Neo4j service vs console

Question

What is the difference between running Neo4J as a service vs console in Windows? There are 2 ways I can access the Neo4j browser http://localhost:7474/browser/ :

neo4j.bat install-service 

when running for the first time, then

neo4j.bat start

another is

neo4j.bat console

After doing any of one these the Neo4j browser loads. I don't understand why there are 2 commands that seemingly do the same thing. The tangible difference I can see is that neo4j.bat start takes me back to the prompt, while neo4j.bat console does not. What are the differences between the two?

Answer 1

Console mode requires the terminal window to stay open

When you execute using the console subcommand, all output is printed to the current console window. If the console is exited, either via Ctrl+C, closing the terminal, or sending some termination signal to it, the neo4j process is also killed.

When you execute it with the start subcommand, the neo4j process is detached from the console, and will continue running even if the console window is closed. It will remain running until either it fails or is shut down by invoking the stop subcommand (or any other subcommand that makes it stop).

Technically it could also be killed by anything that kills processes as well; i.e. TaskManager, signals, etc.