Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Scikit-learn VS MLlib

Compare Scikit-learn VS MLlib and see what are their differences

Scikit-learn logo Scikit-learn

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

MLlib logo MLlib

MLlib is Spark's machine learning (ML) library that make practical machine learning scalable & provides ML Algorithms.
  • Scikit-learn Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-05-06
  • MLlib Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-12

Scikit-learn features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Scikit-learn provides a high-level interface for common machine learning algorithms, making it easy for beginners and professionals to implement complex models with minimal coding.
  • Extensive Documentation and Community Support
    The library has comprehensive documentation and a large, active community. This makes it easy to find tutorials, examples, and solutions to common problems.
  • Integration with Other Libraries
    Scikit-learn integrates well with other scientific computing libraries such as NumPy, SciPy, and pandas, allowing for seamless data manipulation and analysis.
  • Variety of Algorithms
    It offers a wide array of machine learning algorithms for tasks such as classification, regression, clustering, and dimensionality reduction.
  • Performance
    Designed with performance in mind, many of the algorithms are optimized and some even support multicore processing.

Possible disadvantages of Scikit-learn

  • Limited Deep Learning Support
    Scikit-learn is primarily focused on traditional machine learning algorithms and does not offer support for deep learning models, unlike libraries like TensorFlow or PyTorch.
  • Not Ideal for Large-Scale Data
    While Scikit-learn performs well for moderate-sized datasets, it may not be the best choice for extremely large datasets or big data applications.
  • Lack of Online Learning Algorithms
    The library has limited support for online learning algorithms, which are useful for scenarios where data arrives in a stream and model needs to be updated incrementally.
  • Less Flexibility in Customization
    It can be less flexible compared to lower-level libraries when highly customized or specific implementations are needed.
  • Dependency Overhead
    Scikit-learn relies on several other Python libraries like NumPy and SciPy, which might require users to manage multiple dependencies.

MLlib features and specs

  • Scalability
    MLlib is designed to scale and perform machine learning in a distributed environment using Apache Spark. It can handle large data sets efficiently, leveraging Spark's distributed computation capabilities.
  • Integration with Spark
    MLlib seamlessly integrates with other components of Apache Spark, such as Spark SQL, DataFrames, and the Spark core. This enables easy data manipulation and preprocessing before applying ML algorithms.
  • Ease of Use
    MLlib provides high-level APIs in Java, Scala, and Python. These APIs are designed to be easy to use and help developers with less expertise in distributed systems to implement machine learning algorithms.
  • Rich Set of Algorithms
    MLlib includes a wide range of machine learning algorithms, such as classification, regression, clustering, collaborative filtering, and dimensionality reduction. This allows for a versatile application in various use cases.
  • Optimization and Performance
    MLlib is optimized for performance by leveraging in-memory computing and allowing users to run iterative algorithms efficiently, reducing the need for data shuffling and repeated disk I/O operations.

Possible disadvantages of MLlib

  • Limited Algorithm Coverage
    Although MLlib offers a variety of machine learning algorithms, it may not cover all the latest or most sophisticated techniques available in other specialized machine learning libraries.
  • Learning Curve
    While the high-level APIs are user-friendly, there is still a learning curve associated with understanding and configuring distributed machine learning workflows and tuning performance on Spark.
  • Parameter Tuning Complexity
    Parameter tuning in MLlib can be challenging, particularly for large-scale data sets. It involves selecting the right hyperparameters, which can be time-consuming and computationally expensive.
  • Dependency on Spark
    MLlib's integrated nature with Spark means that it may not be as easily used standalone or with other distributed computing frameworks, reducing flexibility in some scenarios.
  • Maturity and Maintenance
    Compared to other established machine learning libraries like scikit-learn or TensorFlow, MLlib may not be as mature or as actively maintained in terms of updating and adding new algorithms regularly.

Scikit-learn videos

Learning Scikit-Learn (AI Adventures)

More videos:

  • Review - Python Machine Learning Review | Learn python for machine learning. Learn Scikit-learn.

MLlib videos

Using Spark Mllib Models in a Production Training and Serving Platform Experiences and ExtensionsA

More videos:

  • Review - Spark MLlib
  • Review - Announcement: LIVE on 26th July [ Spark SQL & MLLib ]

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Scikit-learn and MLlib)
Data Science And Machine Learning
Data Science Tools
88 88%
12% 12
Python Tools
83 83%
17% 17
Data Dashboard
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Scikit-learn and MLlib

Scikit-learn Reviews

15 data science tools to consider using in 2021
Scikit-learn is an open source machine learning library for Python that's built on the SciPy and NumPy scientific computing libraries, plus Matplotlib for plotting data. It supports both supervised and unsupervised machine learning and includes numerous algorithms and models, called estimators in scikit-learn parlance. Additionally, it provides functionality for model...

MLlib Reviews

We have no reviews of MLlib yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Scikit-learn seems to be a lot more popular than MLlib. While we know about 31 links to Scikit-learn, we've tracked only 2 mentions of MLlib. 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.

Scikit-learn mentions (31)

  • 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
  • 🚀 Launching a High-Performance DistilBERT-Based Sentiment Analysis Model for Steam Reviews 🎮🤖
    Scikit-learn (optional): Useful for additional training or evaluation tasks. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Essential Deep Learning Checklist: Best Practices Unveiled
    How to Accomplish: Utilize data splitting tools in libraries like Scikit-learn to partition your dataset. Make sure the split mirrors the real-world distribution of your data to avoid biased evaluations. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • How to Build a Logistic Regression Model: A Spam-filter Tutorial
    Online Courses: Coursera: "Machine Learning" by Andrew Ng EdX: "Introduction to Machine Learning" by MIT Tutorials: Scikit-learn documentation: https://scikit-learn.org/ Kaggle Learn: https://www.kaggle.com/learn Books: "Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras & TensorFlow" by Aurélien Géron "The Elements of Statistical Learning" by Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani, and Jerome Friedman By... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Link Prediction With node2vec in Physics Collaboration Network
    Firstly, we need a connection to Memgraph so we can get edges, split them into two parts (train set and test set). For edge splitting, we will use scikit-learn. In order to make a connection towards Memgraph, we will use gqlalchemy. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
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MLlib mentions (2)

  • Predicting Diabetes In Patients - Apache Spark Machine Learning - 4 Easy Steps To Do This!
    The MLlib library gives us a very wide range of available Machine Learning algorithms and additional tools for standardisation, tokenisation and many others (for more information visit the official website Apache Spark MLlib). (Apache Spark Machine Learning predicting diabetes in patients). Source: about 3 years ago
  • How to distribute ML tasks across CPU and GPU?
    Totally agree with the current responses, especially for the purposes of understanding exactly what's going on under the hood, but did want to just call out the fact that you can simply use a machine learning library that's implemented in a distributed way. Examples would be MLlib From Spark and h2o. H2O in particular will take care of pretty much everything for you in terms of initializing a cluster, and has a... Source: about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Scikit-learn and MLlib, you can also consider the following products

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

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

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

Dataiku - Dataiku is the developer of DSS, the integrated development platform for data professionals to turn raw data into predictions.

WEKA - WEKA is a set of powerful data mining tools that run on Java.

Exploratory - Exploratory enables users to understand data by transforming, visualizing, and applying advanced statistics and machine learning algorithms.