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Free Google Colab alternatives: 4 apps ranked by verified data

Facts checked Nov 8, 2026AppBreakup editorialHow we rank

4 of the 5 Google Colab alternatives we track can be used for free (free, open source, or with a free plan). Hex, marimo and Jupyter Notebook rank highest, with facts last verified Nov 8, 2026.

Quick comparison

#AppPricingVerified priceOpen sourcePlatformsVerified factsScore
1Hex logoHexFree plan + paid$36 per editor/month (Professional)NoWeb5 of 564.8
2marimo logomarimoOpen source—YesWindows, macOS, Linux +24 of 461.8
3Jupyter Notebook logoJupyter NotebookOpen source—YesWeb, Windows, macOS +25 of 551.2
4Kaggle logoKaggleFree—NoWeb3 of 342.3
  1. Hex logo

    1. HexTop pick

    Best for: Analytics teams on a cloud warehouse who want notebooks that become shareable data apps

    Free plan + paidWeb

    64.8

    score / 100

    Why switch from Google Colab

    Turns SQL and Python notebooks into shareable data apps, aimed at analytics teams on a warehouse.

    Pros

    • Notebooks publish as interactive apps for non-technical colleagues
    • Works with dbt, Airflow and Dagster
    • Free trial of the Team plan needs no payment card

    Cons

    • Community plan is limited to small compute and light AI use
    • Per-editor pricing is high compared with general notebook tools
    • Larger machines and GPUs are billed per minute on top of the plan
    Visit Hex Details and reviews
    How this score is calculated
    Editorial fit ×0.387
    Reviews ×0.363
    Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
    Freshness ×0.15100
    Votes ×0.150

    0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula

    Is Hex a good Google Colab alternative?

    Verified facts

    5 of 5 verified
    Free plan
    Yes (Community)
    Checked Nov 8, 2026hex.tech(opens source in a new tab)
    Starting price
    $36 per editor/month (Professional)
    Checked Nov 8, 2026hex.tech(opens source in a new tab)
    Free trial
    14 days (Team), no card
    Checked Nov 8, 2026hex.tech(opens source in a new tab)
    Integrations
    Airflow, Dagster, dbt
    Checked Nov 8, 2026hex.tech(opens source in a new tab)
    Team plan
    $75 per editor/month
    Checked Nov 8, 2026hex.tech(opens source in a new tab)
  2. marimo logo

    2. marimo

    Best for: Python developers who want reproducible notebooks that live in Git as normal code

    Open sourceSelf-hostableWindows, macOS, Linux, Web, Self-hosted

    61.8

    score / 100

    Why switch from Google Colab

    Open-source reactive notebook stored as plain Python files, so it works well with Git and runs locally.

    Pros

    • Reactive execution removes stale or out-of-order state
    • Notebooks are plain .py files with readable Git diffs
    • Can run as a script or be served as an interactive app
    • Free and Apache-2.0 licensed

    Cons

    • Not compatible with Jupyter's .ipynb format without conversion
    • Python only, with no R or Julia kernels
    • Reactive model means reusing a variable name across cells is not allowed
    Visit marimo Details and reviews
    How this score is calculated
    Editorial fit ×0.377
    Reviews ×0.363
    Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
    Freshness ×0.15100
    Votes ×0.150

    0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula

    Is marimo a good Google Colab alternative?

    Verified facts

    4 of 4 verified
    License
    Apache-2.0
    Checked Nov 2, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab)
    File format
    Plain Python (.py)
    Checked Nov 8, 2026marimo.io(opens source in a new tab)
    SQL
    Built-in SQL cells
    Checked Nov 8, 2026marimo.io(opens source in a new tab)
    Sharing
    WebAssembly HTML or web app
    Checked Nov 8, 2026marimo.io(opens source in a new tab)
  3. Jupyter Notebook logo

    3. Jupyter Notebook

    Best for: Students, researchers and data analysts who want to explore data step by step in a shareable document

    Open sourceSelf-hostableWeb, Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted

    51.2

    score / 100

    Why switch from Google Colab

    The open-source notebook Colab is built on; run it on your own hardware with no session time limits or idle disconnects.

    Pros

    • Free and open source with no paid tier
    • Supports many languages through separate kernels
    • Notebooks render on GitHub and are easy to share
    • Can be run for a whole class or team with JupyterHub

    Cons

    • Needs a local Python setup or a server; no official desktop installer
    • Out-of-order cell execution makes results easy to break
    • Old v6 extensions don't work in Notebook 7
    • Weak fit for large codebases, refactoring and debugging
    Visit Jupyter Notebook Details and reviews
    How this score is calculated
    Editorial fit ×0.341
    Reviews ×0.363
    Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
    Freshness ×0.15100
    Votes ×0.150

    0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula

    Is Jupyter Notebook a good Google Colab alternative?

    Verified facts

    5 of 5 verified
    License
    BSD-3-Clause
    Checked Nov 1, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab)
    Languages
    40+, incl. Python, R, Julia
    Checked Nov 8, 2026jupyter.org(opens source in a new tab)
    Install
    pip install notebook
    Checked Nov 8, 2026jupyter.org(opens source in a new tab)
    Origin
    IPython project, 2014
    Checked Nov 8, 2026jupyter.org(opens source in a new tab)
    Notebook format
    Open, JSON-based
    Checked Nov 8, 2026jupyter.org(opens source in a new tab)
  4. Kaggle logo

    4. Kaggle

    Best for: Students and data scientists who want free notebooks, public datasets and ML competitions in one place

    FreeWeb

    42.3

    score / 100

    Why switch from Google Colab

    Free hosted notebooks with GPU time, plus public datasets and competitions to practise on.

    Pros

    • Free hosted notebooks with a weekly GPU and TPU allowance
    • Huge library of public datasets and models to start from
    • Competitions give real problems with public leaderboards
    • Official open-source CLI for downloading data and submitting

    Cons

    • Notebook sessions have time limits and capped accelerator hours
    • Not built for private team work on company data
    • Web only; the notebook environment can't be self-hosted
    Visit Kaggle Compare with Google ColabDetails and reviews
    How this score is calculated
    Editorial fit ×0.312
    Reviews ×0.363
    Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
    Freshness ×0.15100
    Votes ×0.150

    0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula

    Is Kaggle a good Google Colab alternative?

    Verified facts

    3 of 3 verified
    Official CLI
    Yes, open source (Apache-2.0)
    Checked Nov 2, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab)
    Notebook environment
    Public Python Docker image
    Checked Nov 2, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab)
    Python client library
    kagglehub (Apache-2.0)
    Checked Nov 2, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab)