EtherCalc is a real-time collaborative spreadsheet available from a browser with no sign-up, available also at no cost.
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Google Sheets
Score 8.7 out of 10
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Google Sheets is the spreadsheet app available on Google Workspace, or standalone, with a free plan for personal use and accessible via mobile apps for iOS and Android.
Ethercalc is very well suited for developing modern-day enterprise (smaller-mid size), finance and healthcare applications as it can do Real-time data pull from a variety of third-party apps, and has interoperability with CSV, Microsoft Excel and JSON files; It's available on all on all public clouds including AWS, GCP and Microsoft Azure and can be used as a Low code and no code development tool. Further, we can Develop applications on the go with good integration and visualization libraries and we can also do Tabulation and graphing along with ability to use it as an npm module, do Real time collaboration and editing. It is a very good tool for startups and government institutions. There is a considerable scope of improvement for using it in bigger enterprises as it needs key integration and interoperability functionalities. It can evolve in a variety of directions depending upon its integration with a variety of third party apps services and tools. As an analytics tool, for example, it needs integration with R, Scipy, Numpy and keras libraries. Availability within Ionic, NativeScript or Appgyer as an extension or a plugin will be very useful for it being used as a large enterprise low code/no code tool.
Google Sheets is great for just recording tabular information that needs to be shared with and/or edited by multiple people. Sharing and collaborating is especially convenient because Sheets is designed to be browser-based; while Excel has a browser version, it's limited compared to the desktop app. Google Sheets's editing, suggesting, commenting, and viewing permissions settings are absolutely perfect for my department. Google Sheets does not handle large datasets well. It does not load in a timely manner and often freezes. Apps Scripts fail to process large amounts of data.
Google Sheets is generally very intuitive, and its support documentation is comprehensive, concise, and clear. Due to its widespread use, there's plenty of advice on various online forums, and LLMs like ChatGPT are usually correct about Sheets, something that can't be said for most software.
Like most Google products, Google Sheets rarely has outages or slowness, and when it does, connection is always momentarily restored. I can't recall a time when I've been unable to access Google Sheets but able to access other sites just fine. That said, errors aren't uncommon when handling large data volume. You know what they say about using spreadsheets as databases, but sometimes it's just the most convenient option, especially for smaller or one-off projects, and not being able to store large amounts of data hampers our ability to move quickly with scrappy prototypes or full solutions. It would be great if we could better integrate our data manipulation (Apps Script) with big data in the sheet.
Again, Google Sheets is no exception to Google's general high speed and reliability, but load times can be slow for larger amounts of data. I've used Sheets with Zapier and have used the Python API, and speed has never been an issue.
I have never contacted Google Sheets support, but Google Sheets makes it very easy to report an issue or suggest a feature from Sheets itself (Help > Help Sheets improve), and I've had mostly good experiences with support for other Google products.
EtherCalc has a low barrier to entry on training and end-user development. It is very easy for startups with considerable time pressure to deliver to use EtherCalc as a tool for tabulation, organization, collaboration and computation. It is also very useful for use cases in government institutions where there is a strong push for open source software-based ERP solutions or app development. These are the key reasons for the selection of Ethercalc.
The major reason I use Google Sheets over Microsoft Excel and Apple Numbers is for its ability to allow multiple users to access and work on the same spreadsheet at once. This is incredibly more efficient and effective than updating and sending copies upon copies of the same Excel or Numbers spreadsheet back and forth as email attachments.
I'm not involved with the purchase, but I assume everything goes smoothly and that the pricing structure is predictable and reasonable. We do not get surprise fees.
Google Sheets works very well with multiple users. It's convenient to see in real-time who is collaborating in a sheet, down to the specific cell that they're viewing/editing. Linking Sheets across departments is convenient with the IMPORTRANGE function.
Very good opportunities on using it as a low code, no code tool with ionic open source platform. Able to meet needs of our customers and do real time deployment quickly
Very productive and useful for developing web APIs and PWAs on the cloud, tablet, mobile and a variety of surface devices (touch functions can be customized according to needs)
Spreadsheet for the next 100-150 years as it integrates well with React, Angular and Jquery libraries. Maintainable and readable code of spreadsheet
Low barrier to entry on training and end user development
Good analytics and accounting tool for startups
What you see is what you get interface
The ability to integrate with firebase and Dropbox is neat.
