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Graph Technologies: Semantic Web vs Property Graph

For a detailed comparison of RDF vs property graphs (structural differences, performance, reasoning), see The Graph Space: Property Graph vs RDF.

Key Differences

Both represent data as nodes connected by named edges and can model the same data. The real differences:

  • Property graphs optimize for developer ergonomics and traversal performance. Properties live directly on nodes and edges. Schema-free and ad-hoc.
  • Semantic web (RDF) optimizes for global interoperability and machine reasoning. Everything is a triple. Formal ontologies (OWL) enable automatic inference. Standardized by W3C.

The choice is about ecosystem and purpose, not structural capability.