Possible to use existing Bloom license w/ COMMUNITY edition of Neo4j (4.0.6)?

[julian]

Hello, the startup where I work already got approved for Neo4j startup program, thanks.

However, at this stage, we're all set up with the COMMUNITY edition of Neo4j, which we have installed on a Google cloud VM, using a Bitnami image. It works, we're happy with it, and it's in active usage.

For the foreseeable future, we have no use in any of the features of the Enterprise version, and would much prefer not to use our limited resources to scrap our current setup and create a new one.

We simply would like to use the BLOOM client together with our currently-working COMMUNITY edition of Neo4j (4.0.6) .

We already have the BLOOM license from Neo4j's startup program, but it only talks about the Enterprise version and the Neo4j Desktop. At this stage, we really don't want to deal with the Enterprise version, nor have an need for the Desktop app - we're just interested in BLOOM, together with our existing Community-version setup just as it is. Is that possible to do?

Thank you!

Julian West

OpenCures.org

[sameerG]

https://neo4j.com/docs/bloom-user-guide/current/bloom-installation/

[julian]

Soooo, the answer is "no" then? The installation guide only mentions the "Neo4j Enterprise Edition".

I understand that Neo4j is extremely eager to steer people towards the Enterprise Edition... and the day may well come for my company to have a use for the Enterprise Edition... but not now, nor anytime soon.

Is neo4j saying that Community users are basically left out in the cold - and essentially ought to look at alternatives for Bloom? I.e. Bloom isn't so much an independent product but rather a way to promote and encourage using the Enterprise Edition?

We'd be open to paying for accessories such as Bloom... and, don't get me wrong, I love neo4j, but at the same time not keen on a heavy upsell of the Enterprise Edition. I think that a lot of other users will share this sentiment.

Maybe the open-source community has, or will have, an alternative to Bloom that doesn't force an unwanted switch to the Enterprise Edition?

[mark_needham]

Hi @julian,

There are a few ways to use Bloom, most of which you've identified:

1. As a Graph App with Neo4j Desktop - not relevant for you
2. With Neo4j Enterprise - I think you get an Enterprise license included with the startup program so you could do that with this GCP image - https://console.cloud.google.com/marketplace/details/neo4j-public/neo4j-enterprise-4-1-causal-cluste...
3. With Neo4j Aura - hosted Neo4j service that comes with Bloom. See https://neo4j.com/developer/aura-bloom/

As far as I know, you can't use Bloom with the community version. But we do have a developer guide that describes some alternative visualisation tools that you could use instead - https://neo4j.com/developer/tools-graph-visualization/

Cheers, Mark