How JupyterLab Differs from Jupyter Notebook and Jupyter Desktop

JupyterLab, Jupyter Notebook, and Jupyter Desktop are all notebook authoring applications under the same Project Jupyter umbrella, but they are not the same product. The key difference: JupyterLab is positioned as a more advanced, feature-rich, and customizable environment than Jupyter Notebook, while Jupyter Desktop is a separate sibling application rather than a newer version of either. If you want the most extensible editing environment, JupyterLab is the intended choice; if you want the simpler classic experience, Jupyter Notebook remains available.

The shared foundation

All three sit under Project Jupyter, whose stated goal is providing tools and standards for interactive computing with computational notebooks. A computational notebook is a shareable document that combines:

• computer code
• plain language descriptions
• data
• rich visualizations such as 3D models, charts, graphs, and figures
• interactive controls

A notebook plus an editor like JupyterLab gives you a fast interactive environment for prototyping and explaining code, exploring and visualizing data, and sharing ideas.

How the three relate

The documentation explicitly frames JupyterLab as "a sibling to other notebook authoring applications under the Project Jupyter umbrella, like Jupyter Notebook and Jupyter Desktop." That means none of these is simply the successor of another in the docs' wording — they coexist.

What "more advanced" means in practice

The documentation's own comparison is directional rather than a feature-by-feature table: JupyterLab offers a more advanced, feature-rich, customizable experience compared to Jupyter Notebook. The User Guide sections hint at the scope of that environment, including:

• The JupyterLab Interface
• Notebooks, Code Consoles, Text Editor, Terminals
• Managing Kernels and Terminals
• Debugger and Table of Contents
• Extensions and Workspaces
• Interface Customization, Applying Custom CSS, Settings Editor
• Real Time Collaboration and Language Server Protocol support

If your work depends on any of those capabilities — extensions, deep interface customization, or collaborative editing — that is the signal to choose JupyterLab over Jupyter Notebook.

Choosing between them

• Choose JupyterLab when you need extensibility, a richer interface, and customization options.
• Choose Jupyter Notebook when you want the classic, simpler notebook experience.
• Consider Jupyter Desktop as a distinct sibling application if a desktop form factor matters to you.

You can try JupyterLab without a local install via Binder, which the documentation links directly from its welcome page.

A note on the Classic Notebook

The documentation includes a "What will happen to the Classic Notebook?" entry in its Get Started section, indicating that the relationship between JupyterLab and the classic Notebook is an actively documented topic. If you are deciding between them, that page is the place to check for the current status rather than relying on assumptions about replacement.