Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

nteract VS Observable

Compare nteract VS Observable and see what are their differences

nteract logo nteract

nteract is a desktop application that allows you to develop rich documents that contain prose...

Observable logo Observable

Interactive code examples/posts
  • nteract Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-29
  • Observable Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-09

nteract features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    nteract offers a user-friendly interface that is simple to set up and use, making it accessible to both beginners and experienced users in data science environments.
  • Interactivity
    The tool provides an interactive experience for running live code, displaying text, and visualizing data efficiently within a single notebook interface.
  • Multi-language Support
    nteract supports multiple programming languages, thanks to Jupyter kernels, which allows flexibility and integration within various data science workflows.
  • Open Source
    Being open source, nteract encourages community contributions and improvements, offering a level of transparency and customization to its users.
  • Extensibility
    The presence of numerous plugins and extensions enables users to enhance the functionality of nteract based on their specific requirements.

Possible disadvantages of nteract

  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies can be complex, as users need to handle different libraries and packages to ensure compatibility within their projects.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    Compared to other IDEs, nteract may lack some advanced features required by professional developers for large, intricate projects.
  • Performance Issues
    nteract may experience performance issues when managing large datasets or complex computations due to the resource-intensive nature of notebooks.
  • Learning Curve for Extensions
    While extensibility is a pro, understanding and integrating numerous plugins and extensions can present a learning curve for new users.
  • Community and Documentation
    Although growing, the nteract community and available documentation might not be as extensive as more established platforms like Jupyter Notebook.

Observable features and specs

  • Collaborative Environment
    Observable allows multiple users to collaborate in real-time, making it easier for teams to work together on data visualizations and analyses.
  • Reactive Programming
    The platform supports reactive programming, where changes in data automatically trigger updates in the visualizations, enhancing interactivity and reducing the need for manual updates.
  • Built-in Data Visualization Libraries
    Observable integrates seamlessly with popular libraries like D3, Plotly, and Leaflet, providing powerful tools for creating complex and interactive data visualizations.
  • Notebook Interface
    The notebook interface is user-friendly and allows for easy documentation and sharing. Users can combine code, visualizations, and markdown text in a single document.
  • Extensive Resources and Community Support
    Observable has a rich set of tutorials, examples, and a strong community, making it easier for new users to learn and get help.
  • Customizability
    Users have the flexibility to customize their visualizations extensively, thanks to the open-ended nature of JavaScript and the supported libraries.

Possible disadvantages of Observable

  • Steeper Learning Curve for Beginners
    New users, especially those without a background in JavaScript, might find the platform challenging to learn compared to more specialized data visualization tools.
  • Performance Issues
    For very large datasets or highly complex visualizations, performance can become an issue, potentially leading to slow rendering times.
  • Dependency on Internet Connection
    Observable notebooks currently require an internet connection to run, which can be a limitation for users needing offline access.
  • Limited Integration with Other Tools
    While Observable is powerful, its integration with other enterprise tools and platforms is somewhat limited compared to more established data analysis tools.
  • Subscription Costs
    Access to some of Observable's more advanced features requires a paid subscription, which might be a barrier for individual users or small teams with limited budgets.

nteract videos

nteract weekly August 16, 2018

More videos:

  • Review - nteract weekly November 5, 2018
  • Review - nteract weekly October 1, 2018

Observable videos

Observable Overview

More videos:

  • Review - observablehq.com review observable hq data analysis
  • Review - Hands-on Data Visualization with Observable Plot

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to nteract and Observable)
Data Science And Machine Learning
Data Visualization
0 0%
100% 100
Data Science Notebooks
30 30%
70% 70
Data Dashboard
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 nteract and Observable

nteract Reviews

Jupyter Notebook & 10 Alternatives: Data Notebook Review [2023]
Once you install nteract, you can open your notebook without having to launch the Jupyter Notebook or visit the Jupyter Lab. The nteract environment is similar to Jupyter Notebook but with more control and the possibility of extension via libraries like Papermill (notebook parameterization), Scrapbook (saving your notebook’s data and photos), and Bookstore (versioning).
Source: lakefs.io

Observable Reviews

Top 10 Grafana Alternatives in 2024
Observable is a Grafana alternative that enables users to visualize data via charts and dashboards using code.
Source: middleware.io
Embedded analytics in B2B SaaS: A comparison
A few options were disregarded from the start due to a hefty price tag, these were Looker, Tableau, Power BI, GoodData. A few options like Trevor.io, Preset, Observable were disregarded as they did not seem to fit our criteria (based on the evaluation matrix).
Source: medium.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Observable seems to be a lot more popular than nteract. While we know about 312 links to Observable, we've tracked only 4 mentions of nteract. 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.

nteract mentions (4)

  • Best Python IDEs for Data Science!
    At the same time that already established and widely used IDEs like RStudio are renewed and provide support for new languages, other solutions appear almost out of nowhere and are adopted by the market as is the case of nteract, an open-source project to be the next interactive development experience adopted by Netflix, in practice it has support for Python, node.JS, R, Julia, C ++, Scala and .NET, in addition to... - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Python IDE similar to Jupyter Notebook but not web based?
    Sounds like you're looking for nteract. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Installing Jupyter Notebook
    If you reach infuriation levels you can always cop out and use https://nteract.io/ Ultimately I would suggest jupyterlab over jupyter. Source: about 4 years ago
  • How to open .ipynb files with Jupyter Notebook by double-clicking from windows explorer?
    You can also try the software nteract (https://nteract.io). Source: about 4 years ago

Observable mentions (312)

  • Apache ECharts
    "Observable is obnoxious if you want to add a D3 pie chart to your Vue application and have to untangle calls to D3’s API from reactive cell values, which look like ordinary JavaScript, but are not, and will cause compilation and runtime errors when copied." Yep - as I wrote: "If you want to just blindly copy and paste d3 code, you may have issues with the docs being hosted on observable." If instead you learn the... - Source: Hacker News / 23 days ago
  • Natural occurring molecule rivals Ozempic in weight loss, sidesteps side effects
    I'd imagine many nested named capturing groups may trip even the best automated system! I do like the solution though. I would've probably approached it differently, trying to first get the 'inverted' match (i.e. Not matching anything that isn't a currency like pattern) and refine from there. A bit like this one I did a while back, to parse garbled strings that may occur after OCR [0]. I imagine the approach does... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Visualizing Data Is an Art – We Should Treat It Like One
    Was looking for some mention of Mike Bostock and his epic odyssey into this space. For those who aren't familiar https://observablehq.com/@mbostock. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Ohm: A user-friendly parsing toolkit for JavaScript and TypeScript
    I experimented with an Ohm/CodeMirror bridge that would map an Ohm grammar to CodeMirror classes for marks and syntax highlighting. It might be an interesting starting point for you: https://observablehq.com/@ajbouh/editor. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • WebGL Fluid Simulation
    I have a fork of this that inverts the light model from additive to subtractive and suddenly its like ink in water https://observablehq.com/@tomlarkworthy/ink. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing nteract and Observable, 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.

RunKit - RunKit notebooks are interactive javascript playgrounds connected to a complete node environment right in your browser. Every npm module pre-installed.

iPython - iPython provides a rich toolkit to help you make the most out of using Python interactively.

D3.js - D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS.

BeakerX - Open Source Polyglot Data Science Tool

Vega-Lite - High-level grammar of interactive graphics