Azure Databricks vs. Snowflake

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Databricks
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Azure Databricks is a service available on Microsoft's Azure platform and suite of products. It provides the latest versions of Apache Spark so users can integrate with open source libraries, or spin up clusters and build in a fully managed Apache Spark environment with the global scale and availability of Azure. Clusters are set up, configured, and fine-tuned to ensure reliability and performance without the need for monitoring. The solution includes autoscaling and auto-termination to improve…N/A
Snowflake
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
The Snowflake Cloud Data Platform is the eponymous data warehouse with, from the company in San Mateo, a cloud and SQL based DW that aims to allow users to unify, integrate, analyze, and share previously siloed data in secure, governed, and compliant ways. With it, users can securely access the Data Cloud to share live data with customers and business partners, and connect with other organizations doing business as data consumers, data providers, and data service providers.N/A
Pricing
Azure DatabricksSnowflake
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure DatabricksSnowflake
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure DatabricksSnowflake
Considered Both Products
Azure Databricks
Chose Azure Databricks
I have found Azure Databricks to be much better than Snowflake for handling bigger, diverse data types. Snowflake is much simpler and better for smaller warehousing. The real time processing is much better in Azure Databricks and we have much more language options. Snowflake is …
Chose Azure Databricks
When compared with Snowflake, Azure Databricks have an edge over the integration with ML Flow. ETL in Azure Databricks allows high processing of data compared to Snowflake. Data sharing is better with Snowflake. When compared with Datasphere, integration of Databricks with …
Snowflake
Chose Snowflake
These are comparable products that can make sense depending on the specific needs of your organization. All are certainly serviceable and have varying pros and cons. Snowflake seems to provide the greatest degree of flexibility and easy scalability as new data gets brought into …
Features
Azure DatabricksSnowflake
Platform Connectivity
Comparison of Platform Connectivity features of Product A and Product B
Azure Databricks
7.3
4 Ratings
13% below category average
Snowflake
-
Ratings
Connect to Multiple Data Sources6.14 Ratings00 Ratings
Extend Existing Data Sources7.84 Ratings00 Ratings
Automatic Data Format Detection7.54 Ratings00 Ratings
MDM Integration8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Exploration
Comparison of Data Exploration features of Product A and Product B
Azure Databricks
6.8
4 Ratings
22% below category average
Snowflake
-
Ratings
Visualization6.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Interactive Data Analysis7.63 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Preparation
Comparison of Data Preparation features of Product A and Product B
Azure Databricks
8.6
4 Ratings
5% above category average
Snowflake
-
Ratings
Interactive Data Cleaning and Enrichment8.24 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Transformations9.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Encryption9.44 Ratings00 Ratings
Built-in Processors7.84 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform Data Modeling
Comparison of Platform Data Modeling features of Product A and Product B
Azure Databricks
8.0
4 Ratings
5% below category average
Snowflake
-
Ratings
Multiple Model Development Languages and Tools6.54 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated Machine Learning8.64 Ratings00 Ratings
Single platform for multiple model development8.44 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-Service Model Delivery8.44 Ratings00 Ratings
Model Deployment
Comparison of Model Deployment features of Product A and Product B
Azure Databricks
8.3
4 Ratings
3% below category average
Snowflake
-
Ratings
Flexible Model Publishing Options8.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Security, Governance, and Cost Controls8.64 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Azure DatabricksSnowflake
Small Businesses
Jupyter Notebook
Jupyter Notebook
Score 8.5 out of 10
Google BigQuery
Google BigQuery
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Posit
Posit
Score 10.0 out of 10
Google BigQuery
Google BigQuery
Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Posit
Posit
Score 10.0 out of 10
Google BigQuery
Google BigQuery
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure DatabricksSnowflake
Likelihood to Recommend
9.7
(3 ratings)
9.0
(43 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.3
(19 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.9
(8 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure DatabricksSnowflake
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Centralised notebooks are out directly into production. This can lead to poorly engineered code. It is very good for fast queries and our data team are always able to provide what we ask for. It is a big cost to our business so it is important it runs efficiently and returns on our investment.
Read full review
Snowflake Computing
Snowflake is well suited when you have to store your data and you want easy scalability and increase or decrease the storage per your requirement. You can also control the computing cost, and if your computing cost is less than or equal to 10% of your storage cost, then you don't have to pay for computing, which makes it cost-effective as well.
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • Data Processing and Transformations based on Spark
  • Delta Lakehouse when clubbed with an external cloud storage
  • Governance using Unity Catalog to unify IAM
  • Delta Live Tables is a product, which although relatively newer, has a great potential with the visuals of a pipeline.
Read full review
Snowflake Computing
  • Snowflake scales appropriately allowing you to manage expense for peak and off peak times for pulling and data retrieval and data centric processing jobs
  • Snowflake offers a marketplace solution that allows you to sell and subscribe to different data sources
  • Snowflake manages concurrency better in our trials than other premium competitors
  • Snowflake has little to no setup and ramp up time
  • Snowflake offers online training for various employee types
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • Intuitive interface
  • Ease of use
  • Providing FAQ or QRGs
Read full review
Snowflake Computing
  • Add constraints for views and not just for tables
  • Do not force customers to renew for same or higher amount to avoid loosing unused credits. Already paid credits should not expire (at least within a reasonable time frame), independent of renewal deal size.
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Snowflake Computing
SnowFlake is very cost effective and we also like the fact we can stop, start and spin up additional processing engines as we need to. We also like the fact that it's easy to connect our SQL IDEs to Snowflake and write our queries in the environment that we are used to
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Usability
Microsoft
The developers are able to switch between Python and SQL in the Notebook which allows the collaboration of SQL analyst and Data scientist. The integration of Mosaic AI allows users to write complex codes in natural languages. Unity catalog has centralized the security and governance features and simplified the process of maintaining it
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Snowflake Computing
Because the fact that you can query tons of data in a few seconds is incredible, it also gives you a lot of functions to format and transform data right in your query, which is ideal when building data models in BI tools like Power BI, it is available as a connector in the most used BI tools worldwide.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Snowflake Computing
We have had terrific experiences with Snowflake support. They have drilled into queries and given us tremendous detail and helpful answers. In one case they even figured out how a particular product was interacting with Snowflake, via its queries, and gave us detail to go back to that product's vendor because the Snowflake support team identified a fault in its operation. We got it solved without lots of back-and-forth or finger-pointing because the Snowflake team gave such detailed information.
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
I have found Azure Databricks to be much better than Snowflake for handling bigger, diverse data types. Snowflake is much simpler and better for smaller warehousing. The real time processing is much better in Azure Databricks and we have much more language options. Snowflake is more expensive but simpler to use. Both are great for different needs.
Read full review
Snowflake Computing
I have had the experience of using one more database management system at my previous workplace. What Snowflake provides is better user-friendly consoles, suggestions while writing a query, ease of access to connect to various BI platforms to analyze, [and a] more robust system to store a large amount of data. All these functionalities give the better edge to Snowflake.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • The support team is amazing, they help you at every stage of the projects, from sales to delivery.
  • On a framework level, it has had an amazing impact and has reduced the clients overall data platform costs by a staggering 65%
  • There has been a 40% Manual work requirement on average for the clients when they move to Azure Databricks Data Platform
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Snowflake Computing
  • With separate compute and storage feature, the queries get executed quickly and it improves our overall productivity.
  • Earlier we were using a different product for analytical purposes, but with Snowflake's in-built analytical feature we are now able to save money.
  • Snowflake is cost efficient, features like auto suspend for compute resources helped to control the costs.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Snowflake Screenshots

Screenshot of Snowflake Installation