vs

Amazon Neptune vs Stardog

Amazon Neptune: AWS's managed graph database speaking Gremlin, openCypher and SPARQL on shared storage. Stardog: Enterprise knowledge-graph platform: RDF store, reasoning and virtual graphs over your sources.

key differences

  • Amazon Neptune is primarily a graph database; Stardog is RDF / triple store.
  • Amazon Neptune is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Stardog (≤ 10 TB).
  • Only Amazon Neptune has change data capture, encryption at rest.
  • Only Stardog has full-text search.
  • Amazon Neptune has a serverless option; Stardog does not.

choose amazon-neptune for

  • +Identity graphs and customer 360 on AWS
  • +Fraud detection
  • +Knowledge graphs with SPARQL
  • +Security and network graphs

best at · Traversal, Knowledge graph, OLTP

choose stardog for

  • +Enterprise data fabric and semantic layer
  • +Life-sciences and pharma knowledge graphs
  • +Regulatory and compliance data integration
  • +Natural-language question answering over enterprise data

best at · Knowledge graph, Metadata, RAG

overview
Primary model
Graph
RDF / Triple Store
Also supports
RDF / Triple Store
Graph
Type
Managed service
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Amazon Web Services
Stardog Union
First release
2017
2012
Latest version
1.4.8.1 (Oct 6, 2026)
12.2.1 (Oct 26, 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary (AWS service)
ProprietaryProprietary (free 1-year renewable license available)
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
15.2
12.7
Rank
#219
#265
GitHub stars
–
–
Stack Overflow questions
1K
97
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Horizontal scaling
None
None
Multi-region
Read replicas
None
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong, Eventual
Strong
Schema
Schemaless
Flexible
Architecture
Primary replica, Shared storage, Serverless
Single node, Primary replica, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
—
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
✓
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS
AWS, Azure
capabilities
Transactions
✓
✓
Joins
—
—
Secondary indexes
—
—
Full-text search
—
✓
Vector search
—
—
Geospatial
✓
✓
JSON
—
—
Change data capture
✓
—
Triggers
—
—
Stored procedures
—
—
Materialized views
—
—
TTL / expiry
—
—
Pub/Sub
—
—
Columnar storage
—
—
In-memory
—
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
—
—
Encryption at rest
✓
—
Role-based access
✓
✓
Time travel
—
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
✓
✓
Streaming ingest
—
—
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
Gremlin, openCypher, SPARQL
SPARQL, GraphQL, SQL, Stardog Rules
Client languages
Java, Python, JavaScript, .NET, Go
Java, Python, JavaScript, .NET
Best for
Traversal, Knowledge graph, OLTP, RAG
Knowledge graph, Metadata, RAG, Traversal

Amazon Neptune vs Stardog: FAQ

What is the difference between Amazon Neptune and Stardog?

Amazon Neptune: AWS's managed graph database speaking Gremlin, openCypher and SPARQL on shared storage. Stardog: Enterprise knowledge-graph platform: RDF store, reasoning and virtual graphs over your sources. Amazon Neptune is primarily a graph database; Stardog is RDF / triple store. Amazon Neptune is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Stardog (≤ 10 TB). Only Amazon Neptune has change data capture, encryption at rest.

When should I choose Amazon Neptune over Stardog?

Choose Amazon Neptune for identity graphs and customer 360 on AWS; fraud detection; and knowledge graphs with SPARQL. Choose Stardog for enterprise data fabric and semantic layer; life-sciences and pharma knowledge graphs; and regulatory and compliance data integration.

Is Amazon Neptune or Stardog more popular?

Amazon Neptune ranks #219 on the WhichDB Score (15.2/100) and Stardog ranks #265 (12.7/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Amazon Neptune and Stardog open source?

No. Amazon Neptune is proprietary, closed-source software. No. Stardog is proprietary, closed-source software.