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Databricks Notebooks vs Observable:
a side-by-side comparison for 2024

Comparing two data science notebooks.

A screenshot of Databricks Notebooks
Databricks Notebooks logo

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.

Read about alternatives

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A screenshot of Observable
Observable logo

Observable

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.
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Databricks Notebooks

Observable

Setup

Is it managed?

Is it managed?

Fully managed (setup in minutes)
Fully managed (setup in minutes)

Can you self-host?

Can you self-host?

You can self-host (setup in hours)
No, you must use a managed offering

Features

Is it Jupyter compatible?

Is it Jupyter compatible?

Jupyter-compatible
Not Jupyter-compatible

Programming languages

Programming languages

Jupyter languages (e.g. Python, R)
JS

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)
Connect to data warehouses (Databricks)
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?

What kind of data visualization can you do?

Jupyter data visualization (e.g. Matplotlib, Altair, Plotly)
UI for building charts
JS data visualization (e.g. D3, Vega)

Reactivity

Reactivity

No reactivity, you decide the execution order
Full, realtime reactivity

Notebook scheduling

Notebook scheduling

Notebook scheduling is built in
No notebook scheduling

Management

Reproducibility

Reproducibility

Environments are reproducible by default
Environments are reproducible by default
Execution is reproducible by default

Version history

Version history

Version history is built in
Version history is built in

Collaborative editing

Collaborative editing

Multiple editors at the same time
Multiple editors at the same time

Comments

Comments

Comment on items within a notebook
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 for compute
Free tier
Free trial (1 month)
Pay-per-user

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