Side by side
Firebolt vs Microsoft Fabric Notebooks
Both stand on cloud analytics solutions. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Firebolt offers both self-managed and managed deployment paths, plus a free self-hosted plan and a managed service with usage-based compute billing. Check the deployment restrictions and listed integration limits before choosing a setup.
Visit Firebolt
Data engineers and data scientists should consider Fabric Notebooks for interactive Spark and machine learning work with lakehouse integration, collaboration, and scheduling tools. Look elsewhere if the 60-day trial capacity or the stated storage and file limits are too restrictive for the intended work.
Visit Microsoft Fabric NotebooksThe facts
| Firebolt | Microsoft Fabric Notebooks | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | API, Linux, Self-hosted, Web | API, Web |
| Lowest paid plan | Free or on request | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | firebolt.io | learn.microsoft.com |
| On cloud analytics solutions | #4 of 29 | #8 of 29 |
Firebolt: what it does well
- Postgres-compatible SQL
- Free self-hosted plan has no usage limits
- Supports Apache Iceberg and DuckLake
- Managed compute bills per second
What to know first
- Free Core plan excludes competing hosted SaaS products
- Managed service is currently AWS-only
- Airflow 3.x is not supported
- Delta Lake is not natively supported
Microsoft Fabric Notebooks: what it does well
- Works with Jupyter notebooks and .py, .scala, and .sql files.
- Analyzes CSV, TXT, JSON, Parquet, and Delta Lake data.
- Supports multiple attached lakehouses and a default lakehouse.
- Offers co-editing, cursor visibility, run output, and cell comments.
- Copilot can suggest code changes and fixes with approval.
What to know first
- The free trial lasts 60 days and provides fixed 64 CU capacity per user.
- Built-in and environment resource storage are each limited to 500 MB.
- Individual files are limited to 100 MB.
- Some downstream services require a user principal for service-principal automation.
Alternatives to Firebolt Alternatives to Microsoft Fabric Notebooks The whole list