Open source Cypher graph databases compared
Graph databases that speak Cypher or openCypher under an open-source license.
30 active open source cypher graph databases are in the catalogue. They are written mostly in Java and C++, 30 are open source, and 5 carry survey feature scores. Kuzu, KatanaGraph, Bighorn are no longer active and listed separately below.
| Attribute | Neo4j | ArcadeDB | LadybugDB | Apache HugeGraph | AgensGraph | BangDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||||||
| Rank | #1 | #11 | #12 | #43 | #44 | #144 |
| Score | 87.1 | 57.5 | 57.4 | 44.6 | 43.9 | 25.3 |
| GitHub stars | 17.4k | 1.2k | 1.9k | 3.2k | 1.5k | 59 |
| Popularity | 98.3 | 51.9 | 60.7 | 58.0 | 50.8 | 28.7 |
| Activity | 88.3 | 76.0 | 72.8 | 49.6 | 55.5 | 15.7 |
| Community | 65.8 | 52.4 | 50.8 | 33.3 | 32.0 | 32.0 |
| Research | 98.0 | 40.2 | 31.1 | 26.7 | 26.7 | 26.7 |
| 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 multi-model database inspired by OrientDB, supporting graphs, documents, key-value, time-series, and search. Uses RAFT-based replication for high availability. | A community fork of Kuzu. An embedded columnar property graph database for analytical workloads, with openCypher support, vector indices, and full-text search. | 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. | An embeddable multi-model database supporting key-value, documents, and graphs. Integrates graph queries with a streaming engine and complex event processing (CEP) for pattern and anomaly detection. |
| Vendor | Neo4j Inc | ArcadeDB | LadybugDB | Apache Software Foundation | SKAI Worldwide | BangDB |
| Model | Property Graph | Multiple | Property Graph | Property Graph | Property Graph | Other |
| Kind | database | database | embedded | database | extension | embedded |
| Category | Established | Growing | Growing | Established | Growing | Emerging |
| First released | 2007 | 2021-09 | 2025-11 | 2018-08 | 2016-11 | 2012 |
| Status | active | active | active | active | active | active |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 | MIT | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Java | Java | C++ | Java | C | C++ |
| Query languages | Cypher, GQL | SQL, openCypher, Gremlin, GraphQL | openCypher | Gremlin, openCypher | openCypher, SQL | openCypher |
| gdotv support | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no |
Feature scores 28 of 46 rows differ
| Feature | Neo4j | ArcadeDB | LadybugDB | Apache HugeGraph | AgensGraph | BangDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community & Business | ||||||
| Active development | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Commercial support | ✓ | ✓ | — | · | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live community | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | 0.75 | · |
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | — | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | — | 0.5 | 0.5 | · |
| Read committed transaction | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | · |
| Transaction support | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Schema & Security | ||||||
| Constraints | ✓ | ✓ | — | · | ✓ | 0.5 |
| Schema support | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Secondary indexes | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Server side procedures | ✓ | ✓ | — | · | ✓ | · |
| Triggers | ✓ | ✓ | — | · | ✓ | 0.5 |
| Authentication | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Authorization | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data encryption | · | ✓ | — | · | · | · |
All 30 engines
| Name | Vendor | Model | Category | GitHub stars | License | Written in | Query languages | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HelixDB | HelixDB | Other | Emerging | 6.3k | Apache-2.0 | Rust | HelixQL, openCypher | #14 |
| Apache AGE | Apache Software Foundation | Property Graph | Established | 4.9k | Apache-2.0 | C | openCypher, SQL | #22 |
| GFQL | Graphistry | Property Graph | Growing | 2.6k | BSD-3-Clause | Python | GFQL, openCypher | #31 |
| Grafeo | GrafeoDB | Multiple | Emerging | 828 | Apache-2.0 | Rust | GQL, openCypher, SPARQL, Gremlin, GraphQL, SQL/PGQ | #34 |
| NornicDB | orneryd | Property Graph | Emerging | 924 | MIT | Go | openCypher, GraphQL | #37 |
| LatticeDB | Jeff Hajewski | Property Graph | Emerging | 745 | MIT | Zig | Cypher | #46 |
| HydraDB | HydraDB | Property Graph | Emerging | 13.1k | AGPL-3.0 | Rust | openCypher | #51 |
| GraphQLite | Colliery IO | Property Graph | Emerging | 525 | MIT | C | openCypher | #62 |
| GraphScope | Alibaba | Property Graph | Growing | 3.6k | Apache-2.0 | C++ | Gremlin, openCypher | #65 |
| NeuG | Alibaba | Property Graph | Emerging | 176 | Apache-2.0 | C++ | openCypher | #68 |
| Lance Graph | LanceDB Inc | Property Graph | Emerging | 186 | Apache-2.0 | Rust | SQL, openCypher | #71 |
| TuGraph | Ant Group | Property Graph | Established | 1.8k | Apache-2.0 | C++ | openCypher, GQL | #74 |
| lance-csr | HDC Labs | Property Graph | Emerging | 22 | Apache-2.0 | Rust | openCypher | #97 |
| KGLite | Kristian dF Kollsgård | Property Graph | Emerging | 75 | MIT | Rust | openCypher, Custom API | #100 |
| RyuGraph | Predictable Labs | Property Graph | Emerging | 148 | MIT | C++ | openCypher | #101 |
| TurboLynx | POSTECH (DSLab) | Property Graph | Emerging | 38 | MIT | C++ | openCypher | #102 |
| RushDB | RushDB | Property Graph | Emerging | 326 | Apache-2.0 | Rust | Custom API, SQL, Cypher, Gremlin | #106 |
| YugabyteDB MAGE | Yugabyte | Property Graph | Emerging | 10.6k | Apache-2.0 | C | openCypher, SQL | #107 |
| ONgDB | Graph Foundation | Property Graph | Emerging | 439 | GPL-3.0 OR AGPL-3.0 | Java | Cypher | #122 |
| CodeMix Graph | Codemix | Property Graph | Emerging | 111 | MIT | TypeScript | Gremlin, openCypher | #129 |
| AstraeaDB | AstraeaDB | Property Graph | Emerging | 6 | MIT | Rust | GQL, Cypher | #140 |
| oxilite | Volodymyr Pavlyshyn | RDF | Emerging | 66 | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | Rust | SPARQL, openCypher | #141 |
| DozerDB | Graph Foundation | Property Graph | Emerging | 147 | GPL-3.0 | Java | Cypher | #147 |
| pg_ladybug | LadybugDB | Property Graph | Emerging | 6 | PostgreSQL | C | openCypher, SQL | #152 |
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.
- Bighorn — Repository archived on GitHub; last pushed in August 2026.
- PandaDB — No development activity since 2022
- Graphflow — Research prototype from University of Waterloo. Succeeded by Kuzu.