Top Apache Zeppelin Alternatives and Overview

For data scientists, notebook frameworks are indispensable tools for code experimentations and explorations. These computational notebooks stitch together all functionalities of a word processor and the shell and kernel of the programming language. They offer an intuitive interface for executing codes and visualizing data across industries. Apache Zeppelin is one such popular web-based, open-source, interactive Notebook software that uses visualizations and collaboration features for interactive data analytics. You can create documents with SQL, Scala, and other programming languages. It has built-in support for Apache Spark and multiple interpreter integrations within the same notebook.

A multi-purpose notebook with multiple language backend

You can perform all the popular data functions on the Apache Zeppelin notebook, including data visualization, collaboration, analytics, discovery, and ingestion. It lets you dynamically create Note level forms. Instead of having to run all the paragraphs simultaneously, in its latest version, you can execute the paragraphs sequentially. There’s also note revision comparator and support for over 20 different data processing backends, each of which can be easily added. Apache Spark, Python, Shell, Markdown, and other interpreters can be plugged into Zeppelin. And in the meantime, the General ConfInterpreter will let you configure the interpreter inside of your notes.

Advanced data visualizations on Apache Zeppelin

With no requirement of a separate module or library for Spark integration, you get access to automatic SparkContext and SQLContext injection. However, the data visualizations on Zeppelin are not limited to the query on SparkSQL. A collection of basic charts are already present in its library, and you can use any language backend to get charts as outputs. Custom visualizations can be added from the Helium online registry. Once Zeppelin aggregates the input values, it can create pivot charts from them with a simple drag and drop feature. It can also use multiple aggregate values like average, minimum, maximum, etc.   

Deployments and collaborations made easy

You can deploy on Apache Zeppelin with its single-user or multi-user support. The notebook you worked on, its URL can be shared easily with other collaborators. Any edits made by the users will be reflected in your notebook in real-time. You can also embed it without any hassle as an iframe inside your website. When resources are not in use, the lifecycle manager terminates the interpreter process and releases them without you having to intervene. Being an open-source platform, you can also make your contributions and become a part of the growing Zeppelin community.

Company Name: The Apache Software Foundation

Founded in: 1999