Differences between JPA and Hibernate
JPA is a Java specification that is used to access, manage and persist data between Java object and relational database. It is a standard approach for ORM.
Hibernate is a lightweight open-source ORM tool that is used to store Java objects in the relational database system. It is a provider of JPA. It follows a common approach provided by JPA.
Below are the differences between JPA and Hibernate :
| JPA | Hibernate |
| Java specification for mapping data in Java application | ORM framework that deals with data persistence |
| Does not provide any implementation classes | Provides implementation classes |
| Uses platform-independent query language called JPQL (Java Persistence Query Language) | Uses its own query language called HQL (Hibernate Query Language) |
| Defined in javax.persistence package | Defined in org.hibernate package |
| Implemented in various ORM tools like Hibernate, EclipseLink etc | Provider of JPA |
| Uses EntityManager for handling the persistence of data | Uses Session for handling the persistence of data |
