Databricks vs IBM Planning Analytics comparison

The compared Databricks and IBM solutions aren't in the same category. Databricks is ranked #9 in CDW , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 10.0% mindshare in the category. IBM is ranked #4 in BPM , with an average rating of 8.2, and holds a 4.5% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Databricks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Databricks

Read 93 Databricks reviews

18,865 Views
2,075 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

IBM Planning Analytics

Read 28 IBM Planning Analytics reviews

3,062 Views
1,286 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Databricks

IBM Planning Analytics

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Databricks and IBM Planning Analytics based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Snowflake Computing, Microsoft, Teradata and others in Cloud Data Warehouse.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloud Data Warehouse Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Data Warehouse

February 2026

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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

6.5

Databricks reduces costs and boosts efficiency, yet some users struggle to realize financial gains despite improved productivity.

Sentiment score

7.3

IBM Planning Analytics boosts ROI by enhancing budgeting, analysis, and productivity but faces affordability issues due to increased pricing.

This reduction in both time and money resulted in real-time impact and significant cost savings.

Satyam Wagh

Consultant at Nice Software Solutions

For a lot of different tasks, including machine learning, it is a nice solution.

Parag Bhosale

Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees

When it comes to big data processing, I prefer Databricks over other solutions.

IshwarSukheja

Head CEO at bizmetric

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

I have seen a return on investment, as the accuracy has really improved in my organization since everything is automated.

Sai Tilak

Team Lead Manager at Finlays

Since using this tool, I can now make decisions faster, even when there is just a small change in the data.

Gladys Njeri

Key Account Manager at DHL

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.9

Databricks support is professional and responsive, with users appreciating efficient issue resolution and effective assistance despite occasional delays.

Sentiment score

7.0

IBM Planning Analytics support is responsive and efficient, rated highly by users, yet there's room for faster direct resolutions.

Whenever we reach out, they respond promptly.

Parag Bhosale

Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees

As of now, we are raising issues and they are providing solutions without any problems.

Prabhakar Bonam

Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA

I rate the technical support as fine because they have levels of technical support available, especially partners who get really good support from Databricks on new features.

Lax Kas

Data Engineer at CRAFT Tech

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

We have a multi-level support system, with the initial level handled by the company we bought the license from and subsequent support from IBM.

reviewer1517922

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

Instead, we rely on third-party partners recognized by IBM, who provide cost-effective support.

Ayman Alshabani

Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

They have been very dedicated and provided top-notch solutions.

reviewer2798436

Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.4

Databricks is praised for scalable, cost-effective cloud compatibility, efficient data handling, and seamless integration with Azure and AWS.

Sentiment score

7.9

IBM Planning Analytics offers high scalability, efficiently managing data with real-time handling and flexibility for small to enterprise businesses.

The sky's the limit with Databricks.

SimonRobinson

Governance And Engagement Lead

The patches have sometimes caused issues leading to our jobs being paused for about six hours.

Parag Bhosale

Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees

Databricks is an easily scalable platform.

Prabhakar Bonam

Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

IBM Planning Analytics' scalability is impressive, as it is able to gather data from multiple sources and handle huge amounts of data without any lagging or downtime.

Sai Tilak

Team Lead Manager at Finlays

Scalability is quite hard to implement in TM1, largely since the on-premise installation chosen back in 2014.

reviewer1517922

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

Scalability is straightforward but it is pricey since it's a SaaS model priced per user.

Ayman Alshabani

Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.6

Databricks is generally stable and reliable, with occasional glitches, handling large data sets effectively according to users.

Sentiment score

7.9

IBM Planning Analytics offers stability and reliable performance for forecasting, with occasional fixable issues requiring vendor support.

They release patches that sometimes break our code.

Parag Bhosale

Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees

Although it is too early to definitively state the platform's stability, we have not encountered any issues so far.

Prabhakar Bonam

Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA

Databricks is definitely a very stable product and reliable.

AvivCohen

Data Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

The performance of IBM Planning Analytics has always been fast and reliable for my needs, even when dealing with huge volumes of data.

Gladys Njeri

Key Account Manager at DHL

This stability is really important as we use it for budget calculation, which is time-consuming.

reviewer1517922

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

IBM Planning Analytics is stable because the reason we switched from IBM Cognos is that IBM Planning Analytics capability allows us to connect to multiple tools, which we could not do before.

reviewer2798436

Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Room For Improvement

Databricks requires better visualization, integration, pricing, user experience, scalability, and documentation to enhance functionality and user adaptation.

Users recommend improving IBM Planning Analytics usability, interface design, automation, integration, performance, scalability, offline access, and reducing upgrade frequency.

Adjusting features like worker nodes and node utilization during cluster creation could mitigate these failures.

ShubhamSharma7

Data Engineer at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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.

Parag Bhosale

Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees

We use MLflow for managing MLOps, however, further improvement would be beneficial, especially for large language models and related tools.

Rama Subba Reddy Thavva

Solution Architect at Mercedes-Benz AG

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

The abundance of features results in complexity, requiring strict guidelines for developers to ensure simplistic approaches are adhered to.

reviewer1517922

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

IBM's visualization needs significant improvement.

Ayman Alshabani

Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

The advanced features are somewhat complex to understand, and if the data set is very large, it takes a lot of time to process, which causes performance to become slower.

reviewer2798436

Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Setup Cost

Databricks offers competitive, flexible pay-per-use pricing, but costs vary by usage, often higher than open-source alternatives.

IBM Planning Analytics offers flexible licensing models and competitive pricing, with consulting fees impacting overall costs significantly.

It is not a cheap solution.

Prabhakar Bonam

Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA

I believe that in terms of credits for Databricks, we're spending between £15,000 and £20,000 a month.

SimonRobinson

Governance And Engagement Lead

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

TM1 is quite expensive, and I'd rate the pricing as an eight out of ten.

reviewer1517922

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

While IBM's solutions were costly before, the introduction of SaaS models has reduced prices significantly.

Ayman Alshabani

Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IBM Planning Analytics is that the pricing and licensing cost can be somewhat on the higher side, especially for small organizations.

reviewer2798436

Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Valuable Features

Databricks offers scalable analytics with powerful machine learning, seamless cloud integration, and efficient data governance for rapid data processing.

IBM Planning Analytics provides fast calculations, customization, Excel integration, and automation for efficient financial performance management and data analysis.

Databricks' capability to process data in parallel enhances data processing speed.

ShubhamSharma7

Data Engineer at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The platform allows us to leverage cloud advantages effectively, enhancing our AI and ML projects.

Prabhakar Bonam

Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA

The Unity Catalog is for data governance, and the Delta Lake is to build the lakehouse.

Lax Kas

Data Engineer at CRAFT Tech

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

Its stability helps controllers win time in their planning processes.

reviewer1517922

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

It also integrates machine learning and AI engines, enabling us to use algorithms for inventory forecasting which optimizes our inventory and replenishment rates.

Ayman Alshabani

Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Some of the valuable features of IBM Planning Analytics are its intuitive and user-friendly interface, reporting output and scheduling, access control and security, and mobile capabilities.

reviewer2798436

Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Categories and Ranking

Databricks

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Warehouse (9th), Data Science Platforms (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (5th), Streaming Analytics (1st)

IBM Planning Analytics

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Performance Management (4th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. Databricks is designed for Cloud Data Warehouse and holds a mindshare of 10.0%, up 7.2% compared to last year.
IBM Planning Analytics, on the other hand, focuses on Business Performance Management, holds 4.5% mindshare, down 9.1% since last year.

Cloud Data Warehouse Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Databricks	10.0%
Snowflake	15.9%
Teradata	8.4%
Other	65.7%

Cloud Data Warehouse

Business Performance Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Planning Analytics	4.5%
Anaplan	6.9%
CCH Tagetik	5.1%
Other	83.5%

Business Performance Management

Featured Reviews

Satyam Wagh

Consultant at Nice Software Solutions

Unified data workflows have cut ticket processing times and are driving faster business insights

Databricks already provides monthly updates and continuously works on delivering new features while enhancing existing ones. However, the platform could become easier to use. While instruction-led workshops are available, offering more free instructional workshops would allow a wider audience to access and learn about Databricks. Additionally, providing use cases would help beginners gain more knowledge and hands-on experience. Regarding my experience, I was initially unfamiliar with the platform and had to conduct research and learn through various videos. I did find some instruction-led classes, but several of those required payment. The platform should provide more free resources to enable a broader audience to access and learn about Databricks. The platform itself is user-friendly and easy to use without complex issues, so I believe it does not need improvement in its core functionality. Rather, supporting aspects can be enhanced.

Read full review

Gladys Njeri

Key Account Manager at DHL

Data-driven planning has transformed financial decisions and now saves major reporting time

IBM Planning Analytics helps with collaboration between teams by allowing us to gather data from various departments, analyze it, and collaborate on the data to make data-driven decisions between different departments easily. As I mentioned previously, I mainly use IBM Planning Analytics to visualize the existing data to generate meaningful report dashboards and use it during stakeholder meetings to arrive at the right decision. The best features IBM Planning Analytics offers include budgeting, forecasting, and what-if scenario analysis. The scenario modeling feature in IBM Planning Analytics is probably the most robust planning and forecasting solution we use, especially for what-if scenarios, where we are able to forecast using Watson Studio, which helps in better prediction. I really appreciate the Excel integration in IBM Planning Analytics because it keeps things familiar and adds more power.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Retailer

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	27
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	56

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

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

What do you like most about IBM Planning Analytics?

The most valuable features of IBM Planning Analytics for streamlining planning processes include a unified database where all data are centralized.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Planning Analytics?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IBM Planning Analytics is that the pricing and licensing cost can be somewhat on the higher side, especially for small organizations. Howev...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Planning Analytics?

IBM Planning Analytics could be improved by simplifying the learning curve, as it requires a lot of time to learn and master it. The advanced features are somewhat complex to understand, and if the...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dataiku vs Databricks

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Databricks

Compared 4% of the time

Dremio vs Databricks

Compared 4% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs Databricks

Compared 4% of the time

Alteryx vs Databricks

Compared 3% of the time

More Databricks Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs IBM Planning Analytics

Compared 14% of the time

SAP Analytics Cloud vs IBM Planning Analytics

Compared 11% of the time

Anaplan vs IBM Planning Analytics

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle Hyperion vs IBM Planning Analytics

Compared 5% of the time

Pigment vs IBM Planning Analytics

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM Planning Analytics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Databricks

February 2026

Download Databricks product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Planning Analytics

February 2026

Download IBM Planning Analytics product report

Also Known As

Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash

Cognos TM1, IBM Cognos TM1

Overview

Databricks offers a scalable, versatile platform that integrates seamlessly with Spark and multiple languages, supporting data engineering, machine learning, and analytics in a unified environment.

Databricks stands out for its scalability, ease of use, and powerful integration with Spark, multiple languages, and leading cloud services like Azure and AWS. It provides tools such as the Notebook for collaboration, Delta Lake for efficient data management, and Unity Catalog for data governance. While enhancing data engineering and machine learning workflows, it faces challenges in visualization and third-party integration, with pricing and user interface navigation being common concerns. Despite needing improvements in connectivity and documentation, it remains popular for tasks like real-time processing and data pipeline management.

What features make Databricks unique?

Notebook: Enables collaborative work among team members.
Delta Lake: Optimizes data management operations.
Unity Catalog: Provides governance over data assets.
Cloud Integration: Seamlessly connects with major cloud platforms.

What benefits can users expect from Databricks?

Versatility: Supports diverse applications in data science and engineering.
Performance: Delivers efficient handling of large-scale analytics tasks.
Collaboration: Enhances teamwork in data projects.
Unified Environment: Centralizes machine learning and analytics activities.

In the tech industry, Databricks empowers teams to perform comprehensive data analytics, enabling them to conduct extensive ETL operations, run predictive modeling, and prepare data for SparkML. In retail, it supports real-time data processing and batch streaming, aiding in better decision-making. Enterprises across sectors leverage its capabilities for creating secure APIs and managing data lakes effectively.

Databricks

IBM Planning Analytics is an integrated planning solution that uses AI to automate planning, budgeting, and forecasting and drive more intelligent workflows.

Built on TM1, IBM’s powerful calculation engine, this enterprise performance management tool allows you to transcend the limits of manual planning and become the Analytics Hero your business needs. Quickly and easily drive faster, more accurate plans for FP&A, sales, supply chain and beyond.

IBM

Sample Customers

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

ManpowerGroup, Convergys, AIG, Orchard Brands, Citibank, InterGen, Northwestern University, EF Education First, Ironside, Bazan Group, CSOB Insurance, Macquarie Group, Charles Stanley, SATO, Government of Sint Maarten, BMW Financial Services

Find out what your peers are saying about Snowflake Computing, Microsoft, Teradata and others in Cloud Data Warehouse. Updated: February 2026.

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