Zeppelin
Apache Zeppelin is an open-source, web-based notebook that enables data-driven, interactive analytics and collaborative documents using SQL, Scala, Python, R, and more.
Profile
Apache Zeppelin is an open-source web-based notebook for interactive data analytics and visualization, supporting multiple programming languages and big data frameworks.
Apache Zeppelin is an open-source, web-based notebook that enables data-driven, interactive analytics and collaborative documents using SQL, Scala, Python, R, and more. The project originated at NFLabs, a South Korean startup founded by Sejun Ra, and was donated to the Apache Software Foundation in 2014, becoming a top-level project in 2015. In December 2016, the commercial entity behind Zeppelin rebranded from NFLabs to ZEPL and announced a $4.1 million Series A funding round led by Vertex Ventures, with participation from Translink Capital, Specialized Types, and Big Basin Capital.
ZEPL planned to release a commercial product in spring 2017, targeting enterprises looking to unify analytics workflows across disparate tools and frameworks like Hadoop, Spark, Cassandra, and MongoDB. The company positioned itself as an open-source alternative to proprietary business intelligence platforms such as Tableau. As of June 2026, the Apache Zeppelin project remains active on GitHub with over 6,600 stars and 2,800 forks, and the latest commit (ZEPPELIN-4407) added a copy-to-clipboard feature for table results on June 3, 2026.
The project has seen 5,647 total commits and continues to receive updates, including recent support for Flink 1.19 and 1.20 shims. However, there is no publicly available information on ZEPL's current headcount, revenue, or subsequent funding rounds after 2016. The company's website (zepl.com) and corporate presence appear dormant, with no recent press releases or financial disclosures.
The Zeppelin Group (zeppelin.com) is an unrelated German industrial conglomerate with €4.6 billion in 2025 revenue, and Venture Global, Cloudflare, and SLB are separate entities whose financial results were mistakenly included in the research dossier. The open-source project itself has no disclosed revenue or customer base, and its commercial viability remains unproven beyond the initial 2016 funding.
Who buys this
- Data scientists and analysts needing a collaborative, multi-language notebook for exploratory data analysis
- Engineering teams working with big data frameworks such as Apache Spark, Flink, and Hadoop
- Enterprises seeking an open-source alternative to proprietary business intelligence tools like Tableau
- Academic and research institutions using interactive notebooks for data science education and experimentation
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- Strong open-source community with over 6,600 GitHub stars, 2,800 forks, and 5,647 commits as of June 2026, indicating sustained developer interest and contributions
- Supports a wide range of interpreters including Spark, Flink, Python, R, JDBC, and more, making it a versatile tool for diverse data workflows
- Web-based architecture enables real-time collaboration and sharing of notebooks, reducing silos between data scientists, analysts, and business users
Watch for
- The commercial entity ZEPL has not disclosed any funding, revenue, or headcount since its 2016 Series A, raising questions about its ongoing viability as a business
- The project faces competition from more widely adopted notebooks like Jupyter (with over 30 million downloads) and Databricks' collaborative notebooks, which may limit Zeppelin's enterprise adoption
- No named enterprise customers or case studies are publicly available, making it difficult to assess real-world deployment scale or customer satisfaction
Recent moves
Key Information
- Industry
- Collaboration
- Founded
- 1986
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Apache Zeppelin used for?
Apache Zeppelin is an open-source web-based notebook for interactive data analytics and visualization. It supports multiple languages like SQL, Python, R, and Scala, and integrates with big data frameworks such as Spark, Flink, and Hadoop for collaborative data exploration.
Is Apache Zeppelin still actively maintained?
Yes, as of June 2026, Apache Zeppelin remains active on GitHub with over 6,600 stars, 2,800 forks, and 5,647 total commits. Recent updates include support for Flink 1.19 and 1.20 shims and a copy-to-clipboard feature for table results.
Who is behind Apache Zeppelin commercially?
The commercial entity behind Zeppelin, originally NFLabs, rebranded to ZEPL in December 2016 and raised $4.1 million in Series A funding. However, no subsequent funding, revenue, or headcount has been disclosed since then, and its website appears dormant.
How does Apache Zeppelin compare to Jupyter?
Apache Zeppelin is an open-source notebook for data analytics, but it faces strong competition from Jupyter, which has over 30 million downloads. Zeppelin supports multiple interpreters like Spark and Flink, but Jupyter's wider adoption may limit Zeppelin's enterprise use.
What big data frameworks does Apache Zeppelin support?
Apache Zeppelin supports interpreters for Apache Spark, Flink, Python, R, JDBC, and more. This versatility allows data scientists and engineers to run interactive analytics across Hadoop, Cassandra, MongoDB, and other big data platforms within a single notebook.
Does Apache Zeppelin have any enterprise customers?
No named enterprise customers or case studies are publicly available for Apache Zeppelin. While it targets enterprises seeking an open-source alternative to Tableau, its commercial viability remains unproven beyond the initial 2016 funding from ZEPL.
Sources
- github.com — GitHub repository stats (stars, forks, commits), recent commits, and project activity as of June 2026
- www.networkworld.com — Rebranding from NFLabs to ZEPL and $4.1M Series A funding in December 2016
- www.sdxcentral.com — Details of the $4.1M Series A funding round led by Vertex Ventures and ZEPL's commercial plans
- www.zeppelin.com — Clarifies that Zeppelin Group is an unrelated German industrial company, not the open-source project