# Neo4j vs ScaleGrid

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/neo4j-vs-scalegrid/

Every value below is read from Neo4j's and ScaleGrid's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Neo4j | ScaleGrid |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Pricing model | Usage-based, metered per GB-hour of memory on the Professional tier. A paused database cuts cost by roughly 80%. | Two models: Dedicated Hosting, an all-inclusive plan covering machine, disk and network cost; or Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC), management-only pricing where the cloud provider is billed separately. |
| Startup credit program | Neo4j for Startups: up to $16K in Aura credits. Requires Series B or earlier funding, a single product sold to many customers (not custom per-customer work), a functioning website, and a company LinkedIn profile. | Startup Saver: up to 50% discount on ScaleGrid hosting for 12 months. |
| Regions | AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, across more than 60 global cloud regions; also available through the AWS, Azure and Google Cloud marketplaces. | Six cloud providers: AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, DigitalOcean, Oracle Cloud (OCI) and Akamai. Specific regional availability is not published on the pricing or product pages. |
| Engine | Neo4j, a native property graph database. | MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, RabbitMQ and SQL Server. |
| Backup retention | Daily backups, 7-day retention on the entry-paid (Professional) tier. Business Critical adds 30-day retention with hourly point-in-time restore; Virtual Dedicated Cloud gets hourly backups with 60-day retention. | Up to five backups per deployment on ScaleGrid's dedicated hosting plans. |

## Where they differ

### Free tier

- Neo4j: Yes ([source](https://neo4j.com/pricing/))
- ScaleGrid: No ([source](https://scalegrid.io/pricing.html))

### Pricing model

- Neo4j: Usage-based, metered per GB-hour of memory on the Professional tier. A paused database cuts cost by roughly 80%. ([source](https://neo4j.com/pricing/))
- ScaleGrid: Two models: Dedicated Hosting, an all-inclusive plan covering machine, disk and network cost; or Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC), management-only pricing where the cloud provider is billed separately. ([source](https://scalegrid.io/pricing.html))

### Startup credit program

- Neo4j: Neo4j for Startups: up to $16K in Aura credits. Requires Series B or earlier funding, a single product sold to many customers (not custom per-customer work), a functioning website, and a company LinkedIn profile. ([source](https://neo4j.com/startups/))
- ScaleGrid: Startup Saver: up to 50% discount on ScaleGrid hosting for 12 months. ([source](https://scalegrid.io/pricing.html))

### Regions

- Neo4j: AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, across more than 60 global cloud regions; also available through the AWS, Azure and Google Cloud marketplaces. ([source](https://neo4j.com/pricing/))
- ScaleGrid: Six cloud providers: AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, DigitalOcean, Oracle Cloud (OCI) and Akamai. Specific regional availability is not published on the pricing or product pages. ([source](https://scalegrid.io/mysql.html))

### Engine

- Neo4j: Neo4j, a native property graph database. ([source](https://neo4j.com/docs/aura/auradb/platform/backup-restore/))
- ScaleGrid: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, RabbitMQ and SQL Server. ([source](https://scalegrid.io/pricing.html))

### Backup retention

- Neo4j: Daily backups, 7-day retention on the entry-paid (Professional) tier. Business Critical adds 30-day retention with hourly point-in-time restore; Virtual Dedicated Cloud gets hourly backups with 60-day retention. ([source](https://neo4j.com/pricing/))
- ScaleGrid: Up to five backups per deployment on ScaleGrid's dedicated hosting plans. ([source](https://scalegrid.io/pricing.html))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Neo4j if Teams whose data is naturally relationships-first — recommendation engines, fraud detection, knowledge graphs — where the query itself is a graph traversal Cypher expresses directly and a relational join chain would not.

Pick ScaleGrid if Teams that already have a favored database engine and cloud provider but want someone else operating it — the BYOC model bills infrastructure at cost and adds management on top, worth it if the operational burden is the actual problem.

Consider something else: Neo4j — The data model is tabular and the graph shape is incidental — most CRUD apps fit a relational or document database better, and Neo4j's per-GB memory pricing is a worse fit for large flat datasets than a row-store.

Consider something else: ScaleGrid — The workload fits a single-engine specialist with its own scale-to-zero or branching model — ScaleGrid's value is operating an engine you already chose, not offering a distinctive one.

## Documented by only one

- Entry paid plan: Neo4j: $65/GB/month (minimum 1GB cluster) on AuraDB Professional, or $0.09/hour ($65.70/month for 1GB) metered hourly. 14-day free trial available.
- Point-in-time recovery: Neo4j: Not included on the entry-paid (Professional) tier — point-in-time restore is a Business Critical feature, with hourly granularity and 30-day retention.
- Read replicas: Neo4j: Supported

## Questions this comparison answers

**Free tier: Neo4j or ScaleGrid?**

Neo4j: Yes
ScaleGrid: No

**Should I choose Neo4j or ScaleGrid?**

Pick Neo4j if Teams whose data is naturally relationships-first — recommendation engines, fraud detection, knowledge graphs — where the query itself is a graph traversal Cypher expresses directly and a relational join chain would not.
Pick ScaleGrid if Teams that already have a favored database engine and cloud provider but want someone else operating it — the BYOC model bills infrastructure at cost and adds management on top, worth it if the operational burden is the actual problem.