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A lot of these tools are similar. They allow you l to query relational databases, run joins and group bys, and then display the results as either data tables o

A lot of these tools are similar. They allow you l to query relational databases, run joins and group bys, and then display the results as either data tables or charts. To varying degrees, they hide or expose the fact that they are just building SQL queries under the hood. Notebook based analysis is more programmatic. I could for instance pull in a query, apply statistical functions, build an ML model, perform logic, call APIs etc. I think both have a place in many organisations, but the programmatic side is where there is more potential. Yet another dashboard is a bit uninspiring nowadays.

code_biologist 5y ago
To add a contrary voice, I completely disagree. Data accessibility, organization and access to analyst time remain the biggest hurdles to corporate data literacy. No business user is going to write notebook code, on the other hand I've seen some great exploration, analysis, and dashboarding work done by business users with the right self-serve setup in Looker. dbt + Metabase or Superset seems like a great cheaper / more open alternative stack. From what I've seen, ML and programmatic stuff is flashy, but enabling business users to easily get tables and bar charts is how you get everyone making more sound decisions.