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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. NoSQL Databases
  4. NOSQL Database As A Service
  5. Amazon DynamoDB vs Neo4j

Amazon DynamoDB vs Neo4j

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Amazon DynamoDB
Amazon DynamoDB
Stacks4.0K
Followers3.2K
Votes195
Neo4j
Neo4j
Stacks1.2K
Followers1.4K
Votes351
GitHub Stars15.3K
Forks2.5K

Amazon DynamoDB vs Neo4j: What are the differences?

Amazon DynamoDB and Neo4j are both highly popular and widely used NoSQL databases, but they differ in their core functionality and design. Here are the key differences between Amazon DynamoDB and Neo4j:
  1. Data Model: Amazon DynamoDB is a document-based NoSQL database, meaning it stores structured data in JSON-like documents. It offers a key-value model with optional secondary indexes. On the other hand, Neo4j is a graph database that represents data as nodes, relationships between nodes, and properties associated with nodes and relationships. It enables high-performance graph traversal and complex querying.

  2. Querying Abilities: DynamoDB offers simple querying capabilities using primary keys and secondary indexes. It supports basic CRUD operations and can perform range queries on numeric and string attributes. In contrast, Neo4j provides powerful graph querying capabilities that allow traversing complex relationships and patterns. It supports graph-oriented queries to find paths, shortest paths, common nodes, and more.

  3. Scalability: DynamoDB is a fully managed, highly scalable database that automatically scales horizontally without downtime. It can handle large volumes of traffic and offer low latency with automatic data replication across multiple availability zones. Neo4j, on the other hand, is designed to work on a single server or cluster and requires manual scaling to handle high loads.

  4. ACID Compliance: DynamoDB ensures Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID) properties only within a single partition or item. It does not guarantee ACID across multiple partitions or items. On the other hand, Neo4j offers transactional consistency on a global scale, allowing ACID operations across the entire dataset.

  5. Data Relationships: DynamoDB does not have built-in support for relationships between different items. It is primarily designed for key-value data storage. In contrast, Neo4j's graph database model is specifically designed to handle complex relationships between entities. It allows developers to define relationships between nodes and perform efficient queries based on those relationships.

  6. Use Cases: Due to its document-based structure, DynamoDB is suitable for applications with predominantly read-heavy workloads and simple data access patterns. It is commonly used for real-time applications, gaming, and content management systems. Neo4j, with its graph database capabilities, is ideal for applications that heavily rely on analyzing and querying complex relationships, such as social networks, fraud detection, recommendation systems, and knowledge graphs.

In Summary, Amazon DynamoDB is a scalable, document-based NoSQL database with key-value storage, while Neo4j is a powerful graph database with extensive graph querying capabilities and support for relationships. DynamoDB is suitable for read-heavy workloads and simple data access patterns, whereas Neo4j excels in applications with complex relationship analysis and querying requirements.

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Advice on Amazon DynamoDB, Neo4j

Doru
Doru

Solution Architect

Jun 9, 2019

ReviewonAmazon DynamoDBAmazon DynamoDB

I use Amazon DynamoDB because it integrates seamlessly with other AWS SaaS solutions and if cost is the primary concern early on, then this will be a better choice when compared to AWS RDS or any other solution that requires the creation of a HA cluster of IaaS components that will cost money just for being there, the costs not being influenced primarily by usage.

1.35k views1.35k
Comments
akash
akash

Aug 27, 2020

Needs adviceonCloud FirestoreCloud FirestoreFirebase Realtime DatabaseFirebase Realtime DatabaseAmazon DynamoDBAmazon DynamoDB

We are building a social media app, where users will post images, like their post, and make friends based on their interest. We are currently using Cloud Firestore and Firebase Realtime Database. We are looking for another database like Amazon DynamoDB; how much this decision can be efficient in terms of pricing and overhead?

199k views199k
Comments
Jaime
Jaime

none at none

Aug 31, 2020

Needs advice

Hi, I want to create a social network for students, and I was wondering which of these three Oriented Graph DB's would you recommend. I plan to implement machine learning algorithms such as k-means and others to give recommendations and some basic data analyses; also, everything is going to be hosted in the cloud, so I expect the DB to be hosted there. I want the queries to be as fast as possible, and I like good tools to monitor my data. I would appreciate any recommendations or thoughts.

Context:

I released the MVP 6 months ago and got almost 600 users just from my university in Colombia, But now I want to expand it all over my country. I am expecting more or less 20000 users.

56.4k views56.4k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Amazon DynamoDB
Amazon DynamoDB
Neo4j
Neo4j

With it , you can offload the administrative burden of operating and scaling a highly available distributed database cluster, while paying a low price for only what you use.

Neo4j stores data in nodes connected by directed, typed relationships with properties on both, also known as a Property Graph. It is a high performance graph store with all the features expected of a mature and robust database, like a friendly query language and ACID transactions.

Automated Storage Scaling – There is no limit to the amount of data you can store in a DynamoDB table, and the service automatically allocates more storage, as you store more data using the DynamoDB write APIs;Provisioned Throughput – When creating a table, simply specify how much request capacity you require. DynamoDB allocates dedicated resources to your table to meet your performance requirements, and automatically partitions data over a sufficient number of servers to meet your request capacity;Fully Distributed, Shared Nothing Architecture
intuitive, using a graph model for data representation;reliable, with full ACID transactions;durable and fast, using a custom disk-based, native storage engine;massively scalable, up to several billion nodes/relationships/properties;highly-available, when distributed across multiple machines;expressive, with a powerful, human readable graph query language;fast, with a powerful traversal framework for high-speed graph queries;embeddable, with a few small jars;simple, accessible by a convenient REST interface or an object-oriented Java API
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
15.3K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
2.5K
Stacks
4.0K
Stacks
1.2K
Followers
3.2K
Followers
1.4K
Votes
195
Votes
351
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 62
    Predictable performance and cost
  • 56
    Scalable
  • 35
    Native JSON Support
  • 21
    AWS Free Tier
  • 7
    Fast
Cons
  • 4
    Only sequential access for paginate data
  • 1
    Scaling
  • 1
    Document Limit Size
Pros
  • 69
    Cypher – graph query language
  • 61
    Great graphdb
  • 33
    Open source
  • 31
    Rest api
  • 27
    High-Performance Native API
Cons
  • 9
    Comparably slow
  • 4
    Can't store a vertex as JSON
  • 1
    Doesn't have a managed cloud service at low cost
Integrations
Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL
Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL
MySQL
MySQL
SQLite
SQLite
Azure Database for MySQL
Azure Database for MySQL
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Amazon DynamoDB, Neo4j?

Azure Cosmos DB

Azure Cosmos DB

Azure DocumentDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service built for fast and predictable performance, high availability, elastic scaling, global distribution, and ease of development.

Cloud Firestore

Cloud Firestore

Cloud Firestore is a NoSQL document database that lets you easily store, sync, and query data for your mobile and web apps - at global scale.

Cloudant

Cloudant

Cloudant’s distributed database as a service (DBaaS) allows developers of fast-growing web and mobile apps to focus on building and improving their products, instead of worrying about scaling and managing databases on their own.

Google Cloud Bigtable

Google Cloud Bigtable

Google Cloud Bigtable offers you a fast, fully managed, massively scalable NoSQL database service that's ideal for web, mobile, and Internet of Things applications requiring terabytes to petabytes of data. Unlike comparable market offerings, Cloud Bigtable doesn't require you to sacrifice speed, scale, or cost efficiency when your applications grow. Cloud Bigtable has been battle-tested at Google for more than 10 years—it's the database driving major applications such as Google Analytics and Gmail.

Google Cloud Datastore

Google Cloud Datastore

Use a managed, NoSQL, schemaless database for storing non-relational data. Cloud Datastore automatically scales as you need it and supports transactions as well as robust, SQL-like queries.

CloudBoost

CloudBoost

CloudBoost.io is a database service for the “next web” - that not only does data-storage, but also search, real-time and a whole lot more which enables developers to build much richer apps with 50% less time saving them a ton of cost and helping them go to market much faster.

Dgraph

Dgraph

Dgraph's goal is to provide Google production level scale and throughput, with low enough latency to be serving real time user queries, over terabytes of structured data. Dgraph supports GraphQL-like query syntax, and responds in JSON and Protocol Buffers over GRPC and HTTP.

Firebase Realtime Database

Firebase Realtime Database

It is a cloud-hosted NoSQL database that lets you store and sync data between your users in realtime. Data is synced across all clients in realtime, and remains available when your app goes offline.

RedisGraph

RedisGraph

RedisGraph is a graph database developed from scratch on top of Redis, using the new Redis Modules API to extend Redis with new commands and capabilities. Its main features include: - Simple, fast indexing and querying - Data stored in RAM, using memory-efficient custom data structures - On disk persistence - Tabular result sets - Simple and popular graph query language (Cypher) - Data Filtering, Aggregation and ordering

Cayley

Cayley

Cayley is an open-source graph inspired by the graph database behind Freebase and Google's Knowledge Graph. Its goal is to be a part of the developer's toolbox where Linked Data and graph-shaped data (semantic webs, social networks, etc) in general are concerned.

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