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Azure Databricks vs Databricks comparison

 

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

Azure Databricks
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
20th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
3.7
Number of Reviews
3
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
93
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (6th), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (5th), Streaming Analytics (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

VishnuReddy2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consulting Enterprise Architect at R2V2.ai
Unified data platform has supported real-time analytics and advanced machine learning workflows
The real-time processing with Azure Databricks is supported through integration from external systems, for which we have to go with tools such as Matillion's HVR or Kafka. I have experience using HVR, high-volume replication. You get real-time data replicated into Azure Databricks using these tools. When looking for performance metrics in Azure Databricks, it depends on the processing. It can process millions of records quickly, and it is driven by the Spark framework, which is pretty strong in terms of framework perspective. The columnar database is another strong feature which helps enhance its performance. Prior to the introduction of Unity Catalog, there was no metadata capability in Azure Databricks. It was very simplistic, but now with the Unity Catalog introduction and Delta Sharing capabilities, Azure Databricks is at the top-notch at this point in time. In comparison, SAP BW is a little bit more mature because apart from RBAC, it gives data-level authorization, which is a little bit not that great in Azure Databricks at this point in time.
SimonRobinson - PeerSpot reviewer
Governance And Engagement Lead
Improved data governance has enabled sensitive data tracking but cost management still needs work
I believe we could improve Databricks integration with cloud service providers. The impact of our current integration has not been particularly good, and it's becoming very expensive for us. The inefficiencies in our implementation, such as not shutting down warehouses when they're not in use or reserving the right number of credits, have led to increased costs. We made several beginner mistakes, such as not taking advantage of incremental loading and running overly complicated queries all the time. We should be using ETL tools to help us instead of doing it directly in Databricks. We need more experienced professionals to manage Databricks effectively, as it's not as forgiving as other platforms such as Snowflake. I think introducing customer repositories would facilitate easier implementation with Databricks.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Regarding the learning curve, it is a good technology; it is the first time I am working on a cloud platform, and before that, I have not worked on any data engineering tool that is on cloud, so it is good learning."
"The best features in Azure Databricks for me are that it's easy to use, flexible, and has fast processing, and you can use multiple data types."
"Azure Databricks gives the capability to handle a lot of big data use cases and machine learning use cases, but machine learning use cases need quite a lot of compute power, and that is where the cost spikes up."
"The solution's features are fantastic and include interactive clusters that perform at top speed when compared to other solutions."
"The solution's features are fantastic and include interactive clusters that perform at top speed when compared to other solutions."
"The solution is built from Spark and has integration with MLflow, which is important for our use case."
"Compared to other companies, they offer great support to their clients."
"This solution offers a lake house data concept that we have found exciting, as we are able to have a large amount of data in a data lake and can manage all relational activities, with all asset complaints properties available to ensure the quality of all data."
"You can spin up an Azure Databricks clustered, and integrating with it is seamless."
"The technical support is good."
"I don't think you can find any other tool or any other service that is faster than Databricks."
 

Cons

"At this point, I cannot comment on the cost being ideal; it is on the higher side, but in the cloud-based environment, compared to on-premise, it could be far lesser in cost."
"I have given the product a rating of six out of ten just because I do not use all of the functionalities, and I see some direction for improvement as well; also, every product has something to improve, and I have not used many features in this product."
"A lot of people are required to manage this solution."
"The solution has some scalability and integration limitations when consolidating legacy systems."
"There should be better integration with other platforms."
"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."
"I would like to see more documentation in terms of how an end-user could use it, and users like me can easily try it and implement use cases."
"Databricks would benefit from enhanced metrics and tighter integration with Azure's diagnostics."
"Anyone who doesn't know SQL may find the product difficult to work with."
"The ability to customize our own pipelines would enhance the product, similar to what's possible using ML files in Microsoft Azure DevOps."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Whenever we want to find the actual costing, we have to send an email to Databricks, so having the information available on the internet would be helpful."
"I'm not involved in the financing, but I can say that the solution seemed reasonably priced compared to the competitors. Similar products are usually in the same price range. With five being affordable and one being expensive, I would rate Databricks a four out of five."
"The product pricing is moderate."
"Databricks is a very expensive solution. Pricing is an area that could definitely be improved. They could provide a lower end compute and probably reduce the price."
"I rate the price of Databricks as eight out of ten."
"Price-wise, I would rate Databricks a three out of five."
"We have only incurred the cost of our AWS cloud services. This is because during this period, Databricks provided us with an extended evaluation period, and we have not spent much money yet. We are just starting to incur costs this month, I will know more later on the full cost perspective."
"Databricks uses a price-per-use model, where you can use as much compute as you need."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise56
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Databricks?
Regarding the licensing cost of Azure Databricks, it has evolved quite a lot. The compute is the biggest cost, as with any other big data solutions. The storage cost is almost minimal or negligible...
What needs improvement with Azure Databricks?
Overall, my experience has been positive with Azure Databricks; they have many features, but there is no use case for me to use those features, such as Delta Live Tables and Genie. In my opinion, I...
What is your primary use case for Azure Databricks?
The primary use cases for me are the reportings I have to do, so I need to ingest data from the file and create reports. I do not utilize it for real-time data processing. I have not integrated Azu...
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...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Databricks vs. Databricks and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.