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Apache Spark vs Spot by Flexera comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 19, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.6
Apache Spark provides up to 50% cost savings, boosting efficiency and reducing expenses significantly in machine learning analytics.
Sentiment score
7.9
Spot by Flexera cut compute costs by 75%, saved over 500,000 euros annually, and improved flexibility and operations.
By using Spot by Flexera across a year, we were able to save more than 500,000 euros.
License manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Our technology predicts demand, selects the cheapest instance mix, sizes the workloads appropriately, and scales it automatically based on policy, resulting in significant savings by reducing manual work and enhancing our flexibility, which has helped accelerate our deployments.
Global Hyperscaler Alliances Director at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
I cannot share the exact number, but I can share the figure that my EC2 and EKS compute cost reduced by around 65 to 75% with Spot.
Dev Ops Engineer at a construction company with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.0
Apache Spark offers vibrant community support and resources, with commercial support available through vendors like Cloudera and Hadoop.
Sentiment score
8.4
Spot by Flexera provides responsive and effective customer service, receiving high ratings for their excellent technical support.
I have received support via newsgroups or guidance on specific discussions, which is what I would expect in an open-source situation.
Data Architect at Devtech
I would rate the technical support of Apache Spark an eight because when we had questions, we found solutions, and it was straightforward.
Consultant, Chief Engineer, Teamleiter at infoteam Software AG
I would rate the customer support a nine out of ten.
Global Hyperscaler Alliances Director at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
We did not have to use it many times, but the few times that we did use it, it was very fast and very useful.
License manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Apache Spark's scalability and versatility enable efficient large-scale data processing, making it a reliable choice for diverse teams.
Sentiment score
7.6
Spot by Flexera is scalable, adaptable, and open-source, effectively managing AWS expansions and connecting diverse data sources.
It is also a very easy tool to connect to different data sources and different servers since it is open source.
License manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Spot's scalability is quite good, and it can be expanded to multiple environments.
Dev Ops Engineer at a construction company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Apache Spark is praised for its robust stability and reliability, with high user ratings despite minor configuration challenges.
Sentiment score
6.3
Spot by Flexera is stable but faces data update delays, requiring manual IT asset corrections and user-reported server discrepancies.
Apache Spark resolves many problems in the MapReduce solution and Hadoop, such as the inability to run effective Python or machine learning algorithms.
Data Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Without a doubt, we have had some crashes because each situation is different, and while the prototype in my environment is stable, we do not know everything at other customer sites.
Data Architect at Devtech
In Spot by Flexera, we could see both computers, the old and the new one, but the system was not recognizing that the old one was no longer being used.
License manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Apache Spark needs improvements in real-time querying, user-friendliness, logging, large dataset handling, and expanded programming language support.
Spot by Flexera could improve through storage cost optimization, better integrations, enhanced UI guidance, timely updates, and Kubernetes insights.
Various tools like Informatica, TIBCO, or Talend offer specific aspects, licensing can be costly;
Data Architect at Devtech
I find that there really lacks the technical depth to do any recommendations for future updates of Apache Spark.
Consultant, Chief Engineer, Teamleiter at infoteam Software AG
Continuously making advancements based on customer feedback.
Global Hyperscaler Alliances Director at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Spot could be improved by adding features that help identify data to optimize storage costs by detecting datasets within our environment based on criteria such as age and usage.
AVP DevOps and Product Support at a recruiting/HR firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
More guided onboarding would help teams adopt advanced features faster.
Dev Ops Engineer at a construction company with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

Apache Spark is cost-effective but can incur high infrastructure costs, especially in cloud setups like Databricks, with setup time variability.
Users praise Spot by Flexera's pricing for its competitiveness and convenience, rating it highly against market alternatives.
The pricing is reasonable and convenient, and the value it offers is completely in line with what I am spending.
Dev Ops Engineer at a construction company with 11-50 employees
I was aware of different pricing, setup costs, and licensing across the company.
License manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Apache Spark provides scalable, in-memory data processing with flexible support for distributed computing, streaming, and machine learning integration.
Spot by Flexera optimizes cloud costs, manages resources efficiently, and integrates with AWS, improving scalability and decision-making with AI.
Not all solutions can make this data fast enough to be used, except for solutions such as Apache Spark Structured Streaming.
Data Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
The most important part is that everything can be connected, and the data exchange across overseas connections is fast and reliable.
Consultant, Chief Engineer, Teamleiter at infoteam Software AG
The solution is beneficial in that it provides a base-level long-held understanding of the framework that is not variant day by day, which is very helpful in my prototyping activity as an architect trying to assess Apache Spark, Great Expectations, and Vault-based solutions versus those proposed by clients like TIBCO or Informatica.
Data Architect at Devtech
Spot's automated cost optimization works by continuously analyzing the workload and applying policies to minimize cloud spend without sacrificing performance.
Global Hyperscaler Alliances Director at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The fact that it can mix dozens of instance families dynamically is something which the AWS native autoscalers simply cannot do.
Dev Ops Engineer at a construction company with 11-50 employees
Spot helps us detect such changes within AWS at least one hour prior, allowing us to have a mitigation plan in place and host other servers within the same setup to avoid impacting the application.
AVP DevOps and Product Support at a recruiting/HR firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache Spark
Ranking in Compute Service
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (1st), Java Frameworks (2nd)
Spot by Flexera
Ranking in Compute Service
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Management (20th), Server Virtualization Software (14th), Cloud Operations Analytics (1st), Cloud Analytics (3rd), Containers as a Service (CaaS) (3rd), Cloud Cost Management (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Apache Spark is 9.7%, down from 11.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Spot by Flexera is 4.0%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Compute Service Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Apache Spark9.7%
Spot by Flexera4.0%
Other86.3%
Compute Service
 

Featured Reviews

Devindra Weerasooriya - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect at Devtech
Provides a consistent framework for building data integration and access solutions with reliable performance
The in-memory computation feature is certainly helpful for my processing tasks. It is helpful because while using structures that could be held in memory rather than stored during the period of computation, I go for the in-memory option, though there are limitations related to holding it in memory that need to be addressed, but I have a preference for in-memory computation. The solution is beneficial in that it provides a base-level long-held understanding of the framework that is not variant day by day, which is very helpful in my prototyping activity as an architect trying to assess Apache Spark, Great Expectations, and Vault-based solutions versus those proposed by clients like TIBCO or Informatica.
Bruna Müller - PeerSpot reviewer
License manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Centralized asset data has transformed how we manage licenses and make cost-saving decisions
One problem that we faced using Spot by Flexera is that in certain servers, the data was not being updated correctly, and we had a certain delay. For example, someone was using a computer, and then this user received a new one. In Spot by Flexera, we could see both computers, the old and the new one, but the system was not recognizing that the old one was no longer being used. We had a couple of IT assets that were not being used, and we had this information in our internal servers, but Spot by Flexera was not able to update on time. We had to fix this information manually.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
24%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise32
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Spark?
Apache Spark is open-source, so it doesn't incur any charges.
What needs improvement with Apache Spark?
I find that there really lacks the technical depth to do any recommendations for future updates of Apache Spark. I used it for two years for our prototype work and testing things, but because I had...
What is your primary use case for Apache Spark?
I attempted to use Apache Spark in one of our customer projects, but after the initial test, our customer moved to another technology and another database system. I do not have any final remarks on...
What needs improvement with Spot Ocean?
I think overall Spot is quite good. The UI is powerful, but it can feel a bit dense for some new users. More guided onboarding would help teams adopt advanced features faster, and deeper insights i...
What is your primary use case for Spot Ocean?
My primary use case for Spot revolves around managing and optimizing my compute infrastructure across AWS, mainly EC2 and EKS on a daily basis, such as monitoring the workloads and ensuring that Ku...
What advice do you have for others considering Spot Ocean?
I would definitely recommend Spot for those looking to run their workloads on AWS, especially those needing cheaper compute for tasks that will not require much for temporary processing. For scalin...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Spot Ocean, Spot Elastigroup, Spot Eco
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NASA JPL, UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, UC Santa Cruz, TripAdvisor, Taboola, Agile Lab, Art.com, Baidu, Alibaba Taobao, EURECOM, Hitachi Solutions
Freshworks, Zalando, Red Spark, News, Trax, ETAS, Demandbase, BeesWa, Duolingo, intel, IBM, N26, Wix, EyeEm, moovit, SAMSUNG, News UK, ticketmaster
Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Spark vs. Spot by Flexera and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
889,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.