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Databricks pros and cons

Vendor: Databricks

4.1 out of 5

92 reviews
96% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

Databricks offers robust integration capabilities with various technologies and excels in data science, supporting multiple programming languages for enhanced flexibility. It provides scalable processing power and an efficient Lakehouse architecture with high-speed query processing. Improvements can be made in integration, visualization tools, and error clarity. Currently, users face challenges with pricing and reliance on Python or SQL. Despite these, its data governance and optimization features are appealing to tech buyers.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Databricks offers excellent integration capabilities, making it compatible with various open source technologies and external systems.

The platform excels in machine learning and data science applications, providing scalable and efficient processing power.

Lakehouse architecture offers efficient data governance and integrates well with legacy systems.

High-speed query processing is supported by built-in optimization features.

The platform supports multiple programming languages, enhancing its flexibility and ease of use for various tasks.

CONS

Databricks could improve its integration features by making them more comprehensive and compatible with various platforms, including enhancements to Azure's diagnostics.

Improving visualization capabilities by offering more advanced visualization and machine learning libraries would benefit data scientists.

Error messages in Databricks are often vague, such as "unknown exception," which makes debugging difficult for developers.

The pricing of Databricks is relatively high and could be more cost-effective to provide better value for users.

Databricks requires writing code primarily in Python or SQL, which could pose challenges for users not proficient in these programming languages.

Databricks Pros review quotes

Data Scientist at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

Mar 16, 2020

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

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CEO at Inosense

Dec 3, 2019

We are completely satisfied with the ease of connecting to different sources of data or pocket files in the search

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Business Intelligence and Analytics Consultant at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Dec 9, 2019

Automation with Databricks is very easy when using the API.

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Data Science Developer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Dec 11, 2019

Databricks is based on a Spark cluster and it is fast. Performance-wise, it is great.

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Machine Learning Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Dec 25, 2019

The most valuable aspect of the solution is its notebook. It's quite convenient to use, both terms of the research and the development and also the final deployment, I can just declare the spark jobs by the load tables. It's quite convenient.

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SH

ShrikanthHebbar

Data Science Consultant at Syniti

Jan 7, 2020

I work in the data science field and I found Databricks to be very useful.

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reviewer1276107

Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Feb 4, 2020

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

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reviewer1270416

Vice President, Business Intelligence and Analytics at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Feb 5, 2020

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

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reviewer1276782

Data Scientist at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

Feb 9, 2020

Imageflow is a visual tool that helps make it easier for business people to understand complex workflows.

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Pre-sale Leader, Big Data Enterprise Solutions at Ness Technologies

Apr 13, 2020

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

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Databricks Cons review quotes

Data Scientist at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

Mar 16, 2020

The product could be improved by offering an expansion of their visualization capabilities, which currently assists in development in their notebook environment.

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CEO at Inosense

Dec 3, 2019

The integration features could be more interesting, more involved.

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Business Intelligence and Analytics Consultant at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Dec 9, 2019

Some of the error messages that we receive are too vague, saying things like "unknown exception", and these should be improved to make it easier for developers to debug problems.

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Free Report: Databricks Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Databricks. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Data Science Developer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Dec 11, 2019

It should have more compatible and more advanced visualization and machine learning libraries.

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Machine Learning Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Dec 25, 2019

The solution could be improved by integrating it with data packets. Right now, the load tables provide a function, like team collaboration. Still, it's unclear as to if there's a function to create different branches and/or more branches. Our team had used data packets before, however, I feel it's difficult to integrate the current with the previous data packets.

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SH

ShrikanthHebbar

Data Science Consultant at Syniti

Jan 7, 2020

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

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reviewer1276107

Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Feb 4, 2020

Databricks is an analytics platform. It should offer more data science. It should have more features for data scientists to work with.

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reviewer1270416

Vice President, Business Intelligence and Analytics at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Feb 5, 2020

Pricing is one of the things that could be improved.

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reviewer1276782

Data Scientist at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

Feb 9, 2020

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

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Pre-sale Leader, Big Data Enterprise Solutions at Ness Technologies

Apr 13, 2020

I have seen better user interfaces, so that is something that can be improved.

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