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IBM Watson Machine Learning vs Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

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

IBM Watson Machine Learning
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure Machine Lea...
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the AI Development Platforms category, the mindshare of IBM Watson Machine Learning is 2.1%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio is 4.6%, down from 9.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI Development Platforms Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio4.6%
IBM Watson Machine Learning2.1%
Other93.3%
AI Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Anurag Mayank - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly efficient solution that delivers the desired results to its users
I had not considered how the solution could be improved because I was focused on how it was helping me to solve my issues. If I consider how we want to use it in our organization, certain areas of improvement can be addressed. For instance, we want to use it with Generative AI, not like ChatGPT, but in a way intended for industrial use. It would be beneficial to incorporate more AI into the solution.
Takayuki Umehara - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined workflows with drag and drop convenience but needs enhancements in AI
I use Machine Learning Studio for system reselling and integration Machine Learning Studio is easy to use, with a significant feature being the drag and drop interface that enhances workflow without any complaints. It provides a return on investment and cost savings, proving beneficial for…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution ten out of ten."
"The solution is very valuable to our organization due to the fact that we can work on it as a workflow."
"It is has a lot of good features and we find the image classification very useful."
"It has improved self-service and customer satisfaction."
"I was particularly interested in trying the AutoML feature to see how it handles data and proposes new models. The variety of models it provides is impressive."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution's the cost and human labor savings."
"We can enable and change developer productivity with artificial intelligence-recommended code based on natural language input or exciting source code."
"Auto email and studio are great features."
"The solution's most beneficial feature is its integration with Azure."
"It is very easy to test different kinds of machine-learning algorithms with different parameters. You choose the algorithm, drag and drop to the workspace, and plug the dataset into this component."
"The visualizations are great. It makes it very easy to understand which model is working and why."
"I like being able to compare results across different training runs. The hyperparameter tuning function is a valuable feature because it provides the ability to run multiple experiments at the same time and compare results."
"The solution is really scalable."
"The product supports open-source tools."
"The solution facilitates our production."
 

Cons

"The supporting language is limited."
"Honestly, I haven't seen any comparative report that has run the same data through two different artificial intelligence or machine learning capabilities to get something out of it. I would love to see that."
"They should add more GPU processing power to improve performance, especially when dealing with large amounts of data."
"Sometimes training the model is difficult."
"Scaling is limited in some use cases. They need to make it easier to expand in all aspects."
"In future releases, I would like to see a more flexible environment."
"If I consider how we want to use it in our organization, certain areas of improvement can be addressed. For instance, we want to use it with Generative AI, not like ChatGPT, but in a way intended for industrial use."
"There should be data access security, a role level security. Right now, they don't offer this."
"Improvement in integration is crucial, and it'll be interesting to see how it develops, especially with SAP's move towards cloud-based solutions like SAP Rise and its collaboration with hyper scalers like AWS. Integrating SAP with hyperscaler machine learning solutions could simplify operations, although SAP's environment is complex. SAP has initiated deals with AWS for this purpose, but I'm not as familiar with Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio's involvement."
"This solution could be improved if they could integrate the data pipeline scheduling part for their interface."
"The data cleaning functionality is something that could be better and needs to be improved."
"Performance is very poor."
"While ML Studio does give you the ability to run a lot of transformations, it struggles when the transformations are a bit more complex, when your entire process is transformation-heavy."
"The product must improve its documentation."
"In terms of data capabilities, if we compare it to Google Cloud's BigQuery, we find a difference. When fetching data from web traffic, Google can do a lot of processing with small queries or functions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I've only been using the free tier, but it's quite competitive on a service basis."
"The pricing model is good."
"The pricing for Microsoft products can be complex due to changes and being cloud-based, so it's not straightforward. I've been familiar with it for years, but sometimes details about product licenses and distribution can be unclear. For Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio specifically, I would rate the price a six out of ten."
"To use MLS is fairly cheap. Even the paid account is something like $20/month, unless you are provisioning large numbers of VMs for a Hadoop cluster. The main MS makes money with this solution is forcing the user to deploy their model on REST API, and being charged each time the API is accessed. There are several pricing tiers for the API. If you do not use the API, then value of MLS is to create rapid experiments ($20/month). The resulting model is not exportable to use, thus you’ll have to recreate the algorithms in either R or Python, which is what I did. MLS results gave me a direction to work with, the actual work is mostly done in R and Python outside of MLS."
"We pay only the Azure costs for what we use, which involves some subscription costs. But essentially, you pay for what you use. There are no extra costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"When we got our first models and were ready for the user acceptance testing, our licensing fees were between €2,500 ($2,750 USD) and €3,000 ($3,300 USD) monthly."
"I rate the product price as a nine on a scale of one to ten, where ten means it is very expensive."
"There isn’t any such expensive costs and only a standard license is required."
"I rate the solution's pricing a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"The product is not that expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
10%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise30
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Watson Machine Learning?
I was particularly interested in trying the AutoML feature to see how it handles data and proposes new models. The variety of models it provides is impressive.
What needs improvement with IBM Watson Machine Learning?
Sometimes training the model is difficult. We need to have at least a few different components to evaluate and understand the behavior of different users to have a very, very high accuracy in the m...
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 ...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio?
The learning curve is very low. Operationalizing the model is also very easy within the Azure ecosystem.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio?
The pricing for Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio is reasonable since it's pay as you go, meaning it won't cost excessively unless specific resources are used.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Azure Machine Learning, MS Azure Machine Learning Studio
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Schneider Electric, BP
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Watson Machine Learning vs. Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.