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Databricks vs LangChain

Databricks logo

Databricks

Software

Unified analytics platform for data engineering and data science

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
LangChain logo

LangChain

Software

Build applications with LLMs through composability

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Databricks cloud compute is billed separately by the cloud provider on top of Databricks DBU charges; LangChain the free Developer plan of LangSmith is limited to 1 seat
  • They diverge on capability: Databricks covers Delta Lake, LangChain covers Chains and agents.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Databricks and LangChain actually diverge.

Attributes where Databricks and LangChain differ
AttributeDatabricksLangChain
Pricing modelusage-basedfreemium
PlatformsWeb, Aws, Azure, GcpLinux, Mac, Windows
Founded20132022

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Databricks

  • Delta Lake
  • Apache Spark
  • MLflow
  • Unity Catalog
  • Photon Engine
  • Collaborative Notebooks
  • Auto-scaling
  • AWS

Only in LangChain

  • Chains and agents
  • Retrieval-augmented generation
  • Memory management
  • Tool integration
  • Prompt templates
  • OpenAI
  • Anthropic
  • Hugging Face

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Databricks

  • Running Spark data engineering pipelines on managed clustersnot LangChain
  • Building a lakehouse over data in cloud object storagenot LangChain
  • Training and serving machine learning models alongside the datanot LangChain

LangChain

  • Building LLM applications and agents in Python or JavaScriptnot Databricks
  • Tracing and debugging LLM chains and agent runsnot Databricks
  • Evaluating prompt and model changes against datasetsnot Databricks

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Databricks

  • Cloud compute is billed separately by the cloud provider on top of Databricks DBU charges
  • The free trial lasts 14 days
  • Discounts require a Committed Use Contract, with larger commitments needed for larger discounts
  • Azure Databricks pricing is set by Microsoft rather than by Databricks
  • Security and compliance capabilities are sold as separate platform add ons rather than included in the base rate

LangChain

  • The free Developer plan of LangSmith is limited to 1 seat
  • Base traces are retained for 14 days only; 400 day retention costs extra
  • Included traces are capped at 5,000 per month on Developer and 10,000 per month on Plus, with everything beyond billed pay as you go
  • Self hosted and hybrid deployment of LangSmith is Enterprise only
  • Custom SSO, RBAC and ABAC are Enterprise only
  • A support SLA is Enterprise only
  • Enterprise pricing is by quote with no published rate

Pricing, plan by plan

Databricks

Free
  • Community EditionFree
    • Limited cluster
    • Notebook environment
    • Community support
  • Standard$0.07/DBU
    • Jobs compute
    • SQL compute
    • Standard support

LangChain

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • Full framework
    • Community support
  • LangSmith$39/month
    • Debugging
    • Monitoring
    • Testing

Which should you pick?

Choose Databricks if

  • You need delta lake.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Aws, Azure, Gcp.
  • You also want apache spark.
Databricks review

Choose LangChain if

  • You need chains and agents.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Mac, Windows.
  • You also want retrieval-augmented generation.
LangChain review

Questions people ask

Is Databricks or LangChain better?
Neither clearly leads. Databricks starts at Free and LangChain at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Databricks or LangChain?
Databricks starts at Free and LangChain at Free.
Does Databricks or LangChain run on more platforms?
Databricks runs on Web, Aws, Azure, Gcp. LangChain runs on Linux, Mac, Windows.
Can I use Databricks for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Databricks best used for?
Databricks is most often used for running spark data engineering pipelines on managed clusters, building a lakehouse over data in cloud object storage, training and serving machine learning models alongside the data. Of those, running spark data engineering pipelines on managed clusters and building a lakehouse over data in cloud object storage are not what LangChain is typically brought in for.
What can Databricks do that LangChain cannot?
Databricks covers Delta Lake, Apache Spark, MLflow, Unity Catalog. LangChain covers Chains and agents, Retrieval-augmented generation, Memory management, Tool integration.
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