Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs Neo4j Graph Database comparison

Microsoft and Neo4j are both solutions in the NoSQL Databases category. Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2, while Neo4j is ranked #9 with an average rating of 9.0. Microsoft holds a 5.9% mindshare in ND, compared to Neo4j’s 5.7% 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 102 Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews

7,050 Views
1,340 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Neo4j Graph Database

Read 6 Neo4j Graph Database reviews

923 Views
775 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Neo4j Graph Database

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Neo4j Graph Database and Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB are competitors in the database category. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB often appears to have the upper hand due to its flexibility and integrated cloud services.

Features: Neo4j Graph Database provides advanced querying optimized for connected data scenarios, visualization capabilities, and effective relationship management. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB supports various data models, including SQL, MongoDB, and Graph, offering global distribution and integration with Microsoft Azure services.

Room for Improvement: Neo4j could enhance its cloud integration and expand its support for non-graph data models. It may also benefit from more accessible deployment tools. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB might improve by simplifying its cost management and offering more detailed documentation for beginners. Additionally, enhancing support for specific graph query languages could be beneficial.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers seamless integration with other Azure services and a wide range of customer support options. Neo4j provides on-premises and cloud deployment solutions, focusing on specialized customer support for graph database needs.

Pricing and ROI: Neo4j Graph Database generally incurs lower initial setup costs, particularly with its open-source versions, offering ROI in niche applications. Conversely, Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB focuses on scalability and global data distribution, which justifies its premium pricing through extensive features and Azure service integration.

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

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Neo4j Graph Database

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:

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Ranking in NoSQL Databases

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

102

Ranking in other categories

Database as a Service (DBaaS) (5th), Managed NoSQL Databases (1st), Vector Databases (1st)

Neo4j Graph Database

Ranking in NoSQL Databases

9th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 5.9%, up from 0.1% 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 (%)
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB	5.9%
Neo4j Graph Database	5.7%
Other	88.4%

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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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.

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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

"For modern applications, I would recommend Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB."

"It is non-SQL and helps to manage and manipulate data from the coding, rather than direct data and complex queries."

"The querying language and the SDKs they've provided over the years have been phenomenal, giving us a significant advantage."

"The global synchronization feature of Azure Cosmos DB stands out as the most valuable for me."

"The solution is stable."

"Its wide support to the ecosystem is valuable. We can use this database with a lot of use cases, and that's one of the reasons why we prefer it. We have a lot of vendors, databases, and use cases, and wherever possible, we are trying to standardize databases. It is also secure."

"I definitely recommend Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB."

"The graphical representation of data is the most valuable feature of the solution."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pros

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

"Creates the ability to visualize outputs."

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

"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."

"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."

Cons

"A better description and more guidance would help because the first time I created it, I didn't understand that a container is similar to a table in SQL."

"The model with autoscaling for RU is complicated to optimize RU consumption."

"Overall, it works very well and fits the purpose regardless of the target application. However, by default, there is a threshold to accommodate bulk or large requests."

"There aren't any specific areas that need improvement, but if there were a way to achieve the right cosine similarity score without extensive testing, that would be very beneficial."

"In Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, I would suggest improvements in security."

"We would like to see advancements in AI with the ability to benchmark vector search capabilities, ensuring it answers questions accurately. During our initial implementation, we faced challenges with indexing and sorting, which are natively available in other offerings but required specific configurations in Cosmos."

"The query searching functionality has some complexities and could be more user-friendly. Improvements in this area would be very helpful."

"Currently, it doesn't support cross-container joins, forcing developers to retrieve data from each container separately and combine it using methods like LINQ queries."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB cons

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

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

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

"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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing, at times, is not super clear because they use the request unit (RU) model. To manage not just Azure Cosmos DB but what you are receiving for the dollars paid is not easy. It is very abstract. They could do a better job of connecting Azure Cosmos DB with the value or some variation of that."

"When we've budgeted for our resources, it's one of the more expensive ones, but it's still not very expensive per month."

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

"I would rate Cosmos DB's cost at seven out of ten, with ten being the highest."

"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."

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

"It seems to have helped significantly. We were using a different database system previously, and one of the reasons for acquiring Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB was cost."

"There is a licensing fee."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing and cost advice

"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

Legal Firm

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Energy/Utilities Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	55

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?

The pricing for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is good, but there is a developer factor to consider. It could be economical or expensive depending on usage. Guidance about query consumption of Request U...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

In terms of improvement for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, while it eliminates the burden of managing database infrastructure, we realized it might not be possible to use various models simultaneously ...

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. If your company is earning well, I suggest using the enterprise version. Otherwi...

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 similar to MongoDB plus Elasticsearch. It performs both functions. Instead of doing t...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 11% of the time

Pinecone vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 10% of the time

MongoDB Enterprise Advanced vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 7% of the time

Amazon DynamoDB vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 6% of the time

Qdrant vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB Competitors

MongoDB Enterprise Advanced vs Neo4j Graph Database

Compared 19% of the time

SQL Server vs Neo4j Graph Database

Compared 12% of the time

Cassandra vs Neo4j Graph Database

Compared 9% of the time

DataStax Enterprise vs Neo4j Graph Database

Compared 7% of the time

InfluxDB vs Neo4j Graph Database

Compared 7% of the time

More Neo4j Graph Database Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

August 2025

Download Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB product report

Buyer's Guide

Neo4j Graph Database

August 2025

Download Neo4j Graph Database 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 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

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Neo4j Graph Database

September 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Neo4j Graph Database

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