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Stardog

An RDF-based knowledge graph database with OWL 2 reasoning and property graph extensions. Includes Voicebox, an OpenAI-compatible natural language query interface via LLM integration.

Overall rank
#23
First released
2011
License
Proprietary
Built with
Java

Details

Vendor
Stardog Union
Type
RDF
Category
Enterprise
License
Proprietary
Language
Java
Query Languages
SPARQLSQLGraphQL
Protocols
HTTP/RESTSPARQL Protocol

Feature scores

Community & Business

Active development
50%
Updated 3-6 months ago
Commercial support
✓
Paid support available
Live community
✓
>75% of issues addressed
Open Source
0%
Closed source
Pricing
0%
No pricing information
Trendiness
✓
Growing or stable trend

Deployment

Containerization
✓
Docker image available
Work as dedicated instance
✓
Can run as standalone server
Work as embedded
0%
Standalone only
Testing in-memory version
0%
No in-memory option

Platform

Operating on Linux
✓
Linux officially supported
Operating on Windows
0%
Not supported
SaaS offering
✓
Cloud service available

Operations

Automatic updates
0%
Manual updates only
Client side caching
0%
No client-side caching
Data versioning support
0%
No versioning
Live backups
✓
Hot backup supported

Distribution

Cluster Re-balancing
0%
No auto-rebalancing
Data Distribution
0%
No sharding
High-Availability
✓
HA mechanisms available
Query Distribution
✓
Distributed query execution
Replication support
✓
Replication available

Developer Experience

Data types defined
50%
Basic data types only
Logging/Auditing
✓
Event logging supported
Object-Graph Mapper
0%
No object mapper
Reactive programming
✓
Reactive streams supported
Documentation up-to-date
✓
Docs current with latest version
Binary protocol
0%
Text-based protocols only
CLI
✓
Command-line interface
GUI
✓
Visual interface available

Data Model

Multi-database
✓
Multi-model database
Graph-native data
0%
Graph abstraction layer
REST API
✓
REST endpoint available
Query Language
✓
Standard query language (Cypher/Gremlin)

Transactions

Granular locking
✓
Object-level locking
Multiple isolation levels
✓
Multiple isolation levels
Read committed transaction
0%
Not available
Transaction support
✓
ACID transactions

Schema & Security

Constraints
✓
Full constraint support
Schema support
✓
Schema definition tools
Secondary indexes
✓
Secondary indexes supported
Server side procedures
✓
Stored procedures supported
Triggers
0%
No triggers
Authentication
✓
Authentication supported
Authorization
✓
Role-based access control
Data encryption
0%
No encryption
Sources 6 references

Protocols SPARQL Protocol, HTTP/REST

SNARL, Stardog's proprietary RPC-over-Protobuf wire protocol, was disabled in 4.2.4 and removed in 5.0, so pass_A's Native binary tag is stale for current versions. The Stardog HTTP Protocol extends the standard SPARQL 1.1 HTTP/Graph Store bindings with its own non-SPARQL resource endpoints, which justifies HTTP/REST alongside SPARQL Protocol (agreeing with pass_B).

License Proprietary

Stardog's software license agreement licenses, rather than sells, the software under commercial terms; confirms current value.

  • The Stardog software, modifications, enhancements, documentation, and license keys provided to Customer (Software) are licensed and are not sold.
    Software License Agreement | Stardog · reviewed 2026-08-02

Released 2011

Clark & Parsia opened invite-only Stardog beta access in January 2011 and were still calling it 'forthcoming' at a March 2011 event, ahead of a May 2011 alpha and June 2012 1.0; confirms the current year-only value, though the exact month of first public availability is unclear.

Language Java

Stardog's creators (Clark & Parsia) describe it as a lightweight, pure Java implementation; confirms current value.

  • Kendall Clark will present Stardog, the forthcoming commercial RDF database from C&P, featuring full OWL2 reasoning capabilities and fast query performance in a lightweight, pure Java implementation.
    Stardog - Java event - developer Fusion · reviewed 2026-08-02