Comparison of Hibernate with HSQLDB embedded vs EclipseLink with H2 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 HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded
Basic Person Test	32.6	25.1	13.1	8.9	22.9	17.0
Element Collection Test	15.1	20.4	8.2	8.0	11.7	14.2
Inheritance Test	25.5	28.7	13.6	8.7	19.5	18.7
Indexing Test	29.6	37.6	18.8	14.0	24.2	25.8
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	13.8	17.7	15.6	14.7	14.7	16.2
Multithreading Test	37.4	30.3	13.0	11.4	25.2	20.8
All Tests	25.6	26.6	13.7	10.9	19.7	18.8

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

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

Retrieval Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded
Basic Person Test	24.8	30.4	16.4	29.1	20.6	29.7
Element Collection Test	11.3	19.6	10.8	27.6	11.0	23.6
Inheritance Test	21.7	33.8	21.0	39.8	21.3	36.8
Indexing Test	11.9	22.2	21.5	41.3	16.7	31.8
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	3.6	16.0	4.7	20.0	4.1	18.0
Multithreading Test	19.8	33.7	21.5	29.0	20.6	31.4
All Tests	15.5	25.9	16.0	31.1	15.7	28.5

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

A large performance gap has been detected when using graphs of objects with small retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with HSQLDB embedded database (3.6) to the normalized speed of EclipseLink with H2 embedded database (16.0) reveals that in that case, EclipseLink with H2 embedded is 4.4 times faster than Hibernate with HSQLDB embedded.

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

Retrieval Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded
Basic Person Test	3.6	4.4	0.88	1.4	2.2	2.9
Element Collection Test	3.4	4.1	1.7	2.4	2.6	3.2
Inheritance Test	2.9	3.4	1.0	2.0	1.9	2.7
Indexing Test	9.9	13.0	21.7	22.8	15.8	17.9
Multithreading Test	1.1	1.0	0.58	0.67	0.82	0.85
All Tests	4.2	5.2	5.2	5.9	4.7	5.5

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

A large performance gap has been detected when using class inheritance in the object model with large retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with HSQLDB embedded database (1.0) to the normalized speed of EclipseLink with H2 embedded database (2.0) reveals that in that case, EclipseLink with H2 embedded is 2.0 times faster than Hibernate with HSQLDB embedded.

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

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded
Basic Person Test	14.2	16.6	5.0	7.6	9.6	12.1
Element Collection Test	10.1	15.3	5.6	10.5	7.8	12.9
Inheritance Test	13.4	15.7	7.5	9.8	10.5	12.7
Indexing Test	10.7	12.1	6.1	9.9	8.4	11.0
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	3.7	13.7	2.5	7.0	3.1	10.3
Multithreading Test	23.9	20.9	3.8	4.2	13.9	12.6
All Tests	12.7	15.7	5.1	8.2	8.9	12.0

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

A large performance gap has been detected when using graphs of objects with small transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with HSQLDB embedded database (3.7) to the normalized speed of EclipseLink with H2 embedded database (13.7) reveals that in that case, EclipseLink with H2 embedded is 3.7 times faster than Hibernate with HSQLDB embedded.

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

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded
Basic Person Test	26.1	35.1	17.5	19.6	21.8	27.4
Element Collection Test	9.1	19.3	5.2	8.5	7.1	13.9
Inheritance Test	21.4	36.0	17.7	14.0	19.6	25.0
Indexing Test	33.0	42.5	16.3	19.2	24.7	30.9
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	5.4	12.2	8.2	14.4	6.8	13.3
Multithreading Test	38.5	54.4	28.6	25.8	33.5	40.1
All Tests	22.3	33.3	15.6	16.9	18.9	25.1

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

A large performance gap has been detected when using graphs of objects with small transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with HSQLDB embedded database (5.4) to the normalized speed of EclipseLink with H2 embedded database (12.2) reveals that in that case, EclipseLink with H2 embedded is 2.3 times faster than Hibernate with HSQLDB embedded.

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

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded
Basic Person Test	41.4	36.2	41.4	39.2	41.4	37.7
Element Collection Test	46.9	33.3	46.9	34.9	46.9	34.1
Inheritance Test	41.4	35.4	41.4	36.2	41.4	35.8
Indexing Test	48.4	39.8	49.2	43.7	48.8	41.7
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	28.5	41.0	21.4	28.4	25.0	34.7
Multithreading Test	51.9	48.7	10.3	12.4	31.1	30.6
All Tests	43.1	39.1	35.1	32.5	39.1	35.8

The results above show that in general Hibernate with HSQLDB embedded is slightly more efficient than EclipseLink 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 HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded	Hibernate HSQLDB embedded	EclipseLink H2 embedded
Basic Person Test	20.2	22.3	10.6	13.3	15.4	17.8
Element Collection Test	9.8	15.7	6.3	11.4	8.0	13.6
Inheritance Test	17.0	23.5	12.2	14.9	14.6	19.2
Indexing Test	19.0	25.5	16.9	21.5	18.0	23.5
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	6.6	14.9	7.8	14.0	7.2	14.5
Multithreading Test	24.1	28.1	13.5	14.2	18.8	21.1
All Tests	16.5	21.9	11.3	14.9	13.9	18.4

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

A large performance gap has been detected when using graphs of objects with small transaction/retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with HSQLDB embedded database (6.6) to the normalized speed of EclipseLink with H2 embedded database (14.9) reveals that in that case, EclipseLink with H2 embedded is 2.3 times faster than Hibernate with HSQLDB embedded.

JPA Performance Benchmark (JPAB)