Free Hex alternatives: 5 apps ranked by verified data

Facts checked Nov 8, 2026AppBreakup editorialHow we rank

5 of the 6 Hex alternatives we track can be used for free (free, open source, or with a free plan). Google Colab, Metabase and marimo rank highest, with facts last verified Nov 8, 2026.

Quick comparison

#	App	Pricing	Verified price	Open source	Platforms	Verified facts	Score
1	Google Colab	Free plan + paid	—	No	Web	4 of 4	64.8
2	Metabase	Open source	$100/month (Starter)	Yes	Web, Self-hosted	5 of 5	64.0
3	marimo	Open source	—	Yes	Windows, macOS, Linux +2	4 of 4	61.8
4	Jupyter Notebook	Open source	—	Yes	Web, Windows, macOS +2	5 of 5	51.2
5	Observable	Free plan + paid	—	No	Web, macOS	4 of 4	40.0

1. Google ColabTop pick
Best for: Students and ML learners who want free GPU notebooks with nothing to install
Free plan + paidWeb
64.8
score / 100
Why switch from Hex
Free hosted Jupyter with GPUs, better for ML experiments than warehouse analytics.
Pros
Free access to GPUs and TPUs for learning and small experiments
No setup: runs entirely in the browser with a Google account
Standard .ipynb files that open in any Jupyter tool
Cons
Free resources are not guaranteed and sessions get terminated
Data has to be uploaded or mounted from Google Drive each session
Real-time collaboration is weaker than in team notebook tools
Visit Google Colab 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 Google Colab a good Hex alternative?
Verified facts
4 of 4 verified
Free to use
Yes
Checked Nov 8, 2026research.google.com(opens source in a new tab)
Hardware
GPUs and TPUs
Checked Nov 8, 2026research.google.com(opens source in a new tab)
Storage
Google Drive
Checked Nov 8, 2026research.google.com(opens source in a new tab)
Based on
Jupyter
Checked Nov 8, 2026research.google.com(opens source in a new tab)
2. Metabase
Best for: Startups and product teams wanting quick, self-hosted dashboards on top of their own database
Open sourceSelf-hostableWeb, Self-hosted
64.0
score / 100
Why switch from Hex
An open-source BI tool where analysts and non-technical users build dashboards with a query builder or SQL.
Pros
Free open-source edition with unlimited users
Point-and-click question builder plus a SQL editor
Easy to self-host with Docker or a single JAR file
Popular choice for embedding analytics in a product
Cons
Row-level permissions and SSO need a paid plan
Lighter data modelling than Tableau or Power BI
Paid cloud plans start at a noticeable monthly base price
Visit Metabase Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.334
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.15100
Freshness ×0.15100
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is Metabase a good Hex alternative?
Verified facts
5 of 5 verified
License
AGPL (Open Source Edition)
Checked Nov 8, 2026metabase.com(opens source in a new tab)
Free plan
Open Source, unlimited users
Checked Nov 8, 2026metabase.com(opens source in a new tab)
Starting price
$100/month (Starter)
Checked Nov 8, 2026metabase.com(opens source in a new tab)
Free trial
14 days
Checked Nov 8, 2026metabase.com(opens source in a new tab)
Self-hosting
Docker or JAR
Checked Nov 8, 2026metabase.com(opens source in a new tab)
3. 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 Hex
Free and open source, runs locally and can serve notebooks as apps without a per-editor fee.
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 Hex 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)
4. 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 Hex
The free, open-source notebook Hex builds on, run locally or on your own server without per-seat pricing.
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 Hex 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)
5. Observable
Best for: Analysts and developers building interactive JavaScript charts and dashboards to share
Free plan + paidWeb, macOS
40.0
score / 100
Why switch from Hex
Better for custom interactive visualisations, with an open-source framework for dashboards.
Pros
Reactive notebooks where charts update as soon as inputs change
Made by the D3 team, with strong charting tools built in
Open-source Framework and Plot can be used without the hosted service
Cons
Built around JavaScript, which is less familiar to Python-first data scientists
Private team sharing needs a paid plan
Several separate products can make the offering confusing at first
Visit Observable Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.312
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.1585
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is Observable a good Hex alternative?
Verified facts
4 of 4 verified
License (Framework)
ISC
Checked Nov 4, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab)
Framework
Static site generator for data apps
Checked Nov 4, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab)
Back-end languages
Any language
Checked Nov 4, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab)
License (Plot)
ISC
Checked Nov 4, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab)

Quick comparison

1. Google ColabTop pick

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

2. Metabase

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

3. marimo

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

4. Jupyter Notebook

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

5. Observable

Pros

Cons

Verified facts