H2 Database Engine vs. Percona Server for MySQL

For running application tests it's well suited. H2 [Database Engine] can replace the real-world database solution for them easily and removes the requirement to set up a a separate database instance just for running unit tests. For using in actual production application one needs to consider scale. H2 is suitable if application runs in single instance and database is located in same machine as a file where that application runs. This means the application shouldn't have a large user base. However it's easy to switch to an actual MySQL instance if the need arises, it's most likely only a configuration change and doesn't require new code.

Incentivized

Percona Server for MySQL covers 100% of our requirements in terms of our OLTP traffic and provides the High Availability levels required through a typical primary and 2 replica's using semi-synchronous replication. We're able to scale our writes using sharding, but a true distributed database would be a great option on top of this. In terms of OLAP traffic, we leverage columns stores available, but Percona Server fairs well

• Can run as an in-memory database.
• Simple and quick to get started with, and is light weight (only 2MB).
• SQL compliant so it compatible with most relational databases.

Incentivized

• Faster than other server solutions
• Installation and configuration process is easy from the user's standpoint
• Easy to learn and good support

Incentivized

• There's a warning in official FAQ "Is it Reliable?"-section which makes it seem like H2 is not yet a mature product.
• If raw SQL queries are used there maybe be differences between MySQL & H2. ORM library should be used.
• Support seems to be community-based only.

Incentivized

• Better documentation
• A better UI

It is easy to install and use. Using it along with Percona Monitoring and Management makes it even easier to use.

Incentivized

We are using opensource so we have not used customer support.

While both can run as an in-memory database, H2 Database Engine was just so much easier for us to use since we primarily use the Java stack and H2 Database Engine is also built with Java.

Incentivized

Performance and stability sets Percona Server for MySQL apart from the rest. Percona embraces the upstream version and contributes towards the upstream version making MySQL stronger on two fronts and thus having a much larger community. Many quality contributions have been made by Percona into the base code. Percona provides great tools to support Percona Server for MySQL and this makes the monitoring and management easier

• Doesn't take time from developers, once it's configs are set up for testing it works in everyone's development environments
• Easy to integrate in application, no need to setup separate database software, no maintenance
• No need to deal with infrastructure related issues/costs - database runs in same machine as the application that uses it.

Incentivized

• At the performance level, it maintains and even improves other open-source databases such as MariaDB or some commercial ones such as Oracle.
• If we compare it with MySQL, we could have up to 50% improvement in performance.
• For some small companies or startups, the price of the complete solution and the support can be a bit high.

Incentivized