Databricks vs VAST Data comparison

The compared Databricks and VAST Data solutions aren't in the same category. Databricks is ranked #9 in CDW , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 10.0% mindshare in the category. VAST Data is ranked #12 in N , and holds a 6.2% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Databricks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of VAST Data users who would recommend it.

Databricks

Read 93 Databricks reviews

18,865 Views
2,075 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

VAST Data

Read 2 VAST Data reviews

5,482 Views
1,261 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Databricks

VAST Data

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

Databricks and VAST Data are key competitors in the data management field. Databricks holds an advantage in data processing and analytics, while VAST Data shines in storage solutions.

Features: Databricks offers robust analytics capabilities, machine learning integration, and collaborative data science tools. VAST Data provides high-performance storage, resilience, and scalability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Databricks supports rapid implementation with a flexible cloud-based model. VAST Data features hardware-agnostic architecture for seamless integration. VAST Data provides reliable customer service, while Databricks offers extensive support for deploying complex data pipelines.

Pricing and ROI: Databricks has a broad pricing structure accommodating diverse analytics needs, offering potential for significant ROI through advanced insights. VAST Data provides lower storage costs with high durability, delivering compelling ROI for large-scale data storage.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloud Data Warehouse Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Data Warehouse

January 2026

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Helped 881,707 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

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Warehouse (9th), Data Science Platforms (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (5th), Streaming Analytics (1st)

VAST Data

Average Rating

10.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

All-Flash Storage (30th), File and Object Storage (18th), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (12th)

Mindshare comparison

Databricks and VAST Data aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Databricks is designed for Cloud Data Warehouse and holds a mindshare of 10.0%, up 7.2% compared to last year.
VAST Data, on the other hand, focuses on NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays, holds 6.2% mindshare, up 5.9% since last year.

Cloud Data Warehouse Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Databricks	10.0%
Snowflake	15.9%
Teradata	8.4%
Other	65.7%

Cloud Data Warehouse

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
VAST Data	6.2%
Dell PowerStore	19.6%
NetApp AFF	15.9%
Other	58.3%

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays

Featured Reviews

Satyam Wagh

Consultant at Nice Software Solutions

Unified data workflows have cut ticket processing times and are driving faster business insights

Databricks already provides monthly updates and continuously works on delivering new features while enhancing existing ones. However, the platform could become easier to use. While instruction-led workshops are available, offering more free instructional workshops would allow a wider audience to access and learn about Databricks. Additionally, providing use cases would help beginners gain more knowledge and hands-on experience. Regarding my experience, I was initially unfamiliar with the platform and had to conduct research and learn through various videos. I did find some instruction-led classes, but several of those required payment. The platform should provide more free resources to enable a broader audience to access and learn about Databricks. The platform itself is user-friendly and easy to use without complex issues, so I believe it does not need improvement in its core functionality. Rather, supporting aspects can be enhanced.

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Alan Powers

HPC CTO at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Stability-wise, a device that has been up and running for years

The failover capability and resiliency are some of the solution's valuable features. The big thing is resilience because it has richer coding in it, so multiple devices can't fail. Also, one can still access a number of CBoxes that can allow one to access their file system. Once a device fails, it fails the transparency of the end-user, and it just starts using another resource. The encryption capability, the snapshots, along with a whole bunch of features make the tool valuable. VAST Data keeps adding more and more features all the time.

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

"Databricks is hosted on the cloud. It is very easy to collaborate with other team members who are working on it. It is production-ready code, and scheduling the jobs is easy."

"The time travel feature is the solution's most valuable aspect."

"The simplicity of development is the most valuable feature."

"The built-in optimization recommendations halved the speed of queries and allowed us to reach decision points and deliver insights very quickly."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to use SQL directly with Databricks."

"It's great technology."

"The technical support is good."

"Databricks has a scalable Spark cluster creation process. The creators of Databricks are also the creators of Spark, and they are the industry leaders in terms of performance."

More Databricks pros

"This has been one of the most reliable storage systems that I have ever used."

"The solution is useful for machine learning and scientific applications, including computer simulations."

Cons

"Databricks' performance when serving the data to an analytics tool isn't as good as Snowflake's."

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

"Can be improved by including drag-and-drop features."

"The initial setup is difficult."

"Databricks is not geared towards the end-user, but rather it is for data engineers or data scientists."

"It would be very helpful if Databricks could integrate with platforms in addition to Azure."

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

"One area of improvement is the Databricks File System (DBFS), where command-line challenges arise when accessing files. Standardization of file paths on the system could help, as engineers sometimes struggle."

More Databricks cons

"The read/write ratio is an area in the solution with some flaws and needs improvement."

"The write performance could be improved because it is less than half of the read performance."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is okay. It's competitive."

"The price of Databricks is reasonable compared to other solutions."

"It is an expensive tool. The licensing model is a pay-as-you-go one."

"I rate the price of Databricks as eight out of ten."

"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 uses a price-per-use model, where you can use as much compute as you need."

"The solution is based on a licensing model."

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

More Databricks pricing and cost advice

"Price-wise, VAST Data is not the cheapest, not the most expensive one."

"We acquired VAST Data as a one-time, capital purchase."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	56

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 ...

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...

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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...

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Comparisons

Dataiku vs Databricks

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Databricks

Compared 5% of the time

Dremio vs Databricks

Compared 4% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs Databricks

Compared 4% of the time

KNIME Business Hub vs Databricks

Compared 2% of the time

More Databricks Competitors

Pure Storage FlashArray vs VAST Data

Compared 9% of the time

NetApp AFF vs VAST Data

Compared 8% of the time

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs VAST Data

Compared 7% of the time

MinIO vs VAST Data

Compared 7% of the time

Qumulo vs VAST Data

Compared 5% of the time

More VAST Data Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Databricks

January 2026

Download Databricks product report

Buyer's Guide

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays

January 2026

Download VAST Data product report

Also Known As

Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash

No data available

Overview

Databricks offers a scalable, versatile platform that integrates seamlessly with Spark and multiple languages, supporting data engineering, machine learning, and analytics in a unified environment.

Databricks stands out for its scalability, ease of use, and powerful integration with Spark, multiple languages, and leading cloud services like Azure and AWS. It provides tools such as the Notebook for collaboration, Delta Lake for efficient data management, and Unity Catalog for data governance. While enhancing data engineering and machine learning workflows, it faces challenges in visualization and third-party integration, with pricing and user interface navigation being common concerns. Despite needing improvements in connectivity and documentation, it remains popular for tasks like real-time processing and data pipeline management.

What features make Databricks unique?

Notebook: Enables collaborative work among team members.
Delta Lake: Optimizes data management operations.
Unity Catalog: Provides governance over data assets.
Cloud Integration: Seamlessly connects with major cloud platforms.

What benefits can users expect from Databricks?

Versatility: Supports diverse applications in data science and engineering.
Performance: Delivers efficient handling of large-scale analytics tasks.
Collaboration: Enhances teamwork in data projects.
Unified Environment: Centralizes machine learning and analytics activities.

In the tech industry, Databricks empowers teams to perform comprehensive data analytics, enabling them to conduct extensive ETL operations, run predictive modeling, and prepare data for SparkML. In retail, it supports real-time data processing and batch streaming, aiding in better decision-making. Enterprises across sectors leverage its capabilities for creating secure APIs and managing data lakes effectively.

Databricks

Innovation to break decades of data storage trade-offs.

VAST Data

Sample Customers

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

Norwest Venture Partners, General Dynamics Information Technology, Ginkgo Bioworks

Find out what your peers are saying about Snowflake Computing, Microsoft, Teradata and others in Cloud Data Warehouse. Updated: January 2026.

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