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JetBrains Datalore is an extensible cloud-based data science platform designed for individual and team use that helps data analysts and scientists complete daily tasks. Datalore comes with capabilities for data management, machine learning, collaboration, third-party integrations, and more. And by being a fully-managed service that handles underlying infrastructure, it allows you to focus more on crucial data science work.
Is JetBrains Datalore the ideal data science platform for you? We will help answer that question by looking at its features, pricing, advantages, and disadvantages. We will also list some of the top Datalore alternatives to give you options when shopping around.
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Overview of Datalore
JetBrains defines Datalore as an online data science notebook with smart coding assistance capabilities derived from PyCharm, another JetBrains offering. Datalore was created to help data analysts and scientists complete routine, everyday tasks. With the cloud-based platform, you can construct deep learning and machine learning models, collect and explore data, visualize results, share your findings with others, and much more. While individuals can enjoy Datalore’s long list of data science features and integrations with popular third-party tools, it also promotes teamwork via real-time collaboration on notebooks and data.
JetBrains Datalore is an ideal tool for data scientists looking for a fully-managed, extensible, and collaborative data science platform. It can also help teams looking to scale their data science workloads.
Datalore Features
Datalore’s notebooks are Jupyter-compatible. You can upload existing IPYNB files, work on them in Datalore, and export notebooks as IPYNB files. Python notebooks get smart coding assistance from JetBrains’ IDE PyCharm through inspections, code completion, quick-fixes, parameter info, and refactoring, making it easier to create high-quality code with minimal effort.
Datalore also lets you create Scala, Kotlin, and R notebooks with code completion. Other notebook-related features come from the Datalore editor. It offers essential tools like a report builder and environment manager, versioning, automatic visualizations, attached data sources, and dataset statistics.
Datalore has several features that promote real-time collaboration on code, including the ability to edit notebooks with team members in real time. You will see live code changes as you edit, with data, environment, and computation state shared automatically. Sharing notebooks is as simple as sending an email invitation or a link and setting the access level to edit or view. Developers can track other team members by navigating to their cursor, following each move in real time, and collaborating on attached files. Datalore also has team workspaces to keep everyone in sync, as well as internal versioning to track progress, see version differences, and revert to previous checkpoints.
Datalore makes it easy to access and query data from various data sources in a single notebook. You can connect to multiple databases via the interface with a few clicks, browse schema, and query data with native SQL cells without having to pass credentials to the environment. The developer tool supports user/password authentication for MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Azure SQL Database, Amazon Redshift, MySQL, Snowflake, Oracle, and more. It also supports SSH tunneling, S3 bucket mounting, and data connections from code.
Datalore’s report builder lets users create interactive reports from notebooks that can be shared with stakeholders via links. They can view the reports without needing a Datalore account, change widgets, controls, and chart cell inputs, as well as collaborate via interactive chart cells. Datalore also has static reports for presenting notebooks as a static page, sharing with unlimited team recipients, multiple exporting options (HTML, PY, PDF, and IPYNB), and scheduled report updates to keep stakeholders informed.
Individuals can enjoy Datalore via a managed cloud through its Community and Professional plans. Organizations can enjoy the same through the Team plan, hosted and managed by JetBrains. Companies needing enhanced security and customization can opt for on-premises or private cloud installation through the Enterprise plan.
Some of Datalore’s top features include:
- Notebooks
- Team collaboration built-in
- Data connections and SQL
- Advanced reporting
- Private hosting
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Datalore Pricing
Datalore offers pricing plans for both teams and individuals. JetBrains has several special offers for the developer tool, beginning with volume discounts for teams of 20-plus users. If you use Datalore for open-source projects or classroom assistance purposes (colleges, schools, universities, etc.), you can get it for free. Use it for non-profits, educational organizations, or startups, and you can get a 50 percent discount. And if you have been using a competing product, simply show proof when switching to Datalore for a 25 percent discount.
Datalore’s pricing plans for teams are as follows:
- Team: $360 per year, per user (minimum three users). Hosted and managed by JetBrains. 14-day trial available.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing. Installed on your infrastructure. 30-day trial available.
The Team plan includes 750 hours of basic machine, 20GB of cloud storage, all product features, team management, resource usage statistics, and shared team computation resources.
The Enterprise plan includes all product features, priority support via Slack or email, Docker or Kubernetes-based installation on your private cloud or infrastructure, advanced team management, the ability to collect audit logs and connect to your own computation resources, customizable base environments, and more.
Datalore’s pricing plans for individuals are as follows:
- Community: No cost.
- Professional: $19.90 per month.
The free Community plan comes with 120 hours of computation, 10GB of cloud storage, S3 bucket support, one shared workspace, version history, the ability to publish/share notebooks for up to three editors and unlimited viewers, plus publish one interactive report and share it with two simultaneous runners and run two notebooks in parallel.
The Professional plan comes with 750 computation hours, 20GB of cloud storage, S3 bucket support, 12 credits for computations on advanced GPUs and CPUs, unlimited interactive reports, unlimited publishing/sharing of workspaces and notebooks, unlimited parallel notebooks, and version history. The Professional plan also lets users create unlimited database connections and SQL cells and run the machine for an unlimited time.
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Advantages of Datalore
Some of Datalore’s strengths include:
- Team collaboration
- Easy to use
- Free plan
- Smart coding assistance
Datalore gives developers plenty of flexibility when it comes to real-time collaboration via versioning, team workspaces, file sharing, etc. The developer tool is easy to use and intuitive, requiring minimal setup effort. The free Community plan for individuals is another plus for developers looking to leverage the tool’s basic features at no cost. Datalore’s smart coding assistance is also strong since it can help improve the coding experience in many ways (quick-fixes, code completion, rename, reformat, auto-imports, etc.)
Disadvantages of Datalore
Some of the areas in which Datalore could see improvement include:
- Users report unreliability
- Storage limitations
- Permission management could be better
Some users have complained that Datalore can be unreliable when saving files, losing data as a result. A lack of storage is another complaint among Datalore users, and the developer tool also falls short on fine-grade permission management, which may be necessary for most enterprise organizations.
Alternatives to Datalore
Datalore has many strengths in its favor that make it an attractive tool for developers. It is easy to set up and use, has a free plan for individual developers with limited budgets, offers strong code completion, and has several avenues for team collaboration. However, Datalore also has weaknesses regarding reliability, limited storage, and permission management. As such, the following Datalore alternatives may be a better fit for your development needs.
Saturn Cloud
Saturn Cloud is a highly-rated machine learning and data science platform. It offers more robust scalability and machine-learning capabilities than Datalore. As such, it is an ideal choice for those needing a tool for building and deploying machine learning models and working with large-scale projects. Saturn Cloud has a Hosted Free Plan with 150 monthly compute hours. Its Hosted Pro Plan offers pay-as-you-go pricing that starts at $0.06 per hour.
Google Colab
Google Colab or Colaboratory is a no-cost Datalore alternative that lets you write and execute Python in your browser. It offers easy sharing, free GPU access, and zero configuration. It is ideal for individuals looking to get their feet wet with data science without worrying about infrastructure setup.
Deepnote
Deepnote is a cloud-based data science platform that offers data management, Jupyter notebooks, collaboration, machine learning, and integrations. It is a solid choice for those seeking a Datalore alternative with more of a machine-learning focus. Deepnote has a Free plan for individuals. Its Team plan starts at $31 per editor, per month.
Final Thoughts on JetBrain Datalore
JetBrains Datalore is a solid data science and collaboration tool that is user-friendly, has a free plan, offers smart coding assistance, and comes equipped with many other features designed to make your everyday work routine easier. However, if some of its disadvantages regarding reliability, storage, and permission management make you wary, take a closer look at some of the Datalore alternatives listed above.
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