Comparison of Hibernate with H2 embedded vs OpenJPA with PostgreSQL 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 H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server
Basic Person Test	18.1	5.2	9.0	4.8	13.5	5.0
Element Collection Test	13.0	2.8	6.8	2.2	9.9	2.5
Inheritance Test	21.0	4.6	9.4	3.2	15.2	3.9
Indexing Test	29.9	7.4	18.4	6.9	24.1	7.1
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	17.2	0.98	20.1	0.81	18.7	0.89
Multithreading Test	36.9	23.4	11.5	9.1	24.2	16.2
All Tests	22.6	7.4	12.5	4.5	17.6	5.9

The results above show that in general Hibernate with H2 embedded is more efficient than OpenJPA with PostgreSQL server in persisting JPA entity objects to the database. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with PostgreSQL database server (5.9) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (17.6) reveals that in these tests, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 3.0 times faster than OpenJPA with PostgreSQL server.

A huge performance gap has been detected when using graphs of objects with large transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with PostgreSQL database server (0.81) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (20.1) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 24.8 times faster than OpenJPA with PostgreSQL server.

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

Retrieval Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server
Basic Person Test	16.6	5.8	13.3	16.1	15.0	10.9
Element Collection Test	4.3	0.013	4.0	8.7	4.1	4.4
Inheritance Test	10.4	5.2	17.5	17.6	13.9	11.4
Indexing Test	10.8	4.8	15.2	18.7	13.0	11.8
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	2.5	0.27	4.0	0.35	3.3	0.31
Multithreading Test	16.2	11.9	15.7	23.3	15.9	17.6
All Tests	10.1	4.7	11.6	14.1	10.9	9.4

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

A huge performance gap has been detected when using JPA element collections with small retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with PostgreSQL database server (0.013) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (4.3) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 331 times faster than OpenJPA with PostgreSQL server.

On the other hand, Hibernate with H2 embedded is slower, for instance, when using JPA element collections with large retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (4.0) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with PostgreSQL database server (8.7) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 2.2 times slower than OpenJPA with PostgreSQL server.

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

Retrieval Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server
Basic Person Test	4.5	failed	1.2	failed	2.8	failed
Element Collection Test	4.4	failed	1.4	failed	2.9	failed
Inheritance Test	3.1	failed	1.5	failed	2.3	failed
Indexing Test	6.6	failed	10.5	failed	8.6	failed
Multithreading Test	1.2	failed	0.59	failed	0.89	failed
All Tests	4.0	failed	3.0	failed	3.5	failed

OpenJPA with PostgreSQL server has failed in 10 tests (see exceptions).

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

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server
Basic Person Test	12.1	4.9	6.5	3.9	9.3	4.4
Element Collection Test	7.4	0.033	5.3	4.6	6.3	2.3
Inheritance Test	10.8	4.8	8.5	4.9	9.6	4.9
Indexing Test	10.0	5.1	7.5	6.0	8.8	5.6
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	4.4	0.57	2.3	0.31	3.4	0.44
Multithreading Test	16.2	22.2	4.0	7.4	10.1	14.8
All Tests	10.1	6.3	5.7	4.5	7.9	5.4

The results above show that in general Hibernate with H2 embedded is more efficient than OpenJPA with PostgreSQL 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 PostgreSQL database server (0.033) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (7.4) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 224 times faster than OpenJPA with PostgreSQL server.

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

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server
Basic Person Test	19.7	4.6	11.4	5.3	15.5	5.0
Element Collection Test	6.9	0.032	4.5	2.8	5.7	1.4
Inheritance Test	15.6	4.3	12.9	4.6	14.2	4.4
Indexing Test	23.2	8.0	12.4	7.1	17.8	7.5
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	4.0	0.53	4.2	0.55	4.1	0.54
Multithreading Test	27.4	17.4	22.7	9.1	25.0	13.3
All Tests	16.1	5.8	11.4	4.9	13.7	5.4

The results above show that in general Hibernate with H2 embedded is more efficient than OpenJPA with PostgreSQL server in deleting JPA entity objects from the database. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with PostgreSQL database server (5.4) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (13.7) reveals that in these tests, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 2.5 times faster than OpenJPA with PostgreSQL server.

A huge performance gap has been detected when using JPA element collections with small transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with PostgreSQL database server (0.032) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (6.9) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 216 times faster than OpenJPA with PostgreSQL server.

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 PostgreSQL server	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server	Hibernate H2 embedded	OpenJPA PostgreSQL server
Basic Person Test	14.2	5.1	8.3	7.5	11.2	6.3
Element Collection Test	7.2	0.72	4.4	4.6	5.8	2.6
Inheritance Test	12.2	4.7	9.9	7.6	11.0	6.2
Indexing Test	16.1	6.3	12.8	9.7	14.5	8.0
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	7.0	0.59	7.7	0.50	7.3	0.55
Multithreading Test	19.6	18.7	10.9	12.2	15.2	15.5
All Tests	12.9	6.0	9.0	7.0	11.0	6.5

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

A huge performance gap has been detected when using graphs of objects with large transaction/retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with PostgreSQL database server (0.50) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (7.7) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 15.4 times faster than OpenJPA with PostgreSQL server.

JPA Performance Benchmark (JPAB)