Hello guys, if you want to learn Hibernate and looking for the best Hibernate books to start with then you have come to the right place. In the past, I have shared the best Hibernate courses and Spring online courses, and today, I am going to share the best books to learn Hibernate for beginners. These books have been created by Hibernate experts like Gavin King, creator of Hibernate himself and it will help you to master this essential Java framework for full-stack developers. Hibernate is the leading ORM (Object to relational) framework in the Java world used to implement the persistence layer of enterprise Java applications.
It was one of the first Java frameworks on ORM persistence and exists even before the Java Persistence API was introduced. It has since then implement JPA interfaces, and you can use Hibernate as one of the JPA implementations.
In fact, it is one of the most popular JPA implementations in the Java world. I receive a lot of emails about books and tutorials to learn Hibernate, especially from intermediate Java developers, who have a couple of years of experience in Java but are new to Hibernate.
It is also a handy skill to have on your resume because they are a lot of companies that are using Spring and Hibernate to developer enterprise Java application. So if you are looking for a job in the Java world, particularly in a Java web development role learning both Spring and Hibernate can help you to get your dream job.
The new Hibernate User Guide is perfect for learning Hibernate, it is most up-to-date and detailed enough to cover all important concepts. It has also become the default Hibernate 5 reference documentation.
All the examples given in the book are also hosted on GitHub along with their unit tests, which code snippet will remain relevant in the future with new Hibernate releases.
Most of the examples have been written according to JPA specification, but given that Hibernate is more than JPA, it also contains some Hibernate-specific examples which cover scenarios not covered by JPA standard. The best part of the guide is that it highlights which feature is particular to Hibernate and how you can do the same with JPA by giving relevant information.
You can also combine this guide with Spring and Hibernate for Beginners course on Udemy, which is one of the best courses to learn two of the essential frameworks for Java developers. It's an excellent course that also goes along with Hibernate books I am going to mention, and it cost you less than half of the price of any of these books.
Here is a couple of best book you can read to learn Hibernate 5.0 and JPA 2.1. There are many other books available in the market, but they are either not up-to-date or don't cover the Hibernate thoroughly. These three books are useful for both beginners and expert Java developers who want to learn Hibernate.
It covers Hibernate 5. x & JPA 2.1 (JSR 338), and all examples in the book have been updated for the latest Hibernate and Java EE specification versions. You can also download all examples for free from their website http://jpwh.org.
If you want to learn Hibernate quickly and in-depth, I suggest you start reading this book and join the Hibernate and JPA Fundamentals course on Udemy. It's an excellent course which I bought for just $10 in the last Udemy sale.
When it comes to authors, both authors of the books are the real authority in the Hibernate world, Gavin King is the founder of the Hibernate project and a member of the Java Persistence expert group (JSR 220) while Christian Bauer is a member of the Hibernate developer team and a trainer and consultant.
Gary Gregory, who joins the team for the 2nd edition, is also a principal software engineer working on application servers and legacy integration. All of them have done an excellent job of keeping this book as the go-to book to learn Hibernate.
You will learn Hibernate from A to Z in this book, starting from the fundamentals, motivation, and ORM in general, you will also learn more advanced concepts and techniques to solve them like N+1 problems, caching, transaction and concurrency, filtering, hibernate query language, advanced query option and customizing SQL to write high-performance Java application using Hibernate.
In short, must-read book for any Java developer who is working or wants to learn Hibernate.
The author of the book, Vlad Mihalcea, is a Hibernate Developer Advocate working for Red Hat and also a known authority in Hibernate, Java, and JPA technology.
The book starts by explaining JDBC and Database essentials,. ResultSet caching, Statement Caching, creating and maintaining database connection pool, transaction and isolation level, and performance implication of them before moving to ORM, Hibernate, and JPA.
It covers many advanced Hibernate topics like Inheritance, Relationship, Caching, Flushing, Batching, and Concurrency control, which makes things books sometimes hard to read, but don't worry.
Vlad has also created an online course, High-Performance Java persistence with Hibernate, where it explains those concepts with more examples. The course is a perfect companion for this book for anyone who wants to improve Hibernate performance for their application.
It was one of the first Java frameworks on ORM persistence and exists even before the Java Persistence API was introduced. It has since then implement JPA interfaces, and you can use Hibernate as one of the JPA implementations.
In fact, it is one of the most popular JPA implementations in the Java world. I receive a lot of emails about books and tutorials to learn Hibernate, especially from intermediate Java developers, who have a couple of years of experience in Java but are new to Hibernate.
It is also a handy skill to have on your resume because they are a lot of companies that are using Spring and Hibernate to developer enterprise Java application. So if you are looking for a job in the Java world, particularly in a Java web development role learning both Spring and Hibernate can help you to get your dream job.
The new Hibernate User Guide is perfect for learning Hibernate, it is most up-to-date and detailed enough to cover all important concepts. It has also become the default Hibernate 5 reference documentation.
All the examples given in the book are also hosted on GitHub along with their unit tests, which code snippet will remain relevant in the future with new Hibernate releases.
Most of the examples have been written according to JPA specification, but given that Hibernate is more than JPA, it also contains some Hibernate-specific examples which cover scenarios not covered by JPA standard. The best part of the guide is that it highlights which feature is particular to Hibernate and how you can do the same with JPA by giving relevant information.
You can also combine this guide with Spring and Hibernate for Beginners course on Udemy, which is one of the best courses to learn two of the essential frameworks for Java developers. It's an excellent course that also goes along with Hibernate books I am going to mention, and it cost you less than half of the price of any of these books.
5 Best Hibernate Books for Java Developers to Learn in 2024
The ORM user guide is excellent, but if you are someone like me who likes to read the book to get complete and comprehensive knowledge, you are at the right place. In this article, I am going to share three excellent books to learn the Hibernate framework. These are the books that I have read to learn Hibernate in the past.Here is a couple of best book you can read to learn Hibernate 5.0 and JPA 2.1. There are many other books available in the market, but they are either not up-to-date or don't cover the Hibernate thoroughly. These three books are useful for both beginners and expert Java developers who want to learn Hibernate.
1. Java Persistence with Hibernate 2nd Edition
This is by far the best and most complete book to learn Hibernate. This book was earlier known as Hibernate in Action, but from 2006 onwards, it was known as Java Persistence with Hibernate. The 2nd Edition of the book has launched in 2015, which means it is also the most to date book to learn Hibernate in the market.It covers Hibernate 5. x & JPA 2.1 (JSR 338), and all examples in the book have been updated for the latest Hibernate and Java EE specification versions. You can also download all examples for free from their website http://jpwh.org.
If you want to learn Hibernate quickly and in-depth, I suggest you start reading this book and join the Hibernate and JPA Fundamentals course on Udemy. It's an excellent course which I bought for just $10 in the last Udemy sale.
When it comes to authors, both authors of the books are the real authority in the Hibernate world, Gavin King is the founder of the Hibernate project and a member of the Java Persistence expert group (JSR 220) while Christian Bauer is a member of the Hibernate developer team and a trainer and consultant.
Gary Gregory, who joins the team for the 2nd edition, is also a principal software engineer working on application servers and legacy integration. All of them have done an excellent job of keeping this book as the go-to book to learn Hibernate.
You will learn Hibernate from A to Z in this book, starting from the fundamentals, motivation, and ORM in general, you will also learn more advanced concepts and techniques to solve them like N+1 problems, caching, transaction and concurrency, filtering, hibernate query language, advanced query option and customizing SQL to write high-performance Java application using Hibernate.
In short, must-read book for any Java developer who is working or wants to learn Hibernate.
2. High-Performance Java Persistence by Vlad Mihalcea
This is an excellent book on Hibernate and goes really deep into performance. If you want to learn how to squeeze the last performance drop out of your data access layer, you must read the High-Performance Java Persistence book.The author of the book, Vlad Mihalcea, is a Hibernate Developer Advocate working for Red Hat and also a known authority in Hibernate, Java, and JPA technology.
The book starts by explaining JDBC and Database essentials,. ResultSet caching, Statement Caching, creating and maintaining database connection pool, transaction and isolation level, and performance implication of them before moving to ORM, Hibernate, and JPA.
It covers many advanced Hibernate topics like Inheritance, Relationship, Caching, Flushing, Batching, and Concurrency control, which makes things books sometimes hard to read, but don't worry.
Vlad has also created an online course, High-Performance Java persistence with Hibernate, where it explains those concepts with more examples. The course is a perfect companion for this book for anyone who wants to improve Hibernate performance for their application.
In short, this book nicely summarizes the challenges and performance implications of using JDBC, either directly or via JPA and Hibernate. If you are working on a Java application that uses JDBC or Hibernate, and you are dealing with performance issues, this is one of the must-read books for you.
3. Hibernate Tips: 70 Solutions to Common Problems
I am glad to announce that fellow Blogger Thorben Janssen has authored a great book on Hibernate, "Hibernate Tips – More than 70 solutions to common Hibernate problems". It shows you in more than 70 recipes how to efficiently implement your persistence layer with Hibernate’s basic and advanced features.Each Hibernate tip consists of one or more code samples and an easy-to-follow step-by-step explanation. You can also download an example project with executable test cases for each Hibernate tip. This book is like Effective Java for Hibernate. If you have read Effective Java and likes that kind of book, you will really enjoy this book.
You will learn how to use Java 8 features with Hibernate 5.0 and more practical stuff like how to call stored procedures and database functions. If you need a course to go along with this book, then you can also check out Spring with JPA and Hibernate course by Pluralsight. It's a great course to learn both Spring and Hibernate from scratch.
By the way, you would need a Pluralsight membership to join this course which costs around $29 per month or $299 per year (14% discount). I highly recommend this subscription to all programmers as it provides instant access to more than 7000+ online courses to learn any tech skill. Alternatively, you can also use their 10-day-free-pass to watch this course for FREE.
4. Just Hibernate: A Lightweight Introduction to the Hibernate Framework
Just Hibernate: A Lightweight Introduction to the Hibernate Framework 1st Edition" by Madhusudhan Konda offers a concise and accessible entry point for those seeking a quick grasp of Hibernate, a powerful framework for object-relational mapping in Java.
With a 3.9 out of 5-star rating from 44 reviews, the book provides a short and straightforward introduction to Hibernate through clear real-world examples, making it suitable for both beginners and those looking for a quick refresher. Konda takes readers through the basics of Hibernate, explaining its core concepts and moving parts.
The book emphasizes simplicity and brevity, making it an ideal resource for developers faced with the challenge of storing Java objects in relational databases. With a focus on practical examples, readers will learn how to compare JDBC and Hibernate in handling object persistence, use annotations to create Hibernate applications, persist and retrieve Java data structures, and understand fundamental concepts like associations and their mappings.
The book also touches on advanced topics such as caching, inheritance, and types, providing a well-rounded understanding of Hibernate. By walking through the Hibernate Query Language API with examples and developing Java Persistence API applications using Hibernate as the provider, readers gain hands-on experience with code snippets to build confidence for real-world projects.
Overall, Madhusudhan Konda's 'Just Hibernate' serves as a valuable resource for those looking to quickly and effectively learn Hibernate for their Java development needs. If you need a course, you can also combine this with the Spring Data JPA Using Hibernate course by Bharath Thippireddy on Udemy. It's a good companion for this book and it also complement with the Spring Data JPA.
5. Java Persistence with Spring Data and Hibernate
The "Java Persistence with Spring Data and Hibernate Expanded Edition" by Catalin Tudose is a comprehensive guide for mastering Java persistence using the industry-leading tools Spring Data and Hibernate. With a remarkable rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars from 13 reviews, the book covers essential topics such as mapping persistent classes, value types, and inheritance, as well as mapping collections and entity associations.
You will gain insights into processing transactions with Spring Data and Hibernate, creating fetch plans, strategies, and profiles, and filtering data. The book also delves into advanced topics like building Spring Data REST projects, using Java persistence with non-relational databases, and querying JPA with QueryDSL.
Catalin Tudose, with over 20 years of experience in the Java community, presents hands-on examples that carefully analyze the capabilities of major Java persistence tools, guiding readers through common use cases and helping them choose the right tool for their applications.
The practical techniques are demonstrated with both relational and non-relational databases, making it a valuable resource for intermediate Java programmers looking to enhance their skills in managing application data.
The forewords by Dmitry Aleksandrov and Mohamed Taman add to the credibility of the book. The print book purchase includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.
Overall, "Java Persistence with Spring Data and Hibernate" is a go-to resource for effectively managing data in Java applications. If you want, you can also combine this book with the Hibernate and Spring Data JPA: Beginner to Guru course by John Thompson on Udemy to learn both Hibernate and Spring Data better.
That's all about some of the best books to learn Hibernate for Java developers. The new Hibernate User Guide is perfect for learning Hibernate, and the best part of it is that it will always be up-to-date, but when it comes to books, the Java Persistence with Hibernate 2nd Edition is clearly the must-read book for any experienced Hibernate developer.
If you want to go to the next level to solve some real-world problems with performance in an application that uses Hibernate or JPA, then High-Performance Java Persistence clearly deserves a reading.
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Thanks for reading this article, if you like this article and find the recommended books useful then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions, feedback, or suggestion, then please drop a comment. You can also suggest any interesting book about JDBC and Hibernate, I love to find new books.
P. S. - If you prefer to learn from online courses, then books, then I suggest you go through these best Spring & Hibernate courses from Udemy and Pluralsight. It's an excellent course to learn both Spring and hibernate, which means you can kill two birds in just one stone.
Is Vlad Michaela's Hibernate online course really worth it? or its just for a specific group of people?
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