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Hugging Face vs TensorFlow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 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

Hugging Face
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
TensorFlow
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the AI Development Platforms category, the mindshare of Hugging Face is 12.8%, up from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TensorFlow is 4.4%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

SwaminathanSubramanian - PeerSpot reviewer
Versatility empowers AI concept development despite the multi-GPU challenge
Regarding scalability, I'm finding the multi-GPU aspect of it challenging. Training the model is another hurdle, although I'm only getting into that aspect currently. Organizations are apprehensive about investing in multi-GPU setups. Additionally, data cleanup is a challenge that needs to be resolved, as data must be mature and pristine.
Dan Bryant - PeerSpot reviewer
A strong solution for providing insight into machine learning strategies
I'm not a professional with machine learning. Early on, I was working with data scientists and built a platform for some old-school data scientists to turn around their models faster, and they were focused on electric prices. Based on that experience and my understanding of our value, I'm researching all the machine learning tools. I realized I would have to be a specialist in any of them, and my main skillset is in systems engineering and data engines. I look forward to being an analytics specialist. In real life, I would be better off hiring a professional because when I decide which tool I want to use for what job, I could hire that professional. They would be valuable to me across the whole of what we do. It's kinda of what I do when I build hardware and new products or do version upgrades. I hire a team just for production that are experts in their particular field, so I get production-quality pieces. At that point, my internal team can add the necessary analytics or automation. Hopefully, anyone getting the solution already knows what they will use it for. If they're starting from scratch, I strongly recommend hiring a consultant. I rate TensorFlow an eight out of ten because, for my intents and purposes, I don't know what else one can use to get into the machine learning game if you're going to export models.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool's most valuable feature is that it's open-source and has hundreds of packages already available. This makes it quite helpful for creating our LLMs."
"My preferred aspects are natural language processing and question-answering."
"I like that Hugging Face is versatile in the way it has been developed."
"The solution is easy to use compared to other frameworks like PyTorch and TensorFlow."
"It is stable."
"The product is reliable."
"Hugging Face provides open-source models, making it the best open-source and reliable solution."
"I would rate this product nine out of ten."
"Optimization is very good in TensorFlow. There are many opportunities to do hyper-parameter training."
"What made TensorFlow so appealing to us is that you could run it on a cluster computer and on a mobile device."
"The most valuable feature of TensorFlow is deep learning. It is the best tool for deep learning in the market."
"It is easy to use and learn."
"The most valuable features are the frameworks and the functionality to work with different data, even when we have a certain quantity of data flowing."
"TensorFlow provides Insights into both data and machine learning strategies."
"Our clients were not aware they were using TensorFlow, so that aspect was transparent. I think we personally chose TensorFlow because it provided us with more of the end-to-end package that you can use for all the steps regarding billing and our models. So basically data processing, training the model, evaluating the model, updating the model, deploying the model and all of these steps without having to change to a new environment."
"TensorFlow is a framework that makes it really easy to use for deep learning."
 

Cons

"I believe Hugging Face has some room for improvement. There are some security issues. They provide code, but API tokens aren't indicated. Also, the documentation for particular models could use more explanation. But I think these things are improving daily. The main change I'd like to see is making the deployment of inference endpoints more customizable for users."
"Access to the models and datasets could be improved."
"Implementing a cloud system to showcase historical data would be beneficial."
"Regarding scalability, I'm finding the multi-GPU aspect of it challenging."
"It can incorporate AI into its services."
"Hugging Face could improve by implementing a search engine or chat bot feature similar to ChatGPT."
"Access to the models and datasets could be improved. Many interesting ones are restricted."
"Regarding scalability, I'm finding the multi-GPU aspect of it challenging. Training the model is another hurdle, although I'm only getting into that aspect currently."
"However, if I want to change just one thing in the implementation of TensorFlow functions I have to copy everything that they wrote and I change it manually if indeed it can be amended. This is really hard as it's written in C++ and has a lot of complications."
"I know this is out of the scope of TensorFlow, however, every time I've sent a request, I had to renew the model into RAM and they didn't make that prediction or inference. This makes the point for the request that much longer. If they could provide anything to help in this part, it will be very great."
"In terms of improvement, we always look for ways they can optimize the model, accelerate the speed and the accuracy, and how can we optimize with our different techniques. There are various techniques available in TensorFlow. Maintaining accuracy is an area they should work on."
"It would be nice to have more pre-trained models that we can utilize within layers. I utilize a Mac, and I am unable to utilize AMD GPUs. That's something that I would definitely be like to be able to access within TensorFlow since most of it is with CUDA ML. This only matters for local machines because, in Azure, you can just access any GPU you want from the cloud. It doesn't really matter, but the clients that I work with don't have cloud accounts, or they don't want to utilize that or spend the money. They all see it as too expensive and want to know what they can do on their local machines."
"It would be nice if the solution was in Hungarian. I would like more Hungarian NAT models."
"It doesn't allow for fast the proto-typing. So usually when we do proto-typing we will start with PyTorch and then once we have a good model that we trust, we convert it into TensorFlow. So definitely, TensorFlow is not very flexible."
"Personally, I find it to be a bit too much AI-oriented."
"The process of creating models could be more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is open-source. The cost depends on what task you're doing. If you're using a large language model with around 12 million parameters, it will cost more. On average, Hugging Face is open source so you can download models to your local machine for free. For deployment, you can use any cloud service."
"Hugging Face is an open-source solution."
"I recall seeing a fee of nine dollars, and there's also an enterprise option priced at twenty dollars per month."
"We do not have to pay for the product."
"The solution is open source."
"So, it's requires expensive machines to open services or open LLM models."
"TensorFlow is free."
"The solution is free."
"I rate TensorFlow's pricing a five out of ten."
"I am using the open-source version of TensorFlow and it is free."
"It is open-source software. You don't have to pay all the big bucks like Azure and Databricks."
"I think for learners to deploy a project, you can actually use TensorFlow for free. It's just amazing to have an open-source platform like TensorFlow to deploy your own project. Here in Russia no one really cares about licenses, as it is totally open source and free. My clients in the United States were also pleased to learn when they enquired, that licensing is free."
"I did not require a license for this solution. It a free open-source solution."
"We are using the free version."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
University
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Hugging Face?
My preferred aspects are natural language processing and question-answering.
What needs improvement with Hugging Face?
It is challenging to suggest specific improvements for Hugging Face, as their platform is already very well-organized and efficient. However, they could focus on cleaning up outdated models if they...
What is your primary use case for Hugging Face?
I am working on AI with various large language models for different purposes such as medicine and law, where they are fine-tuned with specific requirements. I download LLMs from Hugging Face for th...
What do you like most about TensorFlow?
It empowers us to seamlessly create and deploy machine learning models, offering a versatile solution for implementing sophisticated environments and various types of AI solutions.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TensorFlow?
I am not familiar with the pricing setup cost and licensing.
What needs improvement with TensorFlow?
Providing more control by allowing users to build custom functions would make TensorFlow a better option. It currently offers inbuilt functions, however, having the ability to implement custom libr...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Airbnb, NVIDIA, Twitter, Google, Dropbox, Intel, SAP, eBay, Uber, Coca-Cola, Qualcomm
Find out what your peers are saying about Hugging Face vs. TensorFlow and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
864,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.