leaflet
leaflet relicensed to MIT and finished migrating off R's retired spatial stack
Comparison · Analytics
haven vs Neo4j
A side-by-side editorial comparison of haven and Neo4j — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
haven vs Neo4j: at a glance
| Feature | haven | Neo4j |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Analytics | Analytics |
| Velocity score | 0.0 | 7.5 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 2 |
| Top themes | r, data-import, spss-stata-sas, readstat | graph-database, graph-data-science, free-tier, access-control |
| Last editorial update | 2h ago | 15h ago |
| Website | Visit → | — |
What is haven?
haven's release cadence has narrowed to compiler and R-devel upkeep.
haven is the tidyverse's bridge to SPSS, Stata and SAS files, wrapping the C ReadStat library. The last several releases are almost entirely maintenance: syncing vendored ReadStat and patching ahead of R-devel changes. The most recent substantive user-facing work landed in 2.5.2 and earlier.
What is Neo4j?
Neo4j moves its full graph algorithm catalog onto the free tier and adds attribute-based access control.
Neo4j is pushing capability downward and outward at the same time. The complete Graph Data Science catalog — 65+ algorithms — now runs on AuraDB Free in isolated, unbilled sessions, while Business Critical and Virtual Dedicated Cloud tiers gain attribute-based access control with time-windowed permissions and IdP claim mapping. Around those, the Aura platform continues its monthly cadence: Cypher 25 picked up GROUP BY and a GQL cardinality function, quantized vector search reached general availability, and the Query editor gained persistent tabs.
haven vs Neo4j: editorial side-by-side
haven
0.0ANALYTICS
haven's release cadence has narrowed to compiler and R-devel upkeep.
◆ Current state
haven is the tidyverse's bridge to SPSS, Stata and SAS files, wrapping the C ReadStat library. The last several releases are almost entirely maintenance: syncing vendored ReadStat and patching ahead of R-devel changes. The most recent substantive user-facing work landed in 2.5.2 and earlier.
◆ Where it's heading
Development has shifted from extending the file-format surface to keeping a C dependency compiling against newer toolchains. The deprecation of write_sas() narrowed that surface deliberately, steering users to write_xpt() because the sas7bdat format is undocumented and unsupported upstream.
◆ Prediction
Expect further ReadStat sync releases triggered by compiler or R-devel breakage rather than new format support or writing features.
Neo4j
7.5ANALYTICS
Neo4j moves its full graph algorithm catalog onto the free tier and adds attribute-based access control.
◆ Current state
Neo4j is pushing capability downward and outward at the same time. The complete Graph Data Science catalog — 65+ algorithms — now runs on AuraDB Free in isolated, unbilled sessions, while Business Critical and Virtual Dedicated Cloud tiers gain attribute-based access control with time-windowed permissions and IdP claim mapping. Around those, the Aura platform continues its monthly cadence: Cypher 25 picked up GROUP BY and a GQL cardinality function, quantized vector search reached general availability, and the Query editor gained persistent tabs.
◆ Where it's heading
The shape here is a funnel. Free-tier users get the algorithm catalog and hosted MCP access with no billing and no setup, which lowers the cost of the first serious graph experiment to nothing; enterprise tiers get the governance controls that make an expansion defensible. Cypher is simultaneously being pulled toward the GQL standard and extended with new surfaces — auth rules, grouping clauses — so the query language is absorbing work that used to sit in configuration and driver code.
◆ Prediction
Expect ABAC to descend to Professional tiers and the Aura Graph Analytics free session limits to become the pressure point Neo4j uses to convert experiments into paid capacity. The unresolved question from these entries is whether MCP for Aura reaches Virtual Dedicated Cloud, which is listed as pending.
Alternatives to haven and Neo4j
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either haven or Neo4j.
ggpubr
ggpubr reached 1.0.0 with p-value formatting presets for specific journals
bigrquery
bigrquery went MIT, then handed its slowest path to the BigQuery Storage API
sparklyr
sparklyr now spends its releases absorbing dbplyr changes and feeding pysparklyr
Seurat
Seurat's centre of gravity has moved from single cells to spatial data and on-disk matrices
insight
insight quietly widens the set of model objects the easystats ecosystem can read
Recent activity from haven and Neo4j
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 20h agoNeo4jAura Graph Analytics is now available on AuraDB Free ⚡
- 1d agoNeo4jDynamic & Time-Based Access Control with ABAC, now in Neo4j Aura!
- 8d agoNeo4jQuery Tabs: A new way to work with your queries
- 9d agoNeo4jCypher 25 gains GROUP BY; quantized vector search hits GA
- 13d agoNeo4jEnterprise Studio: dashboard parameters and concurrent editing
- 22d agoNeo4jMCP for Aura Now Available ⚡
- 1y agohavenhaven 2.5.5 syncs ReadStat for stricter gcc diagnostics
- 2y agohavenhaven 2.5.4 patches for an upcoming R-devel change
- 3y agohavenhaven 2.5.3 patches for an upcoming R-devel change
- 3y agohavenhaven 2.5.2 fixes SAS catalog reads and deprecates write_sas()
- 3y agohavenhaven 2.5.1 aligns labelled headers and fixes name repair
- 4y agohavenhaven 2.5.0 adds custom variable widths when writing files
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between haven and Neo4j?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Neo4j is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 0.0), with 2 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is haven better than Neo4j?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Neo4j is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 0.0), with 2 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to haven?
Top haven alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "haven alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/haven for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Neo4j?
Top Neo4j alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Neo4j alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/neo4j for the full list with editorial commentary on each.