vs

Stardog vs TerminusDB

Stardog: Enterprise knowledge-graph platform: RDF store, reasoning and virtual graphs over your sources. TerminusDB: Git-for-data document and knowledge-graph database with branches, diffs and time travel.

key differences

  • Stardog is primarily a RDF / triple store database; TerminusDB is graph.
  • Licensing: Stardog is proprietary (Proprietary (free 1-year renewable license available)); TerminusDB is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0).
  • Stardog is built for larger datasets (≤ 10 TB) than TerminusDB (≤ 100 GB).
  • Only Stardog has full-text search, geospatial.
  • Only TerminusDB has joins, json, compression, time travel, branching.

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

choose terminusdb for

  • +Collaborative curation of reference or master data
  • +Auditable knowledge graphs with review workflows
  • +Versioned configuration and product data
  • +Data products that need reproducible snapshots

best at · Knowledge graph, Content, Metadata

overview
Primary model
RDF / Triple Store
Graph
Also supports
Graph
Document, RDF / Triple Store
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Stardog Union
Gettier (DFRNT AB) and TerminusDB community
First release
2012
2019
Latest version
12.2.1 (Oct 26, 2026)
12.0.8 (Oct 12, 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary (free 1-year renewable license available)
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
12.7
21.0
Rank
#265
#146
GitHub stars
–
3.5K
Stack Overflow questions
97
2
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Small (≤ 100 GB)
Horizontal scaling
None
None
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Flexible
Strict
Architecture
Single node, Primary replica, Client server
Single node, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
—
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
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
SPARQL, GraphQL, SQL, Stardog Rules
WOQL (Datalog), GraphQL
Client languages
Java, Python, JavaScript, .NET
Python, JavaScript, Rust, Elixir
Best for
Knowledge graph, Metadata, RAG, Traversal
Knowledge graph, Content, Metadata

Stardog vs TerminusDB: FAQ

What is the difference between Stardog and TerminusDB?

Stardog: Enterprise knowledge-graph platform: RDF store, reasoning and virtual graphs over your sources. TerminusDB: Git-for-data document and knowledge-graph database with branches, diffs and time travel. Stardog is primarily a RDF / triple store database; TerminusDB is graph. Licensing: Stardog is proprietary (Proprietary (free 1-year renewable license available)); TerminusDB is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0). Stardog is built for larger datasets (≤ 10 TB) than TerminusDB (≤ 100 GB).

When should I choose Stardog over TerminusDB?

Choose Stardog for enterprise data fabric and semantic layer; life-sciences and pharma knowledge graphs; and regulatory and compliance data integration. Choose TerminusDB for collaborative curation of reference or master data; auditable knowledge graphs with review workflows; and versioned configuration and product data.

Is Stardog or TerminusDB more popular?

TerminusDB ranks #146 on the WhichDB Score (21.0/100) and Stardog ranks #265 (12.7/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Stardog and TerminusDB open source?

No. Stardog is proprietary, closed-source software. Yes. TerminusDB is open source. License: Apache License 2.0.