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Pandas VS Azure Synapse Analytics

Compare Pandas VS Azure Synapse Analytics and see what are their differences

Pandas logo Pandas

Pandas is an open source library providing high-performance, easy-to-use data structures and data analysis tools for the Python.

Azure Synapse Analytics logo Azure Synapse Analytics

Get started with Azure SQL Data Warehouse for an enterprise-class SQL Server experience. Cloud data warehouses offer flexibility, scalability, and big data insights.
  • Pandas Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-12
  • Azure Synapse Analytics Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-23

Pandas features and specs

  • Data Wrangling
    Pandas offers robust tools for manipulating, cleaning, and transforming data, making it easier to prepare data for analysis.
  • Flexible Data Structures
    Pandas provides two primary data structures: Series and DataFrame, which are flexible and offer powerful capabilities for handling various types of datasets.
  • Integration with Other Libraries
    Pandas integrates seamlessly with other Python libraries such as NumPy, Matplotlib, and SciPy, facilitating comprehensive data analysis workflows.
  • Performance with Data Size
    For data sizes that fit into memory, Pandas performs excellently with operations and computations being highly optimized.
  • Rich Feature Set
    Pandas provides a wide array of functionalities, including but not limited to group-by operations, merging and joining data sets, time-series functionality, and input/output tools.
  • Community and Documentation
    Pandas has a strong community and extensive documentation, offering a wealth of tutorials, examples, and support for new and experienced users alike.

Possible disadvantages of Pandas

  • Memory Consumption
    Pandas can become memory inefficient with very large datasets because it relies heavily on in-memory operations.
  • Single-threaded
    Many Pandas operations are single-threaded, which can lead to performance bottlenecks when handling very large datasets.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    For users who are new to data analysis or Pandas, there can be a steep learning curve due to its extensive capabilities and complex syntax at times.
  • Less Suitable for Real-time Analytics
    Pandas is not designed for real-time analytics and is better suited for batch processing due to its in-memory operations and single-threaded nature.
  • Error Handling
    Error messages in Pandas can sometimes be cryptic and hard to interpret, making debugging a challenge for users.

Azure Synapse Analytics features and specs

  • Integration
    Azure Synapse Analytics integrates with other Azure services like Azure Data Lake Storage, Power BI, and Azure Machine Learning, enabling seamless data movement and business intelligence processes.
  • Scalability
    It allows on-demand scalability, both horizontally and vertically, providing the flexibility to handle workloads of any size efficiently.
  • Unified Experience
    Offers a unified interface for data ingestion, preparation, management, and serving, simplifying data operations and reducing the need for multiple tools.
  • Advanced Security
    Includes robust security features like encryption, network protection, and advanced threat protection to ensure data security and compliance.
  • Serverless and Dedicated Options
    Provides both serverless and dedicated resource models, allowing businesses to optimize their costs by selecting the appropriate compute resources for their needs.

Possible disadvantages of Azure Synapse Analytics

  • Complexity
    The comprehensive range of features and tools can lead to a steep learning curve and complexity in setup and management for new users.
  • Cost Management
    Although flexibility is offered, managing and predicting costs can be challenging, especially in serverless scenarios where usage might fluctuate.
  • Resource Limitations
    Despite its scalability, there might be certain limitations in terms of data size or query complexity compared to some on-premises solutions.
  • Dependency on Internet Connectivity
    As a cloud-based solution, it requires stable and reliable internet connectivity, which may not be available in all regions or circumstances.
  • Integration Learning Curve
    While integration is a strength, mastering the integration with various Azure services and third-party tools can require substantial time and effort.

Pandas videos

Ozzy Man Reviews: Pandas

More videos:

  • Review - Ozzy Man Reviews: PANDAS Part 2
  • Review - Trash Pandas Review with Sam Healey

Azure Synapse Analytics videos

Azure Synapse Analytics - Next-gen Azure SQL Data Warehouse

More videos:

  • Review - Is Azure SQL Data Warehouse the Right SQL Platform for You?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Pandas and Azure Synapse Analytics)
Data Science And Machine Learning
Office & Productivity
0 0%
100% 100
Data Science Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Pandas and Azure Synapse Analytics

Pandas Reviews

25 Python Frameworks to Master
Pandas is a powerful and flexible open-source library used to perform data analysis in Python. It provides high-performance data structures (i.e., the famous DataFrame) and data analysis tools that make it easy to work with structured data.
Source: kinsta.com
Python & ETL 2020: A List and Comparison of the Top Python ETL Tools
When it comes to ETL, you can do almost anything with Pandas if you're willing to put in the time. Plus, pandas is extraordinarily easy to run. You can set up a simple script to load data from a Postgre table, transform and clean that data, and then write that data to another Postgre table.
Source: www.xplenty.com

Azure Synapse Analytics Reviews

Data Warehouse Tools
Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly Azure Data Warehouse) is a cloud-native data warehouse integrated with other Azure services. It unifies data warehousing and big data analytics for comprehensive insights, offering visually interactive tools for user-friendly data exploration.
Source: peliqan.io
Top 6 Cloud Data Warehouses in 2023
Azure Synapse analytics is scalable for large data tables based on its distributed computing. It relies on the MPP (mentioned in the beginning, revisit if you did not grasp it) to quickly run high volumes of complex queries across multiple nodes. With Synapse, there’s an extra emphasis on security and privacy.
Source: geekflare.com
Top 5 BigQuery Alternatives: A Challenge of Complexity
Azure SQL Data Warehouse, now subsumed by Azure Synapse Analytics, brings together the worlds of big data analytics and enterprise data warehousing. Over the years, Azure has made a name for enabling the seamless transfer of data between on-premise and cloud ecosystems.
Source: blog.panoply.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Pandas seems to be a lot more popular than Azure Synapse Analytics. While we know about 219 links to Pandas, we've tracked only 4 mentions of Azure Synapse Analytics. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Pandas mentions (219)

  • Top Programming Languages for AI Development in 2025
    Libraries for data science and deep learning that are always changing. - Source: dev.to / 11 days ago
  • How to import sample data into a Python notebook on watsonx.ai and other questions…
    # Read the content of nda.txt Try: Import os, types Import pandas as pd From botocore.client import Config Import ibm_boto3 Def __iter__(self): return 0 # @hidden_cell # The following code accesses a file in your IBM Cloud Object Storage. It includes your credentials. # You might want to remove those credentials before you share the notebook. Cos_client = ibm_boto3.client(service_name='s3', ... - Source: dev.to / 27 days ago
  • How I Hacked Uber’s Hidden API to Download 4379 Rides
    As with any web scraping or data processing project, I had to write a fair amount of code to clean this up and shape it into a format I needed for further analysis. I used a combination of Pandas and regular expressions to clean it up (full code here). - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Must-Know 2025 Developer’s Roadmap and Key Programming Trends
    Python’s Growth in Data Work and AI: Python continues to lead because of its easy-to-read style and the huge number of libraries available for tasks from data work to artificial intelligence. Tools like TensorFlow and PyTorch make it a must-have. Whether you’re experienced or just starting, Python’s clear style makes it a good choice for diving into machine learning. Actionable Tip: If you’re new to Python,... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Sample Super Store Analysis Using Python & Pandas
    This tutorial provides a concise and foundational guide to exploring a dataset, specifically the Sample SuperStore dataset. This dataset, which appears to originate from a fictional e-commerce or online marketplace company's annual sales data, serves as an excellent example for learning and how to work with real-world data. The dataset includes a variety of data types, which demonstrate the full range of... - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
View more

Azure Synapse Analytics mentions (4)

  • DbVisualizer 24.2: A Complete Review
    Azure Synapse Analytics: DbVisualizer now has extended support for dedicated and serverless SQL pools in Azure Synapse Analytics. That includes support for database-scoped credentials, external file formats and data sources, and external tables. For more information, see the Azure Synapse Dedicated and Azure Synapse Serverless pages on the official site. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Deploying a Data Warehouse with Pulumi and Amazon Redshift
    A data warehouse is a specialized database that's purpose built for gathering and analyzing data. Unlike general-purpose databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL, which are designed to meet the real-time performance and transactional needs of applications, a data warehouse is designed to collect and process the data produced by those applications, collectively and over time, to help you gain insight from it. Examples of... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • [WSJ] Facebook Parent Meta Expected to Post Slowest Revenue Growth Since IPO
    You don't run into these kinds of problems with other tools, like the ones I mentioned. I've never tried the Azure ones, but my gut says they may have some scaling issues (synapse analytics looks promising but I have no experience with it). Source: about 3 years ago
  • The Difference Between Data Warehouses, Data Lakes, and Data Lakehouses.
    Popular managed cloud data warehouse solutions include Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure SQL Database, and Amazon Redshift. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Pandas and Azure Synapse Analytics, you can also consider the following products

NumPy - NumPy is the fundamental package for scientific computing with Python

Databricks Unified Analytics Platform - One platform for accelerating data-driven innovation across data engineering, data science & business analytics

Scikit-learn - scikit-learn (formerly scikits.learn) is an open source machine learning library for the Python programming language.

Google BigQuery - A fully managed data warehouse for large-scale data analytics.

OpenCV - OpenCV is the world's biggest computer vision library

Saturn Cloud - ML in the cloud. Loved by Data Scientists, Control for IT. Advance your business's ML capabilities through the entire experiment tracking lifecycle. Available on multiple clouds: AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI.