Top Framework Agnostic Data Tables in 2024
A short comparison
- Marc Kronberg
- Dec 18, 2023
Overview
The following table provides an overview of the considered framework-agnostic table libraries.
| Library | Web | github | npmjs | Version | Price | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Handsontable | 1 | git | npm | Community | Free | |
| Commercial | I | |||||
| AG Grid | 2 | git | npm | Community | Free | Reduced |
| Enterprice | II | |||||
| GuiExpert Table | 3 | git | npm | Private | Free | All feat. |
| Commercial | III | |||||
| Tabulator | 4 | git | npm | MIT | Free | |
| Grid.js | 5 | git | npm | MIT | Free | |
| FancyGrid | 6 | git | npm | IV |
1) handsontable.com, 2) ag-grid.com, 3) gui.expert, 4) tabulator.info, 5) gridjs.io, 6) fancygrid.com
Pricing:
I) The pricing for Handsontable, a JavaScript data grid with spreadsheet features, starts at $790.00 for the Developer plan. They also offer a free plan for personal and non-commercial use, as well as an enterprise plan with more features. For startups, there’s a special program that provides a 50% discount for up to 2 years. If your team has 5 or more members, you may qualify for additional discounts. For perpetual license holders needing to renew maintenance or upgrade support levels, Handsontable encourages reaching out directly. Detailed Info
II) The pricing for AG Grid licenses varies depending on the type of license you need. Here’s a brief overview:
- AG Grid Enterprise: Starts at $999 per developer for a perpetual license, which includes 1 year of support and updates1.
- AG Charts Enterprise: Has a limited-time launch price of $199 per developer, standard price being $399, also for a perpetual license with 1 year of support and updates1.
- Combination of AG Grid and AG Charts: The ultimate combination starts at $1,198 per developer for a perpetual license with 1 year of support and updates1. The Community versions of AG Grid and AG Charts are free and open source, distributed under the MIT License, and can be used in production environments at no cost1.
For more detailed information or specific pricing based on your needs, it’s best to contact AG Grid directly through their sales team1.
III) The GuiExpert Table offers dual licensing options, with prices ranging from free to $999. Here’s a brief overview of the pricing and licensing:
- Non-commercial License: Free for individuals and non-commercial use, allowing full functionality under open-source terms.
- Commercial License: For commercial use: $999 (Single Application for one year, no additional costs).
For more details, you can visit their pricing page.
IV) FancyGrid offers varied licenses: Developer ($549), SaaS ($1,149), Team ($1,249), Company ($1,649), and OEM ($1,949).
Summary Handsontable
Handsontable is a JavaScript data grid component that brings the well-known look and feel of spreadsheets to your application. It is available for React, Angular, and Vue, and works with plain JavaScript as well. It provides data binding, data validation, filtering, sorting, and CRUD operations. Handsontable is easy to implement, flexible, and super customizable. You can extend it with custom plugins and edit the source code to adjust it to your product. Plus, you get access to a comprehensive API, useful tutorials, and both community and commercial support. It is designed to perform and can handle large volumes of data without worrying about performance issues. Large companies and startups across industries use Handsontable to build applications critical to their business123
Summary AG Grid
AG Grid is a high-performance, feature-rich data grid designed for major JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, Vue, and plain JavaScript. It’s known for its speed, being highly customizable and extensible. AG Grid allows developers to display large amounts of data efficiently, and it’s trusted by most Fortune 500 companies. The grid integrates seamlessly with your chosen framework, leveraging its strengths for rendering and extensibility. Additionally, AG Grid offers an open-source Community version and an enterprise-grade version with more advanced features. It also includes AG Charts, a powerful charting library that works standalone or integrated with the grid
Summary GuiExpert Table
The versatile GuiExpert Table that can seamlessly integrate with various frameworks such as Angular, JavaScript, React, Preact, Vue.js, Svelte, and Solid. The GuiExpert Table boasts a highly flexible underlying UI model, allowing for the creation of diverse table types including flat tables, tree tables, columns with rowspan cells, and more. It is optimized for performance, making it suitable for handling large datasets and real-time updates with impressive rendering capabilities.
Key features of the GuiExpert Table include excellent performance with virtual scrolling, row and column spanning, fixed columns, custom filters, row sorting, selection capabilities, column interactions, in-place cell editing, keyboard shortcuts, customizable look and feel, state persistence, and full control over the HTML structure and style. It is also designed with extensive customizability, including user-defined key and mouse events and customizable cell contents via renderer for header, body, and footer.
By combining a framework-agnostic approach with high performance and extensive customizability, GuiExpert Table aims to provide a powerful solution for managing and displaying complex data within various web development frameworks.
Summary Tabulator
Tabulator is a versatile and feature-rich JavaScript library for creating interactive tables and data grids. It’s designed to be easy to use and highly customizable, allowing developers to quickly generate dynamic tables with a variety of features such as sorting, filtering, and editing. Tabulator supports all major browsers and integrates seamlessly with various JavaScript frameworks. With its comprehensive documentation and community support, Tabulator is suitable for projects of any scale, enabling the creation of complex data-driven applications. It’s a free, open-source solution that provides developers with the tools needed to build responsive and accessible data tables for web applications.
Summary Grid.js
Grid.js is an advanced, open-source JavaScript table plugin that’s lightweight and works seamlessly with most JavaScript frameworks, including React, Angular, Vue, and VanillaJs. It’s designed to be easy to use, with a simple API that allows for the creation of sophisticated tables quickly. Grid.js features an internal pipeline that efficiently handles data caching and processing, ensuring fast performance even with large datasets. The plugin is small, only 12kb gzipped, and is MIT licensed, making it free for use in any project. With Grid.js, developers can enhance their applications with powerful table functionalities that are both extensible and compatible with modern web browsers
Summary FancyGrid
FancyGrid is a comprehensive JavaScript grid library designed for enterprise applications. It supports integration with popular frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue, as well as jQuery. FancyGrid offers a wide array of features including paging, sorting, filtering, validation, and CRUD operations. It’s also equipped with chart integration for data visualization, including HighCharts and sparklines. The library is modular, allowing for intelligent auto-detection and loading of necessary modules. FancyGrid provides extensive documentation, an elegant API, numerous samples, and professional support to facilitate development. It’s suitable for projects that require handling large amounts of data and offers a variety of data sources such as JSON, Ajax, and file data.
It’s advisable to check their website or GitHub repository for the latest release information to determine if it’s currently updated or appears to have less recent activity.
Basic Feature Comparison
Comparing data table libraries proves challenging due to diverse features, licensing models, community support, and pricing structures across platforms like Handsontable, ag-Grid, GuiExpert, Tabulator, Grid.js, and FancyGrid. Each offers unique functionalities, varying from sorting, filtering, and pagination to distinct customization levels. Differences in licensing, including commercial and free options, further complicate comparison. Additionally, community size and engagement differ, impacting available resources for support and development. Each library’s specific strengths and weaknesses, tailored to different user needs and preferences, contribute to the complexity of making direct comparisons between these versatile tools.
A formal comparison of individual features seems futile, as all libraries support common features comprehensively.
| Feature | Hands on table | ag-Grid | GuiExpert Table | Tabulator | Grid.js | FancyGrid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Licensing | Dual | Dual | Dual | MIT | MIT | Commercial |
| Sorting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Filtering | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pagination | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Grouping | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Virtual Scrolling | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Export to Excel | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customization | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Community Support | Medium | High | Low* | High | High | Medium |
Dual: Commercial (Paid) & Community (Free)
*: GuiExpert’s table is a newcomer in the market and consequently has a smaller community base.
Conclusion
Choosing the right library presents a challenge. With numerous robust web frameworks available, opting for a framework-agnostic table library becomes crucial, hence only their mention in this post. The nuances among these libraries lie in specifics like the extendability of the underlying table models, user-friendliness, and varying complexities of licensing models. Experimentation becomes inevitable for a firsthand experience.
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