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HSQLDB - 100% Java Database

SourceForge Project of the Month January 2012

HyperSQL was selected as the SourceForge Project of the Month for January 2012 and was featured on SourceForge.net home page. An interview with core developers is published here.

HyperSQL 2.2.9 is Released!

Version 2.2.9 is the result of extensive code reviews, enhancements and bug fixes.

HSQLDB (HyperSQL DataBase) is the leading SQL relational database engine written in Java. It offers a small, fast multithreaded and transactional database engine with in-memory and disk-based tables and supports embedded and server modes. It includes a powerful command line SQL tool and simple GUI query tools.

HSQLDB supports the widest range of SQL Standard features seen in any open source database engine: SQL:2011 core language features and an extensive list of SQL:2011 optional features. It supports nearly full Advanced ANSI-92 SQL (BNF format). Many extensions to the Standard, including syntax compatibility and features of other popular database engines, are also supported.

Version 2.2 is fully multithreaded and supports high performance 2PL and MVCC (multiversion concurrency control) transaction control models. See the list of new features in version 2.2. 

HSQLDB has been constantly developed over 11 years and is used as a database and persistence engine in over 1700 Open Source Software projects and many commercial products. The latest versions are extremely stable and reliable. It is known for its small size, ability to execute completely or partly in memory, its flexibility and speed.

HSQLDB is completely free to use and distribute under our licenses, based on the standard BSD license and fully compatible with all major open source licenses.

pole position graph

The database performance test package PolePosition compares the performance of relational and object databases for storing objects. We ran the PolePosition 0.4 tests with HSQLDB 2.2.6 embedded and server (both with disk tables with sync-on-commit), Apache Derby embedded and MySQL+InnoDB server. See the results, which show the latest query processing improvements in HSQLDB 2.2.x.


Our group was formed in 2001 and has released 10 major new versions of the database. Early versions were based on code from the closed Hypersonic SQL project while the latest code has little in common with it. Direct downloads exceed 1,700,000 copies, with hundreds of millions of copies distributed as part of other software packages.

New Developments for 2012

New releases in the pipeline focus on access and management of very large data sets.

The latest version 2.2.9, released in August, supports up to 270 billion rows of data in a single database and a new hot backup capability.

The 2.3.0 series is currently under development and will enhance all capabilities.

New SupportWare subscriptions are invited to fund the development effort.

HSQLDB SupportWare

HSQLDB is Java developers' best choice for development, testing and deployment of database applications.

HSQLDB SupportWare allows individual developers and organizations to support the development and maintenance of HSQLDB.

Participation in the program is by annual subscription or sponsorship.

SupportWare Subscription

Developer subscription - $100 or €80
Corporate subscription - $400 - $1000 or €320 - €800

SupportWare Sponsorship

Allows you to sponsor new features or the whole project.

How to join

details on SupportWare page

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This page last updated 22 Aug 2012
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