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IBM Watson Machine Learning vs TensorFlow 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
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
TensorFlow
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the AI Development Platforms category, the mindshare of IBM Watson Machine Learning is 2.0%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TensorFlow is 5.4%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI Development Platforms Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
TensorFlow5.4%
IBM Watson Machine Learning2.0%
Other92.6%
AI Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Anurag Mayank - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at Maruti Suzuki India Limited
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.
TJ
Owner at Go knowledge
Has good stability, but the process of creating models could be more user-friendly
The platform integrates well with other tools, especially Python, which we use to create models. These models can be deployed on mobile devices, which perfectly suits our requirements. It supports our AI-driven initiatives very well by producing AI models, which is its primary function. I recommend it for those seeking specialized scripting. However, it's important to consider other options as well. It is better suited for specialists in the field and is less user-friendly than general tools like Excel. I rate it overall at six out of ten. While it is a powerful tool, other software options are slightly simpler for training models.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is has a lot of good features and we find the image classification very useful."
"We can enable and change developer productivity with artificial intelligence-recommended code based on natural language input or exciting source code."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution's the cost and human labor savings."
"The solution is very valuable to our organization due to the fact that we can work on it as a workflow."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution ten out of ten."
"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."
"It has improved self-service and customer satisfaction."
"It provides us with 35 features like patch normalization layers, and it is easy to implement using the Kras library when the Kaspersky flow is running behind it."
"It is easy to use and learn."
"TensorFlow is easy to implement and offers inbuilt functions for various tasks."
"The most valuable features are the frameworks and the functionality to work with different data, even when we have a certain quantity of data flowing."
"Edge computing has some limited resources but TensorFlow has been improving in its features. It is a great tool for developers."
"The available documentation is extensive and helpful."
"I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. I am not a developer but more of an account manager. I can find what I want with TensorFlow. I haven’t contacted technical support for any issues. Since TensorFlow is vastly documented on the internet, I usually find some good websites where people exchange their views about the solution and apply that."
"The most valuable feature of TensorFlow is deep learning. It is the best tool for deep learning in the market."
 

Cons

"Scaling is limited in some use cases. They need to make it easier to expand in all aspects."
"Sometimes training the model is difficult."
"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."
"The supporting language is limited."
"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."
"They should add more GPU processing power to improve performance, especially when dealing with large amounts of data."
"There are a lot of problems, such as integrating our custom code. In my experience model tuning has been a bit difficult to edit and tune the graph model for best performance. We have to go into the model but we do not have a model viewer for quick access."
"We encountered version mismatch errors while using the product."
"TensorFlow Lite only outputs to C."
"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."
"It would be cool if TensorFlow could make it easier for companies like us to program for running it across different hyperscalers."
"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."
"Personally, I find it to be a bit too much AI-oriented."
"I know this is out of the scope of TensorFlow, however, every time I've sent a request, I had to renew the model into RAM and they didn't make that prediction or inference. This makes the point for the request that much longer. If they could provide anything to help in this part, it will be very great."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing model is good."
"I've only been using the free tier, but it's quite competitive on a service basis."
"It is open-source software. You don't have to pay all the big bucks like Azure and Databricks."
"I rate TensorFlow's pricing a five out of ten."
"TensorFlow is free."
"The solution is free."
"We are using the free version."
"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 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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Educational Organization
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What is your primary use case for IBM Watson Machine Learning?
We use different artificial intelligence models to build questions and get answers for clients.
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...
What is your primary use case for TensorFlow?
I've used TensorFlow for image classification tasks, object detection tasks, and OCR.
 

Overview

 

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 IBM Watson Machine Learning vs. TensorFlow and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.