SylvaDB
maintenanceby CulturePlex Lab · since 2011 · also known as Sylva
Web-based relaxed-schema graph data manager for humanities researchers, built on Django over Neo4j.
maintenance. Hosted sylvadb.com is offline and the AGPL code on GitHub has had no commits since January 2016. Neo4j with its browser tools is the practical successor.
Overview
Sylva, from the CulturePlex Lab, is a graph database management system aimed at researchers who do not program, especially in the digital humanities. In the browser you define a flexible, relaxed schema of node and relationship types, enter or import data collaboratively, explore it visually and run queries and network analytics, while the storage itself sits in a pluggable graph backend such as Neo4j, Neo4j Spatial or Blueprints/Rexster. It was offered as a hosted service at sylvadb.com and as AGPL-licensed Django code. The hosted service is offline and the code has not changed since January 2016.
Strengths & trade-offs
Strengths
- +Schema design, data entry and querying entirely in the browser, aimed at non-programmers
- +Relaxed schemas let researchers evolve models as their sources change
- +Pluggable graph backends including Neo4j and Neo4j Spatial
Trade-offs
- −Dormant since 2016 with dated Django and Neo4j dependencies
- −Hosted service no longer exists
- −A management layer, not a storage engine, so performance depends on the backend
Great for
- +Digital humanities network research
- +Teaching graph modelling to non-programmers
Think twice for
- −Production applications
- −Large-scale graph analytics
Capabilities
Native or official first-party support · 3 of 25 tracked
Scale & consistency
- Comfortable data size
- Small · ≤ 100 GB
- Horizontal scaling
- None
- Multi-region
- No
- Transactions
- Limited ACID
- Consistency
- Strong
- Schema
- Flexible
- Architecture
- Client server
- Query languages
- Visual query builder
Bounded by the underlying graph backend and a single Django deployment.
Deployment
Ecosystem
Alternatives to SylvaDB
The default property-graph database, with Cypher, a big ecosystem and a managed cloud.
sylvadb vs neo4j →In-memory, Cypher-compatible graph database in C++ for streaming and real-time graph workloads.
sylvadb vs memgraph →Native multi-model database: documents, graphs, search and vectors behind one query language.
sylvadb vs arangodb →Git-for-data document and knowledge-graph database with branches, diffs and time travel.
sylvadb vs terminusdb →Open-source distributed graph database layered on Cassandra, HBase, ScyllaDB or Bigtable.
sylvadb vs janusgraph →Shared-nothing distributed graph database for trillion-edge graphs, with GQL in Enterprise v5.
sylvadb vs nebulagraph →SylvaDB FAQ
What is SylvaDB?
SylvaDB is a graph database by CulturePlex Lab, first released in 2011. Sylva, from the CulturePlex Lab, is a graph database management system aimed at researchers who do not program, especially in the digital humanities. In the browser you define a flexible, relaxed schema of node and relationship types, enter or import data collaboratively, explore it visually and run queries and network analytics, while the storage itself sits in a pluggable graph backend such as Neo4j, Neo4j Spatial or Blueprints/Rexster. It was offered as a hosted service at sylvadb.com and as AGPL-licensed Django code. The hosted service is offline and the code has not changed since January 2016.
Is SylvaDB open source?
Yes. SylvaDB is open source. License: GNU AGPL v3 or later.
Does SylvaDB support ACID transactions?
Partly. SylvaDB offers limited ACID guarantees (for example, single-record or single-partition transactions), with strong consistency.
Does SylvaDB scale horizontally?
SylvaDB does not scale horizontally; it runs on a single node, so you scale it up rather than out. It is comfortable at small scale (≤ 100 GB).
How can I run SylvaDB?
You can self-host it.
What is SylvaDB best for?
SylvaDB is a strong fit for digital humanities network research and teaching graph modelling to non-programmers. Think twice for production applications.
What are the best alternatives to SylvaDB?
Common alternatives to SylvaDB include Neo4j, Memgraph, ArangoDB, TerminusDB and JanusGraph. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.
Is SylvaDB still maintained?
SylvaDB is in maintenance mode. Hosted sylvadb.com is offline and the AGPL code on GitHub has had no commits since January 2016. Neo4j with its browser tools is the practical successor.
How popular is SylvaDB?
SylvaDB ranks #626 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (0.6/100), and #40 among graph databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.