Apache Spark Streaming vs Azure Stream Analytics comparison

Apache Spark Streaming vs. Azure Stream Analytics

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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

Apache Spark Streaming

Ranking in Streaming Analytics

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Azure Stream Analytics

Ranking in Streaming Analytics

3rd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Apache Spark Streaming is 2.6%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure Stream Analytics is 9.2%, down from 12.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Streaming Analytics

Featured Reviews

Oscar Estorach

Chief Data-strategist and Director at Theworkshop.es

Versatile and flexible when dealing with large-scale data streams

What I like about Spark is its versatility in supporting multiple languages and that makes it my preferred choice for building scalable and efficient systems, whether it is hooking databases with web applications or handling large-scale data transformations. Apache Spark Streaming is versatile. You can use it for competitive intelligence, gathering data from competitors, or for internal tasks like monitoring workflows. It works well in the cloud, and you can structure data using Databricks or Spark, providing flexibility for different projects. Spark Streaming's flexibility shines when dealing with large-scale data streams. It caters to different needs, offering real-time insights for tasks like online sales analytics. The ability to prioritize data streams is valuable, especially for monitoring competitor prices online.

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SantiagoCordero

Director, Governance & Infrastructure & Director at VASS

Native connectors and integration simplify tasks but portfolio complexity needs addressing

There are too many products in the Azure landscape, which sometimes leads to overlap between them. Microsoft continuously releases new products or solutions, which can be frustrating when determining the appropriate features from one solution over another. A cost comparison between products is also not straightforward. They should simplify their portfolio. The Microsoft licensing system is confusing and not easy to understand, and this is something they should address. In the future, I may stop using Stream Analytics and move to other solutions. I discussed Palantir earlier, which is something I want to explore in depth because it allows me to accomplish more efficiently compared to solely using Azure. Additionally, the vendors should make the solution more user-friendly, incorporating low-code and no-code features. This is something I wish to explore further.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Spark Streaming is critical, quite stable, full-featured, and scalable."

"Apache Spark Streaming has features like checkpointing and Streaming API that are useful."

"Apache Spark Streaming's most valuable feature is near real-time analytics. The developers can build APIs easily for a code-steaming pipeline. The solutions have an ecosystem of integration with other stock services."

"The solution is better than average and some of the valuable features include efficiency and stability."

"As an open-source solution, using it is basically free."

"Apache Spark Streaming is versatile. You can use it for competitive intelligence, gathering data from competitors, or for internal tasks like monitoring workflows."

"Apache Spark Streaming was straightforward in terms of maintenance. It was actively developed, and migrating from an older to a newer version was quite simple."

"The solution is very stable and reliable."

More Apache Spark Streaming pros

"I like all the connected ecosystems of Microsoft, it is really good with other BI tools that are easy to connect."

"It was easy for me to use from the beginning. I am accustomed to working with Microsoft."

"The most valuable features of Azure Stream Analytics are the ease of provisioning and the interface is not terribly complex."

"It's scalable as a cloud product."

"The way it organizes data into tables and dashboards is very helpful."

"The integrations for this solution are easy to use and there is flexibility in integrating the tool with Azure Stream Analytics."

"It's a product that can scale."

"Provides deep integration with other Azure resources."

More Azure Stream Analytics pros

Cons

"We don't have enough experience to be judgmental about its flaws."

"The cost and load-related optimizations are areas where the tool lacks and needs improvement."

"It was resource-intensive, even for small-scale applications."

"There could be an improvement in the area of the user configuration section, it should be less developer-focused and more business user-focused."

"The service structure of Apache Spark Streaming can improve. There are a lot of issues with memory management and latency. There is no real-time analytics. We recommend it for the use cases where there is a five-second latency, but not for a millisecond, an IOT-based, or the detection anomaly-based. Flink as a service is much better."

"Integrating event-level streaming capabilities could be beneficial."

"In terms of improvement, the UI could be better."

"We would like to have the ability to do arbitrary stateful functions in Python."

More Apache Spark Streaming cons

"There is a lack of technical support from Microsoft's local office, particularly in Taiwan."

"Early in the process, we had some issues with stability."

"The solution doesn't handle large data packets very efficiently, which could be improved upon."

"It is not complex, but it requires some development skills. When the data is sent from Azure Stream Analytics to Power BI, I don't have the access to modify the data. I can't customize or edit the data or do some queries. All queries need to be done in the Azure Stream Analytics."

"More flexibility in terms of writing queries and accommodating additional facilities would be beneficial."

"Azure Stream Analytics is challenging to customize because it's not very flexible."

"The collection and analysis of historical data could be better."

"The solution's interface could be simpler to understand for non-technical people."

More Azure Stream Analytics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I was using the open-source community version, which was self-hosted."

"People pay for Apache Spark Streaming as a service."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is expensive, or not cost-effective, and ten is cheap, I rate the price a seven."

"Spark is an affordable solution, especially considering its open-source nature."

"I rate the price of Azure Stream Analytics a four out of five."

"The cost of this solution is less than competitors such as Amazon or Google Cloud."

"Azure Stream Analytics is a little bit expensive."

"The licensing for this product is payable on a 'pay as you go' basis. This means that the cost is only based on data volume, and the frequency that the solution is used."

"There are different tiers based on retention policies. There are four tiers. The pricing varies based on steaming units and tiers. The standard pricing is $10/hour."

"The current price is substantial."

"When scaling up, the pricing for Azure Stream Analytics can get relatively high. Considering its capabilities compared to other solutions, I would rate it a seven out of ten for cost. However, we've found ways to optimize costs using tools like Databricks for specific tasks."

"We pay approximately $500,000 a year. It's approximately $10,000 a year per license."

More Azure Stream Analytics pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

22%

Manufacturing Company

University

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Apache Spark Streaming?

Apache Spark Streaming is versatile. You can use it for competitive intelligence, gathering data from competitors, or for internal tasks like monitoring workflows.

What needs improvement with Apache Spark Streaming?

We don't have enough experience to be judgmental about its flaws, as we've only used stable features like batch micro-batch. Integration poses no problem; however, I don't use some features and can...

What is your primary use case for Apache Spark Streaming?

We use Spark Streaming in a micro-batch region. It's not a full real-time system, but it offers high performance and low latency.

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Stream Analytics?

Regarding the cost of Azure Stream Analytics, I believe the price is reasonable for the tool.

What needs improvement with Azure Stream Analytics?

There were challenges with Azure Stream Analytics. When I initially started, the learning curve was difficult because I didn't have knowledge of the service. There's setup time required to get it i...

Spring Cloud Data Flow vs Apache Spark Streaming

Comparisons

Compared 23% of the time

Apache Pulsar vs Apache Spark Streaming

Compared 15% of the time

Starburst Enterprise vs Apache Spark Streaming

Compared 13% of the time

Amazon Kinesis vs Apache Spark Streaming

Compared 10% of the time

Confluent vs Apache Spark Streaming

Compared 8% of the time

More Apache Spark Streaming Competitors

Amazon MSK vs Azure Stream Analytics

Compared 24% of the time

Databricks vs Azure Stream Analytics

Compared 24% of the time

Amazon Kinesis vs Azure Stream Analytics

Compared 18% of the time

Apache Flink vs Azure Stream Analytics

Compared 16% of the time

Apache Spark vs Azure Stream Analytics

Compared 3% of the time

More Azure Stream Analytics Competitors

Product Reports

Streaming Analytics

Download Apache Spark Streaming product report

Azure Stream Analytics

Download Azure Stream Analytics product report

Also Known As

Spark Streaming

ASA

Overview

Spark Streaming makes it easy to build scalable fault-tolerant streaming applications.

Apache

Azure Stream Analytics is a robust real-time analytics service that has been designed for critical business workloads. Users are able to build an end-to-end serverless streaming pipeline in minutes. Utilizing SQL, users are able to go from zero to production with a few clicks, all easily extensible with unique code and automatic machine learning abilities for the most advanced scenarios.

Azure Stream Analytics has the ability to analyze and accurately process exorbitant volumes of high-speed streaming data from numerous sources at the same time. Patterns and scenarios are quickly identified and information is gathered from various input sources, such as social media feeds, applications, clickstreams, sensors, and devices. These patterns can then be implemented to trigger actions and launch workflows, such as feeding data to a reporting tool, storing data for later use, or creating alerts. Azure Stream Analytics is also offered on Azure IoT Edge runtime, so the data can be processed on IoT devices.

Top Benefits

User friendly: Azure Stream Analytics is very straightforward and easy to use. Out of the box and with a few clicks, users are able to connect to numerous sources and sinks, and easily develop an end-to-end pipeline. Stream Analytics can easily connect to Azure IoT Hub and Azure Event Hub for streaming ingestion, in addition to connecting with Azure Blob storage for historical data ingestion.
Flexible deployment: For low-latency analytics, Azure Stream Analytics can run on Azure Stack or IoT edge. For large-scale analytics, the solution can run in the cloud. Azure Stream Analytics uses the same query language and tools for both the cloud and the edge, facilitating an easier process for developers to design exceptional hybrid architectures for streaming processes.
Cost-effective: With Azure Stream Analytics, users only pay for the streaming units they consume; there are no upfront costs. Users can easily scale up or down as needed; there is no commitment or cluster provisioning.
Trustworthy: Azure Stream Analytics guarantees event processing to be 99.99% available with a minute level of granularity. Azure Stream Analytics has embedded recovery capabilities and checkpoints to keep things running smoothly at all times. Events are never lost with Azure Stream Analytics at-least once delivery of events and exactly one event processing.

Reviews from Real Users

“Azure Stream Analytics is something that you can use to test out streaming scenarios very quickly in the general sense and it is useful for IoT scenarios. If I was to do a project with IoT and I needed a streaming solution, Azure Stream Analytics would be a top choice. The most valuable features of Azure Stream Analytics are the ease of provisioning and the interface is not terribly complex.” - Olubisi A., Team Lead at a tech services company.

“It's used primarily for data and mining - everything from the telemetry data side of things. It's great for streaming and makes everything easy to handle. The streaming from the IoT hub and the messaging are aspects I like a lot.” - Sudhendra U., Technical Architect at Infosys

Microsoft

Sample Customers

UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, Alibaba Taobao, Kenshoo, eBay Inc.

Rockwell Automation, Milliman, Honeywell Building Solutions, Arcoflex Automation Solutions, Real Madrid C.F., Aerocrine, Ziosk, Tacoma Public Schools, P97 Networks

Apache Spark Streaming vs. Azure Stream Analytics