I’m dealing with a massive Google Sheets document that has over 5000 rows packed with tons of formulas across multiple worksheets. Our team of several people works on this daily, making constant edits and updates. The different sheets are interconnected and reference each other frequently.
The problem is performance. Everything loads incredibly slowly and it’s becoming a real pain to work with. A colleague mentioned Airtable as a potential alternative, but I have zero experience with that platform. I’ve spent several days trying to research my options but I’m still confused about whether it would actually solve my issues.
I’ve also heard about Power BI as another possibility, though I’m not sure if that’s mainly for viewing data rather than actually editing it.
Can anyone share their experience with similar situations? What would you recommend for handling large collaborative datasets that need frequent updates?
I made the same switch from Google Sheets to Airtable about two years ago. I had around 4000 rows and multiple people working on it - the performance difference was huge. Airtable crushes Sheets when it comes to handling large datasets, and you’ll kiss those messy cross-sheet references goodbye with its relational database setup. If you’re already comfortable with Sheets, you won’t struggle too much learning Airtable. What hooked me was creating different views of the same data without copying everything multiple times. Your formulas get way cleaner since you’re dealing with actual database relationships instead of those nightmare VLOOKUP chains. Fair warning though - Airtable’s formula system is different, so you’ll have to rebuild some stuff. Actually ended up being a good thing for me since it forced me to simplify everything. It’s way easier to maintain now. For team collaboration with lots of updates, Airtable’s record permissions and change tracking blow Sheets out of the water.
Been there with massive datasets hitting performance walls. Both Airtable and Google Sheets choke once you hit that scale with heavy formulas and multiple people working simultaneously.
Here’s the thing - you don’t need to pick a new platform. You need automation to handle data processing instead of live formulas constantly recalculating.
I dealt with this exact nightmare on a 6000 row project tracker. Instead of switching platforms, I built workflows that automatically process updates, sync between sources, and only change what actually needs updating. Killed most of the performance issues instantly.
Keep your Google Sheets setup but move complex calculations and cross-sheet references to automated workflows running in the background. Your team gets the same familiar interface while heavy processing happens elsewhere.
This also lets you gradually migrate to whatever platform makes sense without breaking your current workflow. Bonus: better data validation and automatic backups.
Power BI is just for visualization like you thought - not collaborative editing.
Latenode works great for these automation workflows. Connects easily with Google Sheets and handles all that complex processing that’s currently killing your performance: https://latenode.com
5000 rows with heavy formulas will kill any spreadsheet eventually. Hit this exact wall three years ago with a financial model that got completely out of hand.
What actually worked: split the problem. Keep data entry in whatever your team already knows, move the heavy calculations elsewhere.
I kept input sheets in Google Sheets since everyone was comfortable there. Moved all cross-sheet calculations and complex formulas to a separate system that runs periodically and updates results back.
Performance gain was huge. No more 30-second waits for a single cell edit.
Airtable’s solid for structured data but your team will face a learning curve. Plus rebuilding 5000 rows of interconnected formulas sounds brutal.
Google Sheets handles your data volume fine. The real problem is formulas recalculating constantly with multiple people editing at once.
Move heavy lifting to background processing and your current setup becomes totally usable. Team keeps their familiar interface, you get the performance you need.
totally feel u on the slowness! switched to airtable last yr and it’s way better. loading times are fast, and managing links between tables is way easier too. give it a shot, i think u’ll like it!