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). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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...). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

* Great tool for organising and analysing data.

* taking advantage of the spreadsheets

* pivot table!

* different templates available Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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 Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. :) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.