What is Dgraph used for?

Dgraph is a horizontally scalable, distributed graph database with native GraphQL support, ACID transactions and consistent replication, written in Go. It is a good fit for knowledge graphs, highly connected data such as social networks and GraphQL backends needing a graph model.

Is Dgraph open source?

Yes. Dgraph is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at dgraph-io/dgraph and is written mainly in Go.

Yes. Dgraph is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Dgraph?

Yes. Dgraph can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Dgraph an alternative to?

Dgraph is an open-source alternative to Amazon Neptune, Neo4j AuraDB and TigerGraph. Other open-source alternatives to Amazon Neptune include Neo4j, NebulaGraph and ArangoDB.

Is Dgraph actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Dgraph was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v25.4.1, published on 24 August 2026. The project has 22k stars on GitHub.

Dgraph: open-source alternative to Amazon Neptune

About Dgraph

Dgraph is a distributed database that stores data as a graph while exposing it through GraphQL. It scales horizontally across machines and offers ACID transactions, consistent replication and linearizable reads, so a cluster behaves predictably even as it grows.

The project was built from scratch around the way graph data is laid out on disk, which it says reduces disk seeks and network calls in a cluster and improves query performance and throughput. The stated aim is production-level scale with latency low enough to answer live user queries across terabytes of structured data. Clients send queries in GraphQL syntax and receive JSON or Protocol Buffers over gRPC and HTTP. Topics point to uses such as knowledge graphs.

Dgraph is written in Go and licensed under Apache-2.0. The README describes it as production-ready at version 25 and in use at multiple large companies, and it officially supports Linux on amd64 and arm64 architectures. It is a fit for teams modeling highly connected data, such as social graphs, recommendations or knowledge bases, who also want a GraphQL API.

Key features

Native GraphQL database with graph backend
ACID transactions across a cluster
Consistent replication and linearizable reads
Horizontal scaling and distribution
JSON and Protocol Buffers responses
gRPC and HTTP APIs

Good fit for

→Knowledge graphs
→Highly connected data such as social networks
→GraphQL backends needing a graph model

Built with: Go
Tags: graph-database; graphql; database; distributed; go; acid; knowledge-graph; self-hosted

Dgraph: questions and answers

What is Dgraph used for?: Dgraph is a horizontally scalable, distributed graph database with native GraphQL support, ACID transactions and consistent replication, written in Go. It is a good fit for knowledge graphs, highly connected data such as social networks and GraphQL backends needing a graph model.
Is Dgraph open source?: Yes. Dgraph is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at dgraph-io/dgraph and is written mainly in Go.
Is Dgraph free?: Yes. Dgraph is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Dgraph?: Yes. Dgraph can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Dgraph an alternative to?: Dgraph is an open-source alternative to Amazon Neptune, Neo4j AuraDB and TigerGraph. Other open-source alternatives to Amazon Neptune include Neo4j, NebulaGraph and ArangoDB.
Is Dgraph actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Dgraph was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v25.4.1, published on 24 August 2026. The project has 22k stars on GitHub.