Databricks vs Spring Cloud Data Flow comparison

Databricks and VMware are both solutions in the Streaming Analytics category. Databricks is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3, while VMware is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.8. Databricks holds a 13.5% mindshare in SA, compared to VMware’s 4.7% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Databricks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Databricks

Read 91 Databricks reviews

23,965 Views
4,314 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Spring Cloud Data Flow

Read 9 Spring Cloud Data Flow reviews

3,216 Views
1,544 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Databricks

Spring Cloud Data Flow

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Databricks and Spring Cloud Data Flow operate in the data processing and analytics domain. Databricks has a competitive edge due to its robust analytics capabilities and fast data processing integration with Python and Spark.

Features: Databricks supports large-scale analytics with built-in optimization recommendations for enhanced query performance and speed. The integration with Python and Spark provides fast data processing and machine learning capabilities. Its flexible use of programming languages and collaborative notebooks offer significant versatility. Spring Cloud Data Flow excels in microservices orchestration, dependency injection, and composability, ideal for flexible lightweight processing tasks.

Room for Improvement: Databricks could improve its visualization capabilities, enhance integration with tools like Power BI, and expand machine learning libraries. Users have noted its high cost and desire for more accessible technical documentation. Spring Cloud Data Flow could benefit from a better user interface, additional language support, and greater community engagement, along with improved documentation and dashboard features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Databricks supports deployments in public and hybrid clouds, praised for its responsive technical support, though communication may occasionally falter due to intermediary providers. Spring Cloud Data Flow is generally deployed on-premises or in private clouds, with clear documentation but less robust community support due to its open-source nature.

Pricing and ROI: Databricks operates on a pay-per-use model, often deemed expensive yet justified by its comprehensive features, with ROI experiences varying by cloud usage and scale. Spring Cloud Data Flow, as an open-source option, offers cost benefits, though official support incurs fees, aligning with its community-driven framework and offering good value in community editions.

To learn more, read our detailed Databricks vs. Spring Cloud Data Flow Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Databricks vs. Spring Cloud Data Flow

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,295 peers since 2012

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 Streaming Analytics

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Warehouse (8th), Data Science Platforms (1st)

Spring Cloud Data Flow

Ranking in Streaming Analytics

9th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Integration (20th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Databricks is 13.5%, up from 11.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Spring Cloud Data Flow is 4.7%, up from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Streaming Analytics

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.

Read full review

NitinGoyal

Engineering Lead at Naukri.com

Has a plug-and-play model and provides good robustness and scalability

The solution's community support could be improved. I don't know why the Spring Cloud Data Flow community is not very strong. Community support is very limited whenever you face any problem or are stuck somewhere. I'm not sure whether it has improved in the last six months because this pipeline was set up almost two years ago. I struggled with that a lot. For example, there was limited support whenever I got an exception and sought help from Stack Overflow or different forums. Interacting with Kubernetes needs a few certificates. You need to define all the certificates within your application. With the help of those certificates, your Java application or Spring Cloud Data Flow can interact with Kubernetes. I faced a lot of hurdles while placing those certificates. Despite following the official documentation to define all the replicas, readiness, and liveliness probes within the Spring Cloud Data Flow application, it was not working. So, I had to troubleshoot while digging in and debugging the internals of Spring Cloud Data Flow at that time. It was just a configuration mismatch, and I was doing nothing weird. There was a small spelling difference between how Spring Cloud Data Flow was expecting it and how I passed it. I was just following the official documentation.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Databricks is the integration of the data warehouse and data lake, and the development of the lake house. Additionally, it integrates well with Spark for processing data in production."

"It's great technology."

"Databricks integrates well with other solutions."

"Databricks' most valuable feature is the data transformation through PySpark."

"The initial setup is pretty easy."

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

"I haven't heard about any major stability issues. At this time I feel like it's stable."

"What I like about Databricks is that it's one of the most popular platforms that give access to folks who are trying not just to do exploratory work on the data but also go ahead and build advanced modeling and machine learning on top of that."

More Databricks pros

"There are a lot of options in Spring Cloud. It's flexible in terms of how we can use it. It's a full infrastructure."

"The ease of deployment on Kubernetes, the seamless integration for orchestration of various pipelines, and the visual dashboard that simplifies operations even for non-specialists such as quality analysts."

"The product is very user-friendly."

"The dashboards in Spring Cloud Dataflow are quite valuable."

"The most valuable features of Spring Cloud Data Flow are the simple programming model, integration, dependency Injection, and ability to do any injection. Additionally, auto-configuration is another important feature because we don't have to configure the database and or set up the boilerplate in the database in every project. The composability is good, we can create small workloads and compose them in any way we like."

"The best thing I like about Spring Cloud Data Flow is its plug-and-play model."

"The solution's most valuable feature is that it allows us to use different batch data sources, retrieve the data, and then do the data processing, after which we can convert and store it in the target."

"The most valuable feature is real-time streaming."

Cons

"The product needs samples and templates to help invite users to see results and understand what the product can do."

"Implementation of Databricks is still very code heavy."

"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."

"This solution only supports queries in SQL and Python, which is a bit limiting."

"Databricks has a lack of debuggers, and it would be good to see more components."

"Doesn't provide a lot of credits or trial options."

"In the next release, I would like to see more optimization features."

"I think setting up the whole account for one person and giving access are areas that can be difficult to manage and should be made a little easier."

More Databricks cons

"Some of the features, like the monitoring tools, are not very mature and are still evolving."

"There were instances of deployment pipelines getting stuck, and the dashboard not always accurately showing the application status, requiring manual intervention such as rerunning applications or refreshing the dashboard."

"I would improve the dashboard features as they are not very user-friendly."

"The configurations could be better. Some configurations are a little bit time-consuming in terms of trying to understand using the Spring Cloud documentation."

"The solution's community support could be improved."

"Spring Cloud Data Flow is not an easy-to-use tool, so improvements are required."

"On the tool's online discussion forums, you may get stuck with an issue, making it an area where improvements are required."

"Spring Cloud Data Flow could improve the user interface. We can drag and drop in the application for the configuration and settings, and deploy it right from the UI, without having to run a CI/CD pipeline. However, that does not work with Kubernetes, it only works when we are working with jars as the Spring Cloud Data Flow applications."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost for Databricks depends on the use case. I work on it as a consultant, so I'm using the client's Databricks, so it depends on how big the client is."

"We have only incurred the cost of our AWS cloud services. This is because during this period, Databricks provided us with an extended evaluation period, and we have not spent much money yet. We are just starting to incur costs this month, I will know more later on the full cost perspective."

"Databricks' cost could be improved."

"The licensing costs of Databricks is a tiered licensing regime, so it is flexible."

"The cost is around $600,000 for 50 users."

"There are different versions."

"I am based in South Africa, where it is expensive adapting to the cloud, and then there is the price for the tool itself."

"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."

More Databricks pricing and cost advice

"If you want support from Spring Cloud Data Flow there is a fee. The Spring Framework is open-source and this is a free solution."

"The solution provides value for money, and we are currently using its community edition."

"This is an open-source product that can be used free of charge."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Streaming Analytics solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

16%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 ...

See all answers

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 needs improvement with Spring Cloud Data Flow?

There were instances of deployment pipelines getting stuck, and the dashboard not always accurately showing the application status, requiring manual intervention such as rerunning applications or r...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Spring Cloud Data Flow?

We had a project for content management, which involved multiple applications each handling content ingestion, transformation, enrichment, and storage for different customers independently. We want...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Spring Cloud Data Flow?

I would definitely recommend Spring Cloud Data Flow. It requires minimal additional effort or time to understand how it works, and even non-specialists can use it effectively with its friendly docu...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dataiku vs Databricks

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Databricks

Compared 9% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs Databricks

Compared 7% of the time

Dremio vs Databricks

Compared 6% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Databricks

Compared 5% of the time

More Databricks Competitors

Apache Flink vs Spring Cloud Data Flow

Compared 38% of the time

TIBCO BusinessWorks vs Spring Cloud Data Flow

Compared 10% of the time

Apache Spark Streaming vs Spring Cloud Data Flow

Compared 6% of the time

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs Spring Cloud Data Flow

Compared 6% of the time

More Spring Cloud Data Flow Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Databricks

August 2025

Download Databricks product report

Buyer's Guide

Spring Cloud Data Flow

July 2025

Download Spring Cloud Data Flow 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

Spring Cloud Data Flow is a toolkit for building data integration and real-time data processing pipelines.
Pipelines consist of Spring Boot apps, built using the Spring Cloud Stream or Spring Cloud Task microservice frameworks. This makes Spring Cloud Data Flow suitable for a range of data processing use cases, from import/export to event streaming and predictive analytics. Use Spring Cloud Data Flow to connect your Enterprise to the Internet of Anything—mobile devices, sensors, wearables, automobiles, and more.

VMware

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Databricks vs. Spring Cloud Data Flow

July 2025

Free Report: Databricks vs. Spring Cloud Data Flow

Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks vs. Spring Cloud Data Flow and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Databricks vs. Spring Cloud Data Flow report.

See our list of best Streaming Analytics vendors.

We monitor all Streaming Analytics reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.