Ask HN: Which Has Better Usability? AG Cloud Express vs. Neo4j Sandbox

3 points by gutbasokchok 5 years ago | 1 comment

Upon researching some cloud based graph database, I came across fairly old, but fancy neo4j sandbox and brand new AG cloud express.

Neo4j Sandbox(https://neo4j.com/sandbox/) provides user-friendly tutorial (the 'sometimes annoying' pop up guide) and fun datasets to play around with within the cloud service. Downside is since there seem to be a lot of data, the loading of project and node dragging is a bit laggy.

AG Cloud Express (https://bitnine.net/blog-agens-solution/ag-cloud/tutorial-ag-cloud-express-movies/) seems recently developed and its interface is rather simple, but really easy to use for first time user. Not a lot of datasets though, simple seems to be the key here, which is also better in this situation since this service seems faster compared to Neo4j sandbox.

In terms of usability, which of the two cloud services do you all think is better? Are easy/fast/simple one of the traits you look for in a cloud service?

AndrewBowman 5 years ago |

Hello, just making sure you're aware that while the Neo4j Sandbox is a quick way to get a feel for Neo4j and try out some tutorials and datasets, it isn't meant to be used as a general Neo4j cloud service. Your sandbox gets wiped after 10 days, for example, and the resources supporting sandbox instances aren't optimized for performance. It's a casual try-it-out experience.

The Sandbox also predates Aura (our ACTUAL cloud service) by a number of years, so you could say the sandbox is kind of like a prototype.

If you're looking for a Neo4j cloud service, please refer to Neo4j Aura: https://neo4j.com/cloud/aura/

The free tier is coming soon.