We performed a comparison between Databricks and Microsoft BI based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Databricks is the winner in this comparison. It is robust, high performing, and received good feedback for its speed.
"Databricks makes it really easy to use a number of technologies to do data analysis. In terms of languages, we can use Scala, Python, and SQL. Databricks enables you to run very large queries, at a massive scale, within really good timeframes."
"The main features of the solution are efficiency."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution is its notebook. It's quite convenient to use, both terms of the research and the development and also the final deployment, I can just declare the spark jobs by the load tables. It's quite convenient."
"The solution is very easy to use."
"Databricks is based on a Spark cluster and it is fast. Performance-wise, it is great."
"Databricks allows me to automate the creation of a cluster, optimized for machine learning and construct AI machine learning models for the client."
"The solution is very simple and stable."
"I like the ability to use workspaces with other colleagues because you can work together even without seeing the other team's job."
"I have found the quick reporting and the conductivity with all the data sources valuable."
"It's easy to create reports and it's easy to download the data from the corresponding report."
"The solution is easy to use."
"It is in the cloud, which makes it easy for mobile access of reports and data."
"Helped identify bad data, enabling the corrections needed to the data for management."
"In my experience the scalability is good. You are able to increase users and add more data."
"The visualization and reporting are the most valuable features of this solution."
"It is really flexible. The charts and reports are really nice. You have the flexibility of self-service."
"Doesn't provide a lot of credits or trial options."
"I have seen better user interfaces, so that is something that can be improved."
"Databricks would benefit from enhanced metrics and tighter integration with Azure's diagnostics."
"There could be more support for automated machine learning in the database. I would like to see more ways to do analysis so that the reporting is more understandable."
"I'm not the guy that I'm working with Databricks on a daily basis. I'm on the management team. However, my team tells me there are limitations with streaming events. The connectors work with a small set of platforms. For example, we can work with Kafka, but if we want to move to an event-driven solution from AWS, we cannot do it. We cannot connect to all the streaming analytics platforms, so we are limited in choosing the best one."
"Databricks can improve by making the documentation better."
"It should have more compatible and more advanced visualization and machine learning libraries."
"Implementation of Databricks is still very code heavy."
"It would be better if they had some video tutorials. Most people from an Excel background may struggle with measures in Microsoft BI."
"I believe the price should be degressive, and we should have a lower, or better unit price if we have more users."
"Technical support could be a bit better."
"SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is not user friendly."
"Real-time refreshing for SAP BW would be nice. We know its on the radar for the development team at MS. "
"Right now, their premium pricing is keeping us out of the premium market. The premium price per user just doesn't make sense for us, but we haven't reached the limit of 500 users to justify the premium."
"You need to purchase upgraded support separately."
"Power BI doesn't support some open-source data sources that are new, such as SnowSQL, Iceberg, or ClickHouse."
Databricks is ranked 1st in Data Science Platforms with 78 reviews while Microsoft Power BI is ranked 1st in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 297 reviews. Databricks is rated 8.2, while Microsoft Power BI is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Databricks writes "A nice interface with good features for turning off clusters to save on computing". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Power BI writes "A complete ecosystem with an builtin ETL tool, good integrations with python and R, and support of DAX and Power Query (M languages)". Databricks is most compared with Amazon SageMaker, Informatica PowerCenter, Dataiku, Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio and Alteryx, whereas Microsoft Power BI is most compared with Tableau, Amazon QuickSight, KNIME, Domo and MicroStrategy.
We monitor all Data Science Platforms reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.