Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Databricks vs Saturn Cloud comparison

 

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
93
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (6th), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (5th), Streaming Analytics (1st)
Saturn Cloud
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
16th
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of Databricks is 9.3%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Saturn Cloud is 1.0%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Science Platforms Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Databricks9.3%
Saturn Cloud1.0%
Other89.7%
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.
Filip Stefanovski - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Easy to use with good performance and collaborative features
My main suggestion for improvement centers on pricing. Introducing a tier modelled after AWS spot instances would be a game-changer. Users could bid on unused compute capacity, potentially leading to significant cost savings during off-peak hours or for less time-critical tasks. Spot instances empower users with tighter budgets or fluctuating workloads to strategically leverage lower-cost resources for development, experimentation, and background tasks. This frees up on-demand instances for truly time-sensitive work.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Databricks is a scalable solution. It is the largest advantage of the solution."
"I would rate them ten out of ten."
"The solution offers a free community version."
"Automation with Databricks is very easy when using the API."
"Databricks is definitely a very stable product and reliable."
"Databricks covers end-to-end data analytics workflow in one platform, this is the best feature of the solution."
"I think Databricks is very good at facilitating AI and machine learning projects; they implement AI and machine learning models very well, and clients can run their models on Databricks."
"Databricks' Lakehouse architecture has been most useful for us. The data governance has been absolutely efficient in between other kinds of solutions."
"They provide a centralized space for data, code, and results."
"Saturn Cloud supports GPU as part of the environment, which is essential for many computational tasks in machine learning projects. It also allows us to edit the environment, including the image, before we start the cloud resources. This feature lets us quickly set up the environment without the hassle of moving the data and code to another cloud device."
"It didn't take long to see that Saturn Cloud could scale with my needs, providing more resources when required."
"There is plenty of computational resources (both GPU, CPU and disk space)."
"It offered an excellent development environment while not touching our production cloud resources."
"The feature I like the most about Saturn Cloud is that it has lightning-fast CPUs."
 

Cons

"The product could be improved regarding the delay when switching to higher-performing virtual machines compared to other platforms."
"I would like more integration with SQL for using data in different workspaces."
"It would be very helpful if Databricks could integrate with platforms in addition to Azure."
"Cluster failure is one of the biggest weaknesses I notice in our Databricks."
"It's not easy to use, and they need a better UI."
"The solution could be improved by integrating it with data packets. Right now, the load tables provide a function, like team collaboration. Still, it's unclear as to if there's a function to create different branches and/or more branches. Our team had used data packets before, however, I feel it's difficult to integrate the current with the previous data packets."
"Overall it's a good product, however, it doesn't do well against any individual best-of-breed products."
"Databricks requires writing code in Python or SQL, so if you're a good programmer then you can use Databricks."
"Providing more detailed and beginner-friendly documentation, especially for advanced features, could greatly enhance the user experience."
"It would be nice to have more hardware category options, like TPU coprocessors or ARM64 CPUs."
"Public Clouds integration and sandbox environments would be a true game changer."
"Saturn Cloud should include prebuilt images for advanced data science packages like LightGBM in the next release. If possible, they should also provide a Kaggle image, which contains the most common Python packages used in machine learning."
"We'd like to have the capability for installing more libraries."
"My main suggestion for improvement centers on pricing. Introducing a tier modelled after AWS spot instances would be a game-changer."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay as we go, so there isn't a fixed price. It's charged by the unit. I don't have any details detail about how they measure this, but it should be a mix between processing and quantity of data handled. We run a simulation based on our use cases, which gives us an estimate. We've been monitoring this, and the costs have met our expectations."
"The solution uses a pay-per-use model with an annual subscription fee or package. Typically this solution is used on a cloud platform, such as Azure or AWS, but more people are choosing Azure because the price is more reasonable."
"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."
"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."
"Databricks is a very expensive solution. Pricing is an area that could definitely be improved. They could provide a lower end compute and probably reduce the price."
"I do not exactly know the costs, but one of our clients pays between $100 USD and $200 USD monthly."
"The basic version of this solution is now open-source, so there are no license costs involved. However, there is a charge for any advanced functionality and this can be quite expensive."
"Databricks' cost could be improved."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Science Platforms solutions are best for your needs.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise56
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise3
 

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 do you like most about Saturn Cloud?
There is plenty of computational resources (both GPU, CPU and disk space).
What needs improvement with Saturn Cloud?
My main suggestion for improvement centers on pricing. Introducing a tier modelled after AWS spot instances would be a game-changer. Users could bid on unused compute capacity, potentially leading ...
What is your primary use case for Saturn Cloud?
I'm leveraging a cloud-based platform for competitive machine learning. Tight deadlines and resource-intensive models demand powerful hardware. The cloud provides scalable GPUs and RAM, letting me ...
 

Comparisons

 

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
Nvidia, Snowflake, Kaggle, Faeth, Advantest, Stanford University, Senseye and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks vs. Saturn Cloud and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.