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Anaconda vs Databricks comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Anaconda
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Databricks
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (7th), Streaming Analytics (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of Anaconda is 2.1%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Databricks is 18.2%, down from 19.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Science Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Rohan Sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides all the frameworks and makes it easy to create environments for multiple projects
The best thing is that it provides all the frameworks and makes it easy to create environments for multiple projects using Anaconda. It is easy for a beginner to learn to use Anaconda. Comparatively, it is easier than using virtual environments or other environments because of the Conda environment. However, there are many things in Anaconda that people need to be aware of, so it can be challenging.
ShubhamSharma7 - PeerSpot reviewer
Capability to integrate diverse coding languages in a single notebook greatly enhances workflow
Databricks offers various courses that I can use, whether it's PySpark, Scala, or R. I can leverage all these courses in a single notebook, which is beneficial for clients as they can access various tools in one place whenever needed. This is quite significant. I usually work with PySpark based on client requirements. After coding, I feed the Databricks notebooks into the ADF pipeline for updates. Databricks' capability to process data in parallel enhances data processing speed. Furthermore, I can connect our Databricks notebook directly with Power BI and other visualization tools like Qlik. Once we develop code, it allows us to transform raw data into visualizations for clients using analysis diagrams, which is very helpful.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the Jupyter notebook that allows us to write the Python code, compile it on the fly, and then look at the results."
"The virtual environment is very good."
"The most valuable feature is the set of libraries that are used to support the functionality that we require."
"The best part of Anaconda is the media distribution that comes as part of it. It gets us started very quickly."
"With Anaconda Navigator, we have been able to use multiple IDEs such as JupyterLab, Jupyter Notebook, Spyder, Visual Studio Code, and RStudio in one place. The platform-agnostic package manager, "Conda", makes life easy when it comes to managing and installing packages."
"The documentation is excellent and the solution has a very large and active community that supports it."
"Voice Configuration and Environmental Management Capabilities are the most valuable features."
"The solution is stable."
"It offers AI functionalities that assist with code management and machine learning processes."
"The time travel feature is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"Databricks gives us the ability to build a lakehouse framework and do everything implicit to this type of database structure. We also like the ability to stream events. Databricks covers a broad spectrum, from reporting and machine learning to streaming events. It's important for us to have all these features in one platform."
"The ability to stream data and the windowing feature are valuable."
"The initial setup phase of Databricks was good."
"The setup is quite easy."
"Imageflow is a visual tool that helps make it easier for business people to understand complex workflows."
"Databricks provides a consistent interface for data engineers to work with data in a consistent language on a single integrated platform for ingesting, processing, and serving data to the end user."
 

Cons

"Having a small guide or video on the tool would help learn how to use it and what the features are."
"I think better documentation or a step-by-step guide for installation would help, especially for on-premise users."
"The interface could be improved. Other solutions, like Visual Studio, have much better UI."
"It crashes once in a while. In case of a reboot or something unexpected, the unseen code part will get diminished, and it relatively takes longer than other applications when a reboot is happening. They can improve in these areas. They can also bring some database software. They have software for analytics and virtualization. However, they don't have any software for the database."
"A lot of people and companies are investing in creating automated data cleaning and processing environments. Anaconda is a bit behind in that area."
"Anaconda could benefit from improvement in its user interface to make it more attractive and user-friendly. Currently, it's boring."
"I think that the framework can be improved to make it easier for people to discover and use things on their own."
"The ability to schedule scripts for the building and monitoring of jobs would be an advantage for this platform."
"As a data engineer, I see cluster failure in our Databricks user databases as a major issue."
"The product needs samples and templates to help invite users to see results and understand what the product can do."
"Performance could be improved."
"It would be better if it were faster. It can be slow, and it can be super fast for big data. But for small data, sometimes there is a sub-second response, which can be considered slow. In the next release, I would like to have automatic creation of APIs because they don't have it at the moment, and I spend a lot of time building them."
"A lot of people are required to manage this solution."
"Doesn't provide a lot of credits or trial options."
"The tool should improve its integration with other products."
"I have had some issues with some of the Spark clusters running on Databricks, where the Spark runtime and clusters go up and down, which is an area for improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Anaconda is free to use, but in terms of hardware costs, you might need heavy GPUs to run CUDA and other demanding tasks."
"The tool is open-source."
"The licensing costs for Anaconda are reasonable."
"The product is open-source and free to use."
"My company uses the free version of the tool. There is also a paid version of the tool available."
"We only pay for the Azure compute behind the solution."
"I am based in South Africa, where it is expensive adapting to the cloud, and then there is the price for the tool itself."
"The price of Databricks is reasonable compared to other solutions."
"We implement this solution on behalf of our customers who have their own Azure subscription and they pay for Databricks themselves. The pricing is more expensive if you have large volumes of data."
"Licensing on site I would counsel against, as on-site hardware issues tend to really delay and slow down delivery."
"The billing of Databricks can be difficult and should improve."
"There are different versions."
"I would rate Databricks' pricing seven out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Anaconda?
The tool's most valuable feature is its cloud-based nature, allowing accessibility from anywhere. Additionally, using Jupyter Notebook makes it easy to handle bugs and errors.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Anaconda?
Anaconda is an open-source tool, so I do not pay anything for it. It is compatible with every tool, regardless of whether it is open source or a paid package.
What needs improvement with Anaconda?
There is room for improvement, especially regarding deployment. The process could be streamlined as the number of actions needed to deploy is quite large compared to other tools.
Which do you prefer - Databricks or Azure Machine Learning Studio?
Databricks gives you the option of working with several different languages, such as SQL, R, Scala, Apache Spark, or Python. It offers many different cluster choices and excellent integration with ...
How would you compare Databricks vs Amazon SageMaker?
We researched AWS SageMaker, but in the end, we chose Databricks. Databricks is a Unified Analytics Platform designed to accelerate innovation projects. It is based on Spark so it is very fast. It...
Which would you choose - Databricks or Azure Stream Analytics?
Databricks is an easy-to-set-up and versatile tool for data management, analysis, and business analytics. For analytics teams that have to interpret data to further the business goals of their orga...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

LinkedIn, NASA, Boeing, JP Morgan, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, DARPA, Microsoft, Amazon, HP, Cisco, Thomson Reuters, IBM, Bridgestone
Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaconda vs. Databricks and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.