JPA是一个API，由Hibernate实现。Hibernate先于JPA。在JPA之前，您编写本地hibernate代码来执行ORM。JPA只是一个接口，所以现在编写JPA代码并需要找到一个实现。Hibernate恰好是一个实现。

你的选择是这样的: Hibernate, toplink等等…

JPA的优点是它允许您在需要时交换您的实现。缺点是本机hibernate/toplink/等…API可能提供JPA规范不支持的功能。

来自维基。

Motivation for creating the Java Persistence API Many enterprise Java developers use lightweight persistent objects provided by open-source frameworks or Data Access Objects instead of entity beans: entity beans and enterprise beans had a reputation of being too heavyweight and complicated, and one could only use them in Java EE application servers. Many of the features of the third-party persistence frameworks were incorporated into the Java Persistence API, and as of 2006 projects like Hibernate (version 3.2) and Open-Source Version TopLink Essentials have become implementations of the Java Persistence API.

正如JCP页面所述，Eclipse链接是JPA的参考实现。再看看这个答案。

JPA本身具有弥补标准ORM框架的功能。由于JPA是Java EE规范的一部分，您可以在项目中单独使用JPA，并且它应该与任何Java EE兼容的服务器一起工作。是的，这些服务器将拥有JPA规范的实现。

Hibernate是最流行的ORM框架，一旦JPA引入，Hibernate就符合JPA规范。除了它应该遵循的基本规范集之外，hibernate还提供了大量额外的东西。

JPA is JSR i.e. Java Specification Requirement to implement Object Relational Mapping which has got no specific code for its implementation. It defines certain set of rules for for accessing, persisting and managing the data between Java objects and the relational databaseWith its introduction, EJB was replaced as It was criticized for being heavyweight by the Java developer community. Hibernate is one of the way JPA can be implemented using te guidelines.Hibernate is a high-performance Object/Relational persistence and query service which is licensed under the open source GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) .The benefit of this is that you can swap out Hibernate's implementation of JPA for another implementation of the JPA specification. When you use straight Hibernate you are locking into the implementation because other ORMs may use different methods/configurations and annotations, therefore you cannot just switch over to another ORM.

形象地说，JPA只是接口，Hibernate/TopLink类(即接口实现)。

必须有接口实现才能使用接口。但是你可以通过接口使用类，即通过JPA API使用Hibernate，或者你可以直接使用实现，即直接使用Hibernate，而不是通过纯JPA API。

关于JPA的好书是Vlad Mihalcea的《高性能Java持久性》。

JPA只是一个需要具体实现的规范。oracle提供的默认实现现在是“Eclipselink”。Toplink由Oracle捐赠给Eclipse基金会，用于与eclipselink合并。

使用Eclipselink，可以确保代码在需要时可以移植到任何实现。Hibernate也是一个完整的JPA实现+更多。Hibernate是JPA的超级集，具有一些额外的Hibernate特定功能。因此，在Hibernate中开发的应用程序在切换到其他实现时可能不兼容。hibernate仍然是大多数开发人员作为JPA实现的选择，并被广泛使用。

另一个JPA实现是OpenJPA，它是Kodo实现的扩展。

JPA vs Hibernate

如果没有语言的历史视角和对JCP的理解，有些事情就很难理解。

通常会有第三方开发包来执行官方JDK不包含的功能或填补空白。由于各种原因，该函数可能通过JCP (Java社区进程)成为Java JDK的一部分。

Hibernate(2003年)提供了一种抽象SQL的方法，并允许开发人员更多地从持久化对象(ORM)的角度进行思考。你通知hibernate关于你的Entity对象，它会自动生成持久化它们的策略。Hibernate提供了实现和API，通过XML配置或注释来驱动实现。

现在的基本问题是，您的代码与特定的供应商(Hibernate)紧密耦合，而许多人认为这应该是更通用的。因此需要通用的持久性API。

Meanwhile, the JCP with a lot of input from Hibernate and other ORM tool vendors was developing JSR 220 (Java Specification Request) which resulted in JPA 1.0 (2006) and eventually JSR 317 which is JPA 2.0 (2009). These are specifications of a generic Java Persistence API. The API is provided in the JDK as a set of interfaces so that your classes can depend on the javax.persistence and not worry about the particular vendor that is doing the work of persisting your objects. This is only the API and not the implementation. Hibernate now becomes one of the many vendors that implement the JPA 2.0 specification. You can code toward JPA and pick whatever compliant ORM vendor suits your needs.

在某些情况下，Hibernate可能会提供JPA中没有编码的特性。在这种情况下，您可以选择直接在类中插入Hibernate特定的注释，因为JPA没有提供接口来做这件事。

来源:http://www.reddit.com/r/java/comments/16ovek/understanding_when_to_use_jpa_vs_hibernate/