Top all-time · #1961
Grist
Company blog · getgrist.com/blogprogrammingdatabusiness
Grist is the company blog at getgrist.com, writing about programming, data and business. Since 2020, 37 different Hacker News readers have linked it 68 times, most often “Grist – SQLite based relational spreadsheet”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-22, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 14 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Grist, an open-source spreadsheet and database hybrid with Python formulas, self-hosting and an Airtable migration tool, as an alternative to Airtable and Google Sheets. The linked pages are product, forms and migration pages.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Grist is a relational spreadsheet-database that empowers you to organize your data, your way. Get started with a free trial.
Most-linked posts?
- Grist – SQLite based relational spreadsheet21 people · 26 mentions · first linked 2022-11-01
- /6 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2021-11-12
- /3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-03-31
- Show HN: Grist, a Hacker Friendly Spreadsheet2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-11-30
- /forms/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-02-23
- Between no-code and lo-code lies AI-assisted “co-code”, perfect for spreadsheets2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-08-23
- GPT3 and Python-based Grist spreadsheets work well together2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-12-01
- Grist vs. Airtable2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-02-10
What Hacker News says?
I tried the "Doc", "Sheet" and "Slide" feature and each of them are incomplete and lacks most of the popular features. It would be better if the author uses existing solutions instead of implement them from ground up. editor.js [0] for documents and Grist [1] for spreadsheet are some good examples. [0]: https://editorjs.io/ [1]: https://www.getgrist.com/
Comment linking /
on “Show HN: I made an app that consolidated 18 apps (doc, sheet, form, site, chat…)”Submitted Show HN: Grist, a Hacker Friendly Spreadsheet as a story · 27 points
HN discussionWhere do you see a Pro plan? Their pricing[0] lists a 10 documents limit for the free Individual plan and unlimited for the paid plans Team and Enterprise. [0]: https://www.getgrist.com/pricing/
Comment linking /pricing/
on “Grist – Open core alternative to Airtable and Google Sheets”Submitted How to fix CSV: make it even more U+1F4A9 PILE OF POO as a story · 26 points
HN discussionHave you tried grist[0]? It's self-hostable (and the community version is FOSS I think), and really useful in a way I find better than just a spreadsheet. It's no good for importing complex excel things, but I've found it very useful for new work. [0]( https://www.getgrist.com )
Comment linking /
on “Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices”Submitted Grist – SQLite based relational spreadsheet as a story · 8 points
HN discussionGrist Labs | Software Engineer | New York, NY or REMOTE (US) | Full Time | https://www.getgrist.com/jobs-engineer We are building Grist, the evolution of spreadsheets, an easy-to-use platform for individuals and small businesses to organize their data better. Grist ( https://www.getgrist.com ) gives non-technical people the power of a relational database, versatile data layouts, real-time sharing, access control rul…
Comment linking /blog
on “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2021)”Submitted We share secrets at a fully-remote startup as a story · 4 points
HN discussionGrist Labs | Systems Engineer | Full-time | NYC OR REMOTE +/- 3hrs | https://getgrist.com We're looking for someone to make our modern spreadsheet software run everywhere. To apply, there's a puzzle. Just do: docker run -it gristlabs/grist-twist and poke around. If the words battery correct horse staple mean something to you, you might have an advantage. The heart of the software you'll be working with: https://gith…
Comment linking /job-systems-engineer/
on “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2024)”Submitted Grist CSV Viewer: open-source, in-browser, interactive CSV preview as a story · 4 points
HN discussionIs there any good opensource software with gui to manage such databases/graphs? I guess Wikibase is an alternative, although not very user friendly In contrast, pocketbase [0] was discussed two days ago, and there are many user-friendly alternatives for relational data [e.g. 1-4] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38898934 [1] https://www.getgrist.com/ [2] https://nocodb.com/ [3] https://baserow.io/ [4] https:…
Comment linking /
on “Databases and why their complexity is now unnecessary”Submitted Global Grist: How ANCT and the open source community helped translate Grist as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI have been using grist [0] for a number of months. Self-hosted. Uses Python and has defined all common Excel functions as Python functions. Has a web-api so it can be used as a kind of database. Very nice for my small use-cases where Excel would have fit the bill. I have not stress tested it and I know there are row limitations without going to the enterprise edition. 0: https://www.getgrist.com/
Comment linking /
on “Pyspread – Pythonic Spreadsheet”Submitted Grist: Turn the spreadsheets running your business into secure applications as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThat's what I wonder about too. I imagine that a slow calculation would be fine if done once when the data is first loaded into the system. Once the results are in memory, any new data should only affect smallish subsets of cells. This is the approach our product Grist ( https://www.getgrist.com ) takes for its calculation engine. Keeping track of dependencies slows it down for the initial load, but beyond that, it…
Comment linking /
on “Scaling our spreadsheet engine from thousands to billions of cells”Submitted Grist as a story · 2 points
HN discussiongrist is sort of similar. its a spreadsheet/database hybrid that lets you use python for formulas, and they have a self-hosted option: https://www.getgrist.com/product/self-managed
Comment linking /product/self-managed
on “PySheets – Spreadsheet UI for Python”Submitted GPT3 and Python-based Grist spreadsheets work well together as a story · 2 points
HN discussionGrist is an sqlite-based spreadsheet format that captures relations well and discourages funky structure https://www.getgrist.com/blog - it works well for passing relational datasets around (disclosure, I work on it)
Comment linking /blog
on “What If OpenDocument Used SQLite? (2014)”Submitted Is AI Formula Generation a Solution to Spreadsheets’ Biggest Problem? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis is neat. I had a recent need to do something similar, but ended up using Grist CSV Viewer[1], which I think is a bit more feature complete. I had ChatGPT create an HTML file that would let me paste the CSV instead of loading a specific file and it worked pretty well while being more convenient than loading the CSV into Google Sheets or whatever. [1] https://www.getgrist.com/csv-viewer/
Comment linking /csv-viewer/
on “Display any CSV file as a searchable, filterable, pretty HTML table”Submitted Grist – The Evolution of Spreadsheets as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI love Grist, and relevant to this discussion, it now has forms: https://www.getgrist.com/forms/ Grist is open source, Python scriptable and each project is stored in a SQLite database.
Comment linking /forms/
on “Form to DB”Submitted Grist Labs and Clever Cloud Announce Strategic Partnership as a story · 1 points
HN discussionBecause the single-system paradigm doesn't work any more. However, modern replacements do exist, Airtable is one of the first; it's basically the notion of a "spreadsheet with more structure", and then building forms and such on top of that. I've recently been playing with Grist and like it, although it is rough around the edges. https://www.getgrist.com
Comment linking /
on “Form to DB”Submitted Between no-code and lo-code lies AI-assisted “co-code”, perfect for spreadsheets as a story · 1 points
HN discussionLooks great, and I like that there is a lot of overlap with Grist: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25257521 , https://www.getgrist.com (of which I am a founder). The differences are interesting: rows.com seems more focused on external integrations; Grist has API but is more focused on powerful formulas and layouts for working within the data. I imagine the overlap will only increase. I take it as confirmation t…
Comment linking /
on “Rows.com – Spreadsheet that supports external API integration and collaboration”Submitted From no-code to co-code as a story · 1 points
HN discussionsounds like you are describing grist https://www.getgrist.com
Comment linking /
on “Spreadsheets Are Hot–and Cranking Out Complex Code”Submitted The Werewolf in Your Support Tickets as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
