Open source Cypher graph databases compared
Graph databases that speak Cypher or openCypher under a non-proprietary license.
29 active open source cypher graph databases are in the catalogue. They are written mostly in Java and C++, 29 are open source, and 8 carry survey feature scores. Kuzu, KatanaGraph, PandaDB are no longer active and listed separately below.
| Attribute |  Neo4j |  Memgraph |  FalkorDB |  ArcadeDB |  Apache HugeGraph |  AgensGraph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||||||
| Rank | #1 | #4 | #8 | #21 | #37 | #51 |
| Score | 78.8 | 65.3 | 62.2 | 57.8 | 52.0 | 47.9 |
| GitHub stars | 17k | 4.3k | 4.9k | 1.1k | 3.1k | 1.5k |
| Popularity | 93.8 | 66.6 | 58.9 | 56.1 | 75.8 | 54.5 |
| Activity | 82.8 | 81.9 | 79.5 | 80.8 | 45.0 | 54.1 |
| Community | 77.2 | 69.2 | 66.2 | 36.6 | 38.7 | 31.0 |
| Research | 98.6 | 56.4 | 54.9 | 70.3 | 50.4 | 50.4 |
| 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. | An in-memory property graph database with ACID transactions and strong consistency. Includes the MAGE library of graph algorithms and supports real-time streaming ingestion. | A property graph database that runs as a Redis module, formerly RedisGraph. Uses GraphBLAS sparse matrix operations for query execution, enabling parallel graph traversal. | A multi-model database inspired by OrientDB, supporting graphs, documents, key-value, time-series, and search. Uses RAFT-based replication for high availability. | 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. | A multi-model graph database built on PostgreSQL, supporting property graphs with JSON properties. Enables hybrid openCypher and SQL query processing on the same data. |
| Vendor | Neo4j Inc | Memgraph | FalkorDB | ArcadeDB | Apache Software Foundation | SKAI Worldwide |
| Model | Property Graph | Property Graph | Property Graph | Multiple | Property Graph | Property Graph |
| Kind | database | database | database | database | database | extension |
| Category | Established | Enterprise | Established | Growing | Established | Growing |
| First released | 2007 | 2018 | 2018 | 2021-09 | 2018-08 | 2017-01 |
| Status | active | active | active | active | active | active |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSL-1.1 | SSPL-1.0 | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | C++ | C | Java | Java | C |
| Query languages | Cypher, GQL | openCypher | openCypher | SQL, openCypher, Gremlin, GraphQL | Gremlin, openCypher | openCypher, SQL |
| gdotv support | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no |
Feature scores 37 of 46 rows differ
| Feature | Neo4j | Memgraph | FalkorDB | ArcadeDB | Apache HugeGraph | AgensGraph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community & Business | ||||||
| Active development | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Commercial support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Live community | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 0.75 |
| Open Source | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing | 0.5 | · | ✓ | ✓ | · | · |
| Trendiness | ✓ | 0.25 | 0.5 | · | ✓ | · |
| Deployment | ||||||
| Containerization | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| Work as dedicated instance | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Work as embedded | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Testing in-memory version | ✓ | 0.75 | ✓ | · | ✓ | · |
| Platform | ||||||
| Operating on Linux | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Operating on Windows | ✓ | 0.5 | 0.75 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SaaS offering | ✓ | ✓ | · | · | · | ✓ |
| Operations | ||||||
| Automatic updates | · | · | · | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| Client side caching | · | · | 0.5 | · | · | · |
| Data versioning support | · | · | · | · | · | · |
| Live backups | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Distribution | ||||||
| Cluster Re-balancing | · | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | · |
| Data Distribution | ✓ | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | · |
| High-Availability | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Query Distribution | ✓ | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | · |
| Replication support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Developer Experience | ||||||
| Data types defined | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Logging/Auditing | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Object-Graph Mapper | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ | · |
| Reactive programming | ✓ | · | 0.5 | ✓ | · | · |
| Documentation up-to-date | ✓ | 0.75 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Binary protocol | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| CLI | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| GUI | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data Model | ||||||
| Multi-database | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Graph-native data | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| REST API | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| Query Language | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transactions | ||||||
| Granular locking | ✓ | · | · | · | ✓ | · |
| Multiple isolation levels | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Read committed transaction | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transaction support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Schema & Security | ||||||
| Constraints | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Schema support | ✓ | 0.75 | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Secondary indexes | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Server side procedures | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Triggers | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Authentication | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Authorization | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data encryption | · | · | 0.5 | ✓ | · | · |
All 29 engines
| Name | Vendor | Model | Category | GitHub stars | License | Written in | Query languages | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apache AGE | Apache Software Foundation | Property Graph | Established | 4.7k | Apache-2.0 | C | openCypher, SQL | #9 |
| LadybugDB | LadybugDB | Property Graph | Growing | 1.5k | MIT | C++ | openCypher | #11 |
| GFQL | Graphistry | Property Graph | Growing | 2.5k | BSD-3-Clause | Python | GFQL, openCypher | #17 |
| 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 |
| TuGraph | Ant Group | Property Graph | Established | 1.8k | Apache-2.0 | C++ | openCypher, GQL | #48 |
| TuringDB | Turing Biosystems | Property Graph | Emerging | 175 | BSL-1.1 | C++ | openCypher | #53 |
| Lance Graph | LanceDB Inc | Property Graph | Emerging | 166 | Apache-2.0 | Rust | SQL, openCypher | #56 |
| NeuG | Alibaba | Property Graph | Emerging | 130 | Apache-2.0 | C++ | openCypher | #63 |
| NornicDB | orneryd | Property Graph | Emerging | 838 | MIT | Go | openCypher, GraphQL | #70 |
| Grafeo | GrafeoDB | Multiple | Emerging | 722 | Apache-2.0 | Rust | GQL, openCypher, SPARQL, Gremlin, GraphQL, SQL/PGQ | #80 |
| FalkorDBLite | FalkorDB | Property Graph | Emerging | 61 | SSPL-1.0 | Python | openCypher | #86 |
| YugabyteDB MAGE | Yugabyte | Property Graph | Emerging | 10.4k | Apache-2.0 | C | openCypher, SQL | #87 |
| RyuGraph | Predictable Labs | Property Graph | Emerging | 139 | MIT | C++ | openCypher | #92 |
| GraphQLite | Colliery IO | Property Graph | Emerging | 399 | MIT | C | openCypher | #102 |
| NodeDB | NodeDB-Lab | Multiple | Emerging | 180 | BUSL-1.1 | Rust | SQL, openCypher | #103 |
| Bighorn | Kineviz | Property Graph | Emerging | 132 | MIT | C++ | openCypher | #104 |
| TurboLynx | POSTECH (DSLab) | Property Graph | Emerging | 25 | MIT | C++ | openCypher | #119 |
| ONgDB | Graph Foundation | Property Graph | Emerging | 437 | GPL-3.0 OR AGPL-3.0 | Java | Cypher | #122 |
| KGLite | Kristian dF Kollsgård | Property Graph | Emerging | 34 | MIT | Rust | openCypher, Custom API | #125 |
| BangDB | BangDB | Other | Emerging | 59 | BSD-3-Clause | C++ | openCypher | #127 |
| CodeMix Graph | Codemix | Property Graph | Emerging | 110 | MIT | TypeScript | Gremlin, openCypher | #135 |
| DozerDB | Graph Foundation | Property Graph | Emerging | 145 | GPL-3.0 | Java | Cypher | #142 |
No longer active
- Kuzu — Acquired by Apple in October 2025. Repository archived. Continued as LadybugDB and Bighorn forks.
- KatanaGraph — Katana Graph shut down in 2023. GitHub repositories archived.
- PandaDB — No development activity since 2022
- Graphflow — Research prototype from University of Waterloo. Succeeded by Kuzu.