H2 Database Engine vs. Titan Distributed Graph Database

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
H2 Database
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
H2 Database Engine is an open source, embeddable database management system (RDMS) written in Java.N/A
Titan
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Titan is an open-source distributed graph database developed by Aurelius. Aurelius is now part of Datastax (since February 2015).N/A
Pricing
H2 Database EngineTitan Distributed Graph Database
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
H2 DatabaseTitan
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
H2 Database EngineTitan Distributed Graph Database
Best Alternatives
H2 Database EngineTitan Distributed Graph Database
Small Businesses
InfluxDB
InfluxDB
Score 8.8 out of 10
Neo4j
Neo4j
Score 7.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SQLite
SQLite
Score 8.1 out of 10
Neo4j
Neo4j
Score 7.6 out of 10
Enterprises
SQLite
SQLite
Score 8.1 out of 10
Neo4j
Neo4j
Score 7.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
H2 Database EngineTitan Distributed Graph Database
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
H2 Database EngineTitan Distributed Graph Database
Likelihood to Recommend
Open Source
For running application tests it's well suited. H2 [Database Engine] can replace the real-world database solution for them easily and removes the requirement to set up a a separate database instance just for running unit tests. For using in actual production application one needs to consider scale. H2 is suitable if application runs in single instance and database is located in same machine as a file where that application runs. This means the application shouldn't have a large user base. However it's easy to switch to an actual MySQL instance if the need arises, it's most likely only a configuration change and doesn't require new code.
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Open Source
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.
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Pros
Open Source
  • Can run as an in-memory database.
  • Simple and quick to get started with, and is light weight (only 2MB).
  • SQL compliant so it compatible with most relational databases.
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Open Source
  • 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.
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Cons
Open Source
  • There's a warning in official FAQ "Is it Reliable?"-section which makes it seem like H2 is not yet a mature product.
  • If raw SQL queries are used there maybe be differences between MySQL & H2. ORM library should be used.
  • Support seems to be community-based only.
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Open Source
  • 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.
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Alternatives Considered
Open Source
While both can run as an in-memory database, H2 Database Engine was just so much easier for us to use since we primarily use the Java stack and H2 Database Engine is also built with Java.
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Open Source
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.
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Return on Investment
Open Source
  • Doesn't take time from developers, once it's configs are set up for testing it works in everyone's development environments
  • Easy to integrate in application, no need to setup separate database software, no maintenance
  • No need to deal with infrastructure related issues/costs - database runs in same machine as the application that uses it.
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Open Source
  • 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.
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ScreenShots