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Databricks vs SAS Enterprise Miner 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
93
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (4th), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (5th), Streaming Analytics (1st)
SAS Enterprise Miner
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
23rd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Data Mining (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of Databricks is 8.2%, down from 17.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Enterprise Miner is 2.1%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Science Platforms Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Databricks8.2%
SAS Enterprise Miner2.1%
Other89.7%
Data Science Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

SimonRobinson - PeerSpot reviewer
Governance And Engagement Lead
Improved data governance has enabled sensitive data tracking but cost management still needs work
I believe we could improve Databricks integration with cloud service providers. The impact of our current integration has not been particularly good, and it's becoming very expensive for us. The inefficiencies in our implementation, such as not shutting down warehouses when they're not in use or reserving the right number of credits, have led to increased costs. We made several beginner mistakes, such as not taking advantage of incremental loading and running overly complicated queries all the time. We should be using ETL tools to help us instead of doing it directly in Databricks. We need more experienced professionals to manage Databricks effectively, as it's not as forgiving as other platforms such as Snowflake. I think introducing customer repositories would facilitate easier implementation with Databricks.
reviewer1352853 - PeerSpot reviewer
Executive Head of analytics at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees
A stable product that is easy to deploy and can be used for structured and unstructured data mining
We use the solution for predictive analytics to do structured and unstructured data mining I like the way the product visually shows the data pipeline. The product must provide better integration with cloud-native technologies. I have been using the solution for 20 years. The product is very…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I think what I value is more about the technology itself because you don't need to have too much knowledge to be able to use the solution."
"The simplicity of development is the most valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to use SQL directly with Databricks."
"Databricks is a one-stop shop for everything data related, and it can scale with you."
"Imageflow is a visual tool that helps make it easier for business people to understand complex workflows."
"Databricks' Lakehouse architecture has been most useful for us, and the data governance has been absolutely efficient in between other kinds of solutions."
"In the manufacturing industry, Databricks can be beneficial to use because of machine learning. It is useful for tasks, such as product analysis or predictive maintenance."
"One of the newest features brought into this solution provides you with a way to solve, deploy, and train models using the platform itself, or it can connect to your Azure Machine Learning in order to train, deploy, and productionalize some of the machine learning models."
"Performance is excellent."
"SAS internal support is very qualified and if we have any issues, we contact them and trust that they can help."
"Most of the features, especially on the data analysis tool pack, are really good. The way they do clustering and output is great. You can do fairly elaborate outputs. The results, the ensembles, all of these, are fantastic."
"The solution is able to handle quite large amounts of data beautifully."
"It enables statistical modeling of data using Base SAS (another product from the same vendor) as the backbone."
"The solution is very good for data mining or any mining issues."
"Most of the features, especially on the data analysis tool pack, are really good; the way they do clustering and output is great, you can do fairly elaborate outputs, and the results and the ensembles are fantastic."
"The most valuable feature is the decision tree creation."
 

Cons

"If I want to create a Databricks account, I need to have a prior cloud account such as an AWS account or an Azure account. Only then can I create a Databricks account on the cloud. However, if they can make it so that I can still try Databricks even if I don't have a cloud account on AWS and Azure, it would be great. That is, it would be nice if it were possible to create a pseudo account and be provided with a free trial. It is very essential to creating a workforce on Databricks. For example, students or corporate staff can then explore and learn Databricks."
"The initial setup of Databricks could be complex."
"The biggest problem associated with the product is that it is quite pricey."
"Anyone who doesn't know SQL may find the product difficult to work with."
"I would love an integration in my desktop IDE. For now, I have to code on their webpage."
"Sometimes we experience issues connecting our database to Databricks. There are no direct connectors — they are very limited."
"There has been a significant evolution in databases. One area of improvement is the Databricks File System (DBFS), where command-line challenges arise when accessing files."
"I would like it if Databricks adopted an interface more like R Studio. When I create a data frame or a table, R Studio provides a preview of the data. In R Studio, I can see that it created a table with so many columns or rows. Then I can click on it and open a preview of that data."
"The preparation of both the mining and modeling process could be improved. The solution requires data and will reflect data, but the preparation of the data is not useful for end-users; we ended up having to do the preparation in another tool."
"The solution is quite expensive. The pricing is too high."
"While I don't personally need tutorials, I can't say that it wouldn't be helpful for others to have some to help them navigate and operate the system."
"The solution is very stable, but we do have some problems with discrepancies involving SAS not matching with the latest Java versions. It's not stable in cases where SAS tries to run on a different version because SAS doesn't connect with the latest Java update. Once a month we need to restart systems from scratch."
"The stability isn't perfect. We have issues with accuracy in some AI forecasting areas, and the accuracy is not as good as the clients need it to be."
"The ease of use can be improved. When you are new it seems a bit complex."
"Plus it is prohibitively expensive and is not available with perpetual licensing."
"The license is really expensive. This solution is for large corporations because not everybody can afford it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The billing of Databricks can be difficult and should improve."
"The product pricing is moderate."
"I would rate Databricks' pricing seven out of ten."
"Databricks are not costly when compared with other solutions' prices."
"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."
"We only pay for the Azure compute behind the solution."
"The pricing depends on the usage itself."
"I do not exactly know the costs, but one of our clients pays between $100 USD and $200 USD monthly."
"The solution must improve its licensing models."
"This solution is for large corporations because not everybody can afford it."
"The solution is expensive for an individual, but for an enterprise/institution (purchasing bulk licenses), it is not a high price for the use that will come from it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
12%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise57
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise7
 

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...
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Also Known As

Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash
Enterprise Miner
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware
Generali Hellas, Gitanjali Group, Gloucestershire Constabulary, GS Home Shopping, HealthPartners, IAG New Zealand, iJET, Invacare
Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks vs. SAS Enterprise Miner and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
896,202 professionals have used our research since 2012.