Menu
Home Explore People Places Arts History Plants & Animals Science Life & Culture Technology
On this page
Neo4j
Open-source graph database implemented in Java

Neo4j is a graph database management system (GDBMS) developed by Neo4j Inc.

The data elements Neo4j stores are nodes, edges connecting them, and attributes of nodes and edges. Described by its developers as an ACID-compliant transactional database with native graph storage and processing, Neo4j is available in a non-open-source "community edition" licensed with a modification of the GNU General Public License, with online backup and high availability extensions licensed under a closed-source commercial license. Neo also licenses Neo4j with these extensions under closed-source commercial terms.

Neo4j is implemented in Java and accessible from software written in other languages using the Cypher query language through a transactional HTTP endpoint, or through the binary "Bolt" protocol. The "4j" in Neo4j is a reference to its being built in Java, however is now largely viewed as an anachronism.

Related Image Collections Add Image
Profiles
1 Image
We don't have any YouTube videos related to Neo4j yet.
We don't have any PDF documents related to Neo4j yet.
We don't have any Books related to Neo4j yet.
We don't have any archived web articles related to Neo4j yet.

History

Neo4j is developed by Neo4j, Inc., based in San Mateo, California, United States and Malmö, Sweden.

Version 1.0 was released in February 2010.9

Neo4j version 2.0 was released in December 2013.10

Neo4j version 3.0 was released in April 2016.11

In November 2016, Neo4j successfully secured $36M in Series D Funding led by Greenbridge Partners Ltd.12

In November 2018, Neo4j successfully secured $80M in Series E Funding led by One Peak Partners and Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, with participation from other investors including Creandum, Eight Roads and Greenbridge Partners.13

In June 2021, Neo4j announced another round of funding, $325M in Series F.14

Release history

Release history
ReleaseFirst release15Latest minor version16Latest release17End ofSupport Date18
1.02010-02-23Old version, not maintained: 1.0—2011-08-23
1.12010-07-30Old version, not maintained: 1.1—2012-01-30
1.22010-12-29Old version, not maintained: 1.2—2012-06-29
1.32011-04-12Old version, not maintained: 1.3—2012-09-12
1.42011-07-08Old version, not maintained: 1.4—2013-01-08
1.52011-11-09Old version, not maintained: 1.5—2013-03-09
1.62012-01-22Old version, not maintained: 1.6—2013-07-22
1.72012-04-18Old version, not maintained: 1.7—2013-10-18
1.82012-09-28Old version, not maintained: 1.8—2014-03-28
1.92013-05-21Old version, not maintained: 1.9.92014-10-132014-11-21
2.02013-12-11Old version, not maintained: 2.0.42014-07-082015-06-11
2.12014-05-29Old version, not maintained: 2.1.82015-04-012015-11-29
2.22015-03-25Old version, not maintained: 2.2.102016-06-162016-09-25
2.32015-10-21Old version, not maintained: 2.3.122017-12-122017-04-21
3.02016-04-16Old version, not maintained: 3.0.122017-10-032017-10-31
3.12016-12-13Old version, not maintained: 3.1.92018-06-052018-06-13
3.22017-05-11Old version, not maintained: 3.2.142019-02-262018-11-31
3.32017-10-24Old version, not maintained: 3.3.92018-11-022019-04-28
3.42018-05-17Old version, not maintained: 3.4.172019-11-192020-03-31
3.52018-11-29Old version, not maintained: 3.5.352022-08-112022-05-27
4.02020-01-15Old version, not maintained: 4.0.122021-07-062021-07-14
4.12020-06-23Old version, not maintained: 4.1.122022-08-112021-12-22
4.22020-11-17Old version, not maintained: 4.2.192022-08-112022-05-16
4.32021-06-17Old version, not maintained: 4.3.232022-12-212022-12-16
4.42021-12-02Old version, still maintained: 4.4.422025-03-202025-11-30
5.02022-10-06Old version, not maintained: 5.0—2022-10-24
5.12022-10-24Old version, not maintained: 5.1—Release of 5.2
5.22022-11-21Old version, not maintained: 5.2—Release of 5.3
5.32022-12-15Old version, not maintained: 5.3—Release of 5.4
5.42023-01-26Old version, not maintained: 5.4—Release of 5.5
5.52023-02-16Old version, not maintained: 5.5—Release of 5.6
5.62023-03-24Old version, not maintained: 5.6—Release of 5.7
5.72023-04-20Old version, not maintained: 5.7—Release of 5.8
5.82023-05-16Old version, not maintained: 5.8—Release of 5.9
5.92023-06-15Old version, not maintained: 5.9—Release of 5.10
5.102023-07-19Old version, not maintained: 5.10—Release of 5.11
5.112023-08-15Old version, not maintained: 5.11—Release of 5.12
5.122023-09-14Old version, not maintained: 5.12—Release of 5.13
5.132023-10-23Old version, not maintained: 5.13—Release of 5.14
5.142023-11-24Old version, not maintained: 5.14—Release of 5.15
5.152023-12-15Old version, not maintained: 5.15—Release of 5.16
5.162024-01-22Old version, not maintained: 5.16—Release of 5.17
5.172024-02-23Old version, not maintained: 5.17—Release of 5.18
5.182024-03-13Old version, not maintained: 5.18.12024-03-18Release of 5.19
5.192024-04-12Old version, not maintained: 5.19—Release of 5.20
5.202024-05-23Old version, not maintained: 5.20—Release of 5.21
5.212024-06-28Old version, not maintained: 5.21.22024-07-09Release of 5.22
5.22.02024-07-25Old version, not maintained: 5.22.0—Release of 5.23
5.232024-08-22Old version, not maintained: 5.23—Release of 5.24
5.242024-09-27Old version, not maintained: 5.24.22024-10-15Release of 5.25
5.25.12024-10-31Old version, not maintained: 5.25.1—Release of 5.26
5.26 (LTS)2024-12-09Old version, still maintained: 5.26.42025-03-112028-06-06
2025.012025-02-06Old version, not maintained: 2025.01.0—Release of 2025.02
2025.022025-02-27Old version, not maintained: 2025.02.0—Release of 2025.03
2025.032025-03-27Latest version: 2025.03.0 —
Legend:Old version, not maintainedOld version, still maintainedLatest versionLatest preview versionFuture version

Licensing and editions

Neo4j comes in five editions. Two are on-premises editions, Community (free) and Enterprise, and three are cloud-only editions: AuraDB Free, AuraDB Professional, and AuraDB Enterprise.

It is dual-licensed: GPL v3 (with parts of the code under AGPLv3 with Commons Clause), and a proprietary license. The Community Edition is free but is limited to running on one node only due to the lack of clustering and is without hot backups.19

The Enterprise Edition unlocks these limitations, allowing for clustering, hot backups, and monitoring. The Enterprise Edition is available under a closed-source commercial license.

The licensing is controversial and has been the subject of at least one lawsuit.20

Data structure

The data elements are nodes, edges which connect nodes to one another, and attributes of nodes and edges. Nodes and edges can be labelled. Labels can be used to narrow searches. As of version 2.0, indexing was added to Cypher with the introduction of schemas.21 Previously, indexes were supported separately from Cypher.22

Criticisms

Database researcher Andy Pavlo from Carnegie Mellon University has questioned graph databases' decision to abandon the longstanding relational model in favor of a custom model.23 Researchers from CWI benchmarked a modified version of DuckDB against Neo4j on graph-related workloads and found that, despite being an extension of a relational database running SQL, their implementation outperforms Neo4j in a few specific tasks.24

Neo4j sued PureThink, a small business that had used a power created under the terms of the GNU AGPL, to remove a restrictive Commons clause that Neo4j had added to the AGPL license.2526 The United States District Court for the Northern District of California made a decision on 2024-07-22 to impose $597,000 in actual damages on PureThink, having previously decided that PureThink had violated the DMCA by removing the Commons Clause from Neo4j's AGPL license, and that it had violated trademark law by continuing to use the name Neo4j in selling to government agencies.27

See also

  • Free and open-source software portal
  • Computer programming portal

References

  1. Neo Technology. "Neo4j Graph Database". Retrieved 2015-11-04. https://neo4j.com/product/ ↩

  2. Philip Rathle (November 15, 2018). "Simplicity Wins: We're Shifting to an Open Core Licensing Model for Neo4j Enterprise Edition". Retrieved 2019-01-16. https://neo4j.com/blog/open-core-licensing-model-neo4j-enterprise-edition/ ↩

  3. Emil Eifrem (April 13, 2011). "Graph Databases, Licensing and MySQL". Archived from the original on 2011-04-26. Retrieved 2011-04-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20110426031211/http://blogs.neotechnology.com/emil/2011/04/graph-databases-licensing-and-mysql.html ↩

  4. "Bolt Protocol". http://boltprotocol.org/ ↩

  5. Todd Hoff (June 13, 2009). "Neo4j - a Graph Database that Kicks Buttox". High Scalability. Possibility Outpost. Archived from the original on 2010-03-06. Retrieved 2010-02-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20100306040823/http://highscalability.com/neo4j-graph-database-kicks-buttox ↩

  6. Gavin Terrill (June 5, 2008). "Neo4j - an Embedded, Network Database". InfoQ. C4Media Inc. Retrieved 2010-02-17. http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/06/neo4j ↩

  7. "5.1. Transactional Cypher HTTP endpoint". Archived from the original on 2016-08-03. Retrieved 2015-11-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20160803110601/http://neo4j.com/docs/developer-manual/current/http-api/#http-api-transactional ↩

  8. Dr. Jim Webber (June 8, 2020). "A Personal History of Neo4j". Neo4j. YouTube. Retrieved 2022-06-09. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB723cp9jgM ↩

  9. "The top 10 ways to get to know Neo4j". Neo4j Blog. February 16, 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-17. https://neo4j.com/blog/the-top-10-ways-to-get-to-know-neo4j/ ↩

  10. "Neo4j 2.0 GA - Graphs for Everyone". Neo4j Blog. December 11, 2013. Retrieved 2014-01-10. https://neo4j.com/blog/neo4j-2-0-ga-graphs-for-everyone/ ↩

  11. "Neo4j 3.0.0 - Neo4j Graph Database Platform". Release Date. April 26, 2016. Retrieved 2020-04-23. https://neo4j.com/release-notes/neo4j-3-0-0/ ↩

  12. "Neo Technology closes $36 million in funding as graph database adoption soars". SiliconANGLE. Retrieved 2016-11-21. http://siliconangle.com/blog/2016/11/10/neo-technology-closes-36-million-in-funding-as-graph-database-adoption-soars/ ↩

  13. "Graph database platform Neo4j locks in $80 mln Series E". PE Hub Wire. Archived from the original on 2019-04-26. Retrieved 2018-11-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20190426213454/https://www.pehub.com/2018/11/graph-database-platform-neo4j-locks-in-80-mln-series-e/ ↩

  14. "Neo4j Series F funding". https://neo4j.com/press-releases/neo4j-announces-seriesf-funding/# ↩

  15. "Neo4j Supported Versions". Neo4j Graph Database Platform. Retrieved 2025-03-27. https://neo4j.com/developer/kb/neo4j-supported-versions/ ↩

  16. "Release Notes Archive". Neo4j Graph Database Platform. Retrieved 2025-03-27. https://neo4j.com/release-notes/ ↩

  17. "Release Notes Archive". Neo4j Graph Database Platform. Retrieved 2025-03-27. https://neo4j.com/release-notes/ ↩

  18. "Neo4j Supported Versions". Neo4j Graph Database Platform. Retrieved 2025-03-27. https://neo4j.com/developer/kb/neo4j-supported-versions/ ↩

  19. "The Neo4j Editions". https://www.neo4j.com/editions ↩

  20. Kuhn, Bradley M. (March 30, 2022). "An Erroneous Preliminary Injunction Granted in Neo4j v. PureThink". Retrieved 2024-09-14. https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2022/mar/30/neo4j-v-purethink-open-source-affero-gpl/ ↩

  21. "The Neo4j Manual v2.1.5". https://neo4j.com/docs/2.1.5/query-schema-index.html ↩

  22. "The Neo4j Manual v1.8.3". https://neo4j.com/docs/1.8.3/indexing.html ↩

  23. Pavlo, Andy (2023-03-08). "Abandoning relational DB model like 'reinventing the wheel'". The Register. Retrieved 2024-02-21. https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/great_graph_debate_wednesday/ ↩

  24. D.L.J, Daniël; Singh, Tavneet; Szárnyas, Gábor; Boncz, Peter (2023-01-08). "DuckPGQ: Efficient property graph queries in an analytical RDBMS". Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica. Retrieved 2024-02-21. https://ir.cwi.nl/pub/32773 ↩

  25. Kuhn, Bradley M. (March 30, 2022). "An Erroneous Preliminary Injunction Granted in Neo4j v. PureThink". Retrieved 2024-09-14. https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2022/mar/30/neo4j-v-purethink-open-source-affero-gpl/ ↩

  26. "SFC's Policy Fellow Files Expert Report in Neo4j v. PureThink; Case about the "further restrictions" removal provision of the AGPLv3 continues after counterclaim filing". February 9, 2023. Retrieved 2024-09-14. https://sfconservancy.org/news/2023/feb/09/kuhn-neo4j-purethink-expert-report/ ↩

  27. "NEO4J, INC., et al., Plaintiffs, v. PURETHINK, LLC, et al., Defendants.: Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law" (PDF). 2024-07-22. Retrieved 2024-09-14. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.335295/gov.uscourts.cand.335295.248.0_26.pdf ↩