Free Kaggle alternatives: 5 apps ranked by verified data

Facts checked Nov 8, 2026AppBreakup editorialHow we rank

5 of the 6 Kaggle alternatives we track can be used for free (free, open source, or with a free plan). Google Colab, Hex 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	68.8
2	Hex	Free plan + paid	$36 per editor/month (Professional)	No	Web	5 of 5	59.4
3	marimo	Open source	—	Yes	Windows, macOS, Linux +2	4 of 4	57.5
4	Jupyter Notebook	Open source	—	Yes	Web, Windows, macOS +2	5 of 5	54.4
5	DataCamp	Free plan + paid	—	No	Web, iOS, Android	5 of 5	46.8

1. Google ColabTop pick
Best for: Students and ML learners who want free GPU notebooks with nothing to install
Free plan + paidWeb
68.8
score / 100
Why switch from Kaggle
Also free hosted notebooks with GPU access, but tied to Google Drive and better for private work.
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 Compare with Kaggle Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.3100
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 Kaggle 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. Hex
Best for: Analytics teams on a cloud warehouse who want notebooks that become shareable data apps
Free plan + paidWeb
59.4
score / 100
Why switch from Kaggle
Notebook-style analytics for teams, with SQL, Python and shareable data apps.
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 ×0.369
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 Kaggle 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)
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
57.5
score / 100
Why switch from Kaggle
Open-source reactive Python notebooks stored as plain .py files, runnable locally or in a free web sandbox.
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 ×0.363
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 Kaggle 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
54.4
score / 100
Why switch from Kaggle
Run the same notebook workflow on your own machine or server with no session limits.
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 ×0.352
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 Kaggle 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. DataCamp
Best for: Analysts and beginners who want hands-on Python, SQL and AI practice without setting anything up
Free plan + paidWeb, iOS, Android
46.8
score / 100
Why switch from Kaggle
Structured data science courses with a hosted notebook workspace, if you used Kaggle Learn to study.
Pros
Write and run code in the browser from the first lesson
Large catalogue of data, AI and BI courses in tracks
Recognised data analyst and data scientist certifications
Cons
Free plan only opens the first lesson of each course
Exercises are short and guided, so deeper projects need work elsewhere
Narrow focus on data and AI rather than general software development
Visit DataCamp Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.334
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 DataCamp a good Kaggle alternative?
Verified facts
5 of 5 verified
Free plan
First lesson of every course
Checked Nov 8, 2026support.datacamp.com(opens source in a new tab)
Courses
700+
Checked Nov 8, 2026support.datacamp.com(opens source in a new tab)
Billing
Yearly or monthly
Checked Nov 8, 2026support.datacamp.com(opens source in a new tab)
Cloud notebook
DataLab
Checked Nov 8, 2026support.datacamp.com(opens source in a new tab)
Mobile app
Yes
Checked Nov 8, 2026support.datacamp.com(opens source in a new tab)

Quick comparison

1. Google ColabTop pick

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

2. Hex

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

3. marimo

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

4. Jupyter Notebook

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

5. DataCamp

Pros

Cons

Verified facts