A comparison of in-memory databases in Java application

The performance of an information system is composed by several attributes, including proper database selection. In this article, we compare the performance of different in-memory databases running a Java application in some software test scenarios, to identify the most suitable in-memory database for unit testing and integration testing, considering the metrics: execution time, memory allocation and usage of the central processing unit. For evaluation, four popular in memory databases were selected for this comparison: H2, HSQL, Apache Derby, and SQLite. Choosing in-memory databases was based on its widespread adoption in the Java community. Extensive performance tests and analyzes have been conducted, based on Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements, to provide insights into appropriate choosing of in-memory database on Java application. It was possible to carry out a comprehensive comparative analysis and the results obtained allowed the identification of differences in the performance of each in-memory database.