Cayley
Graph databases
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
Take the quiz to check if Cayley and its alternatives fit your requirements.
Completely free
Free Trial unavailable
Free version
Small
Medium
Large
-
What is Cayley
Cayley is an open-source graph database and graph query engine designed to store and traverse connected data. It targets developers building applications such as knowledge graphs, relationship analytics, and linked-data style datasets. Cayley supports multiple query languages (including Gremlin and MQL) and can run with different storage backends, allowing teams to choose persistence options based on their environment.
Multiple query language options
Cayley supports more than one query approach, including Gremlin and its own MQL, which can reduce migration friction for teams with existing graph query experience. This flexibility can help developers prototype and compare query styles for traversal-heavy workloads. It also makes Cayley usable in heterogeneous stacks where different teams prefer different query paradigms.
Pluggable storage backends
Cayley can operate with different underlying stores (depending on the deployment and version), separating the graph API from the persistence layer. This can simplify experimentation and allow teams to align storage choices with operational constraints. It also enables running Cayley in environments where a preferred key-value or SQL store is already standardized.
Open-source and self-hostable
Cayley is available as open source and can be deployed on self-managed infrastructure. This is useful for teams that need local development, on-premises operation, or tighter control over data residency. It also allows code-level inspection and customization when required.
Smaller ecosystem and tooling
Compared with larger graph database platforms, Cayley typically has fewer enterprise-grade management tools, integrations, and third-party extensions. Teams may need to build more surrounding infrastructure for monitoring, backups, and operational automation. This can increase total implementation effort for production deployments.
Operational maturity varies by backend
Because Cayley can rely on different storage backends, performance characteristics and operational behavior can vary significantly by configuration. Capacity planning, indexing behavior, and failure recovery depend partly on the chosen backend rather than a single integrated engine. This can complicate benchmarking and standardization across environments.
Limited enterprise support options
As an open-source project, Cayley may not provide the same level of commercial support, SLAs, or managed-service options that some organizations expect. Organizations that require guaranteed response times or compliance attestations may need to self-support or contract external expertise. This can be a constraint for regulated or mission-critical deployments.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Community / Open-source | Free (Apache 2.0) | Self-hosted graph database; modular with RDF support; no paid plans or hosted service listed on the official site (source code on GitHub). |
