--- title: Grist Reviews meta_title: 'Grist Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Grist works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.9 review_count: 7 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-07-17' parent_category: name: Collaboration & Productivity url: https://www.g2.com/categories/collaboration-productivity --- # Grist Reviews **Vendor:** Grist Labs **Category:** [Spreadsheets Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/spreadsheets) **Average Rating:** 4.9/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 7 ## About Grist Grist combines the best of spreadsheets, databases and app builders. Using a familiar spreadsheet interface, organize your information as a relational database and build drag-and-drop dashboards in minutes. Make the most of your data by ensuring it is well-structured and stored in one place. No duplication, no spreadsheet-wrangling, no merging documents. Collaborate in real time, protecting your data with custom access rules that control permissions down to the cell. Let everyone work from the same data without compromising privacy or stability. Sign up for a free team account or host Grist yourself – either way, your data is always yours. ## Grist Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users commend the **responsive customer support** of Grist, enhancing their overall experience and satisfaction with the product. (1 reviews) - Users value the **customization options** in Grist, enabling tailored solutions for diverse spreadsheet needs. (1 reviews) - Users find Grist **easy to use** , appreciating its intuitive features and seamless transition from traditional spreadsheet platforms. (1 reviews) - Users commend Grist for its **support for multi-line formulas and advanced features** that enhance spreadsheet functionality. (1 reviews) - Users value the **flexibility** of Grist, enhancing their spreadsheet experience with advanced features and customization options. (1 reviews) - Formulas (1 reviews) - Integrations (1 reviews) - Real-time Collaboration (1 reviews) - Security Stability (1 reviews) - Spreadsheet Enhancement (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users find the **complex usage** of Grist challenging due to UI, forms limitations, and steep learning curve. (1 reviews) - Users report **form issues** in Grist, citing a lack of powerful forms and a need for improved UI design. (1 reviews) - Users find the **form limitations** of Grist restrictive, needing separate apps for advanced form functionalities. (1 reviews) - Users find the **steep learning curve** challenging, particularly due to lengthy video documentation and complex concepts. (1 reviews) - Users find the **missing features** , like powerful forms and better UI, hinder the app's overall effectiveness. (1 reviews) - Poor Design (1 reviews) - UX Improvement (1 reviews) ## Grist Reviews ### 1. Open-Source, Self-Hosted Flexibility with Python and Custom Widgets **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Artur Z. | Chief IT Risk Specialist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 06, 2026 **What do you like best about Grist?** 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 Grist?** 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 Grist 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. ### 2. Customizable and Free CRM Solution **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Евгений . | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 07, 2026 **What do you like best about Grist?** 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 Grist?** 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 Grist 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. ### 3. Honest Grist Review :) **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Max M. | Google Sheets & Script | Cooltables, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 01, 2025 **What do you like best about Grist?** 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 Grist?** 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 Grist 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. ### 4. Spreadsheet on Steroids **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stef B. | Sole Proprietor, Real Estate, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 29, 2024 **What do you like best about Grist?** 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 Grist?** 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 Grist 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. ### 5. Huge Potential **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ninos H. | Digital Projects, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2022 **What do you like best about Grist?** * Great tool for organising and analysing data. * taking advantage of the spreadsheets * pivot table! * different templates available **What do you dislike about Grist?** 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 Grist 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 ### 6. One Powerful Spreadsheet to Rule Them All **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aizat H. | Founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 21, 2021 **What do you like best about Grist?** Grist is a revolutionary spreadsheet that allows you to crossbreed between - internal app + spreadsheet + Airtable. Imagine Excel, but it's not a web app that allows you to create a full-blown mini CRM for your company. With this spreadsheet-database hybrid, I can organize, analyze, and share my data in a way that works for me. What does for me is that its open-source software that allow self-hosted solution for those who wants to keep the data private. The company also supports Grist for both types of users, and a quick video chat with them, I know I'm in good hands, especially I'd like to tinker around a bit. I see Grist as is a coding-optional database/spreadsheet processor that lets you code if you want to. You can use Python to review your document's logic in one place or use spreadsheet functions. **What do you dislike about Grist?** I think it's growing at the moment they are taking lots of feedbacks such as form implementation, and they're exploring the use of Grist as a backend solution that can interact with your front-end. I'd love to see where it goes in few months to come. Documentation is there, detail and consice, and also helpful forum, but I hope more tutorial videos + templates willl come for us to play around. Speaking of templates, yes please more starter templates. :) **Recommendations to others considering Grist:** Try their free account, test and play around abit. **What problems is Grist solving and how is that benefiting you?** For those who use Excel a lot, they know how it handles relational databases, it can be a nightmare when its huge/ lots of data. With Grist its easy to set it up, and your workflow is much faster & optimized. Less prone to error. With API access, I can take it for manipulating documents by connecting to n8n or Zapier. It's just efficient. ### 7. Grist is really unique tool! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Konstantin F. | Project Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 30, 2021 **What do you like best about Grist?** Grist is super powerful at creating fairly simple 3-5 table databases, It's fast and easy to build relationships between tables and built sa simple dashboard to handle data as you need it. **What do you dislike about Grist?** The interface needs improvement. There are some basic usability issues, such as no automatic line width height adjustment, better search, and other stuff like that. **What problems is Grist solving and how is that benefiting you?** The last time I used it, I transferred a site from Prestashop to Wordpress and quickly created tables I need to transfer all the data with the original Prestashop DB structure. ## Grist Discussions - [What is Grist used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-grist-used-for) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View Grist pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/grist/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-07-18+10%3A02%3A32+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=c154bfad-bcec-4f57-8dca-b1c27e869681&secure%5Btoken%5D=269aa1c4531bd9f7b5be73751612db6a3ef1abd0da6fe0ae53c67c20eab189c1&format=llm_user) ## Grist Features **Reports** - Reports Interface - Steps to Answer - Graphs and Charts - Score Cards - Dashboards **Setup** - Activities - Flows - Dependencies - Notifications **Calculating** - Functions - Auto Recalculation **Task Creation** - Creation & Assignment - Due Dates - Drag & Drop - Mass Updates **Reports** - Reports Interface - Share Reports - Steps to Answer **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization **User Interface Design** - WYSIWYG Editor - Customized Branding - App Templates - Workflow Management **Management** - Updates - Audit Trail - Integration **Insights** - Charts and Graphs - Tables **Task Management** - Task Prioritization - To-Do Lists - Dependencies - Recurring Tasks **Visualization** - Graphs and Charts - Score Cards - Dashboards - Formats **Data Control** - Data Migration - Data Synchronization - Data Security **Editing** - Templates - Collaborative Editing - Filtering **Data Updates** - Historical Snapshots - Real-Time Updating **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation **Publishing** - Application Deployment - Platform Compatibility - Lifecycle Management **Functionality** - Addons - Multi Device Functionality - Importing and Exporting - Autosave **Collaboration** - Sharing - Co-Editing - Devices **Agentic AI - No-Code Development Platforms** - Adaptive Learning - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance **Agentic AI - Workflow Management** - Autonomous Task Execution - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration - Adaptive Learning - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance - Decision Making **Self Service ** - Calculated Fields - Data Column Filtering - Data Discovery - Search - Collaboration / Workflow - Automodeling **Advanced Analytics** - Predictive Analytics - Data Visualization - Big Data Services **Building Reports** - Data Transformation - Data Modeling - WYSIWYG Report Design - Integration APIs **Platform** - Mobile User Support - Customization - User, Role, and Access Management - Internationalization - Sandbox / Test Environments - Performance and Reliability - Breadth of Partner Applications **Data Updates** - Historical Snapshots - Real-Time Updating - Email Reports ## Top Grist Alternatives - [Smartsheet](https://www.g2.com/products/smartsheet/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (22,166 reviews) - [Wrike](https://www.g2.com/products/wrike/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (4,455 reviews) - [Airtable](https://www.g2.com/products/airtable/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (3,195 reviews)