Installing and Getting Started

There are several ways to start working with Neo4j — from a fully managed cloud service to a local desktop installation. This lesson covers the main options and walks through your first steps.

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Installation Options

Option	Best For	Requirements
Neo4j AuraDB Free	Quick start, no installation	Web browser + free account
Neo4j Desktop	Local development	Windows, macOS, or Linux
Docker	Containerised environments	Docker installed
Neo4j Community Server	Self-hosted, open-source	Java 17+
Neo4j Enterprise Server	Production deployments	Commercial licence + Java 17+

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Option 1: Neo4j AuraDB (Cloud)

The fastest way to start — no installation required:

1. Visit console.neo4j.io and create a free account
2. Click New Instance and select AuraDB Free
3. Choose a region and name your database
4. Save the generated connection credentials (you will only see the password once)
5. Wait for the instance to be provisioned (usually under a minute)

AuraDB Free Tier Limits

Resource	Limit
Nodes	200,000
Relationships	400,000
Database size	256 MB
Idle pause	After 3 days of inactivity

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Option 2: Neo4j Desktop

Neo4j Desktop provides a local development environment with a graphical interface:

Installation

1. Download Neo4j Desktop from neo4j.com/download
2. Run the installer for your operating system
3. Enter the activation key (provided on the download page)
4. Create a new Project and add a Local DBMS
5. Set a password and click Create
6. Click Start to launch the database

Key Features

• Manage multiple database instances
• Install plugins (APOC, GDS) with one click
• Built-in Neo4j Browser for queries
• Import/export data easily

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Option 3: Docker

Run Neo4j in a Docker container:

docker run \
  --name neo4j \
  -p 7474:7474 -p 7687:7687 \
  -e NEO4J_AUTH=neo4j/your-password \
  -v neo4j-data:/data \
  neo4j:5

Port	Purpose
7474	HTTP (Neo4j Browser)
7687	Bolt protocol (drivers and applications)

After starting, open http://localhost:7474 in your browser.

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Option 4: Community Server

Install the standalone Community Edition:

# Download and extract
wget https://neo4j.com/artifact.php?name=neo4j-community-5-latest-unix.tar.gz
tar -xf neo4j-community-*-unix.tar.gz
cd neo4j-community-*

# Start the server
./bin/neo4j start