TerminusDB
activeby Gettier (DFRNT AB) and TerminusDB community · since 2019 · also known as Terminus
Git-for-data document and knowledge-graph database with branches, diffs and time travel.
Overview
TerminusDB is an immutable, versioned database that stores JSON documents as an RDF-style graph and lets you branch, merge, diff, push and pull data like Git. Schemas are first-class and enforced, and queries use WOQL (a Datalog), GraphQL or a document API. Storage relies on compact succinct data structures, so every commit is cheap to keep. After the original company stepped back, maintenance passed to the Gettier team (DFRNT AB), which shipped v12 with arbitrary-precision decimals and temporal reasoning. 12.0.8 shipped in October 2026, and 12.1 is in release candidate. It fits collaborative, auditable data curation more than high-throughput OLTP.
Strengths & trade-offs
Strengths
- +Branch, merge, diff and revert data with Git-like semantics
- +Full commit history with time travel queries
- +Schema-enforced JSON documents that are also a queryable graph
- +Datalog (WOQL) and GraphQL query options
- +Compact succinct storage makes keeping history cheap
Trade-offs
- −Small community after the original company stepped back
- −Single-server only; not built for high write throughput
- −WOQL has a steep learning curve
- −No built-in full-text or vector search
Great 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
Think twice for
- −High-volume transactional apps
- −Search-heavy applications
Capabilities
Native or official first-party support · 9 of 25 tracked
Scale & consistency
- Comfortable data size
- Small · ≤ 100 GB
- Horizontal scaling
- None
- Multi-region
- No
- Transactions
- Full ACID
- Consistency
- Strong
- Schema
- Strict
- Architecture
- Single node, Client server
- Query languages
- WOQL (Datalog), GraphQL
Single-server; distributes collaboration through clone/push/pull of databases rather than sharding.
Deployment
Ecosystem
Alternatives to TerminusDB
MySQL-compatible SQL database you can branch, diff, merge and clone like a Git repository.
terminusdb vs dolt →Bitemporal SQL database on object storage that keeps every version of every row.
terminusdb vs xtdb →The default property-graph database, with Cypher, a big ecosystem and a managed cloud.
terminusdb vs neo4j →Enterprise knowledge-graph platform: RDF store, reasoning and virtual graphs over your sources.
terminusdb vs stardog →Immutable Datalog database from Nubank where every fact is timestamped and queries run in the app process.
terminusdb vs datomic →Standards-compliant RDF triplestore with reasoning, connectors and MCP support for GraphRAG.
terminusdb vs ontotext-graphdb →TerminusDB FAQ
What is TerminusDB?
TerminusDB is a graph database by Gettier (DFRNT AB) and TerminusDB community, first released in 2019. TerminusDB is an immutable, versioned database that stores JSON documents as an RDF-style graph and lets you branch, merge, diff, push and pull data like Git. Schemas are first-class and enforced, and queries use WOQL (a Datalog), GraphQL or a document API. Storage relies on compact succinct data structures, so every commit is cheap to keep. After the original company stepped back, maintenance passed to the Gettier team (DFRNT AB), which shipped v12 with arbitrary-precision decimals and temporal reasoning. 12.0.8 shipped in October 2026, and 12.1 is in release candidate. It fits collaborative, auditable data curation more than high-throughput OLTP.
Is TerminusDB open source?
Yes. TerminusDB is open source. License: Apache License 2.0.
Does TerminusDB support ACID transactions?
Yes. TerminusDB supports full ACID transactions, with strong consistency.
Does TerminusDB scale horizontally?
TerminusDB 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 TerminusDB?
You can self-host it.
What is TerminusDB best for?
TerminusDB is a strong fit for collaborative curation of reference or master data; auditable knowledge graphs with review workflows; and versioned configuration and product data. Think twice for high-volume transactional apps.
What are the best alternatives to TerminusDB?
Common alternatives to TerminusDB include Dolt, XTDB, Neo4j, Stardog and Datomic. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.
How popular is TerminusDB?
TerminusDB ranks #146 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (21.0/100), and #11 among graph databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.