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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
15th
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
10th
Average Rating
9.8
Reviews Sentiment
1.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Streaming Analytics (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of H2O.ai is 1.9%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Starburst Galaxy is 1.0%, up 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 Galaxy1.0%
H2O.ai1.9%
Other97.1%
Data Science Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

MA
Senior Manager - AI at Shamal Holding
Have improved machine learning model automation and reduced decision-making time
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. H2O.ai could benefit from enhanced integration with real-time versus offline data sources, as well as improvements in productionalization solutions, including better deployment options on platforms like Azure and CI/CD integration. One of the features I'd like to see included in upcoming releases of H2O.ai pertains to the growing trend of Generative AI, with applications for LLM-based models and vector databases. I would like to see a solution similar to Azure AI Foundry, which provides the flexibility to integrate different LLMs into applications, including H2O-GPT and other models for varied applications.
reviewer2750097 - PeerSpot reviewer
VP, Business Intelligence at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees
Unified data access improves analytics and simplifies complex processes
I would like to see better alerting integrations for failures and errors in scheduled tasks and maintenance jobs. I also want support for more connectors such as Kinesis and Firehose, support for more file types such as Avro and JSON, and object storage message queue integration for object storage integrations. A single view of query execution and optimization details, rather than needing to toggle between the Galaxy and Trino UI, would be helpful. Additionally, enhanced control over account and environment variables that would be available in the Enterprise edition would be beneficial.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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."
"AutoML helps in hands-free initial evaluations of efficiency/accuracy of ML algorithms."
"The ease of use in connecting to our cluster machines."
"It is helpful, intuitive, and easy to use. The learning curve is not too steep."
"H2O.ai provides better flexibility where I could examine more models and obtain results, and based on these results, I could make the next set of decisions."
"The most valuable feature of H2O.ai is that it is plug-and-play."
"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."
"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 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 significantly improved our data architecture flexibility and performance management by solving cross-database query challenges and enabling us to utilize iceberg tables externally across our entire data ecosystem."
"Starburst Galaxy has improved our organization by unifying access to all major data sources, reducing the need for complex ETL processes."
"I am now able to answer questions in a couple of minutes that would otherwise take hours or days of time for my data engineering teams."
"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 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 is becoming a cornerstone of our data platform, empowering us to make smarter and faster decisions across the organization."
 

Cons

"The model management features could be improved."
"It lacks the data manipulation capabilities of R and Pandas DataFrames. We would kill for dplyr offloading H2O."
"It needs a drag and drop GUI like KNIME, for easy access to and visibility of workflows."
"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."
"H2O.ai can improve in areas like multimodal support and prompt engineering."
"Referring to bullet-3 as well, H2O DataFrame manipulation capabilities are too primitive."
"On the topic of model training and model governance, this solution cannot handle ten or twelve models running at the same time."
"The most persistent issue is the cluster spin-up time."
"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 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."
"I would like Starburst to leverage AI to improve usability. Data lakes are complicated and difficult for users to explore."
"Cluster startup time can be slow, sometimes taking over a minute."
 

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
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Educational Organization
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
8%
Healthcare 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?
I recommend experimenting with different cluster sizes to determine what works best for your particular use case.
What needs improvement with Starburst Galaxy?
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. On the AWS side this ...
What is your primary use case for Starburst Galaxy?
I use the solution for processing large simulation datasets into aggregated datasets that can either be used for real-time data analysis or stored for later analysis.
 

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: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.