CockroachDB Cloud vs HSQLDB
CockroachDB Cloud
cockroachlabs.com
HSQLDB
hsqldb.orgSide by side
| Figure | CockroachDB Cloud | HSQLDB |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $0.06/mo | $8.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 11 |
| Spec score · Sql Databases | 8.6 (#5) | 9.2 (#1) |
| Spec score · Database Software | 8.5 (#25) | 8.9 (#13) |
| Founded | 2015 | 2001 |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Integrations | The maker describes managed data pipelines, native drivers, and connections to third-party observability and logging tools; its integration categories include data streaming, monitoring, AI, developer tools, and infrastructure. | The project documents JDBC and ODBC connectivity and integration with OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice. |
| Product | CockroachDB Cloud is a fully managed distributed SQL platform for workloads ranging from development and testing to enterprise-critical production applications. | HSQLDB is a Java-based relational database engine with in-memory and disk-based tables, supporting embedded and server modes. |
| Support | The current pricing page lists a 1-hour P1 support response for Standard and a 30-minute P1 response for Mission Critical. | Support options include a help forum, a user mailing list, bug and feature request trackers, paid SupportWare, and professional commercial support. |
Plans
CockroachDB Cloud
- Standard$0.06 a month
- Mission Critical$0.16 a month
- BasicFree
- Cockroach Continuum Standard$0.09 a month
- Cockroach Continuum Mission Critical$0.16 a month
- Standard$0.18 a month
- Advanced$0.60 a month
HSQLDB
- Developer subscription$100 a year
- Basic Corporate subscriptionPrice not published
- Premier Corporate subscription$2,500 a year
- HSQLDBFree
- HSQLDB softwareFree
- Developer SupportWare$100 a year
- SupportWare Developer subscription$100 a year
- Basic Corporate SupportWare$500 a year
- SupportWare Basic Corporate subscription$500 a year
- Premier Corporate SupportWare$2,500 a year
In their own words
CockroachDB Cloud
CockroachDB Cloud is a managed distributed SQL platform for development, testing, and production workloads. It provisions clusters, scales compute and storage, performs rolling upgrades, and manages backups. The database supports ACID transactions and can scale reads and writes horizontally without manual sharding. Deployments can span AWS, Azure, and GCP, including multiple providers and regions. Cockroach Labs' Terraform provider and Cloud APIs support operation automation. Security features include TLS for traffic between clients and servers and between nodes, cloud-provider disk encryption at rest, and column-level encryption. The listed plans include Basic at free and Standard at $0.06 a month; usage is metered by the minute, billed monthly, and rates vary by region. New Cloud organizations receive a 30-day trial with $400 in credits. The trial ends after 30 days or when the credits run out, and clusters are then paused. Pricing terms also distinguish deployments created before and from September 15, 2026, so the applicable plan depends on deployment timing.
HSQLDB
HSQLDB is a Java-based relational database engine for embedded or server use, with both in-memory and disk-based tables. It supports SQL:2023 core features and many optional features, plus lock-based and MVCC transaction models; the engine is fully multithreaded. Listed capabilities include JSON constructor functions, CSV loading and unloading, temporal system-versioned tables, row-level access control, and log-based replica synchronization. It includes a command-line SQL tool and simple GUI query tools. The latest official release listed is version 2.7.4, compatible with JDK 8 and above, and packages include Java 11 module jars as well as Java 8 jars for HSQLDB and SQL Tool. HSQLDB is self-hosted, with high availability, read replicas, and JSON data support listed. Its default combined limit for CACHED tables is 8TB, extendable to 256TB with a connection property; each TEXT table is limited to 256GB, and memory tables depend on available memory. The software is free to use in commercial products when license terms are met; its licenses are based on the new BSD License. The HSQLDB plan is free. A Developer subscription is $100 a year; Premier Corporate is $2,500 a year at the base level. Support options include community channels and paid commercial support.