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Apache NiFi 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache NiFi
Ranking in Compute Service
8th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Apache Spark
Ranking in Compute Service
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
67
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (2nd), Java Frameworks (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Apache NiFi is 9.1%, up from 8.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Apache Spark is 11.6%, up from 11.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Compute Service Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Apache Spark11.6%
Apache NiFi9.1%
Other79.3%
Compute Service
 

Featured Reviews

Bharghava Raghavendra Beesa - PeerSpot reviewer
The tool enables effective data transformation and integration
There are some areas for improvement, particularly with record-level tasks that take a bit of time. The quality of JSON data processing could be improved, as JSON workloads require manual conversions without a specific process. Enhancing features related to alerting would be helpful, including mobile alerts for pipeline issues. Integration with mobile devices for error alerts would simplify information delivery.
Omar Khaled - PeerSpot reviewer
Empowering data consolidation and fast decision-making with efficient big data processing
I can improve the organization's functions by taking less time to make decisions. To make the right decision, you need the right data, and a solution can provide this by hiring talent and employees who can consolidate data from different sources and organize it. Not all solutions can make this data fast enough to be used, except for solutions such as Apache Spark Structured Streaming. To make the right decision, you should have both accurate and fast data. Apache Spark itself is similar to the Python programming language. Python is a language with many libraries for mathematics and machine learning. Apache Spark is the solution, and within it, you have PySpark, which is the API for Apache Spark to write and run Python code. Within it, there are many APIs, including SQL APIs, allowing you to write SQL code within a Python function in Apache Spark. You can also use Apache Spark Structured Streaming and machine learning APIs.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Apache NiFi is user-friendly. Its most valuable features for handling large volumes of data include its multitude of integrated endpoints and clients and the ability to create cron jobs to run tasks at regular intervals."
"The user interface is good and makes it easy to design very popular workflows."
"We can integrate the tool with other applications easily."
"The most valuable feature has been the range of clients and the range of connectors that we could use."
"The initial setup is very easy."
"The most valuable features of this solution are ease of use and implementation."
"It is highly effective for handling real-time data by working with APIs for immediate and continuous data extraction."
"The initial setup is very easy. I would rate my experience with the initial setup a ten out of ten, where one point is difficult, and ten points are easy."
"Apache Spark resolves many problems in the MapReduce solution and Hadoop, such as the inability to run effective Python or machine learning algorithms."
"The scalability has been the most valuable aspect of the solution."
"With Spark, we parallelize our operations, efficiently accessing both historical and real-time data."
"The fault tolerant feature is provided."
"The main feature that we find valuable is that it is very fast."
"DataFrame: Spark SQL gives the leverage to create applications more easily and with less coding effort."
"The product is useful for analytics."
"I appreciate everything about the solution, not just one or two specific features. The solution is highly stable. I rate it a perfect ten. The solution is highly scalable. I rate it a perfect ten. The initial setup was straightforward. I recommend using the solution. Overall, I rate the solution a perfect ten."
 

Cons

"We run many jobs, and there are already large tables. When we do not control NiFi on time, all reports fail for the day. So it's pretty slow to control, and it has to be improved."
"The use case templates could be more precise to typical business needs."
"More features must be added to the product."
"The tool should incorporate more tutorials for advanced use cases. It has tutorials for simple use cases."
"There is room for improvement in integration with SSO. For example, NiFi does not have any integration with SSO. And if I want to give some kind of rollback access control across the organization. That is not possible."
"The quality of JSON data processing could be improved, as JSON workloads require manual conversions without a specific process."
"I think the UI interface needs to be more user-friendly."
"There are some claims that NiFi is cloud-native but we have tested it, and it's not."
"From my perspective, the only thing that needs improvement is the interface, as it was not easily understandable."
"Its UI can be better. Maintaining the history server is a little cumbersome, and it should be improved. I had issues while looking at the historical tags, which sometimes created problems. You have to separately create a history server and run it. Such things can be made easier. Instead of separately installing the history server, it can be made a part of the whole setup so that whenever you set it up, it becomes available."
"The solution’s integration with other platforms should be improved."
"The initial setup was not easy."
"For improvement, I think the tool could make things easier for people who aren't very technical. There's a significant learning curve, and I've seen organizations give up because of it. Making it quicker or easier for non-technical people would be beneficial."
"Include more machine learning algorithms and the ability to handle streaming of data versus micro batch processing."
"They could improve the issues related to programming language for the platform."
"Apache Spark lacks geospatial data."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's an open-source solution."
"We use the free version of Apache NiFi."
"The solution is open-source."
"I used the tool's free version."
"Apache Spark is an expensive solution."
"Spark is an open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs."
"Apache Spark is an open-source tool."
"Apache Spark is not too cheap. You have to pay for hardware and Cloudera licenses. Of course, there is a solution with open source without Cloudera."
"I did not pay anything when using the tool on cloud services, but I had to pay on the compute side. The tool is not expensive compared with the benefits it offers. I rate the price as an eight out of ten."
"The solution is affordable and there are no additional licensing costs."
"It is an open-source solution, it is free of charge."
"Apache Spark is open-source. You have to pay only when you use any bundled product, such as Cloudera."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Retailer
9%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise32
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache NiFi?
Apache NiFi is open-source and free. Its integration with systems like Cloudera can be expensive, but Apache NiFi itself presents the best pricing as a standalone tool.
What needs improvement with Apache NiFi?
The logging system of Apache NiFi needs improvement. It is difficult to debug compared to Airflow ( /products/apache-airflow-reviews ), where task details and issues are clear. With Apache NiFi, I ...
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?
Regarding Apache Spark, I have only used Apache Spark Structured Streaming, not the machine learning components. I am uncertain about specific improvements needed today. However, after five years, ...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Macquarie Telecom Group, Dovestech, Slovak Telekom, Looker, Hastings Group
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 Apache NiFi vs. Apache Spark and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
871,358 professionals have used our research since 2012.