[anyfactor]

I've built quite a few dashboards while working on proof-of-concept feature/product engineering. Even though people often think I'm joking, almost always the backend database was a Google Sheet. Google Sheets has great API support, easy to write functionality, convenient read and file dumps, works well with Pandas/SQL, and has a universally appreciated UX. Data validation can be annoying if the "admin" directly enters data, but for building a proof of concept, nothing beats Google Sheets. The data from Google Sheets would be passed through an API to a web UI/dashboard. The dashboard I built for end users was a simple Bootstrap (Vue-Bootstrap) table from the API, with enough easy-to-use filters and views to work out of the box. If the data was too large, I would use a templated snippet to convert the JSON into a card view. Ignoring long-term maintainability, this was one of the most foolproof ways to build dashboards. After that, I'd slap Firebase Auth on top, and that was it.

I haven't worked on these types of projects for nearly two years now. Folks I know use Retool or Softr with an API connectivity platform like Portable, Pipedream, or Zapier. If you're staring at a spreadsheet on a daily basis, the next step should be looking into an app builder combined with an API connection platform.

[smusamashah]

Monzo (online bank in UK) let you see all your transactions in a Google sheet (with some caveats e.g. interest earned is skipped). I wanted to make a total wealth chart over all years.

It's so damn complicated in Google sheets. In MS Excel I could simply make a pivot chart, apply any aggregation on days/weeks and be done with it. But with Sheets I had to make a new aggregate column, filter data in another new column, and make a chart on that.

Your comment does explain that API is why they export to sheets and not excel but Google sheets is way behind in ease of use.

[BillinghamJ]

Google Sheets can do that - https://officewheel.com/group-dates-in-pivot-table-google-sh...

[miki123211]

My bank just exports to CSV, which is trivially importable to Excel, Sheets, Pandas or whatever else you need.

[flokie]

What about just plain old query() SQL i usually find the easiest vs. mucking around with pivot tables.

[homebrewer]

You're fine with Google seeing complete information about your income and spending? I'm not one of those truly paranoid, but this seems like a bit too much.

[OxfordOutlander]

+1 for googlesheets. It is stable, and provided you don't exceed the API limits, you can run a lot of data through it. Appscript is also incredibly powerful if you work with tools that have decent APIs. With a few lines of js and the built in trigger functions, you can have an automatically updating dashboard with email notifications when certain conditions are met (e.g. balance too low, user engagement metric does X etc).

[zem]

I've built a scrabble tournament management app on google sheets, because it was the easiest way I could think of to let multiple people edit it with all the others seeing live updates. From a developer's point of view it kind of sucks, having to maintain everything in one large javascript file and having to use spreadsheet tabs as input and output, not to mention manually attaching the script to a new sheet for every tournament. But the user experience has been excellent, modulo a few permissions glitches.

I'm still trying to rewrite it as a self hosted web app this year because the aforementioned permissions glitches and the difficulty of doing versioned deployments has made me reluctant to continue relying on google, but overall sheets has been a huge boon and we have gotten years of use out of it.

[specproc]

The article mentions appsheets, which I absolutely loved in my last role.

Brilliant for knocking up very simple internal tooling off the back of a Google Sheet. Most importantly, there was zero fucking around with IT on it, as it was already included in our workspace package.

[ramzis]

> for building a proof of concept, nothing beats Google Sheets

Supabase is free and checks all the boxes in addition to having auth, vector search, logs, security, and not being ... Google

[mettamage]

Love it. I think my prototyping capabilities just extended by this comment

[maximinus_thrax]

Back in 2010, I was in a work meeting making small talk and we were discussing how cringe some advertising is nowadays. One of us, a program manager who was ~15 years my senior told me it's because we're not the target demographic and that millennials are targeted differently, mainly through word-of-mouth and generally Guerrilla marketing tactics.

Whenever I see articles like these and comments like yours, I can't stop thinking about that meeting.

Edit: to clarify, I am not accusing you of anything. But I do suspect the article to be part of a Google marketing campaign.

[ezst]

If I want a database set up in minutes just to focus on the business side and nothing else, I simply fire up a new Django project (I suspect any other framework with an ORM and auto-generated CRUD UIs would be equally competent for that).

I have nothing against Google Sheets, I really haven't put much thought into it in this context, but I would need some convincing that it's a better and easier way to kick things off.

[sjsdaiuasgdia]

That Django project needs a host to run on, even if it's just your local machine.

If you want others to interact with it, you need to expose it to the internet through some means and think through the security implications of doing so.

The Google Sheets approach doesn't need you to manage a process or web server. It is instantly shareable while letting Google worry about security, performance, availability, etc.

The specifics of the "what's better?" ratio can shift depending on comfort level / experience with either product, or what infrastructure you may already have available to deploy to. But building on top of GApps does mean you get a lot of useful aspects "free".

[liontwist]

I like to just start with a SQLite UI editor.

You can just query a database and work with the results directly . In a dynamic language like python there is little advantage to loading rows into classes. That Django query language is so painful and opaque.

[tonyhart7]

hey we do the same thing lol, google sheets is great and sometimes if I have or want more I can just simply use pocketbase for easy solution

these 2 tools is great for easy/fast prototype various project and honestly its kinda hard to replace

[xtiansimon]

Slightly off-topic.

In small business accounting, I have a persistent need for a FileMaker Pro like solution for invoices. FMP was conscious of on-screen layout and print.

ReTool has been recommended as similar replacement for FMP but they don’t have the idea of creating print-ready documented receipts and invoices. You don’t even need to print it, you just need to keep it for the IRS.

I love the idea of using Google Sheets and turnkey app building apps. But I still need documentation.

[carlosjobim]

There's gotta be a ton of solutions for sale for small business accounting, no? Among them FileMaker pro?

[vishnugupta]

Currently I manage my startup’s accounting in Google sheet, and your comment gave me an idea to enhance it with Google Forms!

[ezst]

That... Sounds scary.

[mosburger]

I wonder if anyone has ever made an ORM adapter that works with Google Sheets as its "Database"?

[dotancohen]

Firebase auth? Would it be possible for a savvy end user to replicate your API calls to Google Sheets directly to bypass the auth?