Comparison of Hibernate with H2 embedded vs EclipseLink with HSQLDB 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	EclipseLink HSQLDB server	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server
Basic Person Test	8.9	12.2	9.3	20.9	9.1	16.6
Element Collection Test	11.5	11.6	7.6	failed	9.5	11.6
Inheritance Test	6.8	failed	9.4	failed	8.1	failed
Indexing Test	12.5	failed	12.3	failed	12.4	failed
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	7.7	failed	8.5	failed	8.1	failed
Multithreading Test	9.8	failed	0.0000	failed	4.9	failed
All Tests	9.5	11.9	7.8	20.9	8.7	14.9

EclipseLink with HSQLDB server has failed in 9 tests (see exceptions).

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

Retrieval Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server
Basic Person Test	5.2	2.6	12.7	14.6	8.9	8.6
Element Collection Test	3.8	1.4	3.9	failed	3.9	1.4
Inheritance Test	9.4	failed	18.4	failed	13.9	failed
Indexing Test	9.1	failed	13.2	failed	11.1	failed
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	1.5	failed	3.4	failed	2.5	failed
Multithreading Test	10.7	failed	16.4	failed	13.6	failed
All Tests	6.6	2.0	11.3	14.6	9.0	6.2

EclipseLink with HSQLDB server has failed in 9 tests (see exceptions).

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

Retrieval Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server
Basic Person Test	3.0	0.53	5.5	3.0	4.2	1.8
Element Collection Test	4.4	0.98	3.3	failed	3.9	0.98
Inheritance Test	1.7	failed	5.6	failed	3.7	failed
Indexing Test	4.7	failed	6.4	failed	5.5	failed
Multithreading Test	2.0	failed	5.9	failed	4.0	failed
All Tests	3.2	0.75	5.4	3.0	4.3	1.5

EclipseLink with HSQLDB server has failed in 7 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	EclipseLink HSQLDB server	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server
Basic Person Test	10.6	1.9	10.1	7.5	10.4	4.7
Element Collection Test	16.7	3.1	5.9	failed	11.3	3.1
Inheritance Test	10.9	failed	14.6	failed	12.8	failed
Indexing Test	24.0	failed	12.3	failed	18.2	failed
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	5.8	failed	4.0	failed	4.9	failed
Multithreading Test	7.0	failed	5.1	failed	6.1	failed
All Tests	12.5	2.5	8.7	7.5	10.6	4.2

EclipseLink with HSQLDB server has failed in 9 tests (see exceptions).

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

Transaction Size =>	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server
Basic Person Test	31.2	9.5	23.7	33.1	27.5	21.3
Element Collection Test	22.7	6.7	3.1	failed	12.9	6.7
Inheritance Test	41.4	failed	18.0	failed	29.7	failed
Indexing Test	66.1	failed	14.2	failed	40.1	failed
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	16.7	failed	22.4	failed	19.6	failed
Multithreading Test	20.4	failed	0.0000	failed	10.2	failed
All Tests	33.1	8.1	13.6	33.1	23.3	16.4

EclipseLink with HSQLDB server has failed in 9 tests (see exceptions).

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

Transaction/Retrieval Size	Few Entities		Many Entities		Average Score
	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server	Hibernate H2 embedded	EclipseLink HSQLDB server
Basic Person Test	11.8	5.4	12.3	15.8	12.0	10.6
Element Collection Test	11.8	4.8	4.8	failed	8.3	4.8
Inheritance Test	14.1	failed	13.2	failed	13.6	failed
Indexing Test	23.3	failed	11.7	failed	17.5	failed
Graph (Binary Tree) Test	7.9	failed	9.6	failed	8.8	failed
Multithreading Test	10.0	failed	5.5	failed	7.8	failed
All Tests	13.3	5.1	9.5	15.8	11.4	8.6

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

A large performance gap has been detected when using JPA element collections with small transaction/retrieval size. Comparing the normalized speed of EclipseLink with HSQLDB database server (4.8) to the normalized speed of Hibernate with H2 embedded database (11.8) reveals that in that case, Hibernate with H2 embedded is 2.5 times faster than EclipseLink with HSQLDB server.

JPA Performance Benchmark (JPAB)

Comparison of Hibernate with H2 embedded vs EclipseLink with HSQLDB server

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other Head to Head DBMS/JPA Comparisons

Hibernate with H2 embedded against:

EclipseLink with HSQLDB server against: