Platform comparisons
Databricks, Snowflake, Fabric or BigQuery?
Vendor-neutral comparisons written by engineers who work on all of them: what each platform is best at, how pricing differs and which fits your team and industry.
Python · Machine learning
Dask vs Ray: scaling Python for data and machine learning
Dask and Ray compared for distributed Python: pandas and NumPy-style collections versus tasks, actors and AI libraries, data processing, training and inference, GPUs, deployment, ecosystem and when Spark is the better answer.
Databricks · BigQuery
Databricks vs BigQuery: lakehouse or serverless warehouse?
Databricks and Google BigQuery compared: architecture, who each suits, data engineering and machine learning, pricing models, open formats, Google Cloud integration and when to use both.
Databricks · Microsoft Fabric
Databricks vs Microsoft Fabric: how to choose in 2026
A practical comparison of Databricks and Microsoft Fabric: architecture, who each suits, pricing models, governance, AI, Power BI integration and when to use both.
Platform choice · Financial services
Databricks vs Snowflake for banks and insurers: how to choose
A practical way for financial institutions to choose between Databricks and Snowflake by workload, team skills, governance and cost model, not by vendor benchmarks.
Healthcare · Databricks
Databricks vs Snowflake for healthcare and life sciences
How healthcare providers, payers and life sciences companies should choose between Databricks and Snowflake: HIPAA and PHI, clinical and claims data, genomics and imaging, AI, data sharing and cost.
Retail · Databricks
Databricks vs Snowflake for retail and ecommerce
How retailers and ecommerce companies should choose between Databricks and Snowflake: demand forecasting, personalization, clickstream, POS and loyalty data, supplier data sharing and retail media, cost and team skills.
Databricks · dbt
dbt vs Lakeflow Declarative Pipelines on Databricks: which should you use?
dbt and Databricks Lakeflow Declarative Pipelines (formerly Delta Live Tables) compared: batch modelling vs streaming and CDC, testing and expectations, portability, orchestration, cost and how teams use both.
Explainer · Databricks
Delta Lake vs Apache Iceberg: how they differ, and how to choose
Delta Lake and Apache Iceberg both add ACID transactions to Parquet files in cloud storage. How their metadata differs, which platforms favour each, how UniForm, OneLake and Snowflake now bridge them, and a practical way to choose.
Microsoft Fabric · Synapse
Microsoft Fabric vs Azure Synapse: should you move, and when?
Microsoft Fabric and Azure Synapse Analytics compared: what changed, SaaS versus PaaS, capacity pricing, OneLake, Warehouse versus dedicated SQL pools, Power BI, and how to decide when to migrate.
MLOps · Machine learning
MLflow vs Kubeflow: experiment tracking or a Kubernetes ML platform?
MLflow and Kubeflow compared: what each actually does, tracking and model registry versus Kubernetes pipelines, training and serving, GenAI tracing in MLflow 3, managed options, operating effort and how teams combine them.
Performance · Databricks
Partitioning vs bucketing vs clustering: which data layout should you use?
Partitioning, bucketing and clustering compared: what each does, when it speeds up queries, the traps, and what Databricks, Snowflake, BigQuery and Spark support today, including Databricks' guidance to skip partitioning under 1 TB.
Orchestration · Airflow
Prefect vs Airflow: which orchestrator should a data team use?
Prefect 3 and Apache Airflow 3 compared for data pipelines: how you write workflows, scheduling and event triggers, dynamic work, deployment and managed options, observability, ecosystem and when each one fits.
Databricks · Machine learning
SageMaker vs Databricks: which platform for data and machine learning on AWS?
Amazon SageMaker and Databricks compared for machine learning and data on AWS: SageMaker AI versus the next-generation SageMaker with Unified Studio, the lakehouse and table formats, MLOps, governance, multi-cloud, cost and when each fits.
Snowflake · BigQuery
Snowflake vs BigQuery: how to choose a cloud data warehouse
Snowflake and Google BigQuery compared for data leaders: architecture, clouds, pricing models (warehouses vs bytes scanned and slots), performance and concurrency, data sharing, AI features and when each fits.
Snowflake · Microsoft Fabric
Snowflake vs Microsoft Fabric: which data platform fits your team?
Snowflake and Microsoft Fabric compared for data leaders: architecture, SQL experience, Power BI, pricing models, data sharing, governance and when to combine them.
Databricks · Semantic layer
Strategy Mosaic vs Databricks metric views: universal semantic layer or native metrics?
Strategy Mosaic and Databricks Unity Catalog metric views compared: scope across platforms, how metrics are defined, governance, which BI and AI tools can use them, pricing model and when each one fits.
Already decided? Our migration guides cover moving from legacy platforms to each target, and the cost calculator estimates monthly spend.
Have 30 minutes? Get a senior architect’s view of your data platform.
No sales deck. You talk to the engineer who would lead the work.
Book an architecture review