Comparison of Hibernate with Derby embedded vs OpenJPA with H2 server

Each of the following tables focuses on a specific database operation, where the last table presents average results comparison.

Speed comparison of JPA database persistence operations (normalized score, higher is better)

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server
Basic Person Test	5.9	3.7	3.8	2.2	4.9	2.9
Element Collection Test	2.9	2.6	1.8	1.5	2.3	2.1
Inheritance Test	5.3	4.5	3.7	2.0	4.5	3.2
Indexing Test	7.0	7.3	4.8	3.6	5.9	5.4
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	1.9	1.1	1.7	0.84	1.8	0.97
Multithreading Test	10.5	7.7	3.7	4.2	7.1	5.9
All Tests	5.6	4.5	3.3	2.4	4.4	3.4

The results above show that in general Hibernate with Derby embedded is slightly more efficient than OpenJPA with H2 server in persisting JPA entity objects to the database.

A large performance gap has been detected when using graphs of objects with large transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (0.84) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with Derby embedded database (1.7) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with Derby embedded is 2.0 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

Speed comparison of JPA database retrieval operations (normalized score, higher is better)

Retrieval Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server
Basic Person Test	14.2	2.9	16.4	7.6	15.3	5.2
Element Collection Test	4.4	0.0022	4.9	1.9	4.6	0.93
Inheritance Test	10.3	0.013	18.6	4.0	14.4	2.0
Indexing Test	10.0	4.1	16.4	8.8	13.2	6.5
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	2.6	0.38	3.0	0.49	2.8	0.44
Multithreading Test	19.3	5.9	19.3	14.0	19.3	10.0
All Tests	10.1	2.2	13.1	6.1	11.6	4.2

The results above show that in general Hibernate with Derby embedded is more efficient than OpenJPA with H2 server in retrieving JPA entity objects from the database. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (4.2) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with Derby embedded database (11.6) reveals that in these tests, Hibernate with Derby embedded is 2.8 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

A huge performance gap has been detected when using JPA element collections with small retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (0.0022) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with Derby embedded database (4.4) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with Derby embedded is 2,000 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

Speed comparison of JPA database query operations (normalized score, higher is better)

Retrieval Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server
Basic Person Test	49.3	3.7	6.8	1.0	28.1	2.4
Element Collection Test	37.6	2.0	2.7	1.2	20.1	1.6
Inheritance Test	24.1	2.8	7.6	1.1	15.9	2.0
Indexing Test	5.3	3.8	14.8	7.5	10.1	5.7
Multithreading Test	39.7	0.98	6.1	1.0	22.9	1.0
All Tests	31.2	2.7	7.6	2.4	19.4	2.5

The results above show that in general Hibernate with Derby embedded is much more efficient than OpenJPA with H2 server in executing the tested JPA queries. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (2.5) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with Derby embedded database (19.4) reveals that in these tests, Hibernate with Derby embedded is 7.8 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

A huge performance gap has been detected when using multithreading with small retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (0.98) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with Derby embedded database (39.7) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with Derby embedded is 40.5 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

Speed comparison of JPA database update operations (normalized score, higher is better)

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server
Basic Person Test	4.5	3.0	3.2	2.0	3.8	2.5
Element Collection Test	3.9	0.0078	3.1	1.9	3.5	0.94
Inheritance Test	4.6	0.034	4.5	2.8	4.5	1.4
Indexing Test	4.6	2.8	5.5	3.2	5.1	3.0
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	2.7	0.79	1.2	0.43	2.0	0.61
Multithreading Test	11.6	7.0	2.6	2.5	7.1	4.8
All Tests	5.3	2.3	3.3	2.1	4.3	2.2

The results above show that in general Hibernate with Derby embedded is more efficient than OpenJPA with H2 server in updating JPA entity objects in the database.

A huge performance gap has been detected when using JPA element collections with small transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (0.0078) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with Derby embedded database (3.9) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with Derby embedded is 500 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

Speed comparison of JPA database removal operations (normalized score, higher is better)

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server
Basic Person Test	3.8	3.2	4.2	2.2	4.0	2.7
Element Collection Test	2.3	0.0060	1.5	0.88	1.9	0.44
Inheritance Test	4.0	0.030	4.3	3.1	4.2	1.6
Indexing Test	5.5	6.5	3.6	3.6	4.6	5.1
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	0.74	0.73	0.96	0.75	0.85	0.74
Multithreading Test	5.6	7.6	4.9	5.2	5.3	6.4
All Tests	3.7	3.0	3.3	2.6	3.5	2.8

The results above show that in general Hibernate with Derby embedded is slightly more efficient than OpenJPA with H2 server in deleting JPA entity objects from the database.

A huge performance gap has been detected when using JPA element collections with small transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (0.0060) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with Derby embedded database (2.3) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with Derby embedded is 383 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

Comparison of JPA/Database speed - the averages (normalized score, higher is better)

Transaction/Retrieval Size	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server
Basic Person Test	15.5	3.3	6.9	3.0	11.2	3.1
Element Collection Test	10.2	0.93	2.8	1.5	6.5	1.2
Inheritance Test	9.7	1.5	7.7	2.6	8.7	2.0
Indexing Test	6.5	4.9	9.0	5.4	7.8	5.1
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	2.0	0.75	1.7	0.63	1.8	0.69
Multithreading Test	17.3	5.9	7.3	5.4	12.3	5.6
All Tests	10.5	2.9	6.1	3.2	8.3	3.0

The results above show that in general Hibernate with Derby embedded is more efficient than OpenJPA with H2 server in performing JPA database operations. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (3.0) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with Derby embedded database (8.3) reveals that in these tests, Hibernate with Derby embedded is 2.8 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

A huge performance gap has been detected when using JPA element collections with small transaction/retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (0.93) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with Derby embedded database (10.2) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with Derby embedded is 11.0 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

JPA Performance Benchmark (JPAB)