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Databricks vs Microsoft Analytics Platform System 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

Databricks
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (9th), Data Science Platforms (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (5th), Streaming Analytics (1st)
Microsoft Analytics Platfor...
Average Rating
6.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (19th)
 

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.
MahmoudMohamed1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Data Engineer at Tatweer Educational Technologies Company - TETCO
Offers smooth data integration between systems, but requires better real-time analytics capabilities
We leverage its capabilities for many applications. We can integrate with our databases, like Oracle, MySQL, or any other, using Microsoft Integration Services. This lets us continue using private databases without paying additional licensing fees. Additionally, the license includes Analytics services and Power BI, which work on-premises, unlike most other technologies that require cloud solutions.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Databricks has a Unified Catalog that assists with secured access and governance."
"Databricks helps crunch petabytes of data in a very short period of time."
"The solution is easy to use and has a quick start-up time due to being on the cloud."
"Databricks is a robust solution for big data processing, offering flexibility and powerful features."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the hardware and the resources it quickly provides without much hassle."
"It's great technology."
"I would rate them ten out of ten."
"Databricks' most valuable feature is the data transformation through PySpark."
"Helps our customers to discover trends, which provides useful information based on their business."
"It is closely integrated with other products in the MS portfolio."
"I like that it's integrated with other Azure products."
"Microsoft Analytics Platform System's most valuable feature is its ecosystems and seamless integration with other Microsoft reporting platforms and databases."
"This is a well-integrated solution and that integration empowers results."
"The Cube Solution is quite different when compared to the rest of the competition and has unique functionality for advanced analytics."
"This solution will connect to any database, you can combine databases, and you can create a cube or tabular model."
"We leverage its capabilities for many applications. We can integrate with our databases, like Oracle, MySQL, or any other, using Microsoft Integration Services."
 

Cons

"The tool should improve its integration with other products."
"As a data engineer, I see cluster failure in our Databricks user databases as a major issue."
"The query plan is not easy with Databrick's job level. If I want to tune any of the code, it is not easily available in the blogs as well."
"In my opinion, areas of Databricks that have room for improvement involve the dashboards. Until recently, everyone used third-party systems such as Power BI to connect to Databricks for dashboards and reports, but they're now coming up with their IBI dashboard, and I think they're on the right track to improve that even further."
"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."
"They release patches that sometimes break our code. These patches are supposed to fix issues, but sometimes they cause disruptions."
"In the future, I would like to see Data Lake support. That is something that I'm looking forward to."
"The integration features could be more interesting, more involved."
"​Hybrid environments are complex to manage."
"I think the biggest problem with the product is that it does a data ingest model, which is very expensive."
"Releases of new products and functionality is never accompanied by associated documentation, training and resources that adequately explain the release."
"Functionality needs to be more up-to-date with competing products."
"We need better real-time analytics capabilities. It's a bit challenging for us."
"The pricing model needs to be improved."
"Machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities need to be more friendly for beginning users."
"Microsoft Analytics Platform System could have better support."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is a good value for batch processing and huge workloads."
"The pricing depends on the usage itself."
"We're charged on what the data throughput is and also what the compute time is."
"The cost is around $600,000 for 50 users."
"The solution is affordable."
"The price is okay. It's competitive."
"The price of Databricks is reasonable compared to other solutions."
"We implement this solution on behalf of our customers who have their own Azure subscription and they pay for Databricks themselves. The pricing is more expensive if you have large volumes of data."
"The initial price is lower than Oracle, but extensive use of SQL may lead to a higher total cost of ownership."
"Users have to pay extra for premium-level technical support."
"We are currently paying $200,000 a year for all the different parts of the suite during an ingest model Microsoft now charges us $700,000 a year."
"I rate Microsoft Analytics Platform System a seven out of ten for pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise56
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Large Enterprise7
 

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...
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Also Known As

Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash
Microsoft APS, MS Analytics Platform System
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware
Transport for London, E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co. KG, Prometeia, Tangerine, SSM Health Care, Service Corporation International
Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks vs. Microsoft Analytics Platform System and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.