7+ Best Software For RDF Databases – 100% Unbiased [2022]

Need help in finding the best software for your RDF (Resource Description Framework) database? Here are 7+ top picks on software for RDF databases. 

In over a decade of working within the digital space, I had my share of poking around data integrations, data relationships, and AI systems. 

Without good RDF database software, you can end up wasting your time trying to integrate different documents and manually parsing through tons of data. 

On the other hand, with the help of a good RDF database, you can gather insights faster and better to make your work faster and more efficient. 

These years of poking around AI systems and trying to develop simple apps made me up to snuff with the top RDF database software worth using, and I’ve listed them up to help you narrow down your choices to only the best.

What Is The Best RDF Database Software?

If you’re in a rush, check out my top 3 picks at a glance: MarkLogic, OntoText, and STARDOG.

4.8	4.5	4.2
Best overall. Industry-standard for RDF database software with thousands of customers. Free version available.	Feature-rich. Powerful tools for RDF database management in high-value industries. Free version available.	Best in visuals. Intuitive and easy-to-use platform for visualizing valuable data. Free version available.
Try MarkLogic	Try OntoText	Try STARDOG

This is just a brief overview of the top three on the list; if you want to widen your options and see more of their capabilities, here you go. 

1. MarkLogic – Top Pick

Best Software For RDF Databases Offering The Most Secure Data Management Capabilities [Free Edition | Custom Pricing]

MarkLogic is best known for being a multi-model database providing the best solution for managing and securing heterogeneous data. 

The MarkLogic Server feature provides a capability called MarkLogic Semantics that provides a built-in RDF triple store that manages and stores semantic data.

It improves the document model by giving a smart solution for enhancing and connecting XML and JSON documents. 

This feature also enables data integration and enhanced querying for making inferences and discovering relationships. 

It also supplies data context by storing data like ontologies (metadata).

MarkLogic Server also comes with a built-in RDF triple search engine index to make semantic searches using SPARQL queries faster. 

This allows for a simpler way to compose complex queries to discover insights.

MarkLogic Server, in general, provides NoSQL and enterprise-grade data management capabilities. But still, you can create relational views on tables and analytics results using standard SQL.

Pros And Cons Of MarkLogic

Pros	Cons
Provides superb documentation	Needs a big space to save data which is expensive
Has integrations with REST, JSON, and Node.js to make integrated system building easier	No compatibility with the legacy system yet
Installation, configuration, and deployment are very fast	Current tools fall short of helping with data profiling
Easy to scale horizontally
Can load all data in XML format using different silos

MarkLogic Pricing Plan

MarkLogic has a free developer edition. It’s a full-featured version but it is limited to 1 TB of data. 

If you need more storage for a bigger database, you have to get in touch with the sales team to get a quote. Get started by visiting their site.

2. GraphDB – Powerful & Reliable

Best Software For RDF Databases For Healthcare, Financial, And Media Industries [Free Version | Custom Pricing]

GraphDB is a robust and highly efficient database with SPARQL and RDF support. 

It links diverse data; an index is for semantic search use and enriches it using text analysis to create big knowledge graphs. 

GraphDB takes pride in being software for RDF databases that enables an easy search of semantic knowledge.

It does this by ranking results in relevance. It finds similar resources using word embeddings and knowledge graphs. 

It can also configure complex searches and retrieve domain objects, executing queries as fast as milliseconds. 

With that, you can also build additional data indexes. 

That’s not all. 

GraphDB also allows fast integration of new information sources. It provides parse structured data in:

• XLS
• XML
• CSV
• JSON

It cleans the input data using a generic script language and automates the process and repeats in batch modes to make this integration quicker. 

It also reconciles input datasets, generates and stores RDF data in a remote or local SPARQL endpoint. 

Lastly, GraphDB allows you to operate a high availability cluster easier by ensuring that all worker nodes are synchronized, propagating all updates across all workers, and checking these for inconsistencies. 

Pros And Cons Of GraphDB

Pros	Cons
Easy to use when parsing through qualitative data	No natural language parser for discovering relationships
Provides great support	No updates when new versions are available
Great SPARQL query building environment	No connectors for different platforms
Easy and quick to deploy
Structure information using subject-predicate-object statements

GraphDB Pricing Plan

GraphDB only provided the inclusions for each package but not the pricing. It comprises 2 free packages and 2 paid packages.

• GraphDB Free: The free version includes management of an unlimited number of RDF statements, query optimizer for effective query execution, SPARQL and RDF support, ultra-fast forward-chaining reasoning, and more. 
• GraphDB Standard: The Standard version includes everything in the free version plus high-performance loads, query, and inference simultaneously, and an optional commercial SLA. 
• GraphDB Enterprise: The Enterprise version includes everything in the Standard version plus Elasticsearch connector for full-text search, Kafka connector, automatic failover, synchronization and load balancing, and more. 

To get the prices for the paid packages, you have to fill up the form they provided which gets you in touch with the sales team. 

3. Stardog – Most Visual RDF Database Software

Best Software For RDF Databases For Lifesciences, Manufacturing, & Government Sectors [Free Version | Custom Pricing]

When it comes to Stardog, you can expect the most visual way to search and explore complex data. 

It features Stardog Explorer where you can browse connections in the data fabric. 

To understand data better, it provides a visual representation of connected data so relationships can be discovered faster, uncover dependencies and patterns, or even unexpected but helpful insight. 

With an intuitive interface, you can search content easier and filter results so you find what you need fast. It’s also equipped with a side pane where you can explore related concepts. 

This RDF database software comes with an edge property capability that connects the gap between property graphs and RDF graphs. 

Lastly, it lets users connect and query diverse data sources through a unified data model. This can be enhanced with logical definitions and user-defined rules in encoding logic. 

Pros And Cons Of Stardog

Pros	Cons
Full-featured	Requirements for services providers are different from regular enterprise customers
Integration of analytical capabilities with the graph store	Still needs improvement in database management
Virtualization of data integration capabilities
Flexible but powerful RDF schema
Provide several use cases to show how their solutions can support your operation’s scalability

Stardog Pricing Plan

Stardog has a free version and one paid version. The free version allows you to use it for personal projects. Get started with their free version here.

But if you need more functionality that includes caching, backups, and access to all connectors you have to contact the sales team to review your usage dynamics and get recommendations for the implementation. 

4. BrightstarDB – Best In Integrating & Adding Data

Best Software For RDF Databases That Doesn’t Require Database Schema Definition [Free]

With BrightstarDB, you can easily add and integrate data with their RDF data model. 

It implements the standard SPARQL query language and update protocol, so off-the-shelf client tools can be used to connect to data stores. 

BrightstarDB is a powerful and unique data storage. It’s flexible and scalable in allowing developers to create applications with tools they are familiar with. 

It has also adopted an associative data model based on the RDF data model. It uses simple but powerful RDF graph data models to represent various models to be stored.

It’s flexible enough to allow a simple merging of data together despite evolving systems. 

With that, BrightstarDB features automatic data caching, full historical capabilities, and offers a developer-friendly toolset. 

It also has three levels of API, one of which is for the RDF Client that allows the adding and removal of RDF triples and running SPARQL queries. The other two API levels are Entity Framework and Data Object Layer.

Lastly, BrightstarDB’s security features are basic but customizable to fit various schemes of authorization and user authentication. 

Pros And Cons Of BrightstarDB

Pros	Cons
Easy integration of data	Basic security features
Flexible and scalable
Allows for a  simple merging of data
Has full historical capabilities
Don’t rely on a relational database (adopt a flexible, associative data model)

BrightstarDB Pricing Plan

BrightstarDB is an open-source database, so it’s free to use. Their code is licensed under the MIT license, which is a permissive license. This can be used on commercial and non-commercial applications.

Visit their site to get started.

5. Blazegraph – High Performance

Best Software For RDF Databases For Fortune 500 Companies [Free]

Blazegraph takes pride in being a high-performance graph database that supports RDF/SPARQL APIs, also offering flexibility on all linked data. 

Its high-availability deployment mode utilizes a shared-nothing architecture. In this, each node has its copy of data, and it only synchronizes when there is a commitment to increase concurrent queries. 

Blazegraphs’s GPU supports SPARQL and RDF query acceleration through Java APIs. 

It’s able to support as many as 50 million edges on one machine, which works well for Fortune 500 companies like Autodesk and EMC. 

It also supports Precision Medicine applications so it can be widely used for life sciences applications. 

Other than those two, Blazegraph also works great for supporting cyber analytics in government and commercial applications. 

You can choose a war file, an executable jar, or a tar.gz distribution to download Blazegraph. 

Lastly, Blazegraph is reliable and powerful when synchronizing and understanding nodes and edges helping establish connections with entities or names for querying. 

Pros And Cons Of Blazegraph

Pros	Cons
Fully open-source	Deep learning curve
High-performance
Offers flexibility in linked data
Powerful in synchronizing nodes

Blazegraph Pricing Plan

Since Blazegraph is open-source software for RDF databases, you can download it for free. Just head to the website and scroll down to see the download button. 

6. AllegroGraph – Fastest Loading

Best Software For RDF Databases With Fastest Loading Time & Query Performance [Free Version | Custom Pricing]

AllegroGraph is a closed source RDF database software.

It stores, manages, and retrieve document-oriented data in the JSON-LD format

Its RDF has no explicit materialization phase.

It dynamically maintains ontological entailments needed for reasoning.

With this dynamic materialization, store maintenance is made easy, and the time needed for data exchange and querying is reduced. 

AllegroGraph optimizes ProLog and SPARQL to provide fast load times and query performance. 

This RDF database software claims to be the only dynamic real-time triple store. It loads triples in linear time, reasoning and query can be made at any point in the loading phase, and it has finished loading the LUBM 8000 benchmark. 

Lastly, it comes with a multidimensional geospatial functionality, so the data will have many facets and will not look flat on the screen for better visualization. 

Pros And Cons Of AllegroGraph

Pros	Cons
Allows for data migration	Limited support
Supports multiple programming languages
Provides virtualization
Allows for data replication

AllegroGraph Pricing Plan

AllegroGraph has a free version and a Commercial Edition. 

The website doesn’t provide a pricing package. However, there’s a commercial end-user license agreement that outlines the allowable use for the commercial edition. 

• Commercial Edition: This edition can be used only for its intended purpose. It cannot be used for decompiling, deciphering, disassembling, and reverse-engineering the software. 

If you want more details on the Commercial Edition usage, you can contact the sales team. They will also provide you with the license pricing details.  Visit their site to get started.

7. Apache Giraph – Most Scalable

Best Software For RDF Databases For Mid-Sized Businesses [Free]

Apache Giraph is an open-source RDF database software. It’s an interactive graph processing system that’s built to be highly scalable. 

This software is inspired by the Bulk Synchronous Parallel model by Leslie Valiant. It includes the following:

• Master computation
• Edge-oriented input
• Sharded aggregations
• Out-of-core computation

Because it has a steady development cycle, Apache Giraph is a good choice for enhancing the potential for massive scaling of structured datasets. 

It is also highly used by social media platforms like Facebook. The social media giant uses this software for performance improvements and analysis of one trillion edges. 

Moreover, it utilizes Apache Hadoop’s implementation of MapReduce to process graphs. 

Lastly, Apache Giraph comes with an API.

Pros And Cons Of Apache Giraph

Pros	Cons
Easy to use	Does not have declarative language
Database issues resolved quickly	Lacks native implementations in various platforms
Great for heavy-duty computations
Executes complex pattern matching queries fast

Apache Giraph Pricing Plan

Apache Giraph is an open-source project, so it’s free to use. Right on the homepage, you’ll be able to see the download options and new versions of the software for you to use. 

8. RDFox – In-Memory RDF Triplestore

Best Software For RDF Databases In Reasoning Capabilities [Free Trial | Custom Pricing]

When it comes to RDFox, you can expect top-of-the-line in-memory knowledge graphs and high-performance semantic reasoners. 

With an in-memory RDF triplestore, it overcomes performance limitations and flexibility issues. 

The University of Oxford designed it to have an optimized in-memory approach owing to its unmatched reasoning capabilities. 

With this reasoning capability, RDFox can offer power and speed to increase workplace efficiency using its semantic knowledge. 

But even with the speed it offers, it can still ensure correct query results and rule materialization. 

RDFox can safely position itself as a high-end competitor on the RDF database industry standards. 

Some of its best features are:

• Data migration
• Knowledge graphs
• Semantic reasoning
• Complex pattern detection

RDFox supports OWL 2 RL, DataLog, SPARQL, and SHACL. For easy adoption,  it also complies with W3C standards. 

This capability allows you to maximize the potential of your organization by enriching, integrating, verifying, and querying data from different sources.  

Lastly, this also means you can operate at scale for both memory-constrained devices and production-grade servers. 

Pros And Cons Of RDFox

Pros	Cons
Allows for easy setup with Docker images	Poor documentation
DataLog implementation helps in overcoming OWL limitations	Needs more functionality in the console
Provides very responsive support	No support for clustering yet
Fast reasoning process	Needs SPARQL update for the web UI

RDFox Pricing Plan

RDFox comes with a limited 30-day trial version. Visit their site to get started.

However, if you want to get a license to use more of its capabilities, you can request a license evaluation starting by answering a short questionnaire. 

9. RDF4J – Best For Java

Best Software For Scalable RDF Databases [Free]

RDF4J is more of an open-source Java framework that can be used for working with RDF data. 

Its functionality includes:

• Storing
• Parsing
• Inferencing
• And Querying

It provides an easy-to-use API that can connect with leading RDF storage solutions. 

RDF4J allows you to connect with SPARQL endpoints. It also allows you to create applications leveraging the power of the semantic web and linked data. 

It has two databases: in-memory and the native store. 

The in-memory store is a transactional database that uses the main memory with optional persistent sync to disk. It offers excellent performance for small datasets.

On the other hand, the native store is also a transactional database but uses direct disk IO for persistence. It’s a more scalable solution with a smaller memory footprint. 

And unlike the in-memory store, the native store offers better durability and consistency. It’s best for medium-sized datasets. 

With it, it provides a wide range of tools developers can use to leverage the power of RDF. 

It supports SPARQL 1.1 query and update language. 

Best of all, RDF4J enables most of the mainstream RDF file formats like:

• Trix
• TriG
• Turtle
• N-Triples
• JSON-LD
• RDF/XML

Pros And Cons Of RDF4J

Pros	Cons
Easy-to-use API	Limited support
Has two database options
Supports SPARQL 1.1
Enables most mainstream RDF file formats

RDF4J Pricing Plan

RDF4J is free to use. Visit their site homepage and look for the download link, and you’re good to go. 

Conclusion

Among the 9 RDF database software on the list, MarkLogic is by far the best of my top picks. 

It can manage and secure heterogeneous data and provide capabilities and smart solutions for enhancing and connecting documents.  

Plus, it also features data integration which improves discovering relationships and making inferences.

Overall, MarkLogic is an easy way to discover insights from complex query compositions. 

Most of the RDF database software on the list is open-source, so it’s free to use or has free versions. 

If you want to make the best decision and have the luxury of time, you can take advantage of the free versions, at least for the top choices, to see what fits your needs best and what will help you build AI systems better. 

So there you have it, my 7+ top picks for RDF database software. I hope this review was able to help you out and we’ll see you in the next one.