Aiven Platform vs Databricks comparison

Aiven and Databricks are both solutions in the Streaming Analytics category. Aiven is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.5, while Databricks is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. Aiven holds a 1.3% mindshare in SA, compared to Databricks’s 14.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Aiven users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Databricks users who would recommend it.

Aiven Platform

Read 2 Aiven Platform reviews

1,034 Views
427 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Databricks

Read 88 Databricks reviews

5,646 Views
4,053 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Aiven Platform

Databricks

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Aiven Platform and Databricks based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and others in Streaming Analytics.

To learn more, read our detailed Streaming Analytics Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Streaming Analytics

March 2025

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Helped 845,406 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

Aiven Platform

Ranking in Streaming Analytics

13th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Databricks

Ranking in Streaming Analytics

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Warehouse (7th), Data Science Platforms (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Aiven Platform is 1.3%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Databricks is 14.6%, up from 10.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Streaming Analytics

Featured Reviews

njadm

CTO and Co-Founder at PeerSpot

Seamlessly handle database upgrades and minimize downtime disruptions

One of the most valuable features of Aiven Platform is that it handles the upgrades for us seamlessly, saving us time that would be spent on routine upgrades. It also provides reliable backups. The ability to minimize disruption during upgrades is very important since any database downtime would mean system-wide disruptions.

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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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the most valuable features of Aiven Platform is that it handles the upgrades for us seamlessly, saving us time that would be spent on routine upgrades."

"What I like best about the tool is that the process for the services is faster compared to other methods. It's easier to use because Aiven for Apache Kafka handles the maintenance, so we have less to manage. We only use Kafka to manage its connectivity."

"Databricks is a robust solution for big data processing, offering flexibility and powerful features."

"It offers AI functionalities that assist with code management and machine learning processes."

"It's great technology."

"Easy to use and requires minimal coding and customizations."

"Databricks' most valuable features are the workspace and notebooks. Its integration, interface, and documentation are also good."

"The most valuable features of the solution are the hardware and the resources it quickly provides without much hassle."

"We have the ability to scale, collaborate and do machine learning."

"The ease of use and its accessibility are valuable."

More Databricks pros

Cons

"One challenge we face is when we want to update the version, for example, from 3.6 to 3.7. It will spawn new nodes, and then there's rebalancing and syncing from other brokers. There's high CPU usage during this process, so the solution can't be used for a while, causing some downtime in our services. To tackle this challenge, we schedule maintenance updates during low-traffic periods when there's less risk and fewer users use the services."

"I would really like to see Aiven Platform add a user interface for database backups, as this would eliminate the need for a third-party solution."

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

"It would be better if it were faster. It can be slow, and it can be super fast for big data. But for small data, sometimes there is a sub-second response, which can be considered slow. In the next release, I would like to have automatic creation of APIs because they don't have it at the moment, and I spend a lot of time building them."

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

"There is room for improvement in visualization."

"In the future, I would like to see Data Lake support. That is something that I'm looking forward to."

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

"I would like it if Databricks made it easier to set up a project."

"We'd like a more visual dashboard for analysis It needs better UI."

More Databricks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The product pricing is moderate."

"Whenever we want to find the actual costing, we have to send an email to Databricks, so having the information available on the internet would be helpful."

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

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

"The pricing depends on the usage itself."

"The solution uses a pay-per-use model with an annual subscription fee or package. Typically this solution is used on a cloud platform, such as Azure or AWS, but more people are choosing Azure because the price is more reasonable."

"My smallest project is around a hundred euros, and my most expensive is just under a thousand euros a week. That is based on terabytes of data processed each month."

"The licensing costs of Databricks depend on how many licenses we need, depending on which Databricks provides a lot of discounts."

More Databricks pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Media Company

Real Estate/Law Firm

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Aiven for Apache Kafka?

One challenge we face is when we want to update the version, for example, from 3.6 to 3.7. It will spawn new nodes, and then there's rebalancing and syncing from other brokers. There's high CPU usa...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Aiven for Apache Kafka?

I use Aiven for Apache Kafka to handle services dependent on each other. Instead of API calls, we use it for asynchronous processing of all our services. That's the general way we use it.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Aiven for Apache Kafka?

Apache Kafka is really good for streaming data or messaging services. It's comparable to other messaging services. Overall, I'd rate Aiven for Apache Kafka an eight out of ten.

See all answers

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

Comparisons

Confluent vs Aiven Platform

Compared 53% of the time

Amazon MSK vs Aiven Platform

Compared 32% of the time

Talend Data Streams vs Aiven Platform

Compared 15% of the time

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Dataiku vs Databricks

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Databricks

Compared 9% of the time

Dremio vs Databricks

Compared 8% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs Databricks

Compared 7% of the time

Tableau vs Databricks

Compared 5% of the time

More Databricks Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Streaming Analytics

March 2025

Download Aiven Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Databricks

March 2025

Download Databricks product report

Also Known As

No data available

Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash

Overview

Aiven for Apache Kafka is a robust data streaming platform utilized for real-time analytics, event-driven architectures, and message brokering, enhancing data processing across systems. It features scalable operations, excellent data replication, and comprehensive monitoring, significantly improving organizational efficiency and decision-making processes through high-level data management capabilities.

Aiven

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

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and others in Streaming Analytics. Updated: March 2025.

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