Databricks is a specialized Apache Spark-based analytics platform optimized for data engineering and ML workflows, while Azure is a comprehensive cloud infrastructure provider offering compute, storage, databases, and AI services. Databricks excels at unified data and AI processing, whereas Azure provides broader enterprise cloud capabilities with deeper Microsoft ecosystem integration.
Databricks vs Microsoft Azure — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Managed cloud analytics platform built on Apache Spark with native collaboration, MLOps, and governance
Enterprise cloud platform offering 200+ services across compute, storage, databases, AI, and business applications
Primary Purpose. Apache Spark Optimization. Data Lakehouse Capabilities. Enterprise Breadth. Microsoft Ecosystem Integration. Starter Pricing (Monthly). AI/ML Model Training
Choose Databricks if your primary workload involves big data analytics, data engineering, or machine learning model development with Apache Spark—it offers superior data lakehouse architecture and unified analytics. Choose Azure if you need a comprehensive enterprise cloud platform with broad service offerings, require deep Microsoft product integration (Office 365, Dynamics 365, Power BI), or want a single vendor managing compute, storage, databases, and applications.
Databricks: $1,500-$4,000 | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 3-7 days | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 18-25 | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 6,500+ | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: All formats (Delta, Parquet, Images, Videos, Audio) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Delta Sharing (open standard) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: SQL, Python, Scala, R, Java | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: AWS, Azure, GCP | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: $0.30 (1 DBU compute) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 12+ model families via AutoML | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Unlimited simultaneous editing | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 15+ (S3, RDS, Kinesis) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Native Delta Lake engine | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Up to 70% savings | Microsoft Azure: N/A
SQL Query Performance (sample 1TB table)
Databricks: 8-15 (native optimizations) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: $2,000-$15,000/month | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 1-2 weeks | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Minimal (<5 hours/month) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Unlimited with real-time sync | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 6+ (SSO, RBAC, audit logging, IP controls, encryption, workspace isolation) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: All Spark formats + native Delta Lake optimization | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 8,000+ questions | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: $500-2,000 | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: ANSI SQL with Spark extensions | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 15+ native connectors | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 99.9% | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: MLflow, Feature Store, AutoML included | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Yes, into Delta Lake | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 1-5 seconds (on cached data) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: $600-900 | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 10x (Photon engine) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 25+ integrated | Microsoft Azure: 200+ services
Databricks: AWS, Azure, GCP | Microsoft Azure: Azure only (with hybrid via Stack)
BigQuery/Equivalent Query Speed (1TB dataset)
Databricks: 15-30 sec (via Databricks SQL) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 30,000+ | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: MLflow + Databricks Intelligence Engine (built-in) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Native Delta Lake with ACID, time travel, schema evolution | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 10,000+ | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Cloud-only (3 regions) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Native MLflow Feature Store included | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 40-100 ms | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: $0.40-0.50 | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Data Governance (Unity Catalog equivalent)
Databricks: Unity Catalog with lineage, tags, access control | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 5-15 seconds | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Structured, semi-structured, unstructured | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 3 (AWS, Azure, GCP) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Manual cluster setup and scaling | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: MLflow, Spark MLlib, TensorFlow, PyTorch | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Minimum Learning Curve (months for competency)
Databricks: 2-3 months | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Starting Monthly Cost (1 TB storage + compute)
Databricks: $400-800 (variable compute) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 10-100x faster (Photon engine) | Microsoft Azure: 1-2x faster (HDInsight baseline)
Databricks: ~15 core data/AI services | Microsoft Azure: 200+ services across all categories
Databricks: $0.50-$2.50 (depends on cloud provider) | Microsoft Azure: $0.40-$2.00 (VM-dependent)
Databricks: MLflow, Feature Store, Model Registry | Microsoft Azure: Azure ML, AutoML (separate setup)
Databricks: Limited (Power BI via connector only) | Microsoft Azure: Deep (Office 365, Teams, Dynamics, Power BI native)
Databricks: Unity Catalog, lineage, access control, Delta Lake | Microsoft Azure: Azure Purview, Synapse governance, encryption
Databricks: 3-6 months (focused data/AI projects) | Microsoft Azure: 6-12 months (full cloud migration)
Databricks: 10-100x faster | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Monthly Cost (100GB monthly data ingestion, 1,000 compute hours)
Databricks: $550-850 | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Required Team Skills (FTE equivalents for operations)
Databricks: 0.25 (minimal management) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Full ANSI SQL (100%) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Query Latency (median, standard ETL workload)
Databricks: 3.5-8 seconds | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Built-in Collaboration Tools (notebooks, dashboards, repos)
Databricks: Notebooks, Dashboards, SQL Editor, Repos, MLflow | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 8,200 stars (databricks/databricks-cli) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 285 seconds | Microsoft Azure: 420 seconds
Databricks: 3-5x faster (Photon engine) | Microsoft Azure: 1x baseline
Databricks: 8 frameworks (via MLflow ecosystem) | Microsoft Azure: 40+ frameworks
Databricks: Column, row, and table-level with tags | Microsoft Azure: Database and table-level basic
Databricks: 60+ (via partner clouds) | Microsoft Azure: 60+ native
Databricks: 50+ (data/AI focused) | Microsoft Azure: 500+
Databricks: Native (Delta Lake) | Microsoft Azure: Limited (requires workarounds)
Databricks: 8-15 seconds | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: $500+ | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Native (MLflow, AutoML, Feature Store) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Any format (structured, unstructured, images, video) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Unlimited (serverless SQL analytics) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 15-30 minutes | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 18% of lakehouse market | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 1.0x baseline (integrated ML platform) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Starting Monthly Cost (10GB active data)
SQL Query Performance (TPC-DS Benchmark)
Databricks: MLflow + Spark ML | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Low (open Delta/Iceberg formats) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Maximum Concurrent Queries Per Warehouse
Databricks: Unlimited (Spark clusters) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 7 | Microsoft Azure: 8/10 (steep)
Databricks: 0.25 weeks (15 minutes) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 50-100x faster (Spark + Photon) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: 0.5-3 seconds (Photon) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Annual Cost (100TB/year, 5-node baseline)
Databricks: $120,000-$180,000 | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Yes (Unity Catalog native) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: Automatic (5-30 min provisioning) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Collaborative Notebooks with Version Control
Databricks: Yes (built-in with Git integration) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: No (cloud-only) | Microsoft Azure: N/A
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: $0.018
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: $0.002
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Exclusive OpenAI partnership
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Azure Stack Hub (enterprise-grade)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 60+ regions
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Container Instances (mature)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Excellent (Stack/Arc)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 10/10
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Large
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Strong (AKS)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Via Synapse
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 5-15 seconds (Synapse)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Limited free tier; specific allocations by service
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 10 Tbps standard protection
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: $21.77/month (B1s instance)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Varies ($25-500+ for multi-service bundle)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: ~50-100ms (varies by region)
Supported Programming Languages (Workers/Serverless)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Node.js, Python, Java, .NET, Go, C# (Functions)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 60 minutes (Premium Support)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: $15-20
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: $30-50
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 99.95%
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 30-60
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: $200 (30 days)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 70+ services
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 60 regions
Oracle Database Performance Optimization
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Third-party optimization
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Native (Office 365, Teams, Dynamics, AD)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Not applicable
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 45+ services
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: $15-30
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Available (separate purchase)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Native, optimized licensing
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 99.99%
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 12+ databases
Compute Instance Starting Price (hourly)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: $0.0120/hour (B1s)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: up to 72%
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Azure SQL Database (native)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Azure ML (launched 2014)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: $0.0106/hour
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: $7.60/month
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 200+ services
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 11,904 GB
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 15 minutes
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: $15/month (1-core VM)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 30 days ($200 credit)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 15-20 minutes (average)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 50+ pre-built AI models, full ML platform
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: HIPAA, FedRAMP, PCI-DSS, SOC2, ISO 27001
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Complex: 100+ pricing tiers, reserved instances, spot pricing
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 1-3x (HDInsight standard)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: $0.055-$0.116 (Standard_D4s_v3)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Azure only
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: No (requires external solutions)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: 200+ (all cloud categories)
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Native, no additional setup
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: Shared resources via RBAC
Databricks: N/A | Microsoft Azure: AES-256, customer-managed keys
How to choose between Databricks and Microsoft Azure
Databricks vs Microsoft Azure — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Databricks vs Microsoft Azure. Contains 179 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Databricks vs Microsoft Azure — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Databricks vs Microsoft Azure.
Yes. Databricks operates as a SaaS platform on top of cloud providers, including Azure. You can deploy Databricks on Azure infrastructure while retaining multi-cloud portability, and integrate with Azure services like Synapse Analytics and Power BI.
Both support SQL, but differently. Databricks uses Spark SQL optimized for large-scale distributed queries with Delta Lake ACID support. Azure offers SQL Database and Synapse SQL with strong transactional guarantees. For petabyte-scale data lake queries, Databricks excels; for traditional OLTP/OLAP, Azure SQL is purpose-built.
How much does each cost for a small team?
Databricks: ~$400-800/month for 1-2 developers on standard compute. Azure: ~$100-300/month for equivalent compute (VMs), but professional services and Power BI licensing add $500+/month. Databricks has predictable per-DBU pricing; Azure's cost depends heavily on resource type and consumption patterns.
No. Databricks is a specialized platform for data analytics and ML; it doesn't replace Azure's broader cloud services (networking, databases, app hosting, identity management). Many organizations use both—Databricks for data workloads on top of Azure infrastructure.
Which has better machine learning capabilities?
Databricks includes MLflow (industry standard), unified ML runtime, and AutoML natively in the platform. Azure offers Azure ML Studio and AutoML as separate services. For end-to-end ML from data prep to deployment, Databricks has a more integrated experience; Azure provides more enterprise governance tools.
How to Choose Between Databricks and Microsoft Azure
Primary Purpose: Databricks has Unified data analytics & ML platform, while Microsoft Azure has Comprehensive cloud infrastructure.
Apache Spark Optimization: Databricks has Native Spark runtime with Delta Lake, while Microsoft Azure has Spark via HDInsight (separate service).
Data Lakehouse Capabilities: Databricks has Purpose-built with Delta Lake, while Microsoft Azure has Requires third-party solutions.
Enterprise Breadth: Databricks has Deep data/ML focus, limited non-data services, while Microsoft Azure has 200+ services covering all cloud needs.
Consider: Microsoft Ecosystem Integration
Microsoft Ecosystem Integration: Databricks has Limited native Office/Dynamics integration, while Microsoft Azure has Native Power BI, Excel, Dynamics 365 integration.
Starter Pricing (Monthly): Databricks has $0.40/DBU (compute unit), while Microsoft Azure has $0.055-$0.116/hour (VMs vary).
AI/ML Model Training: Databricks has MLflow, AutoML, integrated ML runtime, while Microsoft Azure has Azure ML Studio, AutoML separate service.