Why MyBatis-Flex Beats MyBatis-Plus: Features, Benchmarks, and Quick Start

Overview

MyBatis-Flex is a lightweight MyBatis enhancement that provides a fluent QueryWrapper, reduces boilerplate SQL, and supports many relational databases.

Key Characteristics

Lightweight : No third‑party dependencies or interceptors; uses SqlProvider for direct SQL generation, which yields high performance and easy debugging.

Fluent API : QueryWrapper enables chainable select, where, join, union and sub‑query construction without writing SQL strings.

Rich Features : Supports CRUD, pagination with total‑count caching, multi‑primary keys, logical deletion, optimistic lock, data masking, audit, automatic field fill, multi‑tenant, dynamic table name/schema, and RPC‑compatible query objects.

Database Compatibility : Works with MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle (11g/12c), DB2, HSQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, ClickHouse, and many others via custom dialects.

Performance

Internal benchmarks show MyBatis‑Flex is 5‑10× faster than MyBatis‑Plus for single‑record queries, batch queries, pagination and updates. Detailed results are published at https://mybatis-flex.com/zh/intro/benchmark.html.

Quick‑Start (Spring Boot)

1. Create a table

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS tb_account (
  id BIGINT PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
  user_name VARCHAR(100),
  age INT,
  birthday DATETIME
);

INSERT INTO tb_account(id, user_name, age, birthday) VALUES
  (1, '张三', 18, '2020-01-11'),
  (2, '李四', 19, '2021-03-21');

2. Add Maven dependencies

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.mybatis-flex</groupId>
    <artifactId>mybatis-flex-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
    <version>1.5.3</version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.mysql</groupId>
    <artifactId>mysql-connector-j</artifactId>
    <scope>runtime</scope>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.zaxxer</groupId>
    <artifactId>HikariCP</artifactId>
  </dependency>
  <!-- test only -->
  <dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
    <scope>test</scope>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>

3. Configure datasource

# application.yml
spring:
  datasource:
    url: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/flex_test
    username: root
    password: 12345678

Add @MapperScan("com.mybatisflex.test.mapper") to the main application class.

4. Define entity and mapper

@Data
@Table("tb_account")
public class Account {
    @Id(keyType = KeyType.Auto)
    private Long id;
    private String userName;
    private Integer age;
    private Date birthday;
}

public interface AccountMapper extends BaseMapper<Account> {}

5. Use QueryWrapper in code

@SpringBootTest
class MybatisFlexDemoTest {

    @Autowired
    private AccountMapper accountMapper;

    @Test
    void queryByAge() {
        QueryWrapper query = QueryWrapper.create()
            .select()
            .where(ACCOUNT.AGE.eq(18)); // ACCOUNT is a generated column reference class
        Account account = accountMapper.selectOneByQuery(query);
        System.out.println(account);
    }
}

Additional Resources

Official documentation: https://mybatis-flex.com/

Code generator guide: https://mybatis-flex.com/zh/others/codegen.html