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Apache Spark Streaming vs Azure Stream Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 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

Apache Spark Streaming
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Azure Stream Analytics
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Apache Spark Streaming is 2.9%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure Stream Analytics is 11.1%, down from 12.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

AbhishekGupta - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy integration, beneficial auto-scaling, and good open-sourced support community
The service structure of Apache Spark Streaming can improve. There are a lot of issues with memory management and latency. There is no real-time analytics. We recommend it for the use cases where there is a five-second latency, but not for a millisecond, an IOT-based, or the detection anomaly-based. Flink as a service is much better. Apache Spark Streaming does not have auto-tuning. A customer needs to invest a lot, in terms of management and maintenance.
SantiagoCordero - PeerSpot reviewer
Native connectors and integration simplify tasks but portfolio complexity needs addressing
There are too many products in the Azure landscape, which sometimes leads to overlap between them. Microsoft continuously releases new products or solutions, which can be frustrating when determining the appropriate features from one solution over another. A cost comparison between products is also not straightforward. They should simplify their portfolio. The Microsoft licensing system is confusing and not easy to understand, and this is something they should address. In the future, I may stop using Stream Analytics and move to other solutions. I discussed Palantir earlier, which is something I want to explore in depth because it allows me to accomplish more efficiently compared to solely using Azure. Additionally, the vendors should make the solution more user-friendly, incorporating low-code and no-code features. This is something I wish to explore further.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's the fastest solution on the market with low latency data on data transformations."
"The solution is very stable and reliable."
"The platform’s most valuable feature for processing real-time data is its ability to handle continuous data streams."
"As an open-source solution, using it is basically free."
"The solution is better than average and some of the valuable features include efficiency and stability."
"Apache Spark Streaming has features like checkpointing and Streaming API that are useful."
"Apache Spark Streaming's most valuable feature is near real-time analytics. The developers can build APIs easily for a code-steaming pipeline. The solutions have an ecosystem of integration with other stock services."
"Apache Spark's capabilities for machine learning are quite extensive and can be used in a low-code way."
"The solution's technical support is good."
"The way it organizes data into tables and dashboards is very helpful."
"Any time I needed assistance, they were helpful."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its ability to create a query using SQ."
"I like the IoT part. We have mostly used Azure Stream Analytics services for it"
"Technical support is pretty helpful."
"The most valuable features are the IoT hub and the Blob storage."
"I like the way the UI looks, and the real-time analytics service is aligned to this. That can be helpful if I have to use this on a production service."
 

Cons

"In terms of improvement, the UI could be better."
"The service structure of Apache Spark Streaming can improve. There are a lot of issues with memory management and latency. There is no real-time analytics. We recommend it for the use cases where there is a five-second latency, but not for a millisecond, an IOT-based, or the detection anomaly-based. Flink as a service is much better."
"The debugging aspect could use some improvement."
"The initial setup is quite complex."
"It was resource-intensive, even for small-scale applications."
"Integrating event-level streaming capabilities could be beneficial."
"The cost and load-related optimizations are areas where the tool lacks and needs improvement."
"There could be an improvement in the area of the user configuration section, it should be less developer-focused and more business user-focused."
"There are too many products in the Azure landscape, which sometimes leads to overlap between them."
"Azure Stream Analytics is challenging to customize because it's not very flexible."
"Early in the process, we had some issues with stability."
"Azure Stream Analytics could improve by having clearer metrics as to the scale, more metrics around the data set size that is flowing through it, and performance tuning recommendations."
"The solution could be improved by providing better graphics and including support for UI and UX testing."
"One area that could use improvement is the handling of data validation. Currently, there is a review process, but sometimes the validation fails even before the job is executed. This results in wasted time as we have to rerun the job to identify the failure."
"If something goes wrong, it's very hard to investigate what caused it and why."
"The solution doesn't handle large data packets very efficiently, which could be improved upon."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Spark is an affordable solution, especially considering its open-source nature."
"I was using the open-source community version, which was self-hosted."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is expensive, or not cost-effective, and ten is cheap, I rate the price a seven."
"People pay for Apache Spark Streaming as a service."
"The product's price is at par with the other solutions provided by the other cloud service providers in the market."
"There are different tiers based on retention policies. There are four tiers. The pricing varies based on steaming units and tiers. The standard pricing is $10/hour."
"When scaling up, the pricing for Azure Stream Analytics can get relatively high. Considering its capabilities compared to other solutions, I would rate it a seven out of ten for cost. However, we've found ways to optimize costs using tools like Databricks for specific tasks."
"The licensing for this product is payable on a 'pay as you go' basis. This means that the cost is only based on data volume, and the frequency that the solution is used."
"Azure Stream Analytics is a little bit expensive."
"We pay approximately $500,000 a year. It's approximately $10,000 a year per license."
"The current price is substantial."
"The cost of this solution is less than competitors such as Amazon or Google Cloud."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
6%
University
5%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Apache Spark Streaming?
Apache Spark Streaming is versatile. You can use it for competitive intelligence, gathering data from competitors, or for internal tasks like monitoring workflows.
What needs improvement with Apache Spark Streaming?
We don't have enough experience to be judgmental about its flaws, as we've only used stable features like batch micro-batch. Integration poses no problem; however, I don't use some features and can...
What is your primary use case for Apache Spark Streaming?
We use Spark Streaming in a micro-batch region. It's not a full real-time system, but it offers high performance and low latency.
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Stream Analytics?
When I purchased the product, it was comparable to other Azure products. From my point of view, it should be cheaper now, considering the years since its release. The Azure solution is better now, ...
What needs improvement with Azure Stream Analytics?
There are too many products in the Azure landscape, which sometimes leads to overlap between them. Microsoft continuously releases new products or solutions, which can be frustrating when determini...
 

Also Known As

Spark Streaming
ASA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, Alibaba Taobao, Kenshoo, eBay Inc.
Rockwell Automation, Milliman, Honeywell Building Solutions, Arcoflex Automation Solutions, Real Madrid C.F., Aerocrine, Ziosk, Tacoma Public Schools, P97 Networks
Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Spark Streaming vs. Azure Stream Analytics and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
841,004 professionals have used our research since 2012.