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Caffe vs TensorFlow comparison

 

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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

Caffe
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
24th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
1
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 Caffe is 0.3%, up from 0.2% 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

RL
Speeds up the development process but needs to evolve more to stay relevant
In the future, they should expand text processing, for a recommendation system, or to support some other models as well — that would be great. The concept of Caffe is a little bit complex because it was developed and based in C++. They need to make it easier for a new developer, data scientist, or a new machine or deep learning engineer to understand it. You can't work with metrics and vectors as Python does. Python is a vector-oriented language, but Caffe is not. When you deal with memory in C++, you have to allocate the data you will use in memory. You have to manage everything in C++. Conversely, in Python, you don't need to do that since everything is abstract and done by Python itself. It depends on every use case or your requirement goals. Some clients will require you to use Caffe because maybe their projects are old and they want to continue with Caffe. Others are comfortable with their current situation or they are afraid of migrating to another library. From my point of view, they need to make it easier for a new developer to use it. They should incorporate Python API to make it richer, overall.
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

"Caffe has helped our company become up-to-date in the market and has helped us speed up the development process of our projects."
"It provides us with 35 features like patch normalization layers, and it is easy to implement using the Kras library when the Kaspersky flow is running behind it."
"The most valuable feature of TensorFlow is deep learning. It is the best tool for deep learning in the market."
"TensorFlow improves my organization because our clients get a lot of investment from their investors and we are progressively improving the products. Every six months we release new features."
"TensorFlow is an efficient product for building neural networks."
"TensorFlow is easy to implement and offers inbuilt functions for various tasks."
"Edge computing has some limited resources but TensorFlow has been improving in its features. It is a great tool for developers."
"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."
"It is open-source, and it is being worked on all the time. You don't have to pay all the big bucks like Azure and Databricks. You can just use your local machine with the open-source TensorFlow and create pretty good models."
 

Cons

"The concept of Caffe is a little bit complex because it was developed and based in C++. They need to make it easier for a new developer, data scientist, or a new machine or deep learning engineer to understand it."
"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."
"There are a lot of problems, such as integrating our custom code. In my experience model tuning has been a bit difficult to edit and tune the graph model for best performance. We have to go into the model but we do not have a model viewer for quick access."
"Personally, I find it to be a bit too much AI-oriented."
"It would be nice if the solution was in Hungarian. I would like more Hungarian NAT models."
"It would be cool if TensorFlow could make it easier for companies like us to program for running it across different hyperscalers."
"Enhancements could include increasing use cases and improving the accuracy of previously built models in TensorFlow. For instance, when we run certain models, the computing power of laptops becomes high."
"JavaScript is a different thing and all the websites and web apps and all the mobile apps are built-in JavaScript. JavaScript is the core of that. However, TensorFlow is like a machine learning item. What can be improved with TensorFlow is how it can mix in how the JavaScript developers can use TensorFlow."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I am using the open-source version of TensorFlow and it is free."
"I did not require a license for this solution. It a free open-source solution."
"We are using the free version."
"The solution is free."
"I rate TensorFlow's pricing a five out of ten."
"TensorFlow is free."
"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."
"It is open-source software. You don't have to pay all the big bucks like Azure and Databricks."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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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...
 

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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 Microsoft, Google, Hugging Face and others in AI Development Platforms. Updated: June 2025.
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