We compare three leading managed graph database services — Neo4j Aura, ArangoDB Oasis, and SurrealDB — across query languages, data models, scalability, and developer experience. If you're tired of babysitting infrastructure and just want to query connected data, these are the services worth your time.
Graph databases are having a moment. As applications grow more connected — social feeds, recommendation engines, fraud detection, knowledge graphs — developers are realizing that relational joins don't scale gracefully when your data looks like a spiderweb. But running your own graph database cluster? That's a headache nobody wants. Managed graph databases let you focus on querying and building instead of patching and provisioning.
Here's our breakdown of the three best managed graph database services for developers in 2025.
Neo4j is the name most developers know. Its managed cloud offering, Neo4j Aura, is a fully managed, always-on graph database-as-a-service.1
Why it stands out: Neo4j is a native graph database — every layer of the engine is optimized for graph traversals. That means queries over deeply connected data (think "friends of friends who bought X") stay fast even at scale. The query language is Cypher, a declarative, pattern-matching language that's become the SQL of the graph world.
Developer experience: Aura handles backups, patching, and scaling automatically. You get a connection URI and you're off. Neo4j's ecosystem — including the Neo4j GraphQL Library and Bloom visualization — is mature and well-documented.
Best for: Teams that need a pure graph database with deep traversal performance and a large community.
ArangoDB Oasis is the fully managed cloud service for ArangoDB, a native multi-model database that supports graph, document, and key-value models in a single core engine.2
Why it stands out: You don't need to spin up a separate document store and graph database. ArangoDB handles both — plus key-value lookups — in one query. Its query language is AQL (ArangoDB Query Language), which feels like a blend of SQL and JSON path expressions.
Developer experience: Oasis offers one-click deployments on AWS, GCP, and Azure. The web UI is surprisingly good for ad-hoc exploration. The multi-model approach means you can start with documents and add graph edges later without migrating databases.
Best for: Teams that want graph capabilities alongside document storage, and prefer a single database to manage.
SurrealDB is a newer entrant that's generating real buzz. It's a cloud-native database that combines the power of relational, document, and graph databases into a single platform.3
Why it stands out: SurrealDB's query language, SurrealQL, is designed to feel familiar to developers coming from SQL while adding graph traversal and document querying. It supports real-time subscriptions (think live queries over WebSockets), row-level security built into the database layer, and schema-less or schema-full modes.
Developer experience: SurrealDB is built from the ground up for the cloud — it's not a legacy database retrofitted with a managed layer. The deployment is lightweight, and the documentation is clear and modern.
Best for: Developers who want a modern, all-in-one database with graph, document, and relational capabilities, plus real-time features.
| Dimension | Neo4j Aura | ArangoDB Oasis | SurrealDB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Query Language | Cypher | AQL | SurrealQL |
| Data Model | Native Graph | Multi-model (Graph + Document + KV) | Multi-model (Graph + Document + Relational) |
| Pricing Model | Instance-based tiers | Instance-based tiers | Instance-based tiers |
| Real-time Queries | No native support | No native support | Built-in WebSocket subscriptions |
| Self-hosted Option | No (managed only) | Yes (open-source core) | Yes (open-source core) |
All three are excellent. The right choice depends on whether you want a pure graph database (Neo4j), a multi-model workhorse (ArangoDB), or a cutting-edge all-in-one platform (SurrealDB).
Disclosure: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. If you sign up through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend tools we've researched and believe in.
This page was written by the engine and the engine is still on the line. The conversation below picks up where the article stops.
Yes — the picks above are the engine's current verdicts. Ask a sharper version of this question below and you'll get a custom answer with the latest pricing.