Google Colab vs Observable
Comparing two data science notebooks.
Google Colab
Observable
Colab notebooks allow you to combine executable code and rich text in a single document, along with images, HTML, LaTeX and more.
Make sense of the world with data, together. Explore, visualize, and analyze data. Collaborate with the community. Learn and be inspired. Share insights with the world.
Setup
Can you self-host?
No, you must use a managed offering
Can you self-host?
No, you must use a managed offering
Features
Is it Jupyter compatible?
Jupyter-compatible
Is it Jupyter compatible?
Not Jupyter-compatible
Programming languages
Jupyter languages (e.g. Python, R)
Programming languages
JS
What kind of data sources can you connect to?
Connect with Jupyter libraries (e.g. SQLAlchemy, psycopg2)
Google Drive
What kind of data sources can you connect to?
Connect with JS libraries (e.g. REST APIs)
Connect to databases (MySQL, Postgres)
Connect to data warehouses (BigQuery, Snowflake)
Provided file storage
What kind of data visualization can you do?
Jupyter data visualization (e.g. Matplotlib, Altair, Plotly)
What kind of data visualization can you do?
JS data visualization (e.g. D3, Vega)
Reactivity
No reactivity, you decide the execution order
Reactivity
Full, realtime reactivity
Management
Reproducibility
There is no support for reproducibility
Reproducibility
Environments are reproducible by default
Execution is reproducible by default
Comments
No support for comments
Comments
Comment on items within a notebook
Notebook organization
View notebooks in a list
Notebook organization
View notebooks in a list
Licensing
License
Proprietary
License
Proprietary
Price
Free tier
Pay-per-user
Pay for compute
Price
Free tier
Free trial (1 month)
Pay-per-user
Alternatives to Google Colab and Observable
Compare Google Colab and Observable with other data science notebook tools.
| Tool | Setup | Jupyter compatibility | Programming languages | Data visualization | Collaborative editing | Pricing | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Colab | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | Limited collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Observable | Fully managed | None | JS | Visualize with code | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Jupyter Compare with | Self-hosted | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Amazon Sagemaker Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | Limited collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Deepnote Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter, SQL | Visualize with code or UI | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Hex Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter, SQL | Visualize with code or UI | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Databricks Notebooks Compare with | Self-hosted or fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code or UI | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| DataCamp Workspace Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter, SQL | Visualize with code or UI | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| JupyterLab Compare with | Self-hosted | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| CoCalc Compare with | Self-hosted or fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Open source |
| Hyperquery Compare with | Fully managed | None | Python, SQL | Visualize with code or UI | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Jetbrains Datalore Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code or UI | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Kaggle Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | Limited collaboration | Free | Proprietary |
| Nextjournal Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Noteable Compare with | Self-hosted or fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter, SQL | Visualize with code or UI | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| nteract Compare with | Self-hosted | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Query.me Compare with | Fully managed | None | SQL | Visualization UI builder | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| VS Code Compare with | Self-hosted | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Mode Notebooks Compare with | Fully managed | None | SQL, R, Python | Visualization UI builder | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Unknown | Proprietary |
| Querybook Compare with | Self-hosted | None | Python | Visualization UI builder | Realtime collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Zeppelin Compare with | Self-hosted | None | Python, SQL, Spark | Unknown | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Count Compare with | Fully managed | None | SQL | Visualization UI builder | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Husprey Compare with | Fully managed | None | SQL | Visualization UI builder | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Pluto.jl Compare with | Self-hosted | None | Julia | Unknown | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Polynote Compare with | Self-hosted | None | Scala, Python | Unknown | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Zepl Compare with | Fully managed | Unknown | Python, R | Unknown | Realtime collaboration | Unknown | Proprietary |