Databricks SQL Server Data Warehouse
Cloud-native, built on Spark Traditional RDBMS
Supports batch & real-time processing Primarily batch
Automatic scaling based on workload Manual scaling, less dynamic
Pay-as-you-go pricing Fixed licensing/hardware costs
Structure, semi-structured and unstructured dataPrimarily focused on structured data
Built-in ML support and notebook integration Basic analytics support
Real-time collaboration (shared notebooks) Limited collaboration features