Apache Geode vs. Titan Distributed Graph Database

The biggest advantage of using Apache Geode is DB like consistency. So for applications whose data needs to be in-memory, accessible at low latencies and most importantly writes have to be consistent, should use Apache Geode. For our application quite some amount of data is static which we store in MySQL as it can be easily manipulated. But since this data is large R/w from DB becomes expensive. So we started using Redis. Redis does a brilliant job, but with complex data structures and no query like capability, we have to manage it via code. We are experimenting with Apache Geode and it looks promising as now we can query on complex data-structures and get the required data quickly and also updates consistent.

Incentivized

Titan is definitely a good choice, but it has its learning curve. The documentation may lack in places, and you might have to muster answers from different sources and technologies. But at its core, it does the job of storing and querying graph databases really well. Remember that titan itself is not the whole component, but utilizes other technologies like cassandra, gremlin, tinkerpop, etc to do many other things, and each of them has a learning curve. I would recommend titan for a team, but not for a single person. For single developer, go with Neo4j.

Incentivized

• Super Fast data pull/push
• Provided ACID transactions, so it works like a SQL Database
• Provides replication & partitioning, so our data is never lost and extraction is super fast. NoSql like properties

Incentivized

• Titan is really good for abstraction of underlying infrastructure. You can choose between different storage engine of your choice.
• Open source, backed by community, and free.
• Supports tinkerpop stack which is backed by apache.
• Uses gremlin for query language making the whole query structure standardized and open for extension if another graph database comes along in future.

Incentivized

• Needs more supporting languages. Out of box Python, Nodejs adapters would be wonderful
• Currently it supports just KV Store. But if we could cache documents or timeseries data would be great
• Needs more community support, documentation.

Incentivized

• The community is lacking deep documentation. I had to spend many nights trying to figure many things on my own. As graph databases will grow popular, I am sure this will be improved.
• Not enough community support. Even in SO you might not find many questions. Though there are some users in SO who quickly answer graph database questions. Need more support.
• Would love an official docker image.

Incentivized

Still Experimenting. Initial results are good. we need to figure out if we can completely replace Redis. Cost wise if it makes sense to keep both or replacement is feasible.

Incentivized

Never contacted support

Incentivized

Still Experimenting. But looks promising as it has query capabilities over complex data structures

Incentivized

To be honest, titan is not as popular as Neo4j, though they do the same thing. In my personal opinion, titan has lot of potential, but Neo4j is easier to use. If the organization is big enough, it might choose titan because of its open source nature, and high scalability, but Neo4j comes with a lot of enterprise and community support, better query, better documentation, better instructions, and is also backed by leading tech companies. But titan is very strong when you consider standards. Titan follows gremlin and tinkerpop, both of which will be huge in future as more graph database vendors join the market. If things go really well, maybe Neo4j might have to support gremlin as well.

Incentivized

• Still experimenting so difficult to quote
• For a small size project/teams might be an overkill as it still has certain learning curve
• For Medium to large projects with complex Data Structures that need to be queried with a fast o/p it definitely works

Incentivized

• Steep learning curve. Your engineers would have to spend lots of time learning different components before they feel comfortable.
• Have to plan ahead. Maybe this is the nature of graph databases, but I found it difficult to change my schemas after I had data in production.
• It is free, so time is the only resource you have to put in titan.

Incentivized