APITable vs Smartsheet Grids
APITable and Smartsheet Grids are both internal tools and low-code software. APITable is open source under AGPL-3.0, with 16k GitHub stars. Smartsheet Grids is a commercial product from Smartsheet Inc.
Which to pick
- Pick APITable when
- You want a self-hosted Airtable alternative with an API on every table and can run a Java plus Node stack.
- Pick Smartsheet Grids when
- Teams want shared tracking tables with approval workflows and already use Smartsheet.
Side by side
An Airtable-style collaborative database with spreadsheet views, cross-table links, forms, row and column permissions and a full API.
Smartsheet's grid sheets used as a structured, shared table with forms, automations and reports.
AGPL license, releases are still marked beta, and the vendor now steers new users to its hosted AITable product.
It is a spreadsheet model, not a relational database, so linking data is limited.
Usable
Production-ready
Self-hosted server and cloud service
Cloud service and mobile app
TypeScript, Java, Spring, NestJS, Next.js and React
Not published
Open source, AGPL-3.0 (network copyleft)
Closed source, sold by Smartsheet Inc.
Use inside your business is unrestricted. If you change it and let customers use it over the internet, you must publish your changes.
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
16k GitHub stars
No Wikipedia article of its own
Established: started 4 years ago, latest release v1.14.0-beta.
Not known
Other comparisons
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Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.