G2

Josef .

Operations Lead

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

9/30/2026

"A Relational Spreadsheet with APIs and Self-Hosting That’s Hard to Leave"

5/5

What do you like best about Grist?

The relational database in a spreadsheet (like Google Sheets or Excel) form is just great and I cannot emphasize this enough. I can't even go back to a normal spreadsheet after being exposed to grist.

They also provide APIs that I actually use to sync to and from various tools.

The self host option is just the cherry on top for the tool. Then the widgets are a way to help increase the functionality by letting users use Javascript, HTML, CSS to create custom apps on top of the data. Which ties in well with their newly introduced MCP.

Using the MCP, I was able to create a webapp specifically for my business needs where I know the underlying logic (since the app can be built on top of what I've already designed). You could let the AI make the data relation as well but that just doesn't seem sustainable to me. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Grist?

Mostly UI elements and some nitpicks. I can't wrap the column headers so that means if I have to extend the whole column just to see the header.

For the Formulas, I wish they put in some way for users to have reusable functions.

The views (forms, tables, widgets, etc) should really have a better way to be displayed as it always feels cluttered. I've been using the "Install as an App" from Chrome to make Grist an actual desktop (Windows) app so this particularly doesn't concern me all that much but when you're in a browser, the tab name is just the Document Name (name of the spreadsheet) and not the current view you're on so you can imagine how inconvenient this is. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Grist solving and how is that benefiting you?

I am in charge of purchasing and managing more than 300 SKUs with long lead times and low safety stocks.

Initially we were just using google sheets to manage the prices and the POs but it got unwieldy quickly because the same item can have multiple suppliers and varying prices/lead time where I have to decide where to get something from depending on the circumstances. I ended up with multiple google sheets linked with IMPORTRANGE, and moving one column meant breaking almost everything.

Migrating to Grist enabled me, as a layman, to build my own relational database and actually use it in the same UI is extremely intuitive. It's like a a roided up Google Sheets/Excel. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.