Java Embedded Databases Comparison

java database comparison embedded-database
Hosam Aly picture Hosam Aly · Jan 20, 2009 · Viewed 122.6k times · Source

I intend to develop a small (Java) application for managing my finances. I believe I need to use an embedded database, but I have no experience regarding this issue. I tried to look at some of the available products, but I can't decide which one would be more suitable for me. H2, HSQLDB, Derby and Berkeley DB seem to be good candidates, but I still don't see how they compare to each other. I appreciate your help comparing them and helping me decide which one to use.

I intend to use Hibernate for my application (unless you would recommend using DBMS-provided API), but I also want to have the ability to edit the database easily using a SQL browsing tool (modifying schema and changing data).

Thank you.

Answer

Sven Lilienthal picture Sven Lilienthal · Jan 20, 2009

Either

  • HSQLDB - Used by OpenOffice, tested and stable. It's easy to use. If you want to edit your db-data, you can just open the file and edit the insert statements.

or

  • H2 - Said to be faster (by the developer, who originally designed hsqldb, too)

Which one you use is up to you, depending how much performance and how much stability you need.

The developer of H2 has put up a nice performance evaluation:
http://www.h2database.com/html/performance.html

Related questions

Which is better H2 or HSQLDB?

HSQLDB 2.0 is soon to be released. I wonder if it will outperform H2 since, as far as I know, most users prefer H2 than HSQLDB. I am interested in the MVCC support of HSQLDB 2.0. I have learned that MVCC on …

Read More
How do I find out my MySQL URL, host, port and username?

I need to find my MySQL username. When I open the MySQL command line client, it only asks me for my password. I don't remember my username. And for connectivity with JDBC, I need the URL, host and port number. …

Read More
What is the easiest way to ignore a JPA field during persistence?

I'm essentially looking for a "@Ignore" type annotation with which I can stop a particular field from being persisted. How can this be achieved?

Read More