Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Databricks vs IBM Watson Studio comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 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

Databricks
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (7th), Streaming Analytics (1st)
IBM Watson Studio
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
AI Development Platforms (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of Databricks is 18.2%, down from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Watson Studio is 1.9%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Science Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Abilio Duarte - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly robust and well-documented platform that simplifies the complex world of AI
The main challenge lies in visibility and ease of use. Providing training sessions can be immensely helpful in helping users navigate and understand the tool's potential. This approach would empower users to explore and make the most of the tools and technologies at their disposal. Another area where IBM could enhance its offering is by providing more visibility to end users regarding the vast potential that Watson offers.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Databricks is a scalable solution. It is the largest advantage of the solution."
"The fast data loading process and data storage capabilities are great."
"Databricks has a scalable Spark cluster creation process. The creators of Databricks are also the creators of Spark, and they are the industry leaders in terms of performance."
"Databricks serves as a single platform that can handle numerous end-to-end machine learning tasks."
"I haven't heard about any major stability issues. At this time I feel like it's stable."
"Databricks helps crunch petabytes of data in a very short period of time."
"The Delta Lake data type has been the most useful part of this solution. Delta Lake is an opensource data type and it was implemented and invented by Databricks."
"A very valuable feature is the data processing, and the solution is specifically good at using the Spark ecosystem."
"The solution is very easy to use."
"The system's ability to take a look at data, segment it and then use that data very differently."
"It is a stable, reliable product."
"Stability-wise, it is a great tool."
"It has a lot of data connectors, which is extremely helpful."
"Watson Studio is the most complete tool for AI projects."
"Technical support is great. We have had weekly teleconferences with the technical people at IBM, and they have been fantastic."
"The main benefit is the ease of use. We see a lot of engineers in our site and customers that really like the way the tools are able to work with the people."
 

Cons

"Overall it's a good product, however, it doesn't do well against any individual best-of-breed products."
"The product could be improved regarding the delay when switching to higher-performing virtual machines compared to other platforms."
"Instead of relying on a massive instance, the solution should offer micro partition levels. They're working on it, however, they need to implement it to help the solution run more effectively."
"Doesn't provide a lot of credits or trial options."
"The query plan is not easy with Databrick's job level. If I want to tune any of the code, it is not easily available in the blogs as well."
"Databricks is not geared towards the end-user, but rather it is for data engineers or data scientists."
"Support for Microsoft technology and the compatibility with the .NET framework is somewhat missing."
"Databricks' performance when serving the data to an analytics tool isn't as good as Snowflake's."
"We would like to see it more web-based with more functionality."
"Initially, it was quite complex. For us, it was not only a matter of getting it installed, that was just a start. It was also trying to come up with a standard way of implementing it across the entire organization, which had been a challenge."
"It's sometimes easy to get lost given the number of images the solution opens up when you click on the mouse and the amount of different tabs."
"One area that could be improved is the backup and restoration of the database and the overall database configuration."
"More features in data virtualization would be helpful. The solution could use an interactive dashboard that could make exploration easier."
"The solution's interface is very slow at times."
"I want IBM's technical support team to provide more specific answers to queries."
"One area that could be improved is the backup and restoration of the database and the overall database configuration."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The solution is based on a licensing model."
"I would rate the tool’s pricing an eight out of ten."
"Databricks uses a price-per-use model, where you can use as much compute as you need."
"We pay as we go, so there isn't a fixed price. It's charged by the unit. I don't have any details detail about how they measure this, but it should be a mix between processing and quantity of data handled. We run a simulation based on our use cases, which gives us an estimate. We've been monitoring this, and the costs have met our expectations."
"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."
"The solution requires a subscription."
"The cost for Databricks depends on the use case. I work on it as a consultant, so I'm using the client's Databricks, so it depends on how big the client is."
"Watson Studio's pricing is reasonable for what you get."
"IBM Watson Studio is an expensive solution."
"IBM Watson Studio is a reasonably priced product"
"The pricing is generally reasonable and straightforward but can vary significantly depending on the specific workloads in use."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Science Platforms solutions are best for your needs.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 ...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Watson Studio?
The pricing of Watson Studio is justified by the benefits and power it offers.
What needs improvement with IBM Watson Studio?
One area that could be improved is the backup and restoration of the database and the overall database configuration. There were also challenges with programming the network extension in the last p...
 

Also Known As

Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash
Watson Studio, IBM Data Science Experience, Data Science Experience, DSx
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware
GroupM, Accenture, Fifth Third Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks vs. IBM Watson Studio and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.