Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Colaboratory VS MATLAB

Compare Colaboratory VS MATLAB and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Colaboratory logo Colaboratory

Free Jupyter notebook environment in the cloud.

MATLAB logo MATLAB

A high-level language and interactive environment for numerical computation, visualization, and programming
  • Colaboratory Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-01
  • MATLAB Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-30

We recommend LibHunt MATLAB for discovery and comparisons of trending MATLAB projects.

Colaboratory features and specs

  • Free Access
    Colaboratory is freely available to anyone with a Google account, making it accessible for students, researchers, and developers without cost barriers.
  • Cloud-based
    Colab operates in the cloud, eliminating the need for local computational resources and allowing access from any device with internet connectivity.
  • GPU and TPU Support
    Colab provides free access to GPUs and TPUs, which can significantly speed up machine learning tasks and deep learning experiments.
  • Integration with Google Drive
    Easy integration with Google Drive allows for convenient storage and retrieval of data, notebooks, and other resources.
  • Collaborative Editing
    Multiple users can collaborate on a notebook in real-time, making it a valuable tool for team projects and pair programming.
  • Pre-configured Environment
    Colab comes pre-installed with a wide array of popular machine learning libraries and dependencies, reducing setup time and effort.

Possible disadvantages of Colaboratory

  • Session Time Limits
    Colab has time limits for sessions, meaning your environment can be reset if left idle for too long or if the maximum session duration is reached.
  • Resource Limits
    There are limitations on the computational resources and memory available, which can be restrictive for very large and complex tasks.
  • Dependency Management
    While many libraries are pre-installed, managing and updating dependencies can sometimes be problematic, leading to conflicts or version issues.
  • Privacy Concerns
    Since your code and data are stored on Google’s servers, there can be privacy and security concerns related to sensitive information.
  • Network Dependency
    Being a cloud-based service, Colaboratory requires a constant internet connection, which may not be feasible in all scenarios or locations.
  • Limited Customization
    Customization of the environment is limited compared to a local setup where you have full control over system configurations and installed software.

MATLAB features and specs

  • Versatility
    MATLAB is versatile and can be used across a wide range of applications, including engineering, data analysis, robotics, and image processing.
  • Built-in Functions
    MATLAB comes with a vast library of built-in functions and toolboxes that simplify complex mathematical computations and data visualization tasks.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The software offers an intuitive and user-friendly graphical interface that makes it accessible even for those who are not experts in programming.
  • Excellent Visualization
    MATLAB provides high-quality, customizable plots and graphs that facilitate the clear and effective presentation of data.
  • Strong Community and Support
    Users can benefit from extensive documentation, community forums, and customer support from MathWorks, which aids in troubleshooting and learning.
  • Integration Capabilities
    MATLAB integrates well with other programming languages like C, C++, and Java, and supports interfaces to SQL databases.

Possible disadvantages of MATLAB

  • Cost
    MATLAB is expensive to license, making it less accessible for small businesses, individual professionals, and students without institutional access.
  • Memory Usage
    MATLAB can be very memory-intensive, which could be a limitation when dealing with large datasets or running on devices with limited computational resources.
  • Speed
    Although MATLAB is efficient for rapid prototyping, it is generally slower in execution speed compared to compiled languages like C or Fortran, particularly for heavy computations.
  • Proprietary Nature
    Being a proprietary software, MATLAB does not offer the same level of transparency and flexibility that open-source alternatives provide.
  • Learning Curve
    For some new users, especially those who have no prior experience with numerical computing environments, it might have a steep learning curve.
  • Limited Cross-Platform Compatibility
    While MATLAB supports multiple operating systems, not all features and toolboxes are available on each platform, potentially limiting its utility in diverse environments.

Colaboratory videos

Google Colaboratory review: the best tool for Python programming and data analysis

MATLAB videos

Matlab Review Part 1

More videos:

  • Review - The Complete MATLAB Course: Beginner to Advanced!
  • Tutorial - Complete MATLAB Tutorial for Beginners

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Colaboratory and MATLAB)
Development
100 100%
0% 0
Technical Computing
0 0%
100% 100
Online Learning
100 100%
0% 0
Numerical Computation
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Colaboratory and MATLAB

Colaboratory Reviews

Jupyter Notebook & 10 Alternatives: Data Notebook Review [2023]
Google Colaboratory (known as Colab) is a browser-based notebook created by the Google team. The environment is based on the Jupyter Notebook environment, so it will be recognizable to those of you who are already familiar with Jupyter.
Source: lakefs.io
12 Best Jupyter Notebook Alternatives [2023] – Features, pros & cons, pricing
Microsoft Azure Notebooks is a cloud-based platform for data science projects and machine learning that is similar to Google Colab and Kaggle Notebooks. It provides access to powerful hardware resources, including GPUs and TPUs, for running machine learning and deep learning models, as well as a number of other useful features, such as integration with Microsoft Azure...
Source: noteable.io

MATLAB Reviews

25 Best Statistical Analysis Software
MATLAB is an exceptional choice for individuals seeking to perform advanced statistical analysis and data visualization. Its high-level programming environment and comprehensive range of tools enable users to efficiently process, analyze, and visualize their data.
7 Best MATLAB alternatives for Linux
MATLAB is a programming language and numeric computing environment. It is used for solving mathematical problems and displaying the result graphically. MATLAB is a paid tool, they provide a free trial for one month.
15 data science tools to consider using in 2021
Developed and sold by software vendor MathWorks since 1984, Matlab is a high-level programming language and analytics environment for numerical computing, mathematical modeling and data visualization. It's primarily used by conventional engineers and scientists to analyze data, design algorithms and develop embedded systems for wireless communications, industrial control,...
The 16 Best Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms for 2021
Description: MathWorks MATLAB combines a desktop environment tuned for iterative analysis and design processes with a programming language that expresses matrix and array mathematics directly. It includes the Live Editor for creating scripts that combine code, output, and formatted text in an executable notebook. MATLAB toolboxes are professionally developed, tested, and...
Matlab Alternatives
Matrix Laboratory also known as MATLAB is a high-level programming language. It provides an interactive environment to perform computations in various fields such as mathematics, sciences and engineering streams. The results can be visualized and generated as reports for further analysis. Matlab is the pioneer in combining these things. A team of professionals develop the...
Source: www.educba.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Colaboratory seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 224 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Colaboratory mentions (224)

  • Introduction to TensorFlow with real code examples
    If you don't want to set up TensorFlow locally, you can use Google Colab, which comes with a GPU by default. You can access it via this link. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • The 3 Best Python Frameworks To Build UIs for AI Apps
    Showcase and share: Easily embed UIs in Jupyter Notebook, Google Colab or share them on Hugging Face using a public link. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Build a RAG-Powered Research Paper Assistant
    Google Colab Documentation Beginner-friendly documentation to get started with Google Colab: Https://colab.research.google.com/. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • PyTorch Fundamentals: A Beginner-Friendly Guide
    If you don't want to install PyTorch locally, you can use Google Colab, which provides a free cloud-based environment with PyTorch pre-installed. This allows you to run PyTorch code without any setup on your local machine. Simply go to Google Colab and create a new notebook. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Applied Artificial Intelligence & its role in an AGI World
    Leverage versatile resources to prototype and refine your ideas, such as Jupyter Notebooks for rapid iterations, Google Colabs for cloud-based experimentation, OpenAI’s API Playground for testing and fine-tuning prompts, and Anthropic's Prompt Engineering Library for inspiration and guidance on advanced prompting techniques. For frontend experimentation, tools like v0 are invaluable, providing a seamless way to... - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
View more

MATLAB mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of MATLAB yet. Tracking of MATLAB recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Colaboratory and MATLAB, you can also consider the following products

Jupyter - Project Jupyter exists to develop open-source software, open-standards, and services for interactive computing across dozens of programming languages. Ready to get started? Try it in your browser Install the Notebook.

Wolfram Mathematica - Mathematica has characterized the cutting edge in specialized processing—and gave the chief calculation environment to a large number of pioneers, instructors, understudies, and others around the globe.

Kaggle - Kaggle offers innovative business results and solutions to companies.

GNU Octave - GNU Octave is a programming language for scientific computing.

Teammately.ai - Teammately is The AI AI-Engineer - the AI Agent for AI Engineers that autonomously builds AI Products, Models and Agents based on LLM, prompt, RAG and ML.

Scilab - Scilab Official Website. Enter your search in the box aboveAbout ScilabScilab is free and open source software for numerical . Thanks for downloading Scilab!