head to head · open source
DBeaver vs cayley
DBeaver has 51,791 GitHub stars, 4,371 forks, 3,334 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cayley has 15,064 stars, 1,238 forks, 93 open issues and last shipped 22 days ago. DBeaver leads on adoption by 244% (51,791 vs 15,064 stars). DBeaver is written in Java under Apache-2.0; cayley is written in Go under Apache-2.0. DBeaver has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, cayley 8%. DBeaver was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| DBeaver | cayley | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick DBeaver if
- You weight community size — 52K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cayley if
- You want the cayley feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and cayley fits your workflow better
About DBeaver
DBeaver is a free, multi platform database management tool built in Java, designed for developers, SQL programmers, database administrators, and analysts. It operates across Windows, macOS, and Linux and integrates with the Eclipse based plugin ecosystem via OSGi and Eclipse RCP frameworks.
read the full DBeaver overview →
About cayley
Cayley is an open source graph database written in Go and released under the Apache 2.0 license. It stores and queries Linked Data, the graph shaped data model standardized by the W3C for the Semantic Web, and its design takes direct inspiration from the graph database that sat behind Google's Knowledge Graph, formerly known as Freebase. The project lives in the Go ecosystem and has been maintained in public for roughly twelve years, accumulating about 15,000 stars and 1,238 forks, with 93 open issues at the time of writing. Its topics — cayley, go, graph, graph database, linked data — describe both the language …
read the full cayley overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is DBeaver or cayley more popular?
DBeaver has 51,791 GitHub stars and cayley has 15,064. DBeaver has the larger community by that measure.
Are DBeaver and cayley free?
Both are open source. DBeaver is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cayley under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between DBeaver and cayley?
DBeaver is written in Java and cayley in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, DBeaver or cayley?
Choose DBeaver if you want the larger community (51,791 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cayley if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.