SQL is declarative whereas AQL is imperative - YMMV here. In theory, AQL is better because it's designed explicitly for the problem, in practise though it feels quite similar to SQL but with different keywords, and is yet another language to learn while OrientDB's implementation feels a lot more comfortable if you're used to SQL.
Being written in Java means that OrientDB runs on more platforms, including e.g.This means that ArangoDB can offer a greater level of compatibility with the node.js ecosystem compared to OrientDB.
Whereas being written in Java means OrientDB uses Nashorn, which is still fast but not the fastest. Being written in C++ means ArangoDB uses V8, the same high performance JavaScript engine that powers node.js and Google Chrome.ArangoDB is written in C++ (and JavaScript), whereas OrientDB is written in Java.They allow unidirectional relationships (just like a hyperlink on the web), without the overhead of edges. ArangoDB has no concept of "links", which are a very useful feature in OrientDB.Both are ACID and have transaction support, but in both the transactions are server-side operations - they're more like atomic batches of commands rather than the kinds of transactions you might be used to in a traditional RDBMS.Both are distributed under a permissive license.This is a lot more practical in ArangoDB than OrientDB. Both offer REST APIs, both aim to be usable as an "API Server" via JavaScript request handlers.This is getting fixed in a forthcoming version of OrientDB. In both systems this comes via a slightly less than idiomatic JavaScript API, although ArangoDB's is a lot better. Both support server-side "stored procedures" in JavaScript.Both have support for Gremlin, but it's firmly a second class citizen compared to their own preferred query languages.Both are multi-model, you can use them to store documents, graphs and simple key / values.It's still biased as I'm the author of OrientDB's node.js driver - oriento but I don't have a vested interest in either company or product, I've just necessarily used OrientDB more.ĪrangoDB and OrientDB are both targeting a similar market and have a lot of similarities: I can provide a slightly less biased opinion, having used both ArangoDB and OrientDB. Disclaimer: I would no longer recommend OrientDB, see my comments below.