Grist Builder Edition

What do you like best about the product?

Grist acts as the ideal compromise between heavy-duty relational databases and classic Excel spreadsheets. For those used to working in Excel, the learning curve is minimal, and you can get up to speed very quickly. Additionally, Grist has become a great alternative for me, sitting right between Obsidian and Notion. It takes the best of both worlds: offering powerful table relationships (like Notion) and supporting flexible custom widgets (like Obsidian), all while remaining an open and non-proprietary solution.

1. Open-source & Self-hosting: Complete independence, control over your own data, and active community support.

2. Python under the hood: All logic, formulas, and relationships run on Python, making the system incredibly flexible.

3. Custom widgets: Excellent interface customization. For instance, you can use widgets to set up convenient previews for attached files (like images or documents).

4. Smart attachment handling: Unlike Excel, attaching files directly to columns here is very convenient. To prevent the database file itself from bloating and taking too long to load, Grist features a brilliant option to offload attachments to external storage (S3).

What do you dislike about the product?

Despite the powerful concept, some features still feel a bit "raw":
External storage (S3) limitations: The excellent S3 connection feature mentioned above is only available in the Enterprise version and is proprietary, which slightly contradicts the overall open-source philosophy of the product.

Unpolished Action Button: Excel had this great feature where you could insert a button anywhere and bind a VBA macro to it for execution. Grist has a separate "Action Button" custom widget, but it still works quite strangely and clumsily. I really hope they fix this soon.

No cascade delete for rows: If you delete a row in a "parent" table, the co-dependent data in the "child" tables just hangs there as dead weight. There is no automatic cleanup.

Missing basic Excel shortcuts: It severely lacks the familiar drag-to-fill functionality down a column (for example, auto-filling dates or logical numerical sequences like 1, 2, 3...).

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

The main value lies in the ability to create a highly customizable and controllable system for your tasks without being tied to closed ecosystems. Grist's architecture allows you to build complex logic, and thanks to Python support, you are not limited to standard formulas and can bring almost any idea to life.

Grist is an amazing tool for those who have outgrown Excel but don't want to deal with the complex administration of traditional SQL databases. If the developers polish up the minor interface rough edges, it will be an absolute hit.

What do you like best about the product?

Grist is available in a self-hosted version, and all its vast functionality is available to us for free, without limitations. Related widgets on one page are very easy to configure. Our small trading and manufacturing company uses Grist as a CRM, customized to our specifics and business processes. Grist allows us to very flexibly account for the specifics of our sales funnel. We are very pleased that we chose Grist. The built-in neural network in Grist also helped a lot with the initial setup.

What do you dislike about the product?

Unfortunately, the standard user authentication option through the getgrist.com website in Russia may be unstable. Setting up alternative authentication options for self-hosted Grist can be challenging for users without technical skills.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Grist allows for flexible consideration of the specifics of our sales funnel in project deals that last several years. I like that all functionalities are available in the self-hosted version for free.

What do you like best about the product?

Several key features could propel Grist to widespread success.

The support for Python and multi-line formulas stands out.

The inclusion of smart auto-columns like ID, created/updated timestamps, and user tracking.

Additionally, Grist offers advanced access controls, such as row-level viewing, and open coding support for widgets.

Having transitioned from Excel to Sheets and with 17 years of experience in spreadsheet use, I now see Grist as my top choice for the ideal spreadsheet platform. While there is still progress to be made, Grist is already a robust tool with a growing and active community.

What do you dislike about the product?

1. Design — the entire app requires professional UI redesign, complete fast key support similar to Excel/Google Sheets.
2. Missing of powerful forms. To make a cool form, you need a separate app. Widgets cannot be shared as a separate apps. I think the future of growth is here.
3. Documentation and learning curve. Concepts are explained in 1+ hour videos. Need complex concepts expained by human in 10 minutes videos.

I'm sure all drawbacks are being already adressed by the team. See real interest behind it.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Made a teachers book for my wife. Replaced Google Sheets. It is easier and faster for creating small systems like that. Also see big growth potential.

Plan to explore Grist from development prospective.

What do you like best about the product?

Versatility. If you want to use code. You can. If you want no code but still make a complex spreadsheet, no problem. I can't think of anything I canbuild for my bsuiness. Internal and external apps. The API allows for simple integration into other processes and to set up automation. With the introduction of an Ai helper, you can use natural language to build pretty complex calculations. If you have teams or clients that need access, there is role level access to your sheets. Grist is perfect for the beginner and the expert. Open source and you can self-host. No need to sell your data for a top notch spreadsheet.

What do you dislike about the product?

A few of the help pages were a little outdated for the templates. That's it. They are super responsive. Great comminuty, and the platform itself has a number of helpful pop-ups when needed.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Grist handles my raw form data. With triggers, calculations and automations, it runs my backend. Emais can be sent. Invoices filled, CRM updated. Dashboard can be created easily to have your business overview at a glance. Grist is my administrative team.

What do you like best about the product?

* Great tool for organising and analysing data.
* taking advantage of the spreadsheets
* pivot table!
* different templates available

What do you dislike about the product?

Needs a bit of getting used to - takes some learning curve to get the full potential of the tool - but it's not too difficult to manage in my opinion

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

simplified data analysis and organising data from spreadsheets
ready-made templates for some standard use cases such as CRM