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Keras VS Colaboratory

Compare Keras VS Colaboratory and see what are their differences

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Keras logo Keras

Keras is a minimalist, modular neural networks library, written in Python and capable of running on top of either TensorFlow or Theano.

Colaboratory logo Colaboratory

Free Jupyter notebook environment in the cloud.
  • Keras Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-16
  • Colaboratory Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-01

Keras features and specs

  • User-Friendly
    Keras provides a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy for beginners to start building and training models without needing extensive experience in deep learning.
  • Modularity
    Keras follows a modular design, allowing users to easily plug in different neural network components, such as layers, activation functions, and optimizers, to create complex models.
  • Pre-trained Models
    Keras includes a wide range of pre-trained models and offers easy integration with transfer learning techniques, reducing the time required to achieve good results on new tasks.
  • Integration with TensorFlow
    As part of TensorFlow’s ecosystem, Keras provides deep integration with TensorFlow functionalities, enabling users to leverage TensorFlow's powerful features and performance optimizations.
  • Extensive Documentation
    Keras has comprehensive and well-organized documentation, along with numerous tutorials and code examples, making it easier for developers to learn and use the framework.
  • Community Support
    Keras benefits from a large and active community, which provides support through forums, GitHub, and specialized user groups, facilitating the resolution of issues and sharing of best practices.

Possible disadvantages of Keras

  • Performance Limitations
    Due to its high-level abstraction, Keras may incur performance overheads, making it less suitable for scenarios requiring extremely fast execution and low-level optimizations.
  • Limited Low-Level Control
    The simplicity and abstraction of Keras can be a downside for advanced users who need fine-grained control over model components and custom operations, which may require them to resort to lower-level frameworks.
  • Scalability Issues
    In some complex applications and large-scale deployments, Keras might face scalability challenges, where more specialized or low-level frameworks could handle such tasks more efficiently.
  • Dependency on TensorFlow
    While the integration with TensorFlow is generally an advantage, it also means that the performance and features of Keras are closely tied to the development and updates of TensorFlow.
  • Lagging Behind Latest Research
    Keras, being a user-friendly high-level API, might not always incorporate the latest cutting-edge research advancements in deep learning as quickly as more research-oriented frameworks.

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.

Analysis of Keras

Overall verdict

  • Keras is a solid choice for deep learning projects, offering simplicity and flexibility without sacrificing performance. It is well-suited for educational purposes, research, and even deploying models in production environments.

Why this product is good

  • Keras is widely regarded as a good deep learning library because it provides a user-friendly API that allows for easy and fast prototyping of neural networks. It is built on top of other libraries like TensorFlow, making it robust and efficient for both beginners and experienced developers. Its modularity, extensibility, and compatibility with other tools and libraries make it a popular choice for developing deep learning models.

Recommended for

  • Beginners who are new to deep learning
  • Researchers looking for an easy-to-use platform for prototyping models
  • Developers working on projects that require quick experimentation and development
  • Individuals and companies deploying models into production environments

Analysis of Colaboratory

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Colaboratory is highly praised for its convenience, accessibility, and powerful features which make it an excellent choice for many users, especially those involved in data science, machine learning, and education.

Why this product is good

  • Google Colab (Colaboratory) is a powerful platform for running Jupyter notebooks in the cloud. It offers seamless integration with Google Drive, allowing for easy sharing and collaboration. It also provides access to free resources, including GPUs and TPUs, which is beneficial for tasks requiring substantial computational power such as training machine learning models. The simplicity of running Python code without setup and the support for common libraries make it accessible and easy to use.

Recommended for

  • Data scientists needing scalable resources
  • Researchers and educators looking for collaborative tools
  • Students learning Python and data analysis
  • Anyone wanting to leverage GPU/TPU without additional costs

Keras videos

+ Add

3. Deep Learning Tutorial (Tensorflow2.0, Keras & Python) - Movie Review Classification

More videos:

  • Review - Movie Review Classifier in Keras | Deep Learning | Binary Classifier
  • Review - EKOR KERAS!! Review and Bike Check DARTMOOR HORNET 2018 // MTB Indonesia

Colaboratory videos

+ Add

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Keras and Colaboratory)

Keras

Colaboratory

Data Science And Machine Learning
70 70%
Data Science And Machine Learning
30% 30
Development
0 0%
Development
100% 100
Data Science Tools
100 100%
Data Science Tools
0% 0
Online Learning
0 0%
Online Learning
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 Keras and Colaboratory

Keras Reviews

10 Python Libraries for Computer Vision
TensorFlow and Keras are widely used libraries for machine learning, but they also offer excellent support for computer vision tasks. TensorFlow provides pre-trained models like Inception and ResNet for image classification, while Keras simplifies the process of building, training, and evaluating deep learning models.
Source: clouddevs.com
25 Python Frameworks to Master
Keras is a high-level deep-learning framework capable of running on top of TensorFlow, Theano, and CNTK. It was developed by François Chollet in 2015 and is designed to provide a simple and user-friendly interface for building and training deep learning models.
Source: kinsta.com
15 data science tools to consider using in 2021
Keras is a programming interface that enables data scientists to more easily access and use the TensorFlow machine learning platform. It's an open source deep learning API and framework written in Python that runs on top of TensorFlow and is now integrated into that platform. Keras previously supported multiple back ends but was tied exclusively to TensorFlow starting with...
Source: searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com

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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Colaboratory should be more popular than Keras. It has been mentiond 225 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.

Keras mentions (35)

  • Top Programming Languages for AI Development in 2025
    The unchallenged leader in AI development is still Python. And Keras, and robust community support. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Top 8 OpenSource Tools for AI Startups
    If you need simplicity, Keras is a great high-level API built on top of TensorFlow. It lets you quickly prototype neural networks without worrying about low-level implementations. Keras is perfect for getting those first models up and running—an essential part of the startup hustle. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Top 5 Production-Ready Open Source AI Libraries for Engineering Teams
    At its heart is TensorFlow Core, which provides low-level APIs for building custom models and performing computations using tensors (multi-dimensional arrays). It has a high-level API, Keras, which simplifies the process of building machine learning models. It also has a large community, where you can share ideas, contribute, and get help if you are stuck. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Using Google Magika to build an AI-powered file type detector
    The core model architecture for Magika was implemented using Keras, a popular open source deep learning framework that enables Google researchers to experiment quickly with new models. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • My Favorite DevTools to Build AI/ML Applications!
    As a beginner, I was looking for something simple and flexible for developing deep learning models and that is when I found Keras. Many AI/ML professionals appreciate Keras for its simplicity and efficiency in prototyping and developing deep learning models, making it a preferred choice, especially for beginners and for projects requiring rapid development. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

Colaboratory mentions (225)

  • What Are the Best Code Editors for Collaborative Coding?
    Google Colaboratory is a Jupyter notebook environment specifically built for machine learning and data science applications in Python. It supports collaboration in a unique way:. - Source: dev.to / 10 days ago
  • 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 2 months 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 / 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 / 3 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 / 4 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

TensorFlow - TensorFlow is an open-source machine learning framework designed and published by Google. It tracks data flow graphs over time. Nodes in the data flow graphs represent machine learning algorithms. Read more about TensorFlow.

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.

PyTorch - Open source deep learning platform that provides a seamless path from research prototyping to...

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

Scikit-learn - scikit-learn (formerly scikits.learn) is an open source machine learning library for the Python programming language.

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.

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