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Caffe vs TensorFlow 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

Caffe
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
25th
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
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the AI Development Platforms category, the mindshare of Caffe is 0.2%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TensorFlow is 3.8%, down from 7.2% 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.
Ashish Upadhyay - PeerSpot reviewer
A robust tools for model visualization and debugging with superior scalability and stability, and an intuitive user-friendly interface
The one feature we find most valuable at our company is its robust and flexible machine-learning capabilities. 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. The ability to develop and fine-tune models, such as risk assessment for detection and market protection, as well as the creation of recommendation systems, is paramount. This versatility extends to providing personalized identity-relevant applications for our enterprise clients, delivering valuable insights to the market. Its exceptional support for deep learning and its efficient resource utilization enable us to undertake complex financial and data analyses. The flexibility it provides is crucial for meeting industrial requirements and crafting solutions tailored to our client's specific needs.

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."
"TensorFlow is easy to implement and offers inbuilt functions for various tasks."
"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."
"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."
"It is also totally Open-Source and free. Open-source applications are not good usually. but TensorFlow actually changed my view about it and I thought, "Look, Oh my God. This is an open-source application and it's as good as it could be." I learned that TensorFlow, by sharing their own knowledge and their own platform with other developers, it improved the lives of many people around the globe."
"Optimization is very good in TensorFlow. There are many opportunities to do hyper-parameter training."
"The most valuable feature of TensorFlow is deep learning. It is the best tool for deep learning in the market."
"The available documentation is extensive and helpful."
"It's got quite a big community, which is useful."
 

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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The solution is hard to integrate with the GPUs."
"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."
"We encountered version mismatch errors while using the product."
"TensorFlow deep learning takes a lot of computation power. The more systems you can use, the easier it is. That's a good ability, if you can make a system run immediately at the same time on the same task, it's much faster rather than you having one system running which is slower. Running systems in parallel is a complex situation, but it can improve. There is a lot of work involved."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It is open-source software. You don't have to pay all the big bucks like Azure and Databricks."
"The solution is free."
"It is an open-source solution, so anyone can use it free of charge."
"We are using the free version."
"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."
"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 rate TensorFlow's pricing a five out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
University
9%
Educational Organization
8%
 

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: March 2025.
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