# Apache Beam vs Apache Spark

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Apache Beam

| Attribute | Apache Beam | Apache Spark |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 70 (35% (low)) | 60.5 (38% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 1,425 | 8,896 |
| adoption.github_stars | 8,650 | 43,882 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Apache Beam enables organizations to process data in both batch and streaming modes through a single unified model, with the flexibility to read from diverse data sources and write to popular data sinks across different deployment environments. | Apache Spark is an open-source, multi-language distributed computing engine that unifies data engineering, data science, and machine learning workloads. It processes data at scale using batch or streaming paradigms, provides SQL query capabilities for analytics, and includes built-in libraries for machine learning and graph processing. |
| features.capabilities | `{"role":"orchestrator","paradigm":"both","managed_cloud":true,"connector_count":"Multiple I/O connectors for diverse data sources and sinks","self_hosted_oss":true,"distributed_executor":true}` | `{"role":"engine","paradigm":"both","self_hosted_oss":true,"distributed_executor":true}` |
| integrations.count | - | 5 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"Hadoop"},{"name":"HDFS"},{"name":"YARN"},{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"Docker"}]` |
| language.primary | Java | Scala |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | - | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | - | `{"cli":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://beam.apache.org","retrievedAt":"2026-08-03T14:24:53.130Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://spark.apache.org","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T13:48:09.654Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 36 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.76.0-RC4","date":"2026-08-11T11:18:23Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.76.0-RC4"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.75.0","date":"2026-07-08T06:42:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.75.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.74.0","date":"2026-05-22T16:19:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.74.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.73.0","date":"2026-04-17T14:27:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.73.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.72.0","date":"2026-03-16T19:01:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.72.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.71.0","date":"2026-01-08T14:41:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.71.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.70.0","date":"2025-12-09T09:59:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.70.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.69.0","date":"2025-10-17T11:50:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.69.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.68.0","date":"2025-09-15T14:08:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.68.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.67.0","date":"2025-08-01T06:31:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.67.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.66.0","date":"2025-06-18T19:05:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.66.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.65.0","date":"2025-05-12T19:13:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.65.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.64.0","date":"2025-03-31T14:35:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.64.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.63.0","date":"2025-02-18T15:31:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.63.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.62.0","date":"2025-01-13T15:35:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.62.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.61.0","date":"2024-11-14T14:46:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.61.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.60.0","date":"2024-10-16T17:47:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.60.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.59.0","date":"2024-08-24T17:16:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.59.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.58.1","date":"2024-08-16T18:44:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.58.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/beam/releases/tag/v2.58.0","date":"2024-08-06T13:49:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.58.0"}]` | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 6.4 | 5.6 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fapache%2Fbeam&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":7,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=org.apache.spark%3Aspark-core_2.10&per_page=100","last_12m":1,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` |

## Capabilities (Data Engineering Tools)

| Capability | Apache Beam | Apache Spark |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Tool role | Orchestrator | Processing engine |
| Processing paradigm | Batch + streaming | Batch + streaming |
| **Connectivity** |  |  |
| Connector count | Multiple I/O connectors for diverse data sources and sinks | - |
| CDC / log-based replication | - | - |
| **Transformation** |  |  |
| In-warehouse transformation (push-down) | - | - |
| dbt-native orchestration | - | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Self-hosted / open-source available | ✓ | ✓ |
| Managed cloud available | ✓ | - |
| **Governance** |  |  |
| Data lineage / asset catalog | - | - |
| **Authoring** |  |  |
| Python-first authoring | - | - |
| **Execution** |  |  |
| Incremental / partition-aware runs | - | - |
| **Quality** |  |  |
| Built-in data quality / tests | - | - |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Horizontal scale (distributed executor) | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T17:19:54.766Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*