SQLite vs HSQLDB

Question

What are the main differences between SQLite and HSQLDB? There are lots of applications using both of them, but I don't really see any major difference.

Answer 1

SQLite is implemented in C, HSQL is implemented in Java.

It should be more seamless and easy to integrate SQLite with an application project written in C or C++, whereas I would expect the HSQL technology is easier to integrate with a project written in Java.

No doubt there are numerous other more subtle differences between these two embedded databases, but the above is the most prominent difference.

Answer 2

I am considering one of them for patching a project (it retrieves data from a custom back-end hardware, but we found out that we need to cache that data because the hardware simply doesn't deliver what it was expected to).

My main concern with HSQLDB so far is about how well it performs when you don't use its memory-based tables. Any hard info on that?

Answer 3

The good comparison of HSQLDB & SQLite can be found at http://3rdstage.blogspot.com/2009/03/comparion-of-hsqldb-h2-sqlite.html