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  4. Spreadsheets As A Backend
  5. Airtable vs xlwings

Airtable vs xlwings

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Airtable
Airtable
Stacks1.0K
Followers890
Votes40
xlwings
xlwings
Stacks36
Followers125
Votes0
GitHub Stars0
Forks2

Airtable vs xlwings: What are the differences?

Developers describe Airtable as "*Real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid *". Working with Airtable is as fast and easy as editing a spreadsheet. But only Airtable is backed by the power of a full database, giving you rich features far beyond what a spreadsheet can offer. On the other hand, xlwings is detailed as "Use Python in Excel without add-ins". Replace your VBA code with Python, a powerful yet easy-to-use programming language that is highly suited for numerical analysis. Supports Windows & Mac!.

Airtable and xlwings can be categorized as "Spreadsheets as a Backend" tools.

Some of the features offered by Airtable are:

  • Attachments
  • Link Tables
  • Fully mobile

On the other hand, xlwings provides the following key features:

  • Easy deployment: The receiver of an xlwings-powered spreadsheets only needs Python with minimal dependencies — or nothing at all when shipped with the Python runtime.
  • Cross-Platform: xlwings works with Microsoft Excel on Windows and Mac.
  • Plug-and-Play: No cumbersome installation of Excel add-ins or license keys.

xlwings is an open source tool with 1.38K GitHub stars and 259 GitHub forks. Here's a link to xlwings's open source repository on GitHub.

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Advice on Airtable, xlwings

DetStartups
DetStartups

Nov 11, 2019

Needs advice

I'm trying to set up an ideally "no- code" way to have a backend of 3 different tables and be able to find a value in table #3 (contains businesses & cities) by first finding a record in table #1 (7,000+ zip codes) that corresponds to a city (table #2 has the unique cities), and then finding which businesses are located in these cities ( in this specific, original zipcode lookup). And return the business and a description via an API to a front-end results page, which happens to be a WordPress page - but doesn't need to be. I've tried Airtable's API, AirPress (a finicky WordPress plugin for Airtable's API), and I've looked at Sheetsu and a similar spreadsheet as backend and a simple API. I run into the issue where they work fine when you just need to query 1 table, but when you need to use the result from that query in another query to a different table. I'm back in SQL land - where sure it could be done with SQLite - needing to probably create an intersection table or a JOIN and build an API off of that. Is there a way to accomplish what I want without going back to SQL queries and some API?

59.9k views59.9k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Airtable
Airtable
xlwings
xlwings

Working with Airtable is as fast and easy as editing a spreadsheet. But only Airtable is backed by the power of a full database, giving you rich features far beyond what a spreadsheet can offer.

Replace your VBA code with Python, a powerful yet easy-to-use programming language that is highly suited for numerical analysis. Supports Windows & Mac!

Attachments;Link Tables;Fully mobile;Instant collaboration;Easily undo mistakes
Easy deployment: The receiver of an xlwings-powered spreadsheets only needs Python with minimal dependencies — or nothing at all when shipped with the Python runtime.;Cross-Platform: xlwings works with Microsoft Excel on Windows and Mac.;Plug-and-Play: No cumbersome installation of Excel add-ins or license keys.;Flexible: Works with pretty much every combination of Excel and Python.;Two way communication: Call Python from Excel or interact with Excel from Python.;Free and open-source: xlwings is released under a permissive BSD-License.
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
0
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
2
Stacks
1.0K
Stacks
36
Followers
890
Followers
125
Votes
40
Votes
0
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 19
    Powerful and easy to use
  • 8
    Robust and dynamic
  • 6
    Quick UI Layer
  • 4
    Practical built in views
  • 3
    Robust API documentation
Cons
  • 3
    Very slow and still needs VBA for UDFs

What are some alternatives to Airtable, xlwings?

Sheetsu

Sheetsu

Use spreadsheet as your database. Give data to your users the nice way, directly from the tool you know. Without bothering webdeveloper.

Sheety

Sheety

Power websites, apps, or whatever you like, all from a spreadsheet. Changes to your spreadsheet update your API in realtime.

Sheetlabs

Sheetlabs

Drag & drop your data, name your API and choose what data people can see - that's it. Documentation is created automatically.

sheet2api

sheet2api

Use any Google Sheets or Excel Online spreadsheet to power a fully-fledged API, no coding required.

Smartsheet

Smartsheet

It is an intuitive online project management tool enabling teams to increase productivity using cloud, collaboration, & mobile technologies. It provides your organization with a powerful work platform that offers exceptional speed to business value

Glide

Glide

Pick a sheet, customize your app, share it with a link. Add your data to the sheet and share your custom app! Only pay for apps that need whitelabeling or store distribution.

Tables

Tables

It helps teams easily track & automate tasks, enabling them to save time and work smarter.

NocoDB

NocoDB

It is an open source Airtable alternative. It transforms your relational databases into a smart spreadsheet. Our app store allows you to connect to any cloud services like S3 for file storage and 3rd party apps like Slack, Twilio for business workflows.

Baserow.io

Baserow.io

It is an open-source no-code database and Airtable alternative. Create your own database without technical experience. Our user friendly no-code tool gives you the powers of a developer without leaving your browser.

Rowy

Rowy

It is an open-source platform that brings an Airtable experience for your database and allows you to build any automation or cloud functions for your product. Manage Firestore data in a spreadsheet-like UI, write Cloud Functions effortlessly in the browser, and connect to your favorite third party platforms.

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