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nteract VS Polynote

Compare nteract VS Polynote and see what are their differences

nteract logo nteract

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

Polynote logo Polynote

The polyglot notebook with first-class Scala support.
  • nteract Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-29
  • Polynote Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-19

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.

Polynote features and specs

  • Polyglot Support
    Polynote allows the use of multiple programming languages within the same notebook, supporting interoperability between languages like Scala, Python, SQL, and more.
  • Reactive Dependency Management
    The kernel handles dependency updates reactively, making sure that the notebook's state is always consistent with the code's requirements without manual intervention.
  • Integrated Version Control
    Polynote offers built-in versioning and history tracking of notebook changes, which facilitates better management and collaboration on projects.
  • Rich Output Rendering
    It supports rich outputs, including interactive plots and visualizations, enhancing the ability to analyze and interpret complex data within the notebook.
  • Structured Data Support
    Polynote has a native understanding of structured data, allowing seamless manipulation and display of data frames which is particularly beneficial for data analysis tasks.

Possible disadvantages of Polynote

  • Complex Setup
    Setting up Polynote can be challenging due to its dependencies and configuration requirements, potentially posing a barrier to entry for new users.
  • Limited Community Support
    As a relatively new tool, Polynote has a smaller community and fewer resources compared to more established alternatives like Jupyter, which can be a drawback when seeking support or extensions.
  • Performance Overheads
    Due to its polyglot nature and the complexity of maintaining cross-language kernels, users may experience performance overheads, particularly with large-scale data sets.
  • Functionality Gaps
    Polynote may lack some functionality or user-friendly features found in more mature notebook environments, which might hinder productivity for advanced users.
  • Resource Intensive
    The need to run multiple language kernels simultaneously can lead to higher resource consumption, requiring robust infrastructure to function optimally.

nteract videos

nteract weekly August 16, 2018

More videos:

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

Polynote videos

Netflix- Polynote

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to nteract and Polynote)
Data Science And Machine Learning
Data Science Notebooks
67 67%
33% 33
Python IDE
100 100%
0% 0
Scientific Research
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 Polynote

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

Polynote Reviews

The Best ML Notebooks And Infrastructure Tools For Data Scientists
Open-sourced by Netflix, Polynote is a notebook preferred for Scala. It supports the mixing of multiple languages in one notebook and allows easy data sharing. Since it shares the same file extension as Jupyter notebook, Polynote can be version controlled and displayed on Github. Thanks to editing features such as interactive autocomplete and rich text editing, the interface...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, nteract should be more popular than Polynote. It has been mentiond 4 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.

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

Polynote mentions (1)

  • Apache Zeppelin
    If you're looking for more modern notebooks supporting Scala (and Spark): - https://almond.sh - https://polynote.org Toree is mostly dead but might also get a Scala 2.13 release now that Spark 4.0 is approaching. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing nteract and Polynote, 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.

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

Boostnote - Boostnote is an open-source note-taking​ app.

BeakerX - Open Source Polyglot Data Science Tool

Elephant - Elephant is a notetaker with a classic interface you already know.

Observable Notebooks - The portfolio and technical blog of Chris Henrick – provider of professional web development, data visualization, GIS, mapping, & cartography services.