Google Sheets No Code Shootout

My last post was a primer on the burgeoning low code/no code (LC/NC) movement.  Many regard this progression as a technical democratization movement, freeing the citizen developer in each of us.  While that may be true, the movement may also simply represent the next phase of abstraction within software development.  You can read more about LC/NC in this well-balanced piece in Harvard Business Review.

This new post -- the first in a series of deep dives -- focuses on pure no code solutions that sit on top of  Google Sheets.  This approach is often referred to as spreadsheet-as-a-database.  Specifically, I will be looking at AppSheet and Glide.  If, like me, you are already familiar with Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), this is the easiest way to develop and deliver fully functional, data driven apps that run on mobile devices or within the browser.

It is important to stress there is absolutely nothing you need to do to enable the integration between AppSheet or Glide and the Google Sheets document.  There is no exposed API to understand nor any configuration needed.  You simply select (or create) the tabs in the Google Sheets doc as you develop your app and CRUD operations are implicitly available.

The Challenge

My challenge was to use each of the tools -- AppSheet and Glide -- to build a compelling, intuitive app based on a small dataset that could be managed in Google Sheets.  

For this exercise, I was reminded of an important maxim of software tool "demos": to the degree possible, leverage data that you find interesting, that you understand well, and that your audience will find engaging.  With that in mind, for my proof-of-concepts, I gathered a dataset representing results from national soccer tournaments sanctioned by FIFA (the global governing body for the sport).  This dataset includes both the men's and women's World Cup tournaments.

Per me, table stakes for this class of tool are:

• App development requires only a Google account
• App development requires only a web browser and an Internet connection
• App development is free (a reasonable trial period or a limitation on users / data / features is acceptable)
• App development is truly 100% no code

The Results

With each tool, I created a simple read-only app based on the same Google Sheets document that included my FIFA tournament dataset.  

Creating each of these apps took less time than it took to write and edit this blog post.  That is, even accounting for a learning curve on each of the tools themselves, about 1 day apiece.

	AppSheet	Glide
Positives	Extremely easy to use Excellent out-of-the-box Views (1) and Components Integration with Apigee and REST API datasources (2) Access AppSheet functionality directly from within Google Sheets	Extremely easy to use Excellent out-of-the-box Tab Styles (1) and Components Vibrant support community
Negatives	Cannot create additional Views	Cannot create additional Tab Styles No out-of-the-box REST API integration feature
Other Notes	Warnings and Errors are generally helpful, but there were occasions where a message was confusing / misleading or it required me to exit AppSheet to resolve

(1) Views and Tab Styles are pre-built page templates.  These enable you to present the underlying data in a variety of ways and with pre-defined flows.

(2) Although out-of-scope of this blog post, the ability to interact with other data (outside of the Google Sheets dataset) through industry standard REST API is an extremely important feature for many apps.

The Verdict

Both AppSheet and Glide are excellent choices for quickly designing, developing, and deploying simple, intuitive apps for mobile and web.

AppSheet edges this shootout because of its tighter integration with Google Sheets, Google Cloud, and REST APIs (Apigee).  

Of course, features are changing at a blazing speed across the entire spectrum of LC/NC. 

You can find my solutions here (AppSheet) and here (Glide).  I would love to hear from you about this post, these apps, and your experiences with AppSheet and Glide.