Cassandra vs Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Apache and Cloudera are both solutions in the NoSQL Databases category. Apache is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.6, while Cloudera is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.5. Apache holds a 8.7% mindshare in ND, compared to Cloudera’s 6.1% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Apache users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Cloudera users who would recommend it.

Cassandra

Read 25 Cassandra reviews

5,318 Views
3,350 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Cloudera Distribution for H...

Read 51 Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop reviews

6,570 Views
2,562 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Cassandra

Cloudera Distribution for H...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 7, 2025

Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop and Cassandra compete in the data management solutions category. Cloudera seems to have the upper hand in centralized management and comprehensive data governance, compared to Cassandra's strengths in scalability and high availability.

Features: Cloudera offers features like Impala for fast data processing, Sentry for enhanced security, and Cloudera Manager for centralized administration. Cassandra provides a NoSQL schema, linear scalability, and automated replication, making it suitable for large-scale data handling and quick real-time analytics.

Room for Improvement: Cloudera faces challenges with version stability, complex setup processes, and costs due to its licensing model. Integration with Spark and improved API documentation are areas needing enhancement. Cassandra could benefit from better query optimization and user-friendly documentation. It lacks built-in aggregation functions requiring third-party tools for complex queries.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cloudera is primarily deployed on-premises but supports cloud options; customer service feedback is mixed, with some praising the support and others noting inconsistency. Cassandra offers flexible deployment across cloud and on-premises setups and receives positive feedback for its supportive community and effective forums.

Pricing and ROI: Cloudera's licensing model can be cost-prohibitive for smaller companies, though larger enterprises find value in its features despite the high costs. Cassandra, as an open-source solution, offers economical data management with lowered operational costs, making it attractive for cost-conscious enterprises seeking high ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Cassandra vs. Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cassandra vs. Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop

September 2026

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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

Cassandra

Ranking in NoSQL Databases

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vector Databases (12th)

Cloudera Distribution for H...

Ranking in NoSQL Databases

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Hadoop (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Cassandra is 8.7%, up from 8.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop is 6.1%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NoSQL Databases Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cassandra	8.7%
Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop	6.1%
Other	85.2%

NoSQL Databases

Featured Reviews

Monirul Islam Khan

Head, Data Integration & Management at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees

Has maintained secure document storage and efficient data distribution with peer-to-peer architecture

The functions or features in Cassandra that I have found most valuable are that it is a distributed system similar to Mongo. It's good enough for comparison with another SQL database, so it's smooth and organized for distributed database system. The peer-to-peer architecture in Cassandra is helpful for network decentralization, and I have already introduced that feature. Cassandra features in peer-to-peer as well as another monitoring, so basically, it's good enough for our service. The tunable consistency level in Cassandra is good, and we are using that feature already. In terms of built-in caching and lightweight transactions in Cassandra, the transaction level is good, and it's optimized, so there are no more issues in that database. Based on my experience, Cassandra is good for document management system, as well as distributed database system, and the automatic recovery process is there. Additionally, the database monitoring system or auditing system is well-comparable with other database systems, so we are actually happy to be using this Cassandra database.

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Rok Dolinsek

Manager, Bussines Development & Co Owner at Troia d.o.o.

Enables on-premise implementation with powerful data processing capabilities

This is the only solution that is possible to install on-premise. Cloudera provides a hybrid solution that combines compute on cloud or on-premises. It includes all machine learning algorithms in the Spark machine learning library. All functionalities needed for a big data platform and ETL are on the platform, eliminating the need for other tools. It is scalable, ready for vertical scaling, and very powerful, offering numerous functionalities and configurations for generative AI.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's used as our cloud based backend store as a temporary cache and for storing data that streams through our data pipe."

"The most valuable features of Cassandra are its scaling capabilities and its non-SQL nature capabilities."

"Cassandra is good, it's better than CouchDB, and we are using it in parallel with CouchDB, as Cassandra looks better and is more user-friendly."

"The time series data was one of the best features along with auto publishing."

"I am satisfied with the performance."

"A consistent solution."

"The most valuable feature for us is the technical evaluation, it's the best technology."

"I am getting much better performance than relational databases."

More Cassandra pros

"Cloudera Manager is the most valuable feature for its ease of use, features, ease of upgrade and install components."

"Implement the free version as it provides enough services."

"Cloudera really has no competition."

"It gives us the opportunity to offer more options to our clients and create better solution models."

"CDH has a wide variety of proprietary tools that we use, like Impala, and from that perspective, it's quite useful as opposed to something open-source, as we get a lot of value from Cloudera's proprietary tools."

"The solution is stable."

"Cloudera is always developing new tools and supports a wide range of tools."

"It has the best proxy, security, and support features compared to open-source products."

More Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop pros

Cons

"The secondary index in Cassandra was a bit problematic and could be improved."

"The solution is limited to a linear performance."

"Maybe they can improve their performance in data fetching from a high volume of data sets."

"Some issues arise from our vendors like Apache slowness and distribution or load balancing from HAProxy, which should better handle consumption for high-level concurrency."

"While Cassandra can handle NoSQL, I think there should be more flexibility for whole schema design when data is stored in wide columns. Additionally, I believe that eventual consistency should be enhanced."

"We have had stability issues including out of memory issues and crashes with earlier versions of the product."

"The solution doesn't have joins between tables so you need other tools for that."

"The disc space is lacking. You need to free it up as you are working."

More Cassandra cons

"The solution does not support multiple languages very well and this means users need to create work-arounds to implement some solutions."

"We found some difficulties when importing Hive tables from another cluster."

"Cloudera 5 is currently very unstable. Between two Cloudera 5 clusters, we have an incident at least twice a week due to what are now outstanding bugs."

"I would like to see an improvement in how the solution helps me to handle the whole cluster."

"Sometimes the heavy queries do not finish at all."

"Cloudera CDH5.5.x does not support SparkR."

"I had a bad experience connecting the Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop cluster to my other resources in the company, like the active directory or firewall."

"The only thing that needs improvement is the cost, it's a very expensive solution and one of the main reasons companies are not attracted to the product."

More Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay for a license."

"Cassandra is a free open source solution, but there is a commercial version available called DataStax Enterprise."

"I don't have the specific numbers on pricing, but it was fairly priced."

"I use the tool's open-source version."

"There are licensing fees that must be paid, but I'm not sure if they are paid monthly or yearly."

"We are using the open-source version of Cassandra, the solution is free."

"The product’s price depends from project to project."

"The solution is fairly expensive."

"The tool is expensive...For the SMB market or customers whose environments are not that complex and do not have multiple systems running, Cloudera might not be a good option."

"The price could be better for the product."

"Cloudera requires a license to use."

"The tool is not expensive."

"The solution is expensive."

"The price is very high. The solution is expensive."

More Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Construction Company

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

19%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	32

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cassandra?

The pricing for Cassandra is a little bit high, so it would be better for our community services if they consider community pricing for any non-profit organization like an NGO or other things. It w...

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What needs improvement with Cassandra?

Regarding areas of improvement for Cassandra, currently, we are not facing significant issues. Some issues arise from our vendors like Apache slowness and distribution or load balancing from HAProx...

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What is your primary use case for Cassandra?

My use case for Cassandra is for a document and other unstructured data management system as well as structured data for ultra-poor member community edition, community members' PII information, so ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?

The price for Cloudera is average, yet it is very good compared to other solutions. It can be deployed on-premises, unlike competitors' cloud-only solutions.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?

If they could support modifying the data more easily than the current implementation, it would be beneficial.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?

We use Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop for many use cases including analytics, storing huge data sets, and various data processing tasks.

See all answers

Comparisons

ClickHouse vs Cassandra

Compared 7% of the time

MongoDB Enterprise Advanced vs Cassandra

Compared 7% of the time

Neo4j Graph Database vs Cassandra

Compared 6% of the time

DataStax Enterprise vs Cassandra

Compared 6% of the time

ScyllaDB vs Cassandra

Compared 5% of the time

More Cassandra Competitors

Apache Spark vs Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop

Compared 8% of the time

HPE Data Fabric vs Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop

Compared 6% of the time

MongoDB Enterprise Advanced vs Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop

Compared 5% of the time

Oracle NoSQL vs Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop

Compared 5% of the time

IBM Spectrum Computing vs Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop

Compared 5% of the time

More Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cassandra

September 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop

September 2026

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Overview

Cassandra is a distributed and scalable database management system used for real-time data processing.

It is highly valued for its ability to handle large amounts of data, scalability, high availability, fault tolerance, and flexible data model.

It is commonly used in finance, e-commerce, and social media industries.

Apache

Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop provides a comprehensive platform for efficient data management and analytics, integrating advanced analytics tools with enterprise-grade security and hybrid cloud support.

Designed for handling vast datasets, Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop facilitates seamless data processing through its components such as Hive, Pig, and Spark. It supports both structured and unstructured data management with robust scalability and powerful data handling capabilities. While the latest version focuses on enhancing speed and integration, challenges remain with HBase stability and processing in Cloudera 5 clusters. Organizations leverage it for big data management tasks like data warehousing, log analytics, and real-time data processing using tools like Hadoop and Spark.

What are the key features of Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?

Cloudera Manager: An intuitive interface streamlining installation and management.
Impala Query Speed: Optimized for fast querying of large datasets.
Security: Enterprise-grade security features for robust protection.
Hybrid Cloud Support: Enhanced flexibility with hybrid cloud integration.
Data Handling Components: Includes Hive, Pig, and Spark for comprehensive data management.

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

Efficient Data Management: Optimizes both structured and unstructured data handling.
Advanced Analytics: Supports machine learning and ETL processes for improved analytics.
Scalability: Offers robust scalability for handling large datasets.
Responsive Community Support: Continuous feature enhancements and support from the community.
On-premises Deployment: Effective on-premises data management capabilities for extensive information volumes.

In industries such as finance, retail, and healthcare, Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop is implemented to enhance data-driven decision-making and operational efficiency. It aids in processing large volumes of data for analytics, data warehousing, and infrastructure building. Companies utilize it to streamline machine learning and log analytics, serving as a data lake for preprocessing substantial datasets.

Cloudera

Sample Customers

1. Apple 2. Netflix 3. Facebook 4. Instagram 5. Twitter 6. eBay 7. Spotify 8. Uber 9. Airbnb 10. Adobe 11. Cisco 12. IBM 13. Microsoft 14. Yahoo 15. Reddit 16. Pinterest 17. Salesforce 18. LinkedIn 19. Hulu 20. Airbnb 21. Walmart 22. Target 23. Sony 24. Intel 25. Cisco 26. HP 27. Oracle 28. SAP 29. GE 30. Siemens 31. Volkswagen 32. Toyota

37signals, Adconion,adgooroo, Aggregate Knowledge, AMD, Apollo Group, Blackberry, Box, BT, CSC

Buyer's Guide

Cassandra vs. Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop

September 2026

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