Neo4j vs Ultipa

Neo4j: The default property-graph database, with Cypher, a big ecosystem and a managed cloud. Ultipa: Commercial distributed graph database marketed as built natively for ISO GQL.

key differences

Licensing: Neo4j is open source (copyleft) (GPL-3.0 (Community) / commercial (Enterprise)); Ultipa is proprietary (Proprietary (free Community Edition)).
Ultipa is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Neo4j (≤ 10 TB).
Horizontal scaling is addon in Neo4j and native in Ultipa.
Only Neo4j has full-text search, geospatial, change data capture, encryption at rest, online schema changes.
Only Ultipa has in-memory.
Ultipa can run embedded in your application process.

choose neo4j for

+Fraud rings and entity resolution
+Real-time recommendations
+Knowledge graphs for GraphRAG
+Network and IT dependency mapping

best at · Traversal, Graph analytics, Knowledge graph

choose ultipa for

+Real-time risk and fraud graphs in finance
+Supply-chain and network path analysis
+Teams standardizing on ISO GQL
+Graph-augmented RAG

best at · Traversal, Graph analytics, Real-time analytics

Neo4jThe default property-graph database, with Cypher, a big ecosystem and a managed cloud.

UltipaCommercial distributed graph database marketed as built natively for ISO GQL.

overview

Primary model

Graph

Also supports

Vector

Type

Database engine

Status

Active

Developer

Neo4j, Inc.

Ultipa, Inc.

First release

2007

2019

Latest version

2026.10.1 (Oct 2026)

–

License

Open source (copyleft)GPL-3.0 (Community) / commercial (Enterprise)

ProprietaryProprietary (free Community Edition)

Free tier

✓

popularity

WhichDB Score

61.2

0.0

Rank

#15

#835

GitHub stars

17.4K

–

Stack Overflow questions

23K

–

scale & guarantees

Comfortable data size

Medium (≤ 10 TB)

Large (≤ 1 PB)

Horizontal scaling

Addon

Native

Multi-region

Read replicas

None

ACID

Full

Consistency

Strong, Causal

Strong

Schema

Flexible

Strict

Architecture

Single node, Primary replica, Client server

Distributed, In memory, Client server, Embedded

deployment

Self-hosted

✓

Vendor-managed cloud

✓

Serverless

—

Embedded

—

✓

Edge

—

Clouds

AWS, Google Cloud, 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

Cypher, GQL

GQL, UQL

Client languages

Java, JavaScript, Python, Go, .NET, Rust (community)

Java, Python, Go, JavaScript, C#

Best for

Traversal, Graph analytics, Knowledge graph, RAG

Traversal, Graph analytics, Real-time analytics, RAG

Add more to this comparison Not sure either fits? Try smart match

Neo4j vs Ultipa: FAQ

What is the difference between Neo4j and Ultipa?

Neo4j: The default property-graph database, with Cypher, a big ecosystem and a managed cloud. Ultipa: Commercial distributed graph database marketed as built natively for ISO GQL. Licensing: Neo4j is open source (copyleft) (GPL-3.0 (Community) / commercial (Enterprise)); Ultipa is proprietary (Proprietary (free Community Edition)). Ultipa is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Neo4j (≤ 10 TB). Horizontal scaling is addon in Neo4j and native in Ultipa.

When should I choose Neo4j over Ultipa?

Choose Neo4j for fraud rings and entity resolution; real-time recommendations; and knowledge graphs for GraphRAG. Choose Ultipa for real-time risk and fraud graphs in finance; supply-chain and network path analysis; and teams standardizing on ISO GQL.

Is Neo4j or Ultipa more popular?

Neo4j ranks #15 on the WhichDB Score (61.2/100) and Ultipa ranks #835 (0.0/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Neo4j and Ultipa open source?

Yes. Neo4j is open source. License: GPL-3.0 (Community) / commercial (Enterprise). No. Ultipa is proprietary, closed-source software.