Comparison of Hibernate with MySQL server 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 MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server
Basic Person Test	3.6	3.7	1.6	2.2	2.6	2.9
Element Collection Test	1.6	2.6	0.72	1.5	1.1	2.1
Inheritance Test	3.7	4.5	1.6	2.0	2.7	3.2
Indexing Test	5.4	7.3	2.6	3.6	4.0	5.4
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	1.5	1.1	1.2	0.84	1.4	0.97
Multithreading Test	7.4	7.7	2.9	4.2	5.2	5.9
All Tests	3.9	4.5	1.8	2.4	2.8	3.4

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

A large performance gap has been detected when using JPA element collections with large transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with MySQL database server (0.72) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (1.5) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with H2 server is 2.1 times faster than Hibernate with MySQL server.

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

Retrieval Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server
Basic Person Test	3.0	2.9	11.0	7.6	7.0	5.2
Element Collection Test	0.34	0.0022	1.2	1.9	0.79	0.93
Inheritance Test	1.3	0.013	14.5	4.0	7.9	2.0
Indexing Test	2.5	4.1	12.8	8.8	7.6	6.5
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	0.55	0.38	0.71	0.49	0.63	0.44
Multithreading Test	0.23	5.9	13.8	14.0	7.0	10.0
All Tests	1.3	2.2	9.0	6.1	5.2	4.2

The results above show that in general Hibernate with MySQL server is slightly more efficient than OpenJPA with H2 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 H2 database server (0.0022) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with MySQL database server (0.34) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with MySQL server is 155 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

On the other hand, Hibernate with MySQL server is slower, for instance, when using multithreading with small retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with MySQL database server (0.23) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (5.9) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with MySQL server is 25.7 times slower 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 MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server
Basic Person Test	10.0	3.7	2.0	1.0	6.0	2.4
Element Collection Test	6.7	2.0	0.53	1.2	3.6	1.6
Inheritance Test	2.8	2.8	1.6	1.1	2.2	2.0
Indexing Test	0.44	3.8	2.0	7.5	1.2	5.7
Multithreading Test	2.1	0.98	0.98	1.0	1.5	1.0
All Tests	4.4	2.7	1.4	2.4	2.9	2.5

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

A large performance gap has been detected when using JPA element collections with small retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (2.0) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with MySQL database server (6.7) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with MySQL server is 3.4 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

On the other hand, Hibernate with MySQL server is slower, for instance, when using database indexes with small retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with MySQL database server (0.44) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (3.8) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with MySQL server is 8.6 times slower 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 MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server
Basic Person Test	0.73	3.0	1.6	2.0	1.2	2.5
Element Collection Test	0.39	0.0078	1.2	1.9	0.78	0.94
Inheritance Test	0.61	0.034	2.1	2.8	1.4	1.4
Indexing Test	0.81	2.8	2.6	3.2	1.7	3.0
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	0.69	0.79	0.40	0.43	0.54	0.61
Multithreading Test	0.63	7.0	3.0	2.5	1.8	4.8
All Tests	0.64	2.3	1.8	2.1	1.2	2.2

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

A huge performance gap has been detected when using multithreading with small transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with MySQL database server (0.63) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (7.0) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with H2 server is 11.1 times faster than Hibernate with MySQL server.

On the other hand, OpenJPA with H2 server is slower, for instance, 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 MySQL database server (0.39) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with H2 server is 50.0 times slower than Hibernate with MySQL server.

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

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server
Basic Person Test	1.1	3.2	1.7	2.2	1.4	2.7
Element Collection Test	0.21	0.0060	0.53	0.88	0.37	0.44
Inheritance Test	0.65	0.030	1.8	3.1	1.2	1.6
Indexing Test	0.81	6.5	2.0	3.6	1.4	5.1
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	0.55	0.73	0.62	0.75	0.58	0.74
Multithreading Test	0.35	7.6	4.1	5.2	2.2	6.4
All Tests	0.61	3.0	1.8	2.6	1.2	2.8

The results above show that in general OpenJPA with H2 server is more efficient than Hibernate with MySQL server in deleting JPA entity objects from the database. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with MySQL database server (1.2) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (2.8) reveals that in these tests, OpenJPA with H2 server is 2.3 times faster than Hibernate with MySQL server.

A huge performance gap has been detected when using multithreading with small transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with MySQL database server (0.35) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (7.6) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with H2 server is 21.7 times faster than Hibernate with MySQL server.

On the other hand, OpenJPA with H2 server is slower, for instance, 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 MySQL database server (0.21) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with H2 server is 35.0 times slower than Hibernate with MySQL server.

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

Transaction/Retrieval Size	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server	Hibernate MySQL server	OpenJPA H2 server
Basic Person Test	3.7	3.3	3.6	3.0	3.6	3.1
Element Collection Test	1.8	0.93	0.84	1.5	1.3	1.2
Inheritance Test	1.8	1.5	4.3	2.6	3.1	2.0
Indexing Test	2.0	4.9	4.4	5.4	3.2	5.1
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	0.83	0.75	0.73	0.63	0.78	0.69
Multithreading Test	2.1	5.9	5.0	5.4	3.6	5.6
All Tests	2.1	2.9	3.2	3.2	2.7	3.0

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

A large performance gap has been detected when using multithreading with small transaction/retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of Hibernate with MySQL database server (2.1) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (5.9) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with H2 server is 2.8 times faster than Hibernate with MySQL server.

JPA Performance Benchmark (JPAB)