What is better to use "class" or "enum" to implement roles and permissions?

Question

I found two implementations of roles and permissions, tell me please what is better to use and why? Implementation using enum ("Permission" is also enum):

public enum Role {

  USER(Collections.emptySet()),
  ADMIN(
          Set.of(
                  ADMIN_READ,
                  ADMIN_UPDATE,
                  ADMIN_DELETE,
                  ADMIN_CREATE,
                  MANAGER_READ,
                  MANAGER_UPDATE,
                  MANAGER_DELETE,
                  MANAGER_CREATE
          )
  ),

Or using class ("Permission" is also class here it connected through ManyToMany relation):

@Entity
public class Role {
 
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
    private Long id;

    private String name;
    @ManyToMany(mappedBy = "roles")
    private Collection<User> users;

    @ManyToMany
    @JoinTable(
        name = "roles_privileges", 
        joinColumns = @JoinColumn(
          name = "role_id", referencedColumnName = "id"), 
        inverseJoinColumns = @JoinColumn(
          name = "privilege_id", referencedColumnName = "id"))
    private Collection<Privilege> privileges;
}

Answer 1

Both are valid for several reasons, but it depends on how flexible and scalable you want your roles to be.

Enum is simple, type-safe, and performant but lacks flexibility and scalability, which is why they are perfect for small static applications where you have a fixed predictable set of permissions. As soon as you want to set up complex permissions and granularity in specifying access to certain tables in databases, for example, I recommend going for classes. That way you can easily add, remove, or modify roles and permissions without changing the codebase.

Ultimately, if you're working on a project where roles and permissions are fixed and unlikely to change, and where simplicity and performance are priorities, the enum-based approach is a good fit. However, if you're developing a system that requires dynamic management of roles and permissions, and where scalability and flexibility are important, the class-based approach with database integration is the better choice.