Hey everyone, I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and wanted to get some opinions. I’m working on a small project and considering using Google Sheets instead of a traditional database. The API seems pretty robust, the interface is user-friendly, and there’s no cost involved which is great for my budget. However, I’m wondering what potential issues I might run into down the road. Are there performance problems when dealing with larger datasets? What about security concerns or reliability issues? I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has tried this approach before or knows about the technical limitations I should be aware of.
I tried using Google Sheets as a database for a client project two years ago. It worked at first, but data validation was a nightmare. There’s no constraint system, so users kept overwriting formulas and entering bad data that broke everything. Someone accidentally deleted important rows and we had no proper backup or version control. The query options are limited - you’re stuck with basic filtering and sorting. Forget about doing anything complex like SQL. I ended up writing messy scripts that were impossible to maintain.
the api quota limits are brutal - you’ll hit them way faster than u think, especially with multiple users. google sheets also goes down randomly and there’s nothing u can do about it. your app just breaks. plus the sharing permissions are pretty basic compared to actual databases, so security’s always a concern.
Using Google Sheets as a database can initially seem convenient due to its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. However, I encountered significant limitations as I scaled. One major issue was handling concurrent users; when multiple users accessed the sheet simultaneously, it often led to data inconsistencies and, in some cases, corruption. Performance issues also emerged around the 10,000-row mark, particularly with complex queries. The API also imposed rate limits that were challenging, ultimately forcing me to transition to a proper database as my project expanded.