What is the difference between cache and persist?

With cache(), you use only the default storage level :

• MEMORY_ONLY for RDD
• MEMORY_AND_DISK for Dataset

With persist(), you can specify which storage level you want for both RDD and Dataset.

From the official docs:

• You can mark an RDD to be persisted using the persist() or cache() methods on it.
• each persisted RDD can be stored using a different storage level
• The cache() method is a shorthand for using the default storage level, which is StorageLevel.MEMORY_ONLY (store deserialized objects in memory).

Use persist() if you want to assign a storage level other than :

• MEMORY_ONLY to the RDD
• or MEMORY_AND_DISK for Dataset

Interesting link for the official documentation : which storage level to choose