Pyyan / Compare / Neo4j vs GraphRAG
Neo4j vs GraphRAG
2 of 5RAG & Knowledge Graphs · verified 13 Aug 2026
Neo4jNeo4jcurrent
GraphRAGMicrosoftcurrent| Specification | Neo4j | GraphRAG |
|---|---|---|
| Summary | The graph database most knowledge graphs are stored in. | Build a knowledge graph first, then query it. |
| Kind | Database | Library |
| Graph | Yes, native | Yes, core |
| Language | Cypher | Python |
| Licence | GPL-3.0 / commercial | MIT |
| GitHub stars | ~14k | ~25k |
| Category | RAG & Knowledge Graphs | RAG & Knowledge Graphs |
| Official | Neo4j ↗ | Microsoft ↗ |
Highlighted rows are where these differ.
Neo4j
- Native vector index alongside graph traversal
- GraphRAG and Graphiti both commonly sit on it
Best for the storage layer under a knowledge graph.
GraphRAG
- Extracts entities and relationships, then summarises communities
- Answers “what are the themes here” which vector search cannot
- Expensive to index
Best for questions no single chunk can answer.