Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Observable VS Amazon CloudFront

Compare Observable VS Amazon CloudFront and see what are their differences

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Observable logo Observable

Interactive code examples/posts

Amazon CloudFront logo Amazon CloudFront

Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery web service.
  • Observable Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-09
  • Amazon CloudFront Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-28

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.

Amazon CloudFront features and specs

  • Global Distribution
    Amazon CloudFront has a global network of edge locations that help in delivering content with low latency and high transfer speeds to users around the world.
  • Scalability
    CloudFront can handle large spikes in traffic without any manual intervention, ensuring that your content is always available, even under high demand.
  • Integration with AWS Services
    CloudFront integrates seamlessly with other AWS services like S3, EC2, and Lambda, providing a more cohesive and efficient experience.
  • Security Features
    CloudFront offers multiple security measures including DDoS protection, AWS Shield Standard, and AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) to keep your content secure.
  • Custom SSL Certificates
    CloudFront allows you to use your own SSL certificates, enabling secure connections for your end users.
  • Pay-as-you-Go Pricing
    CloudFront offers a flexible pricing model where you pay only for what you use, making it cost-effective for both small and large scale operations.

Possible disadvantages of Amazon CloudFront

  • Complexity
    The wide array of features and settings may be overwhelming for users who are not familiar with AWS services or content delivery networks.
  • Pricing Structure
    While pay-as-you-go pricing is flexible, it can be difficult to estimate costs upfront due to the various factors that influence the final bill.
  • Initial Setup
    Setting up CloudFront for the first time can be time-consuming and may require a learning curve, particularly for beginners.
  • Latency for Dynamic Content
    While CloudFront is optimized for static content delivery, delivering dynamic content can sometimes result in higher latencies depending on the configuration.
  • Region-Based Restrictions
    Content distribution and access may face region-based restrictions and regulations, which can limit its effectiveness in certain areas.

Analysis of Observable

Overall verdict

  • Observable is highly regarded for its user-friendly interface and powerful capabilities. It is particularly valued in environments where collaboration and interactive data exploration are essential. While it may have a learning curve for beginners, its features and community support make it a worthwhile tool for data-driven projects.

Why this product is good

  • Observable is considered good because it offers an innovative platform for data visualization and analysis. It provides an interactive, collaborative environment where users can share and explore JavaScript-based notebooks. The platform's real-time collaboration features, ease of use, and ability to integrate with various data sources make it a valuable tool for data scientists, analysts, and developers.

Recommended for

  • Data scientists and analysts who need to create and share interactive visualizations.
  • Developers looking for a platform to build and showcase data-driven projects.
  • Educational institutions that require tools for teaching data analysis and visualization.
  • Businesses looking for collaborative tools to enhance their data exploration processes.

Analysis of Amazon CloudFront

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Amazon CloudFront is a highly effective CDN service known for its global reach and strong performance, making it a good choice for businesses of all sizes.

Why this product is good

  • Amazon CloudFront is a reliable content delivery network (CDN) service that is part of the AWS ecosystem. It offers low latency and high transfer speeds, making it suitable for delivering your web content efficiently. It integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, supports a wide range of content types, and provides robust security features, including DDoS protection and SSL/TLS encryption.

Recommended for

  • Businesses looking for a scalable CDN solution integrated with AWS services
  • Organizations requiring secure content delivery with compliance and advanced security features
  • Developers needing low-latency content delivery optimized for both static and dynamic content
  • Users seeking a CDN with a wide range of geographic locations to ensure fast content delivery to a global audience

Observable videos

Observable Overview

More videos:

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

Amazon CloudFront videos

JioSaavn Uses Amazon CloudFront to Stream Music and Video to Millions of Subscribers Daily

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Observable and Amazon CloudFront)
Data Visualization
100 100%
0% 0
CDN
0 0%
100% 100
Data Dashboard
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Computing
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 Observable and Amazon CloudFront

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

Amazon CloudFront Reviews

8 Best Cloudflare Alternatives (Free + Premium)
Operated by Amazon Web Services, Amazon Cloudfront had a beta launch in 2008. AWS then decided to make Cloudfront part of their free tier offerings in 2014. As of current writing, Cloudfront boasts of more than 310 POPs scattered throughout the globe.
Source: hostscore.net
The 7 Best Content-Delivery-Network Providers
Being one of the major internet companies that operates almost worldwide, it goes without saying that Amazon also offers a CDN with Amazon Cloudfront. The focus is on the Amazon Backbone network and developer friendliness. As a result, there are many possibilities for individual programmability and linking other AWS services. As a cherry on top, Amazon CloudFront also takes...
Source: omr.com
Top 15 Cloudflare Alternatives: A Complete Guide
Amazon CloudFront is a CDN service that is part of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. CloudFront integrates with other AWS services, such as S3, EC2, Lambda, and Media Services, to deliver web content and applications with low latency and high transfer speeds.
Introduction to Cloudflare Alternatives In 2021
CloudFront is the sound known CDN that deals with the “pay as you go” design. CloudFront has big competition with Akamai and Limelight Networks upon Content Delivery Services. Released in the year 2008, having more than 138 gain access to points across 29 countries offered web fixed and dynamic material, website velocity, material download, and video streaming. CloudFront...
10 Top Cloudflare Alternatives for Your Website
While Amazon CloudFront is widely regarded as one of the best and most reliable CDN service providers there is, there are a few issues that users need to keep in mind. First off, some of the settings are a bit over-simplified, so as a sysadmin, you’ll need to artificially trigger Stackoverflow just to figure out simple details like how long objects linger before being...
Source: beebom.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Observable should be more popular than Amazon CloudFront. It has been mentiond 313 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.

Observable mentions (313)

  • Using elliptic curves to solve a math meme
    Using other constants in place of the ‘4’ can lead to some _really_ gigantic smallest solutions: https://observablehq.com/@robinhouston/a-remarkable-diophantine-equation. - Source: Hacker News / 16 days ago
  • 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 / about 2 months 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 / 3 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 / 4 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 / 4 months ago
View more

Amazon CloudFront mentions (79)

  • Building Scalable Applications with Node.js
    Offload static files (images, CSS, JS) to a Content Delivery Network (CDN) like Cloudflare or AWS CloudFront. - Source: dev.to / 28 days ago
  • Understanding AWS Regions and Availability Zones: A Guide for Beginners
    AWS CloudFront is the star of the show here. It caches static content (like media, scripts, and images) to ensure fast, reliable delivery. Other AWS services that run at the edge include Route 53 for DNS routing, Shield and WAF for security, and even Lambda via Lambda@Edge — giving you the ability to run serverless logic closer to the user. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • 🚀 Supercharge Your Website Speed with Code Splitting & CDN Optimization — A Complete Guide!
    AWS CloudFront — Scalable, pay-as-you-go, and widely trusted. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Cheating Lambda scalability
    CloudFront is my primary option for server-side caching. Caching at the edge reduces latency and is cost-effective because it decreases the number of calls to the service. CloudFront only caches responses to GET, HEAD, and OPTIONS requests. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • The Impact of Cloud Computing in DevOps
    Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): Services like CloudFront and Azure CDN distribute content globally, ensuring fast access for users. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Observable and Amazon CloudFront, you can also consider the following products

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.

CloudFlare - Cloudflare is a global network designed to make everything you connect to the Internet secure, private, fast, and reliable.

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

KeyCDN - KeyCDN is a high-performance Content Delivery Network (CDN). Lowest price globally at $0.04/GB with HTTP/2 Support and free Origin Shield.

Vega-Lite - High-level grammar of interactive graphics

CDN77 - Content Delivery Network - website speed acceleration with CDN77. 28+ PoPs, Pay-as-you-go prices, no commitments.