Neo4j Online Tutorials

Neo4j
Developer(s)	Neo4j
Initial release	2007; 17 years ago
Stable release	5.19 / 12 April 2024; 12 days ago
Repository	github.com/neo4j/neo4j ;
Written in	Java
Type	Graph database
License	Source code: GPLv3 and AGPLv3 with Commons Clause; Binaries: Freemium registerware;
Website	neo4j.com

Neo4j is a graph database management system (GDBMS) developed by Neo4j, Inc.

The data elements Neo4j stores are nodes, edges connecting them, and attributes of nodes and edges. Described by its developers as an ACID-compliant transactional database with native graph storage and processing, Neo4j is available in a non-open-source "community edition" licensed with a modification of the GNU General Public License, with online backup and high availability extensions licensed under a closed-source commercial license. Neo also licenses Neo4j with these extensions under closed-source commercial terms.

Neo4j is implemented in Java and accessible from software written in other languages using the Cypher query language through a transactional HTTP endpoint, or through the binary "Bolt" protocol. The "4j" in Neo4j is a reference to its being built in Java, however is now largely viewed as an anachronism.

History edit

Neo4j is developed by Neo4j, Inc., based in San Mateo, California, United States and Malmö, Sweden.

Version 1.0 was released in February 2010.

Neo4j version 2.0 was released in December 2013.

Neo4j version 3.0 was released in April 2016.

In November 2016, Neo4j successfully secured $36M in Series D Funding led by Greenbridge Partners Ltd.^[14]

In November 2018, Neo4j successfully secured $80M in Series E Funding led by One Peak Partners and Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, with participation from other investors including Creandum, Eight Roads and Greenbridge Partners.^[15]

In June 2021, Neo4j announced another round of funding, $325M in Series F.^[16]

Release history edit

Release history
Release	First release^[17]	Latest minor version^[18]	Latest release^[18]	End of Support Date^[17]
1.0	2010-02-23	Old version, no longer maintained: 1.0	—	2011-08-23
1.1	2010-07-30	Old version, no longer maintained: 1.1	—	2012-01-30
1.2	2010-12-29	Old version, no longer maintained: 1.2	—	2012-06-29
1.3	2011-04-12	Old version, no longer maintained: 1.3	—	2012-09-12
1.4	2011-07-08	Old version, no longer maintained: 1.4	—	2013-01-08
1.5	2011-11-09	Old version, no longer maintained: 1.5	—	2013-03-09
1.6	2012-01-22	Old version, no longer maintained: 1.6	—	2013-07-22
1.7	2012-04-18	Old version, no longer maintained: 1.7	—	2013-10-18
1.8	2012-09-28	Old version, no longer maintained: 1.8	—	2014-03-28
1.9	2013-05-21	Old version, no longer maintained: 1.9.9	2014-10-13	2014-11-21
2.0	2013-12-11	Old version, no longer maintained: 2.0.4	2014-07-08	2015-06-11
2.1	2014-05-29	Old version, no longer maintained: 2.1.8	2015-04-01	2015-11-29
2.2	2015-03-25	Old version, no longer maintained: 2.2.10	2016-06-16	2016-09-25
2.3	2015-10-21	Old version, no longer maintained: 2.3.12	2017-12-12	2017-04-21
3.0	2016-04-16	Old version, no longer maintained: 3.0.12	2017-10-03	2017-10-31
3.1	2016-12-13	Old version, no longer maintained: 3.1.9	2018-06-05	2018-06-13
3.2	2017-05-11	Old version, no longer maintained: 3.2.14	2019-02-26	2018-11-31
3.3	2017-10-24	Old version, no longer maintained: 3.3.9	2018-11-02	2019-04-28
3.4	2018-05-17	Old version, no longer maintained: 3.4.17	2019-11-19	2020-03-31
3.5	2018-11-29	Old version, no longer maintained: 3.5.35	2022-08-11	2022-05-27
4.0	2020-01-15	Old version, no longer maintained: 4.0.12	2021-07-06	2021-07-14
4.1	2020-06-23	Old version, no longer maintained: 4.1.12	2022-08-11	2021-12-22
4.2	2020-11-17	Old version, no longer maintained: 4.2.19	2022-08-11	2022-05-16
4.3	2021-06-17	Old version, no longer maintained: 4.3.23	2022-12-21	2022-12-16
4.4	2021-12-02	Older version, yet still maintained: 4.4.33	2024-04-24	2025-06-30
5.0	2022-10-06	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.0	—	2022-10-24
5.1	2022-10-24	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.1	—	Release of 5.2
5.2	2022-11-21	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.2	—	Release of 5.3
5.3	2022-12-15	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.3	—	Release of 5.4
5.4	2023-01-26	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.4	—	Release of 5.5
5.5	2023-02-16	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.5	—	Release of 5.6
5.6	2023-03-24	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.6	—	Release of 5.7
5.7	2023-04-20	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.7	—	Release of 5.8
5.8	2023-05-16	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.8	—	Release of 5.9
5.9	2023-06-15	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.9	—	Release of 5.10
5.10	2023-07-19	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.10	—	Release of 5.11
5.11	2023-08-15	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.11	—	Release of 5.12
5.12	2023-09-14	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.12	—	Release of 5.13
5.13	2023-10-23	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.13	—	Release of 5.14
5.14	2023-11-24	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.14	—	Release of 5.15
5.15	2023-12-15	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.15	—	Release of 5.16
5.16	2024-01-22	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.16	—	Release of 5.17
5.17	2024-02-23	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.17	—	Release of 5.18
5.18	2024-03-13	Old version, no longer maintained: 5.18.1	2024-03-18	Release of 5.19
5.19	2024-04-12	Current stable version: 5.19	—	Release of 5.20

Legend:

Old version

Older version, still maintained

Latest version

Latest preview version

Future release

Licensing and editions edit

Neo4j comes in five editions. Two are on-premises editions, Community (free) and Enterprise, and three are cloud-only editions: AuraDB Free, AuraDB Professional, and AuraDB Enterprise.

It is dual-licensed: GPL v3 (with parts of the code under AGPLv3 with Commons Clause), and a proprietary license. The Community Edition is free but is limited to running on one node only due to the lack of clustering and is without hot backups.^[19]

The Enterprise Edition unlocks these limitations, allowing for clustering, hot backups, and monitoring. The Enterprise Edition is available under a closed-source commercial license.

Data structure edit

The data elements are nodes, edges which connect nodes to one another, and attributes of nodes and edges. Nodes and edges can be labelled. Labels can be used to narrow searches. As of version 2.0, indexing was added to Cypher with the introduction of schemas.^[20] Previously, indexes were supported separately from Cypher.^[21]

Criticisms edit

Database researcher Andy Pavlo from Carnegie Mellon University has questioned graph databases' decision to abandon the longstanding relational model in favor of a custom model.^[22] Researchers from CWI benchmarked a modified version of DuckDB against Neo4j on graph-related workloads and found that, despite being an extension of a relational database running SQL, their implementation outperforms Neo4j.^[23]