Google Colab
Colab notebooks allow you to combine executable code and rich text in a single document, along with images, HTML, LaTeX and more.
Google Colab vs Databricks Notebooks:
a side-by-side comparison for 2024
Comparing two data science notebooks.
Databricks Notebooks
Collaborate across engineering, data science, and machine learning teams with support for multiple languages, built-in data visualizations, automatic versioning, and operationalization with jobs.
Google Colab
Databricks Notebooks
Setup
Fully managed (setup in minutes)
Fully managed (setup in minutes)
Can you self-host?
Can you self-host?
No, you must use a managed offering
You can self-host (setup in hours)
Features
Is it Jupyter compatible?
Is it Jupyter compatible?
Jupyter-compatible
Jupyter-compatible
Programming languages
Programming languages
Jupyter languages (e.g. Python, R)
Jupyter languages (e.g. Python, R)
What kind of data sources can you connect to?
What kind of data sources can you connect to?
Connect with Jupyter libraries (e.g. SQLAlchemy, psycopg2)
Google Drive
Connect with Jupyter libraries (e.g. SQLAlchemy, psycopg2)
Connect to data warehouses (Databricks)
What kind of data visualization can you do?
What kind of data visualization can you do?
Jupyter data visualization (e.g. Matplotlib, Altair, Plotly)
Jupyter data visualization (e.g. Matplotlib, Altair, Plotly)
UI for building charts
Reactivity
Reactivity
No reactivity, you decide the execution order
No reactivity, you decide the execution order
No notebook scheduling
Notebook scheduling is built in
Management
Reproducibility
Reproducibility
There is no support for reproducibility
Environments are reproducible by default
No version history
Version history is built in
No support for collaborative editors
Multiple editors at the same time
Comments
Comments
No support for comments
Comment on items within a notebook
Notebook organization
Notebook organization
View notebooks in a list
View notebooks in a list
Licensing
License
License
Proprietary
Proprietary
Price
Price
Free tier
Pay-per-user
Pay for compute
Free tier
Pay for compute