Comparison of Hibernate with H2 embedded vs OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded

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 H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded
Basic Person Test	18.1	13.3	9.0	6.9	13.5	10.1
Element Collection Test	13.0	8.6	6.8	5.3	9.9	7.0
Inheritance Test	21.0	12.2	9.4	5.8	15.2	9.0
Indexing Test	29.9	16.7	18.4	9.1	24.1	12.9
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	17.2	6.1	20.1	7.3	18.7	6.7
Multithreading Test	36.9	26.8	11.5	7.0	24.2	16.9
All Tests	22.6	13.9	12.5	6.9	17.6	10.4

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

A large performance gap has been detected when using graphs of objects with small transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded database (6.1) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (17.2) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 2.8 times faster than OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded.

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

Retrieval Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded
Basic Person Test	16.6	21.8	13.3	30.1	15.0	25.9
Element Collection Test	4.3	0.0068	4.0	4.5	4.1	2.2
Inheritance Test	10.4	0.0025	17.5	2.0	13.9	0.98
Indexing Test	10.8	22.1	15.2	43.6	13.0	32.9
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	2.5	2.1	4.0	2.1	3.3	2.1
Multithreading Test	16.2	20.9	15.7	23.5	15.9	22.2
All Tests	10.1	11.1	11.6	17.6	10.9	14.4

The results above show that in general OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded is more efficient than Hibernate with H2 embedded in retrieving JPA entity objects from the database.

A large performance gap has been detected when using database indexes with large retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (15.2) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded database (43.6) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded is 2.9 times faster than Hibernate with H2 embedded.

On the other hand, OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded is slower, for instance, when using class inheritance in the object model with small retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded database (0.0025) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (10.4) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded is 4,160 times slower than Hibernate with H2 embedded.

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

Retrieval Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded
Basic Person Test	4.5	2.8	1.2	0.91	2.8	1.9
Element Collection Test	4.4	1.4	1.4	0.95	2.9	1.2
Inheritance Test	3.1	2.4	1.5	1.3	2.3	1.8
Indexing Test	6.6	15.4	10.5	34.3	8.6	24.9
Multithreading Test	1.2	1.4	0.59	0.53	0.89	0.95
All Tests	4.0	4.7	3.0	7.6	3.5	6.1

The results above show that in general OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded is more efficient than Hibernate with H2 embedded in executing the tested JPA queries.

A large performance gap has been detected when using database indexes with large retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (10.5) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded database (34.3) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded is 3.3 times faster than Hibernate with H2 embedded.

On the other hand, OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded is slower, for instance, when using JPA element collections with small retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded database (1.4) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (4.4) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded is 3.1 times slower than Hibernate with H2 embedded.

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

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded
Basic Person Test	12.1	12.0	6.5	5.3	9.3	8.6
Element Collection Test	7.4	0.017	5.3	3.7	6.3	1.8
Inheritance Test	10.8	0.0098	8.5	2.0	9.6	0.99
Indexing Test	10.0	9.3	7.5	5.5	8.8	7.4
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	4.4	2.5	2.3	1.6	3.4	2.1
Multithreading Test	16.2	20.0	4.0	3.7	10.1	11.8
All Tests	10.1	7.3	5.7	3.6	7.9	5.5

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

A huge performance gap has been detected when using class inheritance in the object model with small transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded database (0.0098) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (10.8) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 1,102 times faster than OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded.

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

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded
Basic Person Test	19.7	21.3	11.4	15.7	15.5	18.5
Element Collection Test	6.9	0.011	4.5	2.9	5.7	1.5
Inheritance Test	15.6	0.0070	12.9	3.5	14.2	1.8
Indexing Test	23.2	28.8	12.4	15.2	17.8	22.0
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	4.0	2.9	4.2	3.6	4.1	3.2
Multithreading Test	27.4	26.0	22.7	19.6	25.0	22.8
All Tests	16.1	13.2	11.4	10.1	13.7	11.6

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

A huge performance gap has been detected when using class inheritance in the object model with small transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded database (0.0070) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (15.6) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 2,229 times faster than OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded.

Comparison of database storage efficiency (normalized score, higher is better)

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded
Basic Person Test	27.0	41.4	27.0	41.4	27.0	41.4
Element Collection Test	30.6	46.9	30.6	46.9	30.6	46.9
Inheritance Test	27.0	41.4	27.0	41.4	27.0	41.4
Indexing Test	31.6	48.4	32.1	49.2	31.9	48.8
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	28.5	28.5	21.4	21.4	25.0	25.0
Multithreading Test	33.9	51.9	9.2	10.3	21.5	31.1
All Tests	29.8	43.1	24.6	35.1	27.2	39.1

The results above show that in general OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded is more efficient than Hibernate with H2 embedded in using disk space.

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

Transaction/Retrieval Size	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA HSQLDB embedded
Basic Person Test	14.2	14.3	8.3	11.8	11.2	13.0
Element Collection Test	7.2	2.0	4.4	3.5	5.8	2.7
Inheritance Test	12.2	2.9	9.9	2.9	11.0	2.9
Indexing Test	16.1	18.5	12.8	21.6	14.5	20.0
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	7.0	3.4	7.7	3.7	7.3	3.5
Multithreading Test	19.6	19.0	10.9	10.9	15.2	14.9
All Tests	12.9	10.2	9.0	9.2	11.0	9.7

The results above show that in general Hibernate with H2 embedded is slightly more efficient than OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded in performing JPA database operations.

A large performance gap has been detected when using class inheritance in the object model with small transaction/retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded database (2.9) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (12.2) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 4.2 times faster than OpenJPA with HSQLDB embedded.

JPA Performance Benchmark (JPAB)