Embedded java databases [duplicate]

Question

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 1

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

Answer 2

I use Apache Derby for pretty much all of my embedded database needs. You can also use Sun's Java DB that is based on Derby but the latest version of Derby is much newer. It supports a lot of options that commercial, native databases support but is much smaller and easier to embed. I've had some database tables with more than a million records with no issues.

I used to use HSQLDB and Hypersonic about 3 years ago. It has some major performance issues at the time and I switch to Derby from it because of those issues. Derby has been solid even when it was in incubator at Apache.