Databricks vs Google Cloud Datalab comparison

Databricks and Google are both solutions in the Data Science Platforms category. Databricks is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4, while Google is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.8. Databricks holds a 17.2% mindshare in Data Science Platforms, compared to Google’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Databricks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Google users who would recommend it.

Databricks

Read 90 Databricks reviews

13,763 Views
10,002 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Google Cloud Datalab

Read 6 Google Cloud Datalab reviews

681 Views
575 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Databricks

Google Cloud Datalab

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Databricks and Google Cloud Datalab compete in big data analytics. Databricks holds an advantage in pricing and support, while Google Cloud Datalab is noted for its expansive feature set.

Features: Databricks offers seamless integration with Apache Spark, advanced analytics tools, and effective collaboration options. Google Cloud Datalab integrates smoothly with Google Cloud services, simplifies machine learning model development, and provides strong data visualization capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Databricks could enhance user interface aesthetics, offer more extensive API documentation, and improve cross-platform compatibility. Google Cloud Datalab could benefit from optimized resource allocation, reducing initial setup complexities, and enhancing node configuration processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Databricks offers flexible deployment and responsive customer service with easy integration on existing platforms. Google Cloud Datalab benefits from scalable deployment within Google Cloud's infrastructure, providing a streamlined setup.

Pricing and ROI: Databricks is cost-effective with a favorable ROI due to efficient resource use. Google Cloud Datalab has higher setup costs but delivers substantial ROI through integration with Google's ecosystem.

To learn more, read our detailed Databricks vs. Google Cloud Datalab Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Databricks vs. Google Cloud Datalab

April 2025

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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

Databricks

Ranking in Data Science Platforms

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Warehouse (7th), Streaming Analytics (1st)

Google Cloud Datalab

Ranking in Data Science Platforms

16th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Visualization (17th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of Databricks is 17.2%, down from 19.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Datalab is 1.0%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Science Platforms

Featured Reviews

ShubhamSharma7

Data Engineer at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Capability to integrate diverse coding languages in a single notebook greatly enhances workflow

Databricks offers various courses that I can use, whether it's PySpark, Scala, or R. I can leverage all these courses in a single notebook, which is beneficial for clients as they can access various tools in one place whenever needed. This is quite significant. I usually work with PySpark based on client requirements. After coding, I feed the Databricks notebooks into the ADF pipeline for updates. Databricks' capability to process data in parallel enhances data processing speed. Furthermore, I can connect our Databricks notebook directly with Power BI and other visualization tools like Qlik. Once we develop code, it allows us to transform raw data into visualizations for clients using analysis diagrams, which is very helpful.

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Nilesh Gode

Project Manager - Data Science at Mettler-Toledo International Inc.

Easy to setup, stable and easy to design data pipelines

The scalability is average. We have not faced any issues with scalability. There are more than 500 end users using this solution in our company. It is an integral part of the daily operations. The usage pattern is not a one-time thing; employees regularly access and utilize the application. We use it at a global level with a scattered user base. This means that users don't all use the application at the same time. So, around 300 out of 500 employees use the solution, and this usage is spread out throughout the day.

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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

"One of the features provides nice interactive clusters, or compute instances that you don't really need to manage often."

"Its lightweight and fast processing are valuable."

"I would rate them ten out of ten."

"Databricks integrates well with other solutions."

"It is fast, it's scalable, and it does the job it needs to do."

"Can cut across the entire ecosystem of open source technology to give an extra level of getting the transformatory process of the data."

"Databricks has a Unified Catalog that assists with secured access and governance."

"Specifically for data science and data analytics purposes, it can handle large amounts of data in less time. I can compare it with Teradata. If a job takes five hours with Teradata databases, Databricks can complete it in around three to three and a half hours."

More Databricks pros

"In MLOps, when we are designing the data pipeline, the designing of the data pipeline is easy in Google Cloud."

"All of the features of this product are quite good."

"For me, it has been a stable product."

"The infrastructure is highly reliable and efficient, contributing to a positive experience."

"Google Cloud Datalab is very customizable."

"The APIs are valuable."

Cons

"I have had some issues with some of the Spark clusters running on Databricks, where the Spark runtime and clusters go up and down, which is an area for improvement."

"CI/CD needs additional leverage and support."

"There would also be benefits if more options were available for workers, or the clusters of the two points."

"When I used the support, I had communication problems because of the language barrier with the agent. The accent was difficult to understand."

"The integration and query capabilities can be improved."

"The Databricks cluster can be improved."

"It would be nice to have more guidance on integrations with ETLs and other data quality tools."

"The data visualization for this solution could be improved. They have started to roll out a data visualization tool inside Databricks but it is in the early stages. It's not comparable to a solution like Power BI, Luca, or Tableau."

More Databricks cons

"The product must be made more user-friendly."

"The interface should be more user-friendly."

"Even if your application is always connected to its database, the processing can be cumbersome. It shouldn't be so complicated."

"Connectivity challenges for end-users, particularly when loading data, environments, and libraries, need to be addressed for an enhanced user experience."

"There is room for improvement in the graphical user interface. So that the initial user would use it properly, that would be a good option."

"We have also encountered challenges during our transition period in terms of data control and segmentation. The management of each channel and data structure as it has its own unique characteristics requires very detailed and precise control. The allocation should be appropriate and the complexity increases due to the different time zones and geographic locations of our clients. The process usually involves migrating the existing database sets to gcp and ensure data integrity is maintained. This is the only challenge that we faced while navigating the integers of the solution and honestly it was an interesting and unique experience."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the tool’s pricing an eight out of ten."

"The basic version of this solution is now open-source, so there are no license costs involved. However, there is a charge for any advanced functionality and this can be quite expensive."

"The solution is based on a licensing model."

"We pay as we go, so there isn't a fixed price. It's charged by the unit. I don't have any details detail about how they measure this, but it should be a mix between processing and quantity of data handled. We run a simulation based on our use cases, which gives us an estimate. We've been monitoring this, and the costs have met our expectations."

"Databricks are not costly when compared with other solutions' prices."

"I'm not involved in the financing, but I can say that the solution seemed reasonably priced compared to the competitors. Similar products are usually in the same price range. With five being affordable and one being expensive, I would rate Databricks a four out of five."

"We implement this solution on behalf of our customers who have their own Azure subscription and they pay for Databricks themselves. The pricing is more expensive if you have large volumes of data."

"The product pricing is moderate."

More Databricks pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is quite reasonable, and I would give it a rating of four out of ten."

"It is affordable for us because we have a limited number of users."

"The product is cheap."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

University

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which do you prefer - Databricks or Azure Machine Learning Studio?

Databricks gives you the option of working with several different languages, such as SQL, R, Scala, Apache Spark, or Python. It offers many different cluster choices and excellent integration with ...

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How would you compare Databricks vs Amazon SageMaker?

We researched AWS SageMaker, but in the end, we chose Databricks. Databricks is a Unified Analytics Platform designed to accelerate innovation projects. It is based on Spark so it is very fast. It...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Google Cloud Datalab?

Google Cloud Datalab is very customizable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Datalab?

Access is always via URL, and unless your network is fast, it would be a little tough in India. In India, if we had a faster network, it would be easier. In a big data environment, like when forcin...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Datalab?

It's for our daily data processing, and there's a batch job that executes it. The process involves more than ten servers or systems. Some of them use a mobile network, some are ONTAP networks, and ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dataiku vs Databricks

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Databricks

Compared 9% of the time

Dremio vs Databricks

Compared 7% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs Databricks

Compared 7% of the time

Tableau vs Databricks

Compared 5% of the time

More Databricks Competitors

IBM SPSS Statistics vs Google Cloud Datalab

Compared 44% of the time

Cloudera Data Science Workbench vs Google Cloud Datalab

Compared 24% of the time

More Google Cloud Datalab Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Databricks

May 2025

Download Databricks product report

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Datalab

May 2025

Download Google Cloud Datalab product report

Also Known As

Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash

No data available

Overview

Databricks is utilized for advanced analytics, big data processing, machine learning models, ETL operations, data engineering, streaming analytics, and integrating multiple data sources.

Organizations leverage Databricks for predictive analysis, data pipelines, data science, and unifying data architectures. It is also used for consulting projects, financial reporting, and creating APIs. Industries like insurance, retail, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals use Databricks for data management and analytics due to its user-friendly interface, built-in machine learning libraries, support for multiple programming languages, scalability, and fast processing.

What are the key features of Databricks?

User-friendly interface: Simplifies operations and usability.
Built-in machine learning libraries: Facilitates machine learning tasks.
Support for multiple programming languages: Enhances flexibility.
Scalability: Efficiently handles growing data needs.
Fast processing: Improves performance and speed.
Automated optimization: Reduces manual efforts.
Data visualization: Provides insightful visuals.
Collaborative features: Enhances teamwork.
Delta Lake performance: Boosts data management.
Seamless cluster management: Simplifies system operations.

What are the benefits or ROI to look for in Databricks reviews?

Efficiency in handling large datasets: Ensures smooth processing.
Interactive workspace environment: Improves user collaboration.
Integration with platforms: Provides connectivity benefits.
Performance optimization: Enhances overall system performance.
Support for data governance and security: Ensures data integrity and protection.

Databricks is implemented in insurance for risk analysis and claims processing; in retail for customer analytics and inventory management; in manufacturing for predictive maintenance and supply chain optimization; and in pharmaceuticals for drug discovery and patient data analysis. Users value its scalability, machine learning support, collaboration tools, and Delta Lake performance but seek improvements in visualization, pricing, and integration with BI tools.

Databricks

Cloud Datalab is a powerful interactive tool created to explore, analyze, transform and visualize data and build machine learning models on Google Cloud Platform. It runs on Google Compute Engine and connects to multiple cloud services easily so you can focus on your data science tasks.

Google

Sample Customers

Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Databricks vs. Google Cloud Datalab

April 2025

Free Report: Databricks vs. Google Cloud Datalab

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