With ArangoDB what is the practical difference between 1 named graph with x edge definitions vs x named graphs with 1 edge definition?

Question

Is the difference only logical / housekeeping related?

I did read this question but the answer there only deals with 1 edge definition vs multiple edge definitions within a graph which is now already covered in the documentation . So I'm curious.

Answer 1

I have used Arango for 6 years and don't use Graph objects, all my queries are just AQL queries, which means you don't need to use a Graph to use the benefits of graph databases and to perform traversals.

The way I think of a 'Graph' in Arango is that it's a limited / curated view of your collections that is query-able, but also is helpful if you want it to manage some level of integrity on deletes.

Overall, it slows down a Traversal, so I find it better to avoid them. A key driver for my decision is that I don't need views, and I don't need the system to handle the deletion of edges if I delete a connected vertex, but that's just my use case.