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Apache Spark vs Oracle Application Development Framework comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Spark
Ranking in Java Frameworks
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (1st), Compute Service (6th)
Oracle Application Developm...
Ranking in Java Frameworks
8th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Java Frameworks category, the mindshare of Apache Spark is 11.9%, up from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Application Development Framework is 7.0%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Java Frameworks Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Apache Spark11.9%
Oracle Application Development Framework7.0%
Other81.1%
Java Frameworks
 

Featured Reviews

Devindra Weerasooriya - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect at Devtech
Provides a consistent framework for building data integration and access solutions with reliable performance
The in-memory computation feature is certainly helpful for my processing tasks. It is helpful because while using structures that could be held in memory rather than stored during the period of computation, I go for the in-memory option, though there are limitations related to holding it in memory that need to be addressed, but I have a preference for in-memory computation. The solution is beneficial in that it provides a base-level long-held understanding of the framework that is not variant day by day, which is very helpful in my prototyping activity as an architect trying to assess Apache Spark, Great Expectations, and Vault-based solutions versus those proposed by clients like TIBCO or Informatica.
Asad Ur Rehman - PeerSpot reviewer
ERP Manager | Implementation Head at Tharsol
Eases the writing of code in Java with JavaBeans; easy to set up
My advice to anyone who intends to use ADF for the first time is that you must make sure that you have powerful enough hardware in order to run everything smoothly, especially when it comes to JDeveloper. If your hardware is adequate, you can get by without a problem in terms of speed, but be advised that it can use a lot of resources. However, even though ADF is a good product with great scalability that has really helped me out in hard times since 2014, I would ultimately recommend that new users look toward Oracle APEX instead of ADF. I would rate Oracle Application Development Framework a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution provides a clear and convenient syntax for our analytical tasks."
"With Spark SQL we've now the capabilities to analyse very large quantities of data located in S3 on Amazon at very low cost comparing other solution we checked."
"Spark replaced other costly products, reducing costs by thirty-eight percent."
"Machine learning, real time streaming, and data processing are fantastic, as well as the resilient or fault tolerant feature."
"Now, when we're tackling sentiment analysis using NLP technologies, we deal with unstructured data—customer chats, feedback on promotions or demos, and even media like images, audio, and video files. For processing such data, we rely on PySpark. Beneath the surface, Spark functions as a compute engine with in-memory processing capabilities, enhancing performance through features like broadcasting and caching. It's become a crucial tool, widely adopted by 90% of companies for a decade or more."
"Apache Spark provides a very high-quality implementation of distributed data processing."
"Apache Spark is known for its ease of use. Compared to other available data processing frameworks, it is user-friendly."
"Spark is relatively easy to deploy, with rich features in handling big data."
"The single sign-on features applied to Oracle Cloud is a valuable feature."
"It's database-centric, and it's seemingly easy to use the model–view–controller pattern that's built-in."
"There are several valuable features. First is the fast deployment. Also the ease of use."
"The single sign-on features applied to Oracle Cloud is a valuable feature. All parts of this application are compatible with single sign-on, where you have a security feature that is very good in Oracle Cloud."
"Oracle support is great, one of the best that I've seen."
"The most valuable feature of the Oracle Application Development Framework is the rapid development and the security it provides."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the business components."
"The power of Oracle ADF is in the business components."
 

Cons

"Although you are able to perform complex transformations using Spark libraries, the support for SQL to perform transformations is still limited."
"At times during the deployment process, the tool goes down, making it look less robust. To take care of the issues in the deployment process, users need to do manual interventions occasionally."
"Dynamic DataFrame options are not yet available."
"If you have a Spark session in the background, sometimes it's very hard to kill these sessions because of D allocation."
"At times when users do not know how to use Spark and request a lot of resources, then the underlying JVMs can crash, which is a big sense of worry."
"The Spark solution could improve in scheduling tasks and managing dependencies."
"The main problem is, now in the market, there are not many people certified in Apache Spark."
"The product could improve the user interface and make it easier for new users."
"You need to have Oracle ADF on-premises to build a big project. You need to have a dependable front-end application."
"I use JDeveloper along with ADF and, unfortunately, JDeveloper is a very slow tool. It takes a lot of time to accomplish things with it during both development and deployment. I hope that Oracle will improve JDeveloper to make it run faster."
"The application needs to be more lightweight and the performance improved."
"The model layer could be improved for performance because once that part gets bloated, the performance is lacking. So, there is room for performance optimization."
"Oracle Application Development Framework has some minor drawbacks, especially in rendering with pages and bugs in business components. It's not a typical framework, it's a very heavy framework."
"The performance of this solution needs to be improved because it is very slow."
"The UI is very slow and not up to market standard."
"We have some problems with Oracle relative to third parties. Like in one project, there were some loopholes for hackers to penetrate through our main application."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an open-source platform. We do not pay for its subscription."
"Licensing costs can vary. For instance, when purchasing a virtual machine, you're asked if you want to take advantage of the hybrid benefit or if you prefer the license costs to be included upfront by the cloud service provider, such as Azure. If you choose the hybrid benefit, it indicates you already possess a license for the operating system and wish to avoid additional charges for that specific VM in Azure. This approach allows for a reduction in licensing costs, charging only for the service and associated resources."
"Apache Spark is an expensive solution."
"Spark is an open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs."
"Apache Spark is open-source. You have to pay only when you use any bundled product, such as Cloudera."
"We are using the free version of the solution."
"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."
"Apache Spark is an open-source solution, and there is no cost involved in deploying the solution on-premises."
"The cost of this solution is approximately $47,000 USD per site."
"We have yearly licensing costs."
"Oracle ADF is an expensive product. I don't know the actual figures, but our licensing costs for the year 2020, for example, were very high."
"The solution has an annual licensing cost and there are only standard fees. If you want Oracle support this is charged extra on top of the licensing fees."
"We use a lot of Oracle products and in total, we pay about £5 million ($6.1 million USD) per year."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise33
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

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?
I find that there really lacks the technical depth to do any recommendations for future updates of Apache Spark. I used it for two years for our prototype work and testing things, but because I had...
What is your primary use case for Apache Spark?
I attempted to use Apache Spark in one of our customer projects, but after the initial test, our customer moved to another technology and another database system. I do not have any final remarks on...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

No data available
Oracle ADF
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NASA JPL, UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, UC Santa Cruz, TripAdvisor, Taboola, Agile Lab, Art.com, Baidu, Alibaba Taobao, EURECOM, Hitachi Solutions
Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) of Egypt, Red Samurai, ChB Jelly House
Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Spark vs. Oracle Application Development Framework and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.