I've always been curious about graph DBs and dabbled a bit in them, but for those who have more extensive experience in them-- are they really worth it? Is it that for small scale SQL is better and graph DBs really only matter at scale, or for specific use cases with highly connected data?
Most graph databases only offer an advantage in query language, as it allows for more ergonomic graph traversal compared to e.g. recursive CTEs in SQL. However with SQL/PGQ, the same query ergonomics are coming to traditional databases. If you look under the hood there is usually nothing special about graph databases that will make them more performant. If you lay out a query plan side-by side between e.g. Postgres a…
Yes, now that Postgres offers property graphs: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/19/ddl-property-graphs.html, which allows ergonomic queries using graph pattern matching syntax, instead of joins, these dbs feel like dodos.