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PyTorch VS TensorFlow

Compare PyTorch VS TensorFlow and see what are their differences

PyTorch logo PyTorch

Open source deep learning platform that provides a seamless path from research prototyping to...

TensorFlow logo TensorFlow

TensorFlow is an open-source machine learning framework designed and published by Google. It tracks data flow graphs over time. Nodes in the data flow graphs represent machine learning algorithms. Read more about TensorFlow.
  • PyTorch Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-15
  • TensorFlow Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-19

PyTorch features and specs

  • Dynamic Computation Graph
    PyTorch uses a dynamic computation graph, which allows for interactive and flexible model building. This is particularly beneficial for researchers who need to modify the network architecture on-the-fly.
  • Pythonic Nature
    PyTorch is designed to be deeply integrated with Python, making it very intuitive for Python developers. The framework feels more 'native' to Python, which improves the ease of learning and use.
  • Strong Community Support
    PyTorch has a large, active, and growing community. This means abundant resources such as tutorials, forums, and third-party tools are available to help developers solve problems and share solutions.
  • Flexibility and Control
    PyTorch offers granular control over computations and provides extensive debugging capabilities. This level of control is beneficial for tasks that require precise tuning and custom implementations.
  • Support for GPU Acceleration
    PyTorch offers seamless integration with GPU hardware, which significantly accelerates the computation process. This makes it highly efficient for deep learning tasks.
  • Rich Ecosystem
    PyTorch has a rich ecosystem including libraries like torchvision, torchaudio, and torchtext, which are specialized for different data types and can significantly shorten development times.

Possible disadvantages of PyTorch

  • Limited Production Deployment Tools
    PyTorch is primarily designed for research rather than production. While deployment tools like TorchServe exist, they are not as mature or integrated as solutions offered by other frameworks like TensorFlow.
  • Lesser Adoption in Industry
    While PyTorch is popular among researchers, it has historically seen less adoption in industry compared to TensorFlow, which means there might be fewer resources for large-scale production deployments.
  • Inconsistent API Changes
    As PyTorch continues to evolve rapidly, occasionally there are breaking changes or inconsistent API updates. This can create maintenance challenges for existing codebases.
  • Steeper Learning Curve for Beginners
    Despite its Pythonic design, PyTorch's focus on flexibility and control can make it slightly harder for beginners to get started compared to some other high-level libraries and frameworks.
  • Less Mature Documentation
    Although the documentation is improving, it has been historically less comprehensive and mature compared to other frameworks like TensorFlow, which can make it difficult to find detailed, clear information.

TensorFlow features and specs

  • Comprehensive Ecosystem
    TensorFlow offers a complete ecosystem for end-to-end machine learning, covering everything from data preprocessing, model building, training, and deployment to production.
  • Community and Support
    TensorFlow boasts a large and active community, as well as extensive documentation and tutorials, making it easier for beginners to learn and experts to get help.
  • Flexibility
    TensorFlow supports a wide range of platforms such as CPUs, GPUs, TPUs, mobile devices, and embedded systems, providing flexibility depending on the user's needs.
  • Integrations
    TensorFlow integrates well with other Google products and services, including Google Cloud, facilitating seamless deployment and scaling.
  • Versatility
    TensorFlow can be used for a wide range of applications from simple neural networks to more complex projects, including deep learning and artificial intelligence research.

Possible disadvantages of TensorFlow

  • Complexity
    TensorFlow can be challenging to learn due to its complexity and the steep learning curve, particularly for beginners.
  • Performance Overhead
    Although TensorFlow is powerful, it can sometimes exhibit performance overhead compared to other, lighter frameworks, leading to longer training times.
  • Verbose Syntax
    The code in TensorFlow tends to be more verbose and less intuitive, which can make writing and debugging code more cumbersome relative to other frameworks like PyTorch.
  • Compatibility Issues
    Frequent updates and changes can lead to compatibility issues, requiring significant effort to keep libraries and dependencies up to date.
  • Mobile Deployment
    While TensorFlow supports mobile deployment, it is less optimized for mobile platforms compared to some other specialized frameworks, leading to potential performance drawbacks.

PyTorch videos

PyTorch in 5 Minutes

More videos:

  • Review - Jeremy Howard: Deep Learning Frameworks - TensorFlow, PyTorch, fast.ai | AI Podcast Clips
  • Review - PyTorch at Tesla - Andrej Karpathy, Tesla

TensorFlow videos

What is Tensorflow? - Learn Tensorflow for Machine Learning and Neural Networks

More videos:

  • Tutorial - TensorFlow In 10 Minutes | TensorFlow Tutorial For Beginners | Deep Learning & TensorFlow | Edureka
  • Review - TensorFlow in 5 Minutes (tutorial)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PyTorch and TensorFlow)
Data Science And Machine Learning
Data Science Tools
57 57%
43% 43
AI
28 28%
72% 72
Machine Learning
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 PyTorch and TensorFlow

PyTorch Reviews

10 Python Libraries for Computer Vision
Similar to TensorFlow and Keras, PyTorch and torchvision offer powerful tools for computer vision tasks. PyTorch’s dynamic computation graph and torchvision’s datasets and pre-trained models make it easy to implement tasks such as image classification, object detection, and style transfer.
Source: clouddevs.com
25 Python Frameworks to Master
Along with TensorFlow, PyTorch (developed by Facebook’s AI research group) is one of the most used tools for building deep learning models. It can be used for a variety of tasks such as computer vision, natural language processing, and generative models.
Source: kinsta.com
Top 8 Alternatives to OpenCV for Computer Vision and Image Processing
PyTorch is another open-source machine learning framework that is widely used in academia and industry. PyTorch provides excellent support for building deep learning models, and it has several pre-trained models for computer vision tasks, making it the ideal tool for several computer vision applications. PyTorch offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easier for...
Source: www.uubyte.com
PyTorch vs TensorFlow in 2022
When we compare HuggingFace model availability for PyTorch vs TensorFlow, the results are staggering. Below we see a chart of the total number of models available on HuggingFace that are either PyTorch or TensorFlow exclusive, or available for both frameworks. As we can see, the number of models available for use exclusively in PyTorch absolutely blows the competition out of...
15 data science tools to consider using in 2021
First released publicly in 2017, PyTorch uses arraylike tensors to encode model inputs, outputs and parameters. Its tensors are similar to the multidimensional arrays supported by NumPy, another Python library for scientific computing, but PyTorch adds built-in support for running models on GPUs. NumPy arrays can be converted into tensors for processing in PyTorch, and vice...

TensorFlow Reviews

7 Best Computer Vision Development Libraries in 2024
From the widespread adoption of OpenCV with its extensive algorithmic support to TensorFlow's role in machine learning-driven applications, these libraries play a vital role in real-world applications such as object detection, facial recognition, and image segmentation.
10 Python Libraries for Computer Vision
TensorFlow and Keras are widely used libraries for machine learning, but they also offer excellent support for computer vision tasks. TensorFlow provides pre-trained models like Inception and ResNet for image classification, while Keras simplifies the process of building, training, and evaluating deep learning models.
Source: clouddevs.com
25 Python Frameworks to Master
Keras is a high-level deep-learning framework capable of running on top of TensorFlow, Theano, and CNTK. It was developed by François Chollet in 2015 and is designed to provide a simple and user-friendly interface for building and training deep learning models.
Source: kinsta.com
Top 8 Alternatives to OpenCV for Computer Vision and Image Processing
TensorFlow is an open-source software library for dataflow and differentiable programming across a range of tasks such as machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing. It provides excellent support for deep learning models and is widely used in several industries. TensorFlow offers several pre-trained models for image classification, object detection,...
Source: www.uubyte.com
PyTorch vs TensorFlow in 2022
There are a couple of notable exceptions to this rule, the most notable being that those in Reinforcement Learning should consider using TensorFlow. TensorFlow has a native Agents library for Reinforcement Learning, and Deepmind’s Acme framework is implemented in TensorFlow. OpenAI’s Baselines model repository is also implemented in TensorFlow, although OpenAI’s Gym can be...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PyTorch seems to be a lot more popular than TensorFlow. While we know about 132 links to PyTorch, we've tracked only 7 mentions of TensorFlow. 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.

PyTorch mentions (132)

  • Top Programming Languages for AI Development in 2025
    With the quick emergence of new frameworks, libraries, and tools, the area of artificial intelligence is always changing. Programming language selection. We're not only discussing current trends; we're also anticipating what AI will require in 2025 and beyond. - Source: dev.to / 5 days ago
  • Fine-tuning LLMs locally: A step-by-step guide
    Next, we define a training loop that uses our prepared data and optimizes the weights of the model. Here's an example using PyTorch:. - Source: dev.to / 25 days ago
  • 10 Must-Have AI Tools to Supercharge Your Software Development
    8. TensorFlow and PyTorch: These frameworks support AI and machine learning integrations, allowing developers to build and deploy intelligent models and workflows. TensorFlow is widely used for deep learning applications, offering pre-trained models and extensive documentation. PyTorch provides flexibility and ease of use, making it ideal for research and experimentation. Both frameworks support neural network... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Automating Enhanced Due Diligence in Regulated Applications
    Frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch can help you build and train models for various tasks, such as risk scoring, anomaly detection, and pattern recognition. - Source: dev.to / 3 months 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
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TensorFlow mentions (7)

  • Creating Image Frames from Videos for Deep Learning Models
    Converting the images to a tensor: Deep learning models work with tensors, so the images should be converted to tensors. This can be done using the to_tensor function from the PyTorch library or convert_to_tensor from the Tensorflow library. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Need help with a Tensorflow function
    So I went to tensorflow.org to find some function that can generate a CSR representation of a matrix, and I found this function https://www.tensorflow.org/api_docs/python/tf/raw_ops/DenseToCSRSparseMatrix. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Help: Slow performance with windows 10 compared to Ubuntu 20.04 with TF2.7
    Can anyone offer up an explanation for why there is a performance difference, and if possible, what could be done to fix it. I'm using the installation guidelines found on tensorflow.org and installing tf2.7 through pip using an anaconda3 env. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • [Question] What are the best tutorials and resources for implementing NLP techniques on TensorFlow?
    I don't have much experience with TensorFlow, but I'd recommend starting with TensorFlow.org. Source: about 3 years ago
  • [Question] What are the best tutorials and resources for implementing NLP techniques on TensorFlow?
    I have looked at this TensorFlow website and TensorFlow.org and some of the examples are written by others, and it seems that I am stuck in RNNs. What is the best way to install TensorFlow, to follow the documentation and learn the methods in RNNs in Python? Is there a good tutorial/resource? Source: about 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing PyTorch and TensorFlow, you can also consider the following products

Keras - Keras is a minimalist, modular neural networks library, written in Python and capable of running on top of either TensorFlow or Theano.

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

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

IBM Watson Studio - Learn more about Watson Studio. Increase productivity by giving your team a single environment to work with the best of open source and IBM software, to build and deploy an AI solution.

CUDA Toolkit - Select Target Platform Click on the green buttons that describe your target platform.

H2O.ai - Democratizing Generative AI. Own your models: generative and predictive. We bring both super powers together with h2oGPT.