Data platforms

Microsoft Fabric vs Databricks for a growing business: how to choose

By the Trigno team · 27 October 2026 · 7 min read

Both Microsoft Fabric and Databricks can replace an ageing reporting database with a modern platform that is ready for AI. Both are excellent. The right choice depends less on features and more on your team, your existing Microsoft investment and how much engineering you want to own.

The short version

• Choose Microsoft Fabric if you are a Microsoft 365 and Power BI business, want one bill and one sign-in, and have little in-house data engineering.
• Choose Databricks if you have heavier data engineering or data science needs, large or fast-moving data, or want a platform that also runs on other clouds.
• Either way, the design that matters most is the same: raw data in, cleaned data, then business-ready tables.

Microsoft Fabric in plain English

Fabric brings data movement, storage, engineering and Power BI into one Microsoft service, with data stored in a single shared lake called OneLake. You buy capacity and everything runs within it. For businesses already using Power BI, it feels like a natural extension: the same workspaces, sign-in and security.

Databricks in plain English

Databricks is a data and AI platform built around Apache Spark and the Delta Lake format. It is very strong for data engineering, machine learning and large data volumes, and it runs on Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. You pay for the compute you use, which rewards good engineering and cost controls.

Questions that decide it

1. Who will look after the platform? A small team without data engineers will usually be happier with Fabric.
2. How big and fast is your data? Very large volumes or near-real-time needs lean towards Databricks.
3. How much do you rely on Power BI? Heavy Power BI use favours Fabric's tight integration.
4. Do you plan serious machine learning? Databricks has a deeper toolset here.
5. How predictable must costs be? Fabric's capacity model gives a fixed monthly figure; Databricks' usage model needs cost guardrails.

Tip: It is not always either/or. Both use open Delta tables, and Fabric can read data held elsewhere through shortcuts, so a mixed approach is possible as you grow.

What we usually recommend for SMEs

For most Microsoft-centric businesses of 20–250 people, Fabric is the simpler starting point. Where there is heavier engineering or an existing Databricks investment, as with an insurer we moved from SQL Server to a Databricks lakehouse, Databricks is the better fit. A one-hour Health Check is usually enough to decide.