Developers struggle to embed usable spreadsheet grids in their apps
Developers building spreadsheet-like features want editable grids that fit inside their apps and work with their own data and backend. The requests point to tradeoffs in existing options: teams need better accessibility, manageable dependencies, open-source licensing, or self-hosting, while connecting to spreadsheet services can involve cumbersome setup. A small, focused grid component could address part of this need, but the evidence does not establish demand for a full spreadsheet platform.
For developers building spreadsheet-like features into web apps. Mentioned from Nov 2023 to Feb 2026 on Bluesky and Hacker News.
8 different people described this problem in 7 separate discussions.
- Indie fit
- 5.0/10
- Pain
- 4.8/10
- Frequency
- 7.9/10
- Willingness to pay
- 0.0/10
- Momentum
- 5.0/10
- Who pays
- Businesses
- Competition
- High
- Build difficulty
- High
What people said
Quoted word for word. Follow a link to read the whole discussion.
I just want part of the frontend of my own app to be a grid that multiple people can edit, persisted in a database table that my own phoenix/rails/whatever process also has access to
Is there some capable fully open source data grid providing spreadsheet functionality? Commercial / open-core are a no-go for me, since my goal is to integrate it into an open source project
See what to build and who will buy it
- 1 product idea with the smallest useful version and pricing
- 4 places to find your first customers
- 6 more quotes from people who have this problem
- Current workarounds, existing solutions and risks