What is ArangoDB?

ArangoDB is a scalable database management system for graphs, with a broad range of features and a rich ecosystem

It supports a variety of data access patterns with a single, composable query language thanks to its multi-model approach that combines the analytical power of graphs with JSON documents, a key-value store, and a built-in search engine.

ArangoDB is available in an open-source and a commercial edition, you can use it for on-premises deployments, as well as a fully managed cloud service, the ArangoGraph Insights Platform.

What are Graphs?

Graphs are information networks comprised of nodes and relations.

A social network is a common example of a graph. People are represented by nodes and their friendships by relations.

Nodes are also called vertices (singular: vertex), and relations are edges that connect vertices. A vertex typically represents a specific entity (a person, a book, a sensor reading, etc.) and an edge defines how one entity relates to another.

This paradigm of storing data feels natural because it closely matches the cognitive model of humans. It is an expressive data model that allows you to represent many problem domains and solve them with semantic queries and graph analytics.

Beyond Graphs

Not everything is a graph use case. ArangoDB lets you equally work with structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data in the form of schema-free JSON objects, without having to connect these objects to form a graph.

Depending on your needs, you may mix graphs and unconnected data. ArangoDB is designed from the ground up to support multiple data models with a single, composable query language.

FOR book IN Books
  FILTER book.title == "ArangoDB"
  FOR person IN 2..2 INBOUND book Sales, OUTBOUND People
    RETURN person.name

ArangoDB also comes with an integrated search engine for information retrieval, such as full-text search with relevance ranking.

ArangoDB is written in C++ for high performance and built to work at scale, in the cloud or on-premises.