamentals | ||
| Description | A property graph database that stores data as fixed-size records in linked lists for index-free adjacency traversal. Offers community and commercial editions with an extensive graph algorithms library. | A PostgreSQL extension that embeds the LadybugDB engine to run Cypher queries from SQL. Registered Postgres tables act as node and relationship labels, and Ladybug's planner rewrites each pattern into a single SQL join executed natively by Postgres; Cypher can also run against Ladybug-native tables stored in the data directory. |
| Vendor | Neo4j Inc | LadybugDB |
| Model | Property Graph | Property Graph |
| Kind | database | extension |
| Category | Established | Emerging |
| First released | 2007 | 2026-07 |
| Status | active | active |
| License | GPL-3.0 | PostgreSQL |
| Written in | Java | C |
| Query languages | Cypher, GQL | openCypher, SQL |
| gdotv support | yes | no |
Feature scores — not surveyed for pg_ladybug
| Feature | Neo4j | pg_ladybug |
|---|---|---|
| Community & Business | ||
| Active development | ✓ | — |
| Commercial support | ✓ | — |
| Live community | ✓ | — |
| Open Source | ✓ | — |
| Pricing | 0.5 | — |
| Trendiness | ✓ | — |
| 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 | ✓ | — |
| Object-Graph Mapper | ✓ | — |
| Reactive programming | ✓ | — |
| Documentation up-to-date | ✓ | — |
| 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
- Neo4j · website · github · full profile
- pg_ladybug · website · github · full profile