Apache Derby Reviews & Insights

Score7 out of 10

8 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Apache Derby are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Easy Configuration and Management: Apache Derby has been praised by several users for its easy configuration and management. Reviewers have stated that setting up the database takes only about 15 minutes, making it a quick and hassle-free process. Users also find it easy to manage Derby when using Spring or integrating it into Java applications. Lightweight and Embeddable: Many reviewers appreciate that Apache Derby is lightweight and can be embedded in Java applications. This feature makes it suitable for both smaller projects and integration testing. Some users even mention that it is much easier to use than other databases, making it an ideal choice for applications that require a small embeddable database. Performance and Support: The performance and support provided by Apache Derby have received positive feedback from users. Reviewers highlight its fast processing speed, as well as its compatibility with JDBC. Additionally, users appreciate the simplicity of the configuration process and the availability of well-documented errors in the Derby database. Overall, Apache Derby's easy configuration and management, lightweight nature, embeddability, strong performance, and support make it a popular choice among users looking for a reliable relational database system implemented fully in Java.

Apache Derby Reviews

3 Reviews

Apache Derby is an excellent Java-based open source zero cost embeddable file-based relational database

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

April 10, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Apache Derby to provide a lightweight file-based database to store configuration settings common to all server nodes in our webMethods Integration Server cluster. We also store data that we want to persistently cache across reboots of the server cluster in our Apache Derby database files. Apache Derby means we do not need separate database server infrastructure to provide these features and can just use the Apache Derby embedded library in our existing Java Virtual Machine processes but still have access to an SQL-capable database. This approach simplifies our infrastructure architecture and hence support and TCO costs.

Pros

Embedded SQL-capable database client and server
Good performance for a file-based database
Zero cost open source solution

Cons

Not suitable as a replacement for a highly-available horizontally-scalable database
Only suitable for use by Java based projects as it is a Java based solution
Performance characteristics not suitable for very large data sets

Likelihood to Recommend

If you need a SQL-capable database-like solution that is file-based and embeddable in your existing Java Virtual Machine processes, Apache Derby is an open-source, zero cost, robust and performant option. You can use it to store structured relational data but in small files that can be deployed right alongside with your solution, such as storing a set of relational master data or configuration settings inside your binary package that is deployed/installed on servers or client machines.

Verified User

Professional in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

Apache Derby- Great for localized Risk Modeling

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

June 13, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In the Project I was using Apache Derby, we were shadowing larger databases (MS SQL + Cygnet), and providing some failover for those platforms. Most of the Use case was research-oriented, but it allowed the Risk Modelers to grab a subsection of data from these two data sources, and then combine them inside an apache derby instance. Given its size, it was a good fit.

Pros

Apache Derby is SMALL. Compared to an enterprise scale system such as MSSQL, it's footprint is very tiny, and it works well as a local database.
The SPEED. I have found that Apache Derby is very fast, given the environment I was developing in.
Based in JAVA (I know that's an obvious thing to say), but Java allows you to write some elegant Object Oriented structures, thus allowing for fast, Agile test cases against the database.
Derby is EASY to implement and can be accessed from a console with little difficulty. Making it appropriate for everything from small embedded systems (i.e. just a bash shell and a little bit of supporting libraries) to massive workstations.

Cons

Not as well positioned in the market as the "big dogs" (Oracle, MSSQL)
Been around awhile, and not a lot of exposure. This I believe is primarily due to it's relation to the Apache Project (which is not bad, but they don't force big, lumbering corporate volume licensing on you), and thus people are a bit gun-shy about NOT throwing money at something
Java is still "slow" compared to C/C++, thus making Derby a bit slow too

Likelihood to Recommend

Derby is absolutely the best when it comes to needing a small, embeddable RDBMS in your applications. Certain jobs, like Risk Modeling, are perfect for a database that is small enough to fit into memory with no trouble then store data from various sources, and then allow a user to access those data sets quickly.

Verified User

Consultant in Corporate (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

Developing with Derby

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

April 10, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The product I worked on at IBM supported all the major database vendors, including Derby. Since Derby is free, most development and QA was done with Derby, although not many customers had adopted Derby as their production database vendor.

Pros

Much easier to use and learn than most commercial databases.
Derby database errors are well documented.
Most complex queries supported as well as by other database vendors.

Cons

It may not scale as well as some more mature database products.
Used it primarily from the command line with openjpa and jdbc, and from third-party clients such as Squirrel.
May benefit by providing more sophisticated tools to optimize query performance.

Likelihood to Recommend

[It's] Well suited for development and testing environments.

Renato Ermann

Lead Software Engineer (IBM) in Engineering at Change Healthcare (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

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Apache Derby- Great for localized Risk Modeling

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

June 13, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Apache Derby is SMALL. Compared to an enterprise scale system such as MSSQL, it's footprint is very tiny, and it works well as a local database.
The SPEED. I have found that Apache Derby is very fast, given the environment I was developing in.
Based in JAVA (I know that's an obvious thing to say), but Java allows you to write some elegant Object Oriented structures, thus allowing for fast, Agile test cases against the database.
Derby is EASY to implement and can be accessed from a console with little difficulty. Making it appropriate for everything from small embedded systems (i.e. just a bash shell and a little bit of supporting libraries) to massive workstations.

Cons

Not as well positioned in the market as the "big dogs" (Oracle, MSSQL)
Been around awhile, and not a lot of exposure. This I believe is primarily due to it's relation to the Apache Project (which is not bad, but they don't force big, lumbering corporate volume licensing on you), and thus people are a bit gun-shy about NOT throwing money at something
Java is still "slow" compared to C/C++, thus making Derby a bit slow too

Likelihood to Recommend

Verified User

Consultant in Corporate (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review