Jupyter Notebook
What it is: Interactive computing environment. Mix code, visualizations, markdown in one document.
What It Does Best
Exploratory analysis. Run code cell by cell. See results immediately. Iterate fast.
Storytelling with data. Code + explanations + charts in one place. Perfect for reports and presentations.
Sharing work. Send notebook files. Recipients see code, outputs, and narrative together.
Pricing
Free. Open source.
When to Use It
✅ Exploratory data analysis
✅ Prototyping ML models
✅ Teaching and documentation
✅ Sharing analysis with narrative
When NOT to Use It
❌ Production code (use .py files + proper IDE)
❌ Version control critical (notebooks merge poorly)
❌ Unit testing and debugging (harder in notebooks)
Bottom line: Industry standard for data science workflows. Perfect for analysis and prototyping. Refactor to proper code for production.