I’m helping a company move from Google Sheets to a better database solution. The current setup isn’t working well because the sheets are too slow and can’t handle all our data anymore.
The Challenge
We need something that works for people who aren’t tech-savvy. They need to add and update records easily without learning complicated tools. I looked at BigQuery and Cloud Storage but those seem too complex for regular staff members.
What I’ve Considered
My idea was to keep the Google Sheets for data entry and create a Python script that moves everything to a proper database automatically. But the sheets are already too slow for what we have now.
Question
Has anyone dealt with this kind of situation before? What solutions worked for you when you needed something more powerful than spreadsheets but still user-friendly for non-technical team members?
We faced this exact problem about two years ago when our Google Sheets were crashing constantly with 50k+ rows. Ended up going with Notion databases and it worked surprisingly well. The interface feels natural to anyone who’s used spreadsheets but handles much larger datasets without the performance issues. Your team can still do filtering, sorting, and basic formulas but the backend is actually robust. The learning curve was maybe two weeks for our least technical users. Another option worth considering is Microsoft Dataverse if you’re already in the Office ecosystem - gives you the power of a real database with forms that look like simple web pages for data entry. Both solutions let you avoid the complexity of BigQuery while actually solving your performance problems.
honestly airtable might be ur best bet here. switched my team from sheets last year and its been great - looks familiar to spreadsheet users but way more powerfull underneath. pricing is reasonable too and no coding needed for basic stuff.
Had a similar situation with my previous employer where we were drowning in spreadsheet hell. What worked for us was implementing Retool with a PostgreSQL backend. I know it sounds technical but hear me out - Retool lets you build simple web forms that connect to a real database without your staff needing to know anything about databases. Your non-technical users just see clean forms for data entry while you get the power of proper database storage and querying. The setup takes some initial work but once it’s running your team will think they’re just using a simple web app. We went from 15-minute load times in sheets to instant responses. The key was making the interface look nothing like a traditional database tool. Cost was reasonable too compared to enterprise solutions and you can start small then scale up as needed.