We performed a comparison between Databricks and Microsoft BI based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Databricks is the winner in this comparison. It is robust, high performing, and received good feedback for its speed.
"The most valuable feature of Databricks is the notebook, data factory, and ease of use."
"Databricks is a unified solution that we can use for streaming. It is supporting open source languages, which are cloud-agnostic. When I do database coding if any other tool has a similar language pack to Excel or SQL, I can use the same knowledge, limiting the need to learn new things. It supports a lot of Python libraries where I can use some very easily."
"A very valuable feature is the data processing, and the solution is specifically good at using the Spark ecosystem."
"Databricks integrates well with other solutions."
"What I like about Databricks is that it's one of the most popular platforms that give access to folks who are trying not just to do exploratory work on the data but also go ahead and build advanced modeling and machine learning on top of that."
"Databricks gives us the ability to build a lakehouse framework and do everything implicit to this type of database structure. We also like the ability to stream events. Databricks covers a broad spectrum, from reporting and machine learning to streaming events. It's important for us to have all these features in one platform."
"The initial setup phase of Databricks was good."
"Databricks has a scalable Spark cluster creation process. The creators of Databricks are also the creators of Spark, and they are the industry leaders in terms of performance."
"It provides good visibility."
"It is useful for bringing visualization to data. It calculates counts, ratios, etc."
"The most valuable feature is definitely the visual aspect and the DAX capabilities to virtually do anything."
"The stability is great and continues to get better and better."
"The initial setup is relatively simple."
"What's most valuable in this tool is that it gives its users detailed error messages. It's a very stable data analytics tool, and it offers good scalability."
"Microsoft BI's most valuable features are the user interface, which is easy to use and light."
"We have found the product very stable and reliable."
"Databricks would benefit from enhanced metrics and tighter integration with Azure's diagnostics."
"I have had some issues with some of the Spark clusters running on Databricks, where the Spark runtime and clusters go up and down, which is an area for improvement."
"The solution has some scalability and integration limitations when consolidating legacy systems."
"The initial setup is difficult."
"Databricks may not be as easy to use as other tools, but if you simplify a tool too much, it won't have the flexibility to go in-depth. Databricks is completely in the programmer's hands. I prefer flexibility rather than simplicity."
"I would like more integration with SQL for using data in different workspaces."
"There would also be benefits if more options were available for workers, or the clusters of the two points."
"Databricks could improve in some of its functionality."
"I have a little problem with Synapse Analytics because it's very new. It's a product that has many capabilities, but it is not very well developed. I have to see the list of permissions from one object. I can't do this in Synapse. I have to search on the web for a solution because I don't have the tool for it."
"If you look at the new tool, even though they promised that you could do data modeling, that you could do everything from the Power BI side, if your data is really large in volume, sometimes it doesn't work on the Power BI. More feature testing from their side would certainly help users."
"Microsoft BI can improve some of the visual level filters or visual functionality, that are available in other BI tools, such as Tableau or Qlik Sense."
"We haven't used it that long and I haven't come across anything that's stood out as needing to be fixed."
"The performance of Microsoft BI could improve for large datasets and it would be beneficial to have more visualization features."
"I have found using Microsoft BI is not easy. For example, trying to use the auto-refresh feature is not simple."
"There is no specific area that I have a problem with. It's just that, with whatever feature you come across, every visual has its own formatting and behavior. What you get in one visual for a feature, you don't seem to get in another."
"I believe the price should be degressive, and we should have a lower, or better unit price if we have more users."
Databricks is ranked 1st in Data Science Platforms with 50 reviews while Microsoft BI is ranked 1st in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 83 reviews. Databricks is rated 8.2, while Microsoft BI is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Databricks writes "Ahead of the competition in building data ecosystems, but needs to improve ease-of-use". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft BI writes "User friendly, easy to set up and great for analyzing data". Databricks is most compared with Amazon SageMaker, Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio, Informatica PowerCenter, Dataiku Data Science Studio and Tableau, whereas Microsoft BI is most compared with Amazon QuickSight, Tableau, KNIME, Domo and Salesforce Einstein Analytics.
We monitor all Data Science Platforms reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
