Comparison of OpenJPA with H2 server vs OpenJPA with Derby 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
	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded
Basic Person Test	3.7	4.8	2.2	2.9	2.9	3.9
Element Collection Test	2.6	2.8	1.5	1.9	2.1	2.4
Inheritance Test	4.5	4.1	2.0	2.4	3.2	3.3
Indexing Test	7.3	6.1	3.6	4.1	5.4	5.1
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	1.1	1.5	0.84	1.4	0.97	1.4
Multithreading Test	7.7	8.7	4.2	3.3	5.9	6.0
All Tests	4.5	4.7	2.4	2.7	3.4	3.7

The results above show that in general OpenJPA with Derby embedded is slightly more efficient than OpenJPA with H2 server 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
	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded
Basic Person Test	2.9	14.8	7.6	22.6	5.2	18.7
Element Collection Test	0.0022	0.0031	1.9	2.3	0.93	1.2
Inheritance Test	0.013	0.015	4.0	7.0	2.0	3.5
Indexing Test	4.1	11.7	8.8	26.5	6.5	19.1
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	0.38	0.93	0.49	1.2	0.44	1.1
Multithreading Test	5.9	25.2	14.0	28.6	10.0	26.9
All Tests	2.2	8.8	6.1	14.7	4.2	11.7

The results above show that in general OpenJPA 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 OpenJPA with Derby embedded database (11.7) reveals that in these tests, OpenJPA with Derby embedded is 2.8 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

A large performance gap has been detected when using simple basic entities with small retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (2.9) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with Derby embedded database (14.8) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with Derby embedded is 5.1 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
	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded
Basic Person Test	3.7	49.7	1.0	9.9	2.4	29.8
Element Collection Test	2.0	2.7	1.2	9.6	1.6	6.1
Inheritance Test	2.8	2.3	1.1	1.3	2.0	1.8
Indexing Test	3.8	7.0	7.5	17.1	5.7	12.1
Multithreading Test	0.98	40.9	1.0	11.7	1.0	26.3
All Tests	2.7	20.5	2.4	9.9	2.5	15.2

The results above show that in general OpenJPA 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 OpenJPA with Derby embedded database (15.2) reveals that in these tests, OpenJPA with Derby embedded is 6.1 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 OpenJPA with Derby embedded database (40.9) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with Derby embedded is 41.7 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
	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded
Basic Person Test	3.0	5.6	2.0	5.2	2.5	5.4
Element Collection Test	0.0078	0.0090	1.9	2.2	0.94	1.1
Inheritance Test	0.034	0.045	2.8	4.6	1.4	2.3
Indexing Test	2.8	6.1	3.2	8.7	3.0	7.4
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	0.79	1.6	0.43	0.91	0.61	1.3
Multithreading Test	7.0	18.3	2.5	4.5	4.8	11.4
All Tests	2.3	5.3	2.1	4.4	2.2	4.8

The results above show that in general OpenJPA with Derby embedded is more efficient than OpenJPA with H2 server in updating JPA entity objects in the database. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (2.2) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with Derby embedded database (4.8) reveals that in these tests, OpenJPA with Derby embedded is 2.2 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

A large performance gap has been detected when using database indexes with large transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (3.2) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with Derby embedded database (8.7) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with Derby embedded is 2.7 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
	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded
Basic Person Test	3.2	4.2	2.2	4.5	2.7	4.3
Element Collection Test	0.0060	0.0071	0.88	1.6	0.44	0.80
Inheritance Test	0.030	0.035	3.1	3.0	1.6	1.5
Indexing Test	6.5	5.3	3.6	3.6	5.1	4.4
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	0.73	0.80	0.75	0.93	0.74	0.86
Multithreading Test	7.6	5.7	5.2	6.2	6.4	6.0
All Tests	3.0	2.7	2.6	3.3	2.8	3.0

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

A large performance gap has been detected when using simple basic entities with large transaction size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (2.2) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with Derby embedded database (4.5) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with Derby embedded is 2.0 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
	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded	OpenJPA H2 server	OpenJPA Derby embedded
Basic Person Test	3.3	15.8	3.0	9.0	3.1	12.4
Element Collection Test	0.93	1.1	1.5	3.5	1.2	2.3
Inheritance Test	1.5	1.3	2.6	3.7	2.0	2.5
Indexing Test	4.9	7.2	5.4	12.0	5.1	9.6
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	0.75	1.2	0.63	1.1	0.69	1.2
Multithreading Test	5.9	19.8	5.4	10.9	5.6	15.3
All Tests	2.9	8.0	3.2	6.9	3.0	7.4

The results above show that in general OpenJPA 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 OpenJPA with Derby embedded database (7.4) reveals that in these tests, OpenJPA with Derby embedded is 2.5 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

A large performance gap has been detected when using simple basic entities with small transaction/retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of OpenJPA with H2 database server (3.3) to the normalized speed of OpenJPA with Derby embedded database (15.8) reveals that in that case, OpenJPA with Derby embedded is 4.8 times faster than OpenJPA with H2 server.

JPA Performance Benchmark (JPAB)