Clean Readable Code : Using hibernate, helps in eliminating a lot of JDBC API-based boiler-plate codes, thereby making the code look cleaner and readable.
HQL (Hibernate Query Language) : Hibernate provides HQL which is closer to Java and is object-oriented in nature. This helps in reducing the burden on developers for writing database independent queries. In JDBC, this is not the case. A developer has to know the database-specific codes.
Transaction Management : JDBC doesn't support implicit transaction management. It is upon the developer to write transaction management code using commit and rollback methods. Whereas, Hibernate implicity provides this feature.
Exception Handling : Hibernate wraps the JDBC exceptions and throws unchecked exceptions like JDBCException or HibernateException. This along with the built-in transaction management system helps developers to avoid writing multiple try-catch blocks to handle exceptions. In the case of JDBC, it throws a checked exception called SQLException thereby mandating the developer to write try-catch blocks to handle this exception at compile time.
Special Features : Hibernate supports OOPs features like inheritance, associations and also supports collections. These are not available in JDBC.
