spaCy vs TextBlob
A side-by-side look at pricing plans, free tiers, features, pros and cons, updated for 2026. spaCy starts at Free and TextBlob starts at Free. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
At a glance
Best for
Category
Pricing model
Starting price
Free plan
Made by
Based in
Rating
Key features
- Named entity recognition
- Dependency parsing
- Pretrained pipelines for 25 languages
- Transformer-based training
- LLM integration via spacy-llm
- Syntax and NER visualizers
- Sentiment analysis
- Part-of-speech tagging
- Noun phrase extraction
- Text classification
- Tokenization and n-grams
| Feature | spaCy | TextBlob |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Open-source Python library for production natural language processing | Python library for sentiment analysis, tagging and text classification |
| Category | Models & APIs | Models & APIs |
| Pricing model | Free | Free |
| Starting price | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes, fully free | Yes, fully free |
| Made by | Explosion | Steven Loria |
| Based in | Germany | – |
| Rating | No ratings yet | No ratings yet |
| Key features |
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Pricing compared
spaCy starts at Free and TextBlob starts at Free. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
Free plan
Cheapest paid plan
Top plan
Free trial
Prices in USD, checked Nov 5, 2026 or later. Plans change often, so confirm on each tool's site before you buy.
Pros and cons
spaCy
- Fast enough for very large text volumes
- Free and open source
- Mature plugin ecosystem
- Requires Python programming skills
- Pretrained pipelines cover only 25 languages
- Custom training needs labeled data
TextBlob
- Very easy API
- Free and open source
- Good for quick prototypes
- Classic NLP, not modern LLMs
- Accuracy trails newer libraries
- Python only
Which one should you choose?
Choose spaCy if you want:
- Fast enough for very large text volumes
- Free and open source
- Mature plugin ecosystem
Watch out: requires python programming skills.
Choose TextBlob if you want:
- Very easy API
- Free and open source
- Good for quick prototypes
Watch out: classic nlp, not modern llms.
spaCy vs TextBlob FAQ
What is the difference between spaCy and TextBlob?
spaCy: Open-source Python library for production natural language processing. TextBlob: Python library for sentiment analysis, tagging and text classification. Both are models & apis tools.
Is spaCy or TextBlob cheaper?
spaCy starts at Free and TextBlob starts at Free. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
Do spaCy and TextBlob have free plans?
spaCy: Yes, fully free. TextBlob: Yes, fully free.
Who makes spaCy?
spaCy is made by Explosion, based in Germany.
Who makes TextBlob?
TextBlob is made by Steven Loria.
Which should I choose, spaCy or TextBlob?
Choose spaCy if you value fast enough for very large text volumes and free and open source. Choose TextBlob if you value very easy api and free and open source.