vs

Stardog vs OpenLink Virtuoso

Stardog: Enterprise knowledge-graph platform: RDF store, reasoning and virtual graphs over your sources. OpenLink Virtuoso: Hybrid SQL/RDF engine that runs many of the largest public SPARQL endpoints.

key differences

  • Licensing: Stardog is proprietary (Proprietary (free 1-year renewable license available)); OpenLink Virtuoso is open source (copyleft) (GPL-2.0 (Open Source Edition); commercial edition proprietary).
  • OpenLink Virtuoso is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Stardog (≤ 10 TB).
  • Horizontal scaling is none in Stardog and addon in OpenLink Virtuoso.
  • Only Stardog has online schema changes.
  • Only OpenLink Virtuoso has joins, secondary indexes, triggers, stored procedures, columnar storage.

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 virtuoso for

  • +Public Linked Open Data endpoints
  • +Large RDF datasets in life sciences
  • +Hybrid SQL plus RDF data integration
  • +Semantic web publishing

best at · Knowledge graph, OLAP, Content

overview
Primary model
RDF / Triple Store
RDF / Triple Store
Also supports
Graph
Relational, XML
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Stardog Union
OpenLink Software
First release
2012
1998
Latest version
12.2.1 (Oct 26, 2026)
7.2.17 (May 7, 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary (free 1-year renewable license available)
Open source (copyleft)GPL-2.0 (Open Source Edition); commercial edition proprietary
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
12.7
19.5
Rank
#265
#167
GitHub stars
–
976
Stack Overflow questions
97
533
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
None
Addon
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Flexible
Flexible
Architecture
Single node, Primary replica, Client server
Single node, Client server, Distributed
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
—
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Azure
AWS
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
SPARQL, SQL, SPASQL
Client languages
Java, Python, JavaScript, .NET
ODBC, JDBC, Python, PHP, Jena/RDF4J adapters
Best for
Knowledge graph, Metadata, RAG, Traversal
Knowledge graph, OLAP, Content, Metadata

Stardog vs OpenLink Virtuoso: FAQ

What is the difference between Stardog and OpenLink Virtuoso?

Stardog: Enterprise knowledge-graph platform: RDF store, reasoning and virtual graphs over your sources. OpenLink Virtuoso: Hybrid SQL/RDF engine that runs many of the largest public SPARQL endpoints. Licensing: Stardog is proprietary (Proprietary (free 1-year renewable license available)); OpenLink Virtuoso is open source (copyleft) (GPL-2.0 (Open Source Edition); commercial edition proprietary). OpenLink Virtuoso is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Stardog (≤ 10 TB). Horizontal scaling is none in Stardog and addon in OpenLink Virtuoso.

When should I choose Stardog over OpenLink Virtuoso?

Choose Stardog for enterprise data fabric and semantic layer; life-sciences and pharma knowledge graphs; and regulatory and compliance data integration. Choose OpenLink Virtuoso for public Linked Open Data endpoints, large RDF datasets in life sciences and hybrid SQL plus RDF data integration.

Is Stardog or OpenLink Virtuoso more popular?

OpenLink Virtuoso ranks #167 on the WhichDB Score (19.5/100) and Stardog ranks #265 (12.7/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Stardog and OpenLink Virtuoso open source?

No. Stardog is proprietary, closed-source software. Yes. OpenLink Virtuoso is open source. License: GPL-2.0 (Open Source Edition); commercial edition proprietary.