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IBM Watson Machine Learning vs Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 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

IBM Watson Machine Learning
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure Machine Lea...
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the AI Development Platforms category, the mindshare of IBM Watson Machine Learning is 2.1%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio is 4.2%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI Development Platforms Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio4.2%
IBM Watson Machine Learning2.1%
Other93.7%
AI Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Anurag Mayank - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly efficient solution that delivers the desired results to its users
I had not considered how the solution could be improved because I was focused on how it was helping me to solve my issues. If I consider how we want to use it in our organization, certain areas of improvement can be addressed. For instance, we want to use it with Generative AI, not like ChatGPT, but in a way intended for industrial use. It would be beneficial to incorporate more AI into the solution.
Takayuki Umehara - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined workflows with drag and drop convenience but needs enhancements in AI
I use Machine Learning Studio for system reselling and integration Machine Learning Studio is easy to use, with a significant feature being the drag and drop interface that enhances workflow without any complaints. It provides a return on investment and cost savings, proving beneficial for…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has improved self-service and customer satisfaction."
"The solution is very valuable to our organization due to the fact that we can work on it as a workflow."
"We can enable and change developer productivity with artificial intelligence-recommended code based on natural language input or exciting source code."
"I was particularly interested in trying the AutoML feature to see how it handles data and proposes new models. The variety of models it provides is impressive."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution's the cost and human labor savings."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution ten out of ten."
"It is has a lot of good features and we find the image classification very useful."
"The solution is very fast and simple for a data science solution."
"The drag-and-drop interface is good."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio is the ease of use for starting projects. It's simple to connect and view the results. Additionally, the solution works well with other Microsoft solutions, such as Power Automate or SQL Server. It is easy to use and to connect for analytics."
"The solution is scalable."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to use all of the cognitive services, prebuilt from Azure."
"It's good for citizen data scientists, but also, other people can use Python or .NET code."
"I like being able to compare results across different training runs. The hyperparameter tuning function is a valuable feature because it provides the ability to run multiple experiments at the same time and compare results."
"Its ability to publish a predictive model as a web based solution and integrate R and python codes are amazing."
 

Cons

"Honestly, I haven't seen any comparative report that has run the same data through two different artificial intelligence or machine learning capabilities to get something out of it. I would love to see that."
"If I consider how we want to use it in our organization, certain areas of improvement can be addressed. For instance, we want to use it with Generative AI, not like ChatGPT, but in a way intended for industrial use."
"Sometimes training the model is difficult."
"They should add more GPU processing power to improve performance, especially when dealing with large amounts of data."
"The supporting language is limited."
"Scaling is limited in some use cases. They need to make it easier to expand in all aspects."
"In future releases, I would like to see a more flexible environment."
"It would be nice if the product offered more accessibility in general."
"A problem that I encountered was that I had to pay for the model that I wanted to deploy and use on Azure Machine Learning, but there wasn't any option that that model can be used in the designer."
"The price of the solution has room for improvement."
"The initial setup time of the containers to run the experiment is a bit long."
"They should have a desktop version to work on the platform."
"The solution should be more customizable. There should be more algorithms."
"Easier customization and configuration would be beneficial."
"Operability with R could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I've only been using the free tier, but it's quite competitive on a service basis."
"The pricing model is good."
"Last year, we paid 60,000 for Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio in our department."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being very expensive. Not very expensive, not very cheap."
"In terms of pricing, for any cloud solution, you should know the tricks of the trade and how to use it, otherwise, you'll end up paying a lot of money irrespective of the cloud provider, so at least for Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio pricing versus AWS, I would rate it three out of five, with one being the most expensive, and five being the cheapest. It could be cheaper, but you also have to be careful when choosing the plans, for example, consider the architecture and a lot of other factors before choosing your plan, if you don't want to end up paying more. If your cloud provider has an optimizer that seems to be available in every provider, that would keep alerting you in terms of resources not being used as much, then that would help you with budgeting."
"I rate the solution's pricing a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"The solution operates on a pay-per-use model."
"To use MLS is fairly cheap. Even the paid account is something like $20/month, unless you are provisioning large numbers of VMs for a Hadoop cluster. The main MS makes money with this solution is forcing the user to deploy their model on REST API, and being charged each time the API is accessed. There are several pricing tiers for the API. If you do not use the API, then value of MLS is to create rapid experiments ($20/month). The resulting model is not exportable to use, thus you’ll have to recreate the algorithms in either R or Python, which is what I did. MLS results gave me a direction to work with, the actual work is mostly done in R and Python outside of MLS."
"ML Studio's pricing becomes a numbers game."
"My team didn't deal with the licensing for Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio, so I'm unable to comment on pricing, but the money that was spent on the tool was worth it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Educational Organization
9%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Performing Arts
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise30
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Watson Machine Learning?
I was particularly interested in trying the AutoML feature to see how it handles data and proposes new models. The variety of models it provides is impressive.
What needs improvement with IBM Watson Machine Learning?
Sometimes training the model is difficult. We need to have at least a few different components to evaluate and understand the behavior of different users to have a very, very high accuracy in the m...
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 ...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio?
The learning curve is very low. Operationalizing the model is also very easy within the Azure ecosystem.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio?
The pricing for Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio is reasonable since it's pay as you go, meaning it won't cost excessively unless specific resources are used.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Azure Machine Learning, MS Azure Machine Learning Studio
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Schneider Electric, BP
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Watson Machine Learning vs. Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
873,085 professionals have used our research since 2012.