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Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling vs Apache Spark comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.0
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling offers cost savings and high ROI, especially for apps with high loads and experimental uses.
Sentiment score
7.3
Apache Spark reduces operational costs by up to 50%, offering high ROI and efficient performance despite infrastructure expenses.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is praised for responsive support, extensive documentation, and effective issue resolution, despite integration challenges.
Sentiment score
6.1
Apache Spark support ranges from vibrant community help to paid vendor plans, with experiences varying based on user needs.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling excels in adaptability, efficiently adjusting resources for stable, cost-effective operations with high scalability ratings.
Sentiment score
7.7
Apache Spark is scalable, efficiently manages large workloads, and is praised for stability, adaptability, and expansive capabilities.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is praised for stability and reliability, with effective auto-recovery despite occasional resource issues.
Sentiment score
7.5
Apache Spark is stable and reliable, with improved versions addressing issues, widely used by major tech companies.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling needs improvements in pricing, automation, scalability, support, integration, customization, UI, connectivity, security, and performance.
Amazon should provide more detailed training materials for people who are just starting to work with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling offers flexible pricing, with costs influenced by resource usage, instances, and additional services, with potential complexity.
It operates on a pay-as-you-go model, meaning if a machine is used for only an hour, the pricing will be calculated for that hour only, not the entire month.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling efficiently scales resources, enhances performance, ensures security, and integrates well with AWS services, offering cost efficiency.
The most valuable feature of Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is its scalability.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling
Ranking in Compute Service
3rd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Apache Spark
Ranking in Compute Service
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (1st), Java Frameworks (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is 9.7%, down from 14.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Apache Spark is 12.0%, up from 11.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Compute Service
 

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Awais Zahid - PeerSpot reviewer
Pay-as-you-go and efficient with automated workload handling
I have been working with customers who use Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling for handling their workload on servers and scaling up the infrastructure as required.  As an instructor and cloud consultant, I help clients maintain and scale their infrastructure using this service to achieve zero downtime…
Dunstan Matekenya - PeerSpot reviewer
Open-source solution for data processing with portability
Apache Spark is known for its ease of use. Compared to other available data processing frameworks, it is user-friendly. While many choices now exist, Spark remains easy to use, particularly with Python. You can utilize familiar programming styles similar to Pandas in Python, including object-oriented programming. Another advantage is its portability. I can prototype and perform some initial tasks on my laptop using Spark without needing to be on Databricks or any cloud platform. I can transfer it to Databricks or other platforms, such as AWS. This flexibility allows me to improve processing even on my laptop. For instance, if I'm processing large amounts of data and find my laptop becoming slow, I can quickly switch to Spark. It handles small and large datasets efficiently, making it a versatile tool for various data processing needs.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
12%
Retailer
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
7%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling?
The solution removes the need for hardware. We can easily create servers or machines. Just by clicking or specifying our requirements, like memory size or disk space, it's set up for us. The tool e...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling?
The pricing of Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is moderate. It's not too expensive because we only pay for what we use. While there are cheaper options, the services provided are worth the cost. Previously...
What needs improvement with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling?
While Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is continually updated and has improved over time, the dashboard has become more complex and tricky for new users. The interface was easier to navigate in earlier vers...
What do you like most about Apache Spark?
We use Spark to process data from different data sources.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Spark?
Apache Spark is open-source, so it doesn't incur any charges.
What needs improvement with Apache Spark?
There is complexity when it comes to understanding the whole ecosystem, especially for beginners. I find it quite complex to understand how a Spark job is initiated, the roles of driver nodes, work...
 

Also Known As

AWS RAM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
NASA JPL, UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, UC Santa Cruz, TripAdvisor, Taboola, Agile Lab, Art.com, Baidu, Alibaba Taobao, EURECOM, Hitachi Solutions
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling vs. Apache Spark and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
864,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.