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Azure Data Factory vs Databricks comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.1
Azure Data Factory offers significant time, effort, and infrastructure savings, enhancing data analysis and decision-making capabilities.
Sentiment score
6.6
Organizations experience mixed returns from Databricks, with benefits from cost savings and efficiency, but challenges in initial migration.
When it comes to big data processing, I prefer Databricks over other solutions.
For a lot of different tasks, including machine learning, it is a nice solution.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Azure Data Factory support is praised for responsiveness, though some report delays; satisfaction varies with Microsoft partnerships.
Sentiment score
7.2
Databricks customer service is generally effective with prompt responses, though some report issues mainly with third-party support channels.
The technical support from Microsoft is rated an eight out of ten.
The technical support is responsive and helpful
The technical support for Azure Data Factory is generally acceptable.
Whenever we reach out, they respond promptly.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Azure Data Factory scales efficiently, managing large datasets for enterprises, though users note cost and integration limitations.
Sentiment score
7.4
Databricks is praised for efficient scalability and cloud compatibility, allowing easy resource adjustment across diverse projects and industries.
Azure Data Factory is highly scalable.
The patches have sometimes caused issues leading to our jobs being paused for about six hours.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Azure Data Factory is highly rated for stability, scalability, and performance, despite occasional minor issues with larger data volumes.
Sentiment score
7.7
Databricks is stable and efficient for large data, with minor issues during updates and occasional connectivity challenges.
The solution has a high level of stability, roughly a nine out of ten.
They release patches that sometimes break our code.
Cluster failure is one of the biggest weaknesses I notice in our Databricks.
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Data Factory requires improvements in integration, pricing, documentation, UI, monitoring, processing, and debugging for enhanced user experience.
Databricks users desire improved UI, enhanced data visualization, better integration, clearer error messages, robust support, and comprehensive documentation.
Incorporating more dedicated API sources to specific services like HubSpot CRM or Salesforce would be beneficial.
Sometimes, the compute fails to process data if there is a heavy load suddenly, and it doesn't scale up automatically.
There is a problem with the integration with third-party solutions, particularly with SAP.
It would be beneficial to have utilities where code snippets are readily available.
Adjusting features like worker nodes and node utilization during cluster creation could mitigate these failures.
We prefer using a small to mid-sized cluster for many jobs to keep costs low, but this sometimes doesn't support our operations properly.
 

Setup Cost

Azure Data Factory offers competitive, flexible pay-as-you-go pricing; costs vary by data volume and use of additional services.
Databricks pricing depends on usage, with flexibility in licensing, and can vary in competitiveness compared to other solutions.
The pricing is cost-effective.
It is considered cost-effective.
 

Valuable Features

Azure Data Factory enables easy data integration, management, and transformation with over 100 connectors, supporting ETL and automation efficiently.
Databricks provides a unified platform for data engineering, machine learning, seamless cloud integration, and robust data management capabilities.
It connects to different sources out-of-the-box, making integration much easier.
I find the most valuable feature in Azure Data Factory to be its ability to handle large datasets.
The interface of Azure Data Factory is very usable with a more interactive visual experience, making it easier for people who are not as experienced in coding to work with.
Databricks' capability to process data in parallel enhances data processing speed.
The notebooks and the ability to share them with collaborators are valuable, as multiple developers can use a single cluster.
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Data Factory
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (1st)
Databricks
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (1st), Streaming Analytics (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Azure Data Factory is 8.4%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Databricks is 8.4%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

Joy Maitra - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates seamless data pipeline creation with good analytics and and thorough monitoring
Azure Data Factory is a low code, no code platform, which is helpful. It provides many prebuilt functionalities that assist in building data pipelines. Also, it facilitates easy transformation with all required functionalities for analytics. Furthermore, it connects to different sources out-of-the-box, making integration much easier. The monitoring is very thorough, though a more readable version would be appreciable.
ShubhamSharma7 - PeerSpot reviewer
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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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How do you select the right cloud ETL tool?
AWS Glue and Azure Data factory for ELT best performance cloud services.
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica PowerCenter?
Azure Data Factory is flexible, modular, and works well. In terms of cost, it is not too pricey. It offers the stability and reliability I am looking for, good scalability, and is easy to set up an...
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
Azure Data Factory is a solid product offering many transformation functions; It has pre-load and post-load transformations, allowing users to apply transformations either in code by using Power Q...
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 ...
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...
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...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

1. Adobe 2. BMW 3. Coca-Cola 4. General Electric 5. Johnson & Johnson 6. LinkedIn 7. Mastercard 8. Nestle 9. Pfizer 10. Samsung 11. Siemens 12. Toyota 13. Unilever 14. Verizon 15. Walmart 16. Accenture 17. American Express 18. AT&T 19. Bank of America 20. Cisco 21. Deloitte 22. ExxonMobil 23. Ford 24. General Motors 25. IBM 26. JPMorgan Chase 27. Microsoft (Azure Data Factory is developed by Microsoft) 28. Oracle 29. Procter & Gamble 30. Salesforce 31. Shell 32. Visa
Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Data Factory vs. Databricks and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
848,207 professionals have used our research since 2012.