Apache HBase vs Cassandra vs Neo4j Graph Database comparison

Apache HBase and Cassandra are both solutions in the NoSQL Databases category. Apache HBase is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.3, while Cassandra is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.2. Apache HBase holds a 5.4% mindshare in ND, compared to Cassandra’s 8.7% mindshare. Additionally, 75% of Apache HBase users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Cassandra users who would recommend it.

Apache HBase

Read 4 Apache HBase reviews

869 Views
834 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

Cassandra

Read 24 Cassandra reviews

2,064 Views
1,507 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Neo4j Graph Database

Read 6 Neo4j Graph Database reviews

923 Views
775 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Apache HBase

Cassandra

Neo4j Graph Database

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Apache HBase, Cassandra, and Neo4j Graph Database based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about MongoDB, Microsoft, ScyllaDB and others in NoSQL Databases.

To learn more, read our detailed NoSQL Databases Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

NoSQL Databases

September 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:

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Apache HBase is 5.4%, up from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cassandra is 8.7%, down from 13.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Neo4j Graph Database is 5.7%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NoSQL Databases Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cassandra	8.7%
Neo4j Graph Database	5.7%
Apache HBase	5.4%
Other	80.2%

NoSQL Databases

Featured Reviews

Ephrem Sisay

DevOps Engineer (M-PESA) at Safaricom Ethiopia plc

In-memory processing and integration capabilities have optimized query performance

Apache HBase could be improved by optimizing the integration with Apache Phoenix; sometimes the abstraction and lookup jobs lead to issues when there are too many requests. Resource optimization isn't always as successful as it should be, which can cause some query and lookup jobs to fail. For instance, during eligibility checks for credit, if there are many requests on the database, it might fail, and after such a failure, it doesn't allow us to run queries from the moment they stop. If there could be optimization to require less resource usage and allow those jobs and queries to pick up from where they stopped, that would be a great addition to the tool.

Read full review

Himanshu Amodwala

Senior cloud solution architect at Microsoft

Well-equipped to handle a massive influx of data and billions of requests

The use of Cassandra in real-time data analytics has been pivotal for our e-commerce platform. As our platform operates 24/7, providing services to sellers and customers alike, the need for real-time updates is paramount. For instance, when a customer leaves comments or feedback on an image, they anticipate an immediate reflection of these changes on the portal. Similarly, sellers altering product attributes or updating images expect instant visibility of these modifications. Handling large data volumes with Cassandra has been an excellent experience. Despite challenges related to the influx, these were not attributed to Cassandra itself but rather to middle-layer issues. Generally, it demonstrated scalability with workloads, thanks to its horizontal scaling capabilities. We could easily add new nodes to the system as needed, ensuring the platform coped well with increasing loads. The tool's most beneficial feature for scalability is its entire architecture. The absence of a single point of failure or a leader within the ecosystem contributes to its robust scalability. This key aspect influenced our decision to opt for the Cassandra ecosystem. In terms of performance, it demonstrated the ability to handle approximately 1.6 billion requests per day. This was achieved on AWS using EC2 instances, and it was during a period about four to five years ago.

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Raju Tsn

VP odfTechnology at Enterpi Software Solutions Private Limited

Delivers superior search and data aggregation capabilities

Neo4j helps with advanced search needs, providing good search results and aggregates compared to MongoDB. Aggregating with MongoDB can be difficult; however, with Neo4j, it's easier. Aggregating data, backing up, and creating new clusters are user-friendly from the back end. In DevOps web deployment, we noticed no database issues. We created Docker instances and set them up efficiently, managing databases up to 50 gigabytes.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Apache HBase is a database used for data storage."

"The in-memory processing lets us optimize our queries and helps us run concurrent queries and other jobs such as the lookup jobs we always use Apache HBase for."

"The best features of Apache HBase include being embedded, making it very fast; when it's linking, it operates with virtually no delay, and all of the queries are very fast too due to some internal optimization which makes it very sufficient and efficient."

"The most valuable part is the column family structure."

"The in-memory processing lets us optimize our queries and helps us run concurrent queries and other jobs such as the lookup jobs we always use Apache HBase for."

"The most valuable features are the counter features and the NoSQL schema. It also has good scalability. You can scale Cassandra to any finite level."

"Its retrieval is similar to an RDBMS, so our team finds it easy to adapt."

"Our primary use case for the solution is testing."

"The technical evaluation is very good."

"I am getting much better performance than relational databases."

"The time series data was one of the best features along with auto publishing."

"Overall, I would rate Cassandra as nine because of its fast writes, which really suit our use cases mostly."

"The most valuable feature of Cassandra is its fast retrieval. Additionally, the solution can handle large amounts of data. It is the quickest application we use."

More Cassandra pros

"As a graph database, I am surprised at their performance and response time."

"For now, the tool doesn't break down or stop, so it is quite stable."

"Creates the ability to visualize outputs."

"Enables people to understand what the business problem is and how the technology helps."

"It is good for search-based tasks, providing solid search results and aggregate results."

"The solution's best feature is how it differs from traditional SQL databases. It's hard to map people and find those near me in SQL, which requires long, complex queries. Neo4j Graph Database makes this easier with simpler queries. It also supports more data types, like JSON, which SQL doesn't."

Cons

"I don't like using Apache HBase to store huge amounts of data because of many performance issues."

"We've seen performance issues."

"Apache HBase could be improved by optimizing the integration with Apache Phoenix; sometimes the abstraction and lookup jobs lead to issues when there are too many requests."

"The setup of Apache HBase needs a lot of time, and the linkage is not the program itself, but the activation and connecting to the NYPD engine always takes considerable time."

"Apache HBase could be improved by optimizing the integration with Apache Phoenix; sometimes the abstraction and lookup jobs lead to issues when there are too many requests."

"Fine-tuning was a bit of a challenge."

"The solution is limited to a linear performance."

"The secondary index in Cassandra was a bit problematic and could be improved."

"While Cassandra can handle NoSQL, I think there should be more flexibility for whole schema design when data is stored in wide columns. Additionally, I believe that eventual consistency should be enhanced."

"There could be more integration, and it could be more user-friendly."

"We found some issues with the batch inserts when the data volume is large."

"Cassandra can improve by adding more built-in tools. For example, if you want to do some maintenance activities in the cluster, we have to depend on third-party tools. Having these tools build-in would be e benefit."

"There were challenges with the query language and the development interface. The query language, in particular, could be improved for better optimization. These challenges were encountered while using the Java SDK."

More Cassandra cons

"The tool could improve by having more resources, especially for Golang, which we use. It lacks good basic libraries and doesn't have an ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) tool, which many NoSQL databases have. We thought about building an ORM for the Neo4j Graph Database but are too busy."

"The only problem is that the community is quite small."

"For me, when the tool was deployed on an on-premises model, it was a little bit difficult the first time."

"So far, we have not had any issues and are happy with the product in general."

"There are concerns about performance and whether the tool can necessarily scale to provide the solution."

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Cassandra is a free open source solution, but there is a commercial version available called DataStax Enterprise."

"We pay for a license."

"There are licensing fees that must be paid, but I'm not sure if they are paid monthly or yearly."

"I use the tool's open-source version."

"We are using the open-source version of Cassandra, the solution is free."

"I don't have the specific numbers on pricing, but it was fairly priced."

"The solution is open source so that you can use it for free. They also offer an enterprise version with its billing. If your company is earning well, I suggest using the enterprise version. Otherwise, you can deploy it on your own cloud and pay based on usage."

"The tool is not expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

University

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

11%

Retailer

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

11%

Energy/Utilities Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	13

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Apache HBase?

Apache HBase is a database used for data storage.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Apache HBase?

Apache HBase could be improved by optimizing the integration with Apache Phoenix; sometimes the abstraction and looku...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Apache HBase?

I'm working for a corporate that uses Apache HBase for their Big Data platform and I'm a Big Data engineer there. We'...

See all answers

What do you like most about Cassandra?

The use of Cassandra in real-time data analytics has been pivotal for our e-commerce platform. As our platform operat...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cassandra?

We are using Cassandra locally and as open-source.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cassandra?

While Cassandra can handle NoSQL, I think there should be more flexibility for whole schema design when data is store...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Neo4j?

The solution is open source so that you can use it for free. They also offer an enterprise version with its billing. ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Neo4j Graph Database?

The only problem is that the community is quite small.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Neo4j Graph Database?

We have used Neo4j in microservices. In one of the microservices, we used Neo4j since we have some requirements simil...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 14% of the time

Redis vs Apache HBase

Compared 8% of the time

Couchbase Enterprise vs Apache HBase

Compared 6% of the time

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MongoDB Enterprise Advanced vs Cassandra

Compared 15% of the time

ClickHouse vs Cassandra

Compared 13% of the time

Couchbase Enterprise vs Cassandra

Compared 11% of the time

ScyllaDB vs Cassandra

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs Cassandra

Compared 3% of the time

More Cassandra Competitors

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs Neo4j Graph Database

Compared 23% of the time

MongoDB Enterprise Advanced vs Neo4j Graph Database

Compared 19% of the time

SQL Server vs Neo4j Graph Database

Compared 11% of the time

InfluxDB vs Neo4j Graph Database

Compared 7% of the time

ScyllaDB vs Neo4j Graph Database

Compared 7% of the time

More Neo4j Graph Database Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

NoSQL Databases

September 2025

Download Apache HBase product report

Buyer's Guide

Cassandra

September 2025

Download Cassandra product report

Buyer's Guide

Neo4j Graph Database

September 2025

Download Neo4j Graph Database product report

Also Known As

HBase

No data available

Overview

Apache HBase is an open-source, distributed, versioned, non-relational database modeled after Google's BigTable. Just as Bigtable leverages the distributed data storage provided by the Google File System, Apache HBase provides Bigtable-like capabilities on top of Hadoop and HDFS.

Apache

Cassandra is a distributed and scalable database management system used for real-time data processing.

It is highly valued for its ability to handle large amounts of data, scalability, high availability, fault tolerance, and flexible data model.

It is commonly used in finance, e-commerce, and social media industries.

Apache

Neo4j is the graph database solution allowing the analysis of complex relationships and patterns in data, leading to better decision-making and improved business processes. The graph database offers easy data integration from multiple sources, providing a more comprehensive view.

The most valuable aspect of a graph database is its performance and response time, as it does not use the join function and only has nodes and raw data. Overall, Neo4j, as a global first-ranking solution, has helped organizations become more efficient and effective in data analysis and decision-making processes.

Neo4j

Sample Customers

Bloomberg, Wells Fargo, Apple, Capital One, NVIDIA

1. Apple 2. Netflix 3. Facebook 4. Instagram 5. Twitter 6. eBay 7. Spotify 8. Uber 9. Airbnb 10. Adobe 11. Cisco 12. IBM 13. Microsoft 14. Yahoo 15. Reddit 16. Pinterest 17. Salesforce 18. LinkedIn 19. Hulu 20. Airbnb 21. Walmart 22. Target 23. Sony 24. Intel 25. Cisco 26. HP 27. Oracle 28. SAP 29. GE 30. Siemens 31. Volkswagen 32. Toyota

Walmart, Telenor, Wazoku, Adidas, Cerved, GameSys, eBay, Schleich, ICIJ, die Bayerisch, Megree, InfoJobs, LinkedIn

Find out what your peers are saying about MongoDB, Microsoft, ScyllaDB and others in NoSQL Databases. Updated: September 2025.

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