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H2O.ai vs Starburst Galaxy 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

H2O.ai
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
18th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Model Monitoring (4th)
Starburst Galaxy
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
9th
Average Rating
9.8
Reviews Sentiment
1.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Streaming Analytics (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of H2O.ai is 1.7%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Starburst Galaxy is 0.8%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Science Platforms Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Starburst Galaxy0.8%
H2O.ai1.7%
Other97.5%
Data Science Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Abhay Vyas - PeerSpot reviewer
Advanced model selection and time efficiency meet needs but documentation and fusion model support are needed
Even though H2O.ai provides the best model, there could be improvements in certain areas. For instance, when you want to work with fusion models, H2O.ai doesn't provide that kind of information. Currently, it provides individual models as outcomes. If it could offer combinations of models, such as suggesting using XGBoost along with SVM for wonderful results, that fusion model concept would be a good option for developers. I hope the fusion model concept will be implemented soon in H2O.ai. Regarding documentation, I faced challenges as I didn't see much information from a documentation perspective. When I was trying to learn how to train and test H2O.ai, there was limited documentation available. If they could improve in that area, it would be really beneficial.
Stephen-Howard - PeerSpot reviewer
Federated querying delivers integrated data at record speed and reduces processing time
The biggest win has been the ability to combine data from multiple sources and deliver it to the business at record speed. This capability has allowed us to query directly through Starburst Galaxy, enabling teams to access integrated data that would otherwise be hard to pull together. This has reduced both our ETL processing time and storage costs. We are answering questions that would have been hard, if not impossible, to answer previously because the data came from disparate, disconnected sources.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are the machine learning tools, the support for Jupyter Notebooks, and the collaboration that allows you to share it across people."
"I have utilized the AutoML feature in H2O.ai, which is one of the very powerful features where you don't need to worry about which algorithm is best for your model."
"It is helpful, intuitive, and easy to use. The learning curve is not too steep."
"The most valuable feature of H2O.ai is that it is plug-and-play."
"AutoML helps in hands-free initial evaluations of efficiency/accuracy of ML algorithms."
"The ease of use in connecting to our cluster machines."
"One of the most interesting features of the product is their driverless component. The driverless component allows you to test several different algorithms along with navigating you through choosing the best algorithm."
"Fast training, memory-efficient DataFrame manipulation, well-documented, easy-to-use algorithms, ability to integrate with enterprise Java apps (through POJO/MOJO) are the main reasons why we switched from Spark to H2O."
"Starburst Galaxy serves as our primary SQL-based data processing engine, a strategic decision driven by its seamless integration with our AWS cloud infrastructure and its ability to deliver high performance with low-latency responses."
"The most fundamental feature is the query engine, which is much faster than any of the competitors; Starburst is able to finish most queries within 10 seconds, which is especially important for many non-technical employees."
"Starburst Galaxy is becoming a cornerstone of our data platform, empowering us to make smarter and faster decisions across the organization."
"Starburst has provided us with virtually guaranteed performance on complex queries across datasets that are in the tens of gigabytes which complete in seconds."
"Starburst has provided us with virtually guaranteed performance on complex queries across datasets that are in the tens of gigabytes which complete in seconds."
"Starburst Galaxy has improved our organization by unifying access to all major data sources, reducing the need for complex ETL processes."
"Starburst on Trino, combined with our SQL-native data transformation tool SQLMesh, has delivered anywhere from a two to five times improvement in compute performance across our transformation DAG."
"Starburst Galaxy has improved our organization by unifying access to all major data sources, reducing the need for complex ETL processes."
 

Cons

"One improvement I would like to see in H2O.ai is regarding the integration capabilities with different data sources, as I've seen platforms like DataIQ and DataBricks offer great integration with various data sources."
"The model management features could be improved."
"I would like to see more features related to deployment."
"The interpretability module has room for improvement. Also, it needs to improve its ability to integrate with other systems, like SageMaker, and the overall integration capability."
"On the topic of model training and model governance, this solution cannot handle ten or twelve models running at the same time."
"It lacks the data manipulation capabilities of R and Pandas DataFrames. We would kill for dplyr offloading H2O."
"Referring to bullet-3 as well, H2O DataFrame manipulation capabilities are too primitive."
"It needs a drag and drop GUI like KNIME, for easy access to and visibility of workflows."
"I would like Starburst to leverage AI to improve usability. Data lakes are complicated and difficult for users to explore."
"Multi-tenancy could be improved. In order to have multiple environments for SSO, we maintain multiple tenants that are connected to different AWS accounts via the Marketplace."
"Cluster startup time can be slow, sometimes taking over a minute."
"Cluster startup time is another pain point, typically 3 to 5 minutes, which is not the worst with proper planning but can be annoying for ad-hoc work."
"The most persistent issue is the cluster spin-up time."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have seen significant ROI where we were able to use the product in certain key projects and could automate a lot of processes. We were even able to reduce staff."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
8%
Consumer Goods Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with H2O.ai?
Even though H2O.ai provides the best model, there could be improvements in certain areas. For instance, when you want to work with fusion models, H2O.ai doesn't provide that kind of information. Cu...
What is your primary use case for H2O.ai?
I used H2O.ai on several POCs for my previous company, and it helped me find the best model. I needed to determine which model was performing better for job portal data. At that time, H2O.ai was ev...
What advice do you have for others considering H2O.ai?
For larger datasets, model computation or model training and testing typically takes considerable time because with individual models, you need to train and test each one. With H2O.ai, these concer...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Starburst Galaxy?
You pay for cluster uptime. It is important to be aggressive about autoscaling, as a single worker will get you a long way. I recommend never connecting a BI tool to your Galaxy cluster. Instead, w...
What needs improvement with Starburst Galaxy?
As a hosted option, I wish I had more control over the cluster configuration, specifically regarding some of the more advanced options. Trino is extremely flexible and powerful, but some of this fu...
What is your primary use case for Starburst Galaxy?
I use Starburst as a cost-efficient hosted option for Trino for data integration and ad-hoc analysis across a broad range of data sources. It is surprisingly useful to query SQL Server, a Google Sh...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

poder.io, Stanley Black & Decker, G5, PWC, Comcast, Cisco
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Find out what your peers are saying about H2O.ai vs. Starburst Galaxy and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.