Hibernate

What is Hibernate?

Hibernate is an open-source project for working with relational data in Java, best known for Hibernate ORM, an object-relational mapping framework that maps Java domain models to database tables. The project also includes tooling such as Hibernate Validator and related libraries, with documentation, releases and migration guides.

Key features of Hibernate

• Object-relational mapping of Java classes to relational tables
• Query support and data access abstractions
• Migration guides between versions
• Related projects such as Validator and processor tooling
• Documentation, forums and issue tracker for community support
• Paid support options

Who uses Hibernate?

Hibernate is used by Java and Jakarta EE developers building applications backed by relational databases, from small services to large enterprise systems, often together with Spring or Jakarta Persistence.

Hibernate pricing

Hibernate is open source and free to download and use. The project lists paid support options for organizations that want commercial support, but the pages reviewed did not publish prices for them.

Hibernate alternatives

Alternatives to Hibernate include EclipseLink, MyBatis, jOOQ and Spring Data JPA. EclipseLink is another Jakarta Persistence implementation, MyBatis and jOOQ give more explicit SQL control, and Spring Data JPA builds on JPA providers such as Hibernate.