Data modeling tools

Neo4j offers a range of no-code tools to get you started with data modeling. Available options are here listed.

Neo4j Data Importer

600

Besides being a tool for importing data, you can use Neo4j Data Importer to sketch a graph model and map your data to it. You can access it:

For more information, refer to Neo4j Data Importer’s documentation.

Arrows.app

600

Arrows.app is a no-code visualization platform which allows whiteboarding ideas into a graph model. It is ideal for designing a domain model for your data.

With this platform, you can:

  • Draft your own whiteboard from scratch or import data from JSON files and plain text.

  • Create, modify, and delete nodes and relationships with their labels and properties without writing any code.

  • Export the visualization as a Cypher® statement and load it into a Neo4j database.

Cypher Workbench

600

Cypher Workbench is a cloud-based tool that assists Neo4j developers in creating and maintaining solutions built on top of Neo4j. It combines no-code visual solutions as the ones available in Arrows.app while also offering importing options similar to Neo4j Data Importer.

With this platform, you can:

  • Create a data model from scratch or import data from JSON files.

  • Reverse-engineer data models from existing Neo4j databases.

  • Use Cypher statements to augment the current data model, including node labels, relationship types, and properties.

  • Validate your model (naming conventions, constraints, data, common mistakes, etc).

  • Use a business scenarios tool for capturing questions and scenarios of use cases.

  • Import data from Excel, Google Sheets, or plain text.

For instructions on how to install it, refer to Cypher Workbench’s documentation.

Other tools

There are other non-Neo4j tools that can be used for data modeling:

  • Mermaid: general data modeling tool (not specifically for graph databases), based on Markdown. Ideal for documenting modeling strategies.

  • PlantUML: application for creating diagrams from plain text. This is more for version control than model design.

  • Hackolade: a tool to design, document, and communicate data models and schemas. Built to support the kind of data modeling specific to Neo4j with node labels and relationship types.

Tools comparison

Tool Free Import Export

Data Importer

.csv, .tsv

-

Arrows

JSON

Image, Cypher, JSON,URL, GraphQL

Cypher Workbench

Cypher Workbench JSON, Apoc.meta.schema, Arrows JSON

JSON

PlantUML

PUML, JSON

PNG, SVG, LaTeX format and ASCII art diagrams

Mermaid

MarkDown

MarkDown

Hackolade

Hackolade JSON, YAML, DDL, XSD, Excel Template, Cloud Storage, Collibra Data Dictionary

Cypher, HTML