Updated April 19, 2023
Difference Between MyBatis vs Hibernate
The following article provides an outline for MyBatis vs Hibernate. MyBatis is an open-source, simple, lightweight and persistence framework. It provides the automatic binding function which maps the SQL query with the objects of .NET, Java, etc. It basically uses the SQL language which is quite easy to understand and use for the developers. It supports Independent Interfaces, Stored Procedures, Dynamic SQL, etc which is quite useful when working with the complex projects which are SQL specific. MyBatis is not Object Relational Model (ORM) so it does not suffer from ORM impedance mismatch which is a big issue in real scenarios.
Hibernate is an open source, Object Relational Model (ORM), complex tool available in the market. It maps the application domain objects with the database tables and vice versa. It is basically a Java framework which implements the specifications of Java Persistence API for the easy interaction of Java applications with the databases. It uses the HQL (Hibernate Query Language) which is not specific to any databases, so the scalability and Migration is quite easy in Hibernate. It provides very powerful functions, excellent mapping, data independence, portability which helps in faster and smooth development.
Head to Head Comparison Between MyBatis vs Hibernate (Infographics)
Below are the top 8 differences between MyBatis vs Hibernate:
Key Difference Between MyBatis vs Hibernate
Let us discuss some of the major key differences between MyBatis vs Hibernate:
- Hibernate basically considers object-centric view and maps the object model with the database model with the minimum efforts from the developers end with the intent of mainly focusing on business logic whereas MyBatis considers database-centric view and maps the ResultSet of objects without worrying about the source whether table, stored procedures, etc.
- MyBatis is comparatively quite simple and easy to understand for the new developers as it is a small tool also which mainly uses the SQL of which the programmer is familiar whereas on the other hand, Hibernate is complex to understand and is quite a large tool.
- When talking about the Scalability, MyBatis is very poor in terms of migration and Scalability as all SQL is written in database whereas in Hibernate, all the database specific specifications are written in XML, so HQL does not need to worry about which database is used and its migration.
- Although both the MyBatis and Hibernate uses the secondary cache for their purposes but the Hibernate has good memory management mechanism for query objects, so in case of dirty data, the system reports and prompts the error whereas in MyBatis there are chances for the appearance of dirty data if the blind use of cache is done and too many update operations are made by the developer.
- The main problem with the MyBatis tool is that the developer actually needs to write the database query by itself, so the overall workload to manage it is quite large. Moreover database modification is not easy to adapt whereas the main disadvantage in Hibernate tool is that it is quite complex to understand for the developers and managing session is difficult in it. In Hibernate schema changes also cause problems in real scenarios.
- MyBatis is normally used in the scenarios when the data model does not match with the object model and complete control over the SQL is required in the project whereas Hibernate tool is used when the developer has complete control over the database and the data-object mapping is synced properly.
- Hibernate generates its own SQL automatically whereas in MyBatis developer has to write and manage its own SQL queries.
- Hibernate maps the Java classes to the database tables whereas MyBatis tool maps the SQL statements to the Java methods.
- In case of fetching complex queries, MyBatis works excellently whereas in Hibernate, the entire object graph is loaded first and then it starts tuning queries with the lazy tricks which could be quite complex and lengthy.
- In terms of labour cost, working on MyBatis would be cheap as compared to Hibernate as it is simpler to understand and makes the use of SQL mainly, so low skilled developers can easily work on it whereas working on Hibernate tool requires the high skilled guru to work on it.
MyBatis vs Hibernate Comparison Table
Let’s discuss the top comparison between MyBatis vs Hibernate:
| Sr. No | MyBatis | Hibernate |
| 1 | Development is quite easy in case of MyBatis as is quite simple to understand and basically involves writing of SQL queries. | Development is difficult in case of Hibernate as it is quite large and complex to understand. |
| 2 | MyBatis framework uses the SQL language which could be dependent on the database used. | Hibernate framework uses the HQL which is independent of databases. |
| 3 | Use of stored procedures is quite easy in the case of MyBatis framework as it encapsulates the SQL in the stored procedures in order to keep the business logic separate from the database. | Use of stored procedures is a bit difficult in case of Hibernate framework. |
| 4 | It is not possible to change the database in case of MyBatis as it uses the SQL language which is dependent on databases. | It is easy to change databases in case of Hibernate framework as it uses the HQL language which is independent of databases. |
| 5 | In complex cases, the user has to write the query and handle the ResultSet for the result mapping. | Hibernate has an inbuilt mapping mechanism which helps in result mapping. So the user does not have to worry about it. |
| 6 | MyBatis does not have its own log statistics so one has to log with log4j. | Hibernate has its own log statistics. |
| 7 | DAO development is difficult in case of MyBatis. | DAO development is simpler in the case of Hibernate as compared to MyBatis. |
| 8 | MyBatis has a poor secondary level caching mechanism. | Hibernate has a good secondary level caching mechanism. |
Conclusion
Above description clearly explains what MyBatis and Hibernate are and the major differences between the two. Though both the MyBatis and Hibernate are open source tools widely used in the market. It depends on the particular situation and choice of the user to use any one of them accordingly. MyBatis is data centric and is used when we want to create our own SQL database and maintain it accordingly whereas Hibernate is used when the data-object mapping is synced and the user needs to focus only on business logic.
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