Bit late, but I wanted to share my opinion on this.
I faced this problem recently when I found a Java project with both libraries and they were used at the same time.
I think that org.json is easier to read and to use, for 2 main reasons (for my needs):
JsonObject is immutable. You can't add new key/value pairs to an already existing JsonObject (reference here: javax.json: Add new JsonNumber to existing JsonObject)
It takes a few lines to pretty print a JsonObject or JsonArray, while it only takes 1 line to do it with JSONObject or JSONArray. Example:
CopyStringWriter sw = new StringWriter(); Map<String, Object> properties = new HashMap<>(); properties.put(JsonGenerator.PRETTY_PRINTING, true); JsonWriterFactory writerFactory = Json.createWriterFactory(properties); JsonWriter jsonWriter = writerFactory.createWriter(sw); jsonWriter.writeObject(jsonObject); //JsonObject created before jsonWriter.close(); String prettyPrintedJSON = sw.toString();
That is the code I use to get an indented JSON to write to a file. And with org.json I only need jsonObject.toString(4).
Another difference is the constructors. You will need a JsonObjectBuilder to create a JSON with javax.json. One step more that can be avoided.
I'm sure there are more differences (not sure if it's possible to create a JsonObject from a String) but these are my thoughts.
JSONObject, as mentioned, is provided by android's API. JsonObject is specifically used for Java EE development which is essentially for web applications and networking capabilities among other things.
The reason Android does not prepackage JsonObject from Oracle Java EE package is because alot of the things javax can do, are not allowed within android like accessing the internet without permission. This means importing the entire jars files of javax would conflict with Android.
If you plan to build your own backend with Java EE, I would highly suggest using JsonObject over JSONObject. On the other hand, if you know a prebuilt rest service or something similar that supports Android's JSON even better.