Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs Neo4j AuraDB comparison

Microsoft and Neo4j are both solutions in the Managed NoSQL Databases category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2, while Neo4j is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.7. Microsoft holds a 16.0% mindshare in MND, compared to Neo4j’s 5.3% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Neo4j users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Read 82 Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews

3,130 Views
1,154 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Neo4j AuraDB

Read 6 Neo4j AuraDB reviews

439 Views
306 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Neo4j AuraDB

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and Neo4j AuraDB are competitors in the database management category, focusing on different data types and use cases. Cosmos DB often has the upper hand when scalability and global distribution are required, whereas Neo4j AuraDB is favored for complex relationship queries due to its graph database capabilities.

Features: Cosmos DB offers multi-model support, extensive global distribution, and low latency, making it strong in scalability scenarios. It also integrates easily with other Microsoft products, enhancing its versatility. Neo4j AuraDB specializes in handling graph-based data efficiently, offering strong performance and advanced query handling for complex relationships, thus excelling in graph database scenarios.

Room for Improvement: Cosmos DB could improve its cost efficiency and offer better pricing models to accommodate a wider variety of users. There is also room for improvement in the optimization of query performances, especially for smaller scale applications. Neo4j AuraDB can enhance its global distribution capabilities and expand its multi-model support to increase adoption beyond graph use cases. Additionally, providing more integration options with non-graph databases could make it more versatile.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cosmos DB integrates seamlessly within the Azure ecosystem, supported by robust documentation and cross-platform compatibility, facilitating an easier deployment process. Neo4j AuraDB offers a tailored experience with dedicated support channels, focusing on graph databases, enabling a quick and specific setup.

Pricing and ROI: Cosmos DB might involve a higher cost due to its expansive capabilities but offers a good ROI for applications that leverage its scalability and global reach. In contrast, Neo4j AuraDB provides a cost-effective solution for graph-specific needs, promising excellent ROI when efficiently handling highly connected data scenarios.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Neo4j AuraDB Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Neo4j AuraDB

March 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database as a Service (DBaaS) (6th), NoSQL Databases (3rd), Vector Databases (3rd)

Neo4j AuraDB

Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Managed NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 16.0%, down from 18.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Neo4j AuraDB is 5.3%, up from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed NoSQL Databases

Featured Reviews

MichaelJohn

Director | Data & AI at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Very efficient for application-facing scenarios

There are several areas for improvement. Firstly, having a local development emulator or simulator for Azure Cosmos DB would be beneficial. It would be very handy to have a Docker container that developers can use locally. Although, I know there is a free tier and so on and so forth, having a local environment would be nice. For example, SQL Server is very portable. You can even install it on your machine. That is the number one thing that is missing in Azure Cosmos DB. The second improvement area is the IDE of choice. That means how you interact with Azure Cosmos DB. For example, with SQL Server, you have SQL Server Management Studio. I know there is a little bit of support for Azure Cosmos DB in Azure Data Studio, but it is not heavily advertised or it does not feel like first-class citizen support. Developer experience or developer tooling is missing in terms of interacting with the database. Better developer tools or an IDE for interacting with Azure Cosmos DB would enhance the developer experience. Lastly, there is some mixed messaging about what Azure Cosmos DB is, given its multiple APIs. There are so many Azure Cosmos DB APIs available. There is NoSQL. There are MongoDB, Gremlin, and others. There is still some mixed messaging for others who are new to Azure Cosmos DB about what Azure Cosmos DB is. Is this like MongoDB, but then there is also MongoDB in Azure Cosmos DB? I know it well, and I know that the default one is just NoSQL, but others I have interacted with over the last ten years or so get confused.

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Erle Pereira

Founder & Creator at RRADD Strategy

A graph database, purpose built to leverage relationships in data, enabling lightning-fast queries for real-time analytics and insights

There’s room for improvement in Neo4j AuraDB, especially on the developer side. The learning curve can be steep, and the interface for developing and pushing code can be unnecessarily complex. It might be beneficial to simplify this process to help developers ramp up more quickly. Working with graph databases like Neo4j can be more challenging than standard databases, particularly for juniors and those new to graph technology. Streamlining the development process could make it easier for new users to get up to speed. This would be particularly useful for teams with less experience in graph databases. If I could add a feature to Neo4j AuraDB, I’d focus on improving the Bloom interface. It’s excellent for visualizing smaller datasets, but navigating through it becomes challenging as the data grows—say, past 100,000nodes. The interface works well for beginners but doesn’t scale effectively for more advanced users of large datasets. I want a UI that bridges the gap between the easy-to-use Bloom interface and more complex, text-based tools. This would help manage larger datasets more efficiently and improve performance.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The solution's read capacity and write access functions are very fast so users don't have to wait when fetching or displaying data on a screen."

"Azure Cosmos DB's graph queries are its most valuable feature. Although I have not yet explored vector search, it's coming to Cosmos DB, and I plan to look into it. Having data in a flat file format in a document database speeds up processes, which is the primary purpose. Additionally, Cosmos DB's use of the Mongo platform makes it intuitive and cost-effective."

"Switching to the cloud significantly improved scalability, flexibility, and uptime."

"It's not a specific feature that I value, but the scalability of this system is the most impressive aspect."

"It gives us a lot of flexibility. The scaling is instantaneous as well. You immediately have all the resources available."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB include the TTL, the ability to scale up and down as needed, and geo-replication, which comes out of the box."

"rate Azure support nine out of 10. They respond quickly and will help you manage costs. However, they mainly give you an overview of the issue, so they'll never have an in-depth idea of what you're doing. They aren't the owners of our product, so they don't know much about it, but they can ask you generally: What are you doing? Are you doing too many updates? How can we reduce the cost?"

"We chose Azure Cosmos DB initially because of the type of data that we needed to store. We have a schema that is very nondeterministic and flexible. It is always changing based on whatever data we need to acquire from different devices, so we needed a document store with a flexible schema."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pros

"From my experience, I particularly like the professional version. Initially, developers often start with the free variant. Once the project grows, we switch to the professional version, which offers multiple databases, expanded memory, and better scalability. This allows us to handle more data and use cloud scaling features."

"The most beneficial things in terms of AuraDB are its speed, its good pricing, the multi-cloud availability."

"The tool is easy to use."

"The most valuable features of Neo4j AuraDB include its flexible data model and broad language support."

"I like the idea of graphs and nodes and the possibilities Neo4j AuraDB offers."

"Integrating the front-end language with Neo4j AuraDB is a very easy process."

Cons

"There's a little bit of a learning curve because I was new to Azure. But once you learn the tool, it's pretty straightforward."

"There is room for improvement in terms of stability."

"The one thing that I have been working on with Microsoft with regard to this is the ability to easily split partitions and have it do high-performance cross-partition queries. That is the only place where either our data size or our throughput has grown beyond one partition, so being able to do cross-partition queries efficiently would be my number one request."

"One of the primary challenges with Cosmos DB as a non-relational data store is the careful data modeling required due to the lack of collection-level joins when using the SQL API."

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's performance could be better. In large volumes of documents, the querying process becomes slow and complicated."

"Firstly, having a local development emulator or simulator for Azure Cosmos DB would be beneficial. It would be very handy to have a Docker container that developers can use locally."

"While Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is generally easy to use, it has some limitations."

"The initial setup was difficult."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB cons

"During the product's initial setup phase, there were some issues due to disconnections in the tool's network."

"There’s room for improvement in Neo4j AuraDB, especially on the developer side. The learning curve can be steep, and the interface for developing and pushing code can be unnecessarily complex. It might be beneficial to simplify this process to help developers ramp up more quickly. Working with graph databases like Neo4j can be more challenging than standard databases, particularly for juniors and those new to graph technology. Streamlining the development process could make it easier for new users to get up to speed. This would be particularly useful for teams with less experience in graph databases. If I could add a feature to Neo4j AuraDB, I’d focus on improving the Bloom interface. It’s excellent for visualizing smaller datasets, but navigating through it becomes challenging as the data grows—say, past 100,000nodes. The interface works well for beginners but doesn’t scale effectively for more advanced users of large datasets. I want a UI that bridges the gap between the easy-to-use Bloom interface and more complex, text-based tools. This would help manage larger datasets more efficiently and improve performance."

"In terms of AuraDB, the conversations have always been around scalability."

"I've experienced it crashing a few times, so stability could be better."

"Some features can help if they can visualize graphs better."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft provides fair pricing."

"The pricing model of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a bit complex."

"The pricing for Cosmos DB has improved, particularly with the new pricing for Autoscale."

"The Cosmos DB pricing model, initially quite complicated, became clear after consulting with Azure Advisor, allowing us to proceed with confidence."

"The RU's use case determines our license fees."

"Cosmos DB is a PaaS, so there are no upfront costs for infrastructure. There are only subscriptions you pay for Azure and things like that. But it's a PaaS, so it's a subscription service. The license isn't perpetual, and the cost might seem expensive on its face, but you have to look at the upkeep for infrastructure and what you're saving."

"Our experience with the pricing and setup cost is that it aligns with what we expect based on the pricing we see. However, I would absolutely like it to be less if possible."

"Cosmos DB is cost-effective when starting but requires careful management."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing and cost advice

"Neo4j AuraDB is reasonably priced, especially considering it removes the need for cloud administration and associated costs. It's a good deal for the professional version, as it includes managed services, which reduces the overhead compared to setting up your own infrastructure. The cost can be higher for enterprise-scale projects, but that's often due to the scale and complexity of the project rather than the product itself. Startups sometimes overestimate their needs and jump to enterprise pricing too quickly, leading to higher costs than necessary."

"The tool's enterprise edition is very expensive."

"I used the free tier."

"I am using an open-source version of Neo4j AuraDB."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Legal Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

30%

Educational Organization

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

Azure Cosmos DB is generally a costly resource compared to other Azure resources. It comes with a high cost. We have reserved one thousand RUs. Free usage is also limited.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

I think Cosmos DB enhanced the benefits of NoSQL databases, offering query flexibility, partition management, and backup and restore options. These aspects are crucial, and perhaps improving the co...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Neo4j AuraDB?

It has fair pricing.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Neo4j AuraDB?

I worked on a project focused on the quality of public menus, using Neo4j AuraDB to connect and create relationships between food items. This allowed us to visualize data in interesting ways and id...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Neo4j AuraDB?

Neo4j AuraDB is a powerful graph database that enables us to accomplish impressive tasks. Specifically, as a cloud-based service, it eliminates the need for a high-performance computer to use it. S...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

March 2025

Download Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB product report

Buyer's Guide

Neo4j AuraDB

March 2025

Download Neo4j AuraDB product report

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB

No data available

Overview

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service providing scalability, user-friendliness, and seamless integration, suitable for managing large volumes of structured and unstructured data across diverse applications.

Azure Cosmos DB is renowned for its scalability, stability, and ease of integration, offering robust support for multiple data models and APIs. Its capacity for handling unstructured data efficiently and providing real-time analytics makes it ideal for applications requiring high performance and global distribution. With features like automatic failover and integration with Microsoft products, users benefit from cost optimization and secure data handling. Enhancement opportunities include simplifying queries, improving documentation, and expanding backup and analytics functionalities.

What are the most important features of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

Scalability and Autoscaling: Efficiently handles growing data and user demands.
Multi-Model Support: Adapts to different data models seamlessly.
Global Distribution: Provides low-latency access across multiple regions.
Automatic Failover: Ensures high availability and reliability.
Integration with Microsoft Products: Offers seamless connectivity with Azure services.

What benefits should users look for in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews?

Performance and Speed: Exceptionally fast processing for real-time data analytics.
Cost Optimization: Tools for managing expenses effectively.
Secure Data Handling: Implements strong data security measures.
Flexible Data Ingestion: Supports diverse data ingestion methods.

Azure Cosmos DB is frequently used in sectors like web, mobile, IoT, and analytics. It supports applications as a key-value store, processes real-time data, and enables global scalability with low-latency access. Its big data management capabilities and integration with Azure services enhance its utility across industries.

Microsoft

Neo4j AuraDB offers seamless integration with Python, Java, and Go, efficiently handles real-time data, and is hosted on AWS Cloud for reliable, scalable, and multi-cloud support across GCP, Azure, and Amazon.

Neo4j AuraDB is appreciated for its flexible data models and dedicated query language, ideal for network correlation and graph analysis. It provides scalability with expanded memory and supports multiple databases. While users enjoy its speed and AI data handling capabilities, challenges include stability, with occasional crashes and a need for a more intuitive cloud interface. Enhancements in simplifying the development process and improving the Bloom interface for large datasets are desired. Although documentation is positive, it could be streamlined. Scalability in large projects is a recurring concern alongside a more user-friendly setup for less experienced teams.

What are Neo4j AuraDB's standout features?

Seamless language integration: Works well with Python, Java, and Go.
Cloud hosting: Reliable hosting on AWS with GCP and Azure compatibility.
Scalability: Offers expanded memory and support for multiple databases.
Real-time data handling: Efficient for AI and analytics projects.
Flexible data model: Supports network correlation and relationship-centric modeling.

What benefits should users expect?

Cost-effective pricing: Multi-cloud availability ensures competitive rates.
Rapid analysis: Swiftly handles data point relationships.
Graph visualization: Enables effective illustration of graph schemas.
Project scalability: Supports resource aggregation and AI applications.

Research teams use Neo4j AuraDB to learn cipher language and gather data from platforms like Hacker News. It is vital for graph data access, participant engagement, and projects like connecting food data or investment insights. Companies needing scalable cloud interfaces and swift data analysis in generative AI contexts benefit significantly, achieving effective data point connection with robust documentation.

Neo4j

Sample Customers

TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Neo4j AuraDB

March 2025

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