For simplicity
May 14, 2021

For simplicity

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with H2 Database Engine

[H2 Database Engine is] being used for two different purposes. One is for running unit tests for application during compilation phase. This application runs is MySQL database normally, but for unit test purposes that is impractical. In compilation phase an in-memory H2 database is constructed and application tests are run against that. Another purpose is a small authentication security web-application that runs in a single instance. In this case some authentication related details are stored in H2 database that is stored to disk.
  • Simple setup, only needs a dependency added to application & few config lines.
  • Quick startup
  • Easy to use, existing code for MySQL works with H2 too
  • 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.
  • Easy setup, developers don't need to setup databases for running tests
  • Persistence, although H2 is often referred as in-memory database, saving the database to disk is easy and data stays between application restarts
  • MySQL compatibility
  • 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.
Both MySQL & H2 [Database Engine] are relational databases & use same query language. Application features can be implemented with both but if it's expected that the application will be used by large user base or is complex MySQL is better. Cloud providers provide scaling support for MySQL and also it's more battle-tested. H2 is good when it's a small application as H2 is easier & quicker to set up.

Do you think H2 Database Engine delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with H2 Database Engine's feature set?

Yes

Did H2 Database Engine live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of H2 Database Engine go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy H2 Database Engine again?

Yes

Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), Apache Tomcat, 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.