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Cloudera Data Platform vs Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 12, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.5
Cloudera Data Platform offers attractive ROI potential with cost savings and efficiency gains, though initial project costs can vary.
Sentiment score
5.5
Measuring ROI from Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop is complex due to diverse applications, pricing, and evaluation difficulties.
A specific example of the positive impact of Cloudera Data Platform is the clearly saved time and improved performance, which is the main result of it.
In terms of return on investment, I see great changes in operational effectiveness measured by RTO when comparing on-premises solutions with cloud solutions.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
Cloudera Data Platform support is generally helpful yet mixed, with some noting slow responses and others praising detailed assistance.
Sentiment score
6.5
Cloudera's Hadoop support receives mixed reviews, with users praising responsiveness while noting concerns on quality and accessibility.
Having a common chat channel between firms and service providers would make communication faster and more efficient.
Cloudera support is timely and responsive, adhering to the SLAs they provide.
I have communicated with technical support, and they are responsive and helpful.
The technical support is quite good and better than IBM.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
Cloudera Data Platform offers robust scalability, efficient data handling, and strong support despite some upgrade challenges and scaling limitations.
Sentiment score
7.7
Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop is highly scalable and flexible, suitable for large deployments but can be costly to expand.
CDP allows for easy, mostly automated scalability where I can schedule job workflows, fine-tune system resource metrics, and add nodes with just a click.
Integration with other tools works well for us and we successfully scaled the solution after two to three years without any issues.
For scalability, I rate Cloudera Data Platform at an eight out of ten as it is an on-premise solution.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
Cloudera Data Platform is generally stable with occasional issues, often rated positively for reliability and improved through updates.
Sentiment score
7.3
Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop has mixed stability reviews, with hardware issues noted, but support and workarounds are available.
Sometimes a node goes down, but it automatically returns to a healthy state.
Cloudera Data Platform is stable functionality-wise, but it needs some bug fixes for security.
We faced challenges but overcame those challenges successfully.
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek improvements in Cloudera's UI, security, multi-tenancy, automation, cloud integration, cost, and community support.
Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop struggles with stability and integration, needing better performance, security, documentation, and modern deployment solutions.
We aim to address these issues with a Kubernetes-based platform that will simplify the task of upgrading services.
Cloudera Data Platform should include additional capabilities and features similar to those offered by other data management solutions like Azure and Databricks.
Databricks, which are more flexible and in tune with current trends in AI and machine learning.
Integrating with Active Directory, managing security, and configuration are the main concerns.
 

Setup Cost

Cloudera is affordable due to node-based pricing and discounts, despite complexities, and is cheaper than Oracle for big data.
Cloudera's Hadoop distribution is costly, aimed at large enterprises, lacking a community version, with per-node licensing.
Initially, CDH had a straightforward pricing model based on nodes, but CDP includes factors like processors, cores, terabytes, and drives, making it difficult to calculate costs.
We find Cloudera Data Platform to be cost-effective.
It can be deployed on-premises, unlike competitors' cloud-only solutions.
 

Valuable Features

Cloudera Data Platform offers scalable, secure big data solutions with efficient management, integration, and open-source flexibility for cost-effective performance.
Cloudera for Hadoop offers easy installation, robust security, tool integration, scalability, and supports on-premises and cloud environments.
What stands out the most in Cloudera Manager are SDX, which provide centralized control for governance, security, and data lineage across multiple sources.
Cloudera Data Platform has positively impacted our organization by reducing overall manual intervention, requiring fewer efforts and resources to build a big data cluster compared to traditional methods.
The Ranger integration makes it more flexible and reliable for me by allowing control over data access, specifying who can access at what level, such as table level, masking, or data layer level.
This is the only solution that is possible to install on-premise.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cloudera Data Platform
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) (10th), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (4th)
Cloudera Distribution for H...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
51
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (1st), NoSQL Databases (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cloudera Data Platform and Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cloudera Data Platform is designed for Data Management Platforms (DMP) and holds a mindshare of 6.2%.
Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop, on the other hand, focuses on Hadoop, holds 21.9% mindshare, down 26.4% since last year.
Data Management Platforms (DMP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cloudera Data Platform6.2%
Palantir Foundry25.2%
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)14.1%
Other54.5%
Data Management Platforms (DMP)
Hadoop Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop21.9%
Apache Spark19.0%
HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric14.4%
Other44.7%
Hadoop
 

Featured Reviews

Miodrag-Stanic - PeerSpot reviewer
Distributed computing improves data processing while upgrade complexity needs addressing
There are challenges with upgrading or updating various services like Spark, Impala, and Hive on on-premise and bare metal solutions. We aim to address these issues with a Kubernetes-based platform that will simplify the task of upgrading services. We also wish to implement lakehouse capabilities with Iceberg or Delta Lake frameworks.
Rok Dolinsek - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Performing Arts
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Transportation Company
7%
Educational Organization
19%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise22
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise31
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Hortonworks Data Platform?
Distributed computing, secure containerization, and governance capabilities are the most valuable features.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hortonworks Data Platform?
I have not been involved overall in cost negotiation, but we find Cloudera Data Platform to be cost-effective. We work with the Cloudera vendor to secure one or two-year licenses upfront for discou...
What needs improvement with Hortonworks Data Platform?
Cloudera Data Platform can be improved by addressing the feasibility of using it in the cloud; there are some complexities around the components used in cloud by Cloudera Data Platform that are not...
What do you like most about Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?
The tool can be deployed using different container technologies, which makes it very scalable.
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.
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.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
37signals, Adconion,adgooroo, Aggregate Knowledge, AMD, Apollo Group, Blackberry, Box, BT, CSC
Find out what your peers are saying about Palantir, Informatica, Cohesity and others in Data Management Platforms (DMP). Updated: September 2025.
872,019 professionals have used our research since 2012.