OrientDB
More info
- Type
- Multi-model database
- Released
- 2010
- Creator
- Luca Garulli
- License
- Apache 2.0
- Successor
- ArcadeDB
Graph, document, key-value and object models in one engine, queried with SQL syntax extended for graph traversal.
Luca Garulli released it in 2010 on a premise that still holds up: most applications need more than one data model, and running three databases costs more than running one engine that handles all of them. Relationships are stored as direct pointers between records rather than resolved through joins, so a traversal stays cheap no matter how many documents exist. The query language is deliberately SQL-like — SELECT expand(out('Follows')) FROM ... — which lowered the barrier compared with Neo4j's Cypher.
Corporate history became the project's undoing. CallidusCloud bought the company in 2017, SAP bought CallidusCloud in 2018, and development visibly stalled thereafter. In 2021 Garulli started again from scratch with ArcadeDB, which carries the same multi-model idea forward.