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Databricks vs MathWorks Matlab comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

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

Databricks
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
94
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (4th), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (3rd), Streaming Analytics (1st)
MathWorks Matlab
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
16th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of Databricks is 6.8%, down from 14.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MathWorks Matlab is 1.8%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Science Platforms Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Databricks6.8%
MathWorks Matlab1.8%
Other91.4%
Data Science Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

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.
RB
Business Owner at SASS GmbH
Versatile system empowers users with advanced algorithm development and seamless integration capabilities
The application is pretty good, and I don't really complain. For my purposes, MathWorks Matlab is perfect because it's very versatile; it is not out-of-the-box of course, and you have to program everything yourself. If you are experienced enough, you can do many things which other programs, for instance, SPSS, cannot do, as you need to program it—it's a fourth-generation programming language. In the future of MathWorks Matlab, I would appreciate the addition of many AI features, as there are a lot of machine learning capabilities and many AI features in the visual scene, although I don't need those because I use this feature data and don't work on pictures or images. However, you can work on images and can then do deep learning and that stuff, which is one of the real strengths of MathWorks Matlab.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like how easy it is to share your notebook with others. You can give people permission to read or edit. I think that's a great feature. You can also pull in code from GitHub pretty easily. I didn't use it that often, but I think that's a cool feature."
"We have the ability to scale, collaborate and do machine learning."
"Databricks has a scalable Spark cluster creation process, and the creators of Databricks are also the creators of Spark, and they are the industry leaders in terms of performance."
"Data is open to everyone; they can access it through many channels, including notebooks or SQL."
"It offers AI functionalities that assist with code management and machine learning processes."
"The main features of the solution are efficiency."
"The features of Databricks have impacted my organization positively, as it has done so very efficiently since we switched from several platforms to using this one."
"We chose Databricks because the processing power was better and it was a better fit for our use case."
"The tool's most valuable feature is the Simulink environment. This feature provides an incredible capability to visually represent the system behavior before creating the code. It allows you to see the flow and interactions of the system, which is extremely beneficial for software development. With this visual representation, you can better understand the system's behavior, make necessary adjustments, and ensure maintenance and updates. This capability is why I love working with the product."
"This solution is pretty good, I truly enjoy it."
"The platform's most valuable feature is its field-specific packages, which make it very easy to use."
"What I appreciate about MathWorks Matlab is that it is the most versatile program system I know; there are so many toolboxes which I don't need, as I mostly work with statistics, but it's amazing how many functions there are."
"Personally for me, because I do a lot of development, I like that it is easy to test mathematical algorithms with several matrix calculations. It's perfect for that."
"Making digital twins saves significant time; checking something in simulation is more cost-effective—for instance, with marine engines, we typically need about 10 years of checking to find misfires, but with MathWorks Matlab, we can complete it in one month."
 

Cons

"Doesn't provide a lot of credits or trial options."
"There would also be benefits if more options were available for workers, or the clusters of the two points."
"The initial setup is difficult."
"Databricks' technical support takes a while to respond and could be improved."
"I present a lot of projects in various forums and seminars and there aren't a lot of credits and trial options with Databricks. Even if we want to explore, we're not able to and that's a challenge."
"The solution is expensive. It's not like a lot of competitors, which are open-source."
"The solution could be improved by integrating it with data packets."
"The data visualization for this solution could be improved. They have started to roll out a data visualization tool inside Databricks but it is in the early stages. It's not comparable to a solution like Power BI, Luca, or Tableau."
"To make use of the GPU, you have to have an Nvidia card. What I would want it to do is to run in Next Generation with Intel or AMD, and not just with Nvidia."
"One area where the product could improve is in the ease of learning."
"It is not out-of-the-box of course, and you have to program everything yourself."
"In the area of improvement, sometimes there are issues with the speed of MathWorks Matlab, particularly in the Simulink environment. The tool's latest versions can be slow to open, taking significant time to load. Additionally, saving data and integrating models can also be time-consuming processes."
"To make use of the GPU, you have to have an Nvidia card."
"The cost is a significant concern; while university pricing is reasonable, a cheaper version with fewer libraries would be beneficial."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing costs of Databricks depend on how many licenses we need, depending on which Databricks provides a lot of discounts."
"Price-wise, I would rate Databricks a three out of five."
"The solution requires a subscription."
"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."
"I would rate the tool’s pricing an eight out of ten."
"We're charged on what the data throughput is and also what the compute time is."
"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."
"The cost for Databricks depends on the use case. I work on it as a consultant, so I'm using the client's Databricks, so it depends on how big the client is."
"The pricing for the software itself is reasonable, and I didn't encounter any additional costs beyond the initial purchase or license."
"We have a single user license. Support and add-ons are an extra fee."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
6%
Healthcare Company
6%
Construction Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise60
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MathWorks Matlab?
Regarding the pricing part and licensing cost for MathWorks Matlab, it is not cheap, but it depends on the functions you need. You don't need all of them; you may just require a few and then it's r...
What needs improvement with MathWorks Matlab?
The application is pretty good, and I don't really complain. For my purposes, MathWorks Matlab is perfect because it's very versatile; it is not out-of-the-box of course, and you have to program ev...
What is your primary use case for MathWorks Matlab?
I am working with MathWorks Matlab for statistics and machine learning, though I don't know which version I have, but I guess it is 21 or so. I don't care because the things I'm doing haven't chang...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks vs. MathWorks Matlab and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.