A JavaBean class (or, simply, bean class) is a Java class with a parameter-free constructor where all properties are serializable and have a get and set method (also called "getter" and "setter"). A Java bean is an object created with the help of a bean class.

A JPA entity class (or, simply, entity class) is a JavaBean class with an @Entity annotation, implying that a JavaEE runtime environment (such as provided by the TomEE PLUS web server) will take care of the persistent storage of its instances.