Rows alternatives: 3 free & open-source picks
Curated, verified, and actually free. No trials, no crippled tiers. Star counts and last-activity dates checked by hand, not scraped and forgotten.
A real analysis spreadsheet with database connections and programmable cells; API work is less point-and-click than Rows.
licenseproprietary, free
runstheir cloud
installHosted signup in the browser
enginesQuadratic currently defaults to Claude Sonnet 5 and selects among frontier hosted models; self-hosted deployments can instead bring provider API keys
dataSpreadsheet files live in Quadratic Cloud and can be downloaded or shared as local files; connected database data remains in the source and query results enter the sheet
setup✓ installs clean
the catch vs RowsQuadratic makes database and API work more code- and query-driven, lacking Rows' large catalog of point-and-click integrations and API-powered spreadsheet functions.
facts verified 2026-08-10
Rows with tables instead of theatre: two live API columns, manual refresh, and 100 automations a month.
licenseproprietary, free
runstheir cloud
installHosted signup
enginesAI co-builder is available with low free usage; AI fields/agents require paid plans and can connect to OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google Gemini using user-supplied keys
dataStacks and attachments live in Stackby cloud; individual tables/views export to CSV and complete stacks can export to Excel
setup✓ installs clean
the catch vs RowsStackby is a database table with connected columns rather than a full spreadsheet, so cell-level formulas, analysis, and flexible connected calculations are weaker.
facts verified 2026-08-10
Connected tables and manual-refresh integrations inside a formula-heavy doc; enough for small live reports, not data engineering.
licenseproprietary, free
runstheir cloud
installHosted signup
enginesSuperhuman Docs AI is vendor-managed; the provider/model mix is not publicly fixed, and free workspaces receive only trial or limited AI usage
dataDocs, tables, automations, and attachments live in the vendor cloud on AWS; owned docs export as text/Markdown-like files plus CSV tables, and pages can export to PDF
setup✓ installs clean
the catch vs RowsIts connected tables and integrations are less spreadsheet-native and often refresh less automatically, making it weaker for live API-powered financial or operational models.
facts verified 2026-08-10
last updated 2026-08-10 · no votes, no pay-to-list · just what's real
Rows FreeRows joined Superhuman and now sends new users to Superhuman Docs; not a durable product to adopt today.
| tool | license | running it | platforms | stars | active |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quadratic Personal | proprietary, free | they host it | web | — | — |
| Stackby Free | proprietary, free | they host it | web, ios, android | — | — |
| Superhuman Docs Free | proprietary, free | they host it | web, macos, windows, ios, android | — | — |
People still pay for Rows because teams pay when a flexible database becomes a shared operational system with integrations and years of accumulated business logic. The recurring cost buys schema changes, formulas, permissions, imports, attachments, views, APIs, concurrency, backups, and migrations, not just the visible interface. If none of that applies to you, any pick above saves $96 a year.
Is there a free alternative to Rows?
Yes: Quadratic Personal, Stackby Free, Superhuman Docs Free. Every tool on this page is either open source or genuinely free to use long-term: no trials, no crippled tiers.
Should I just build my own Rows?
Our verdict is PARCIAL. The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Rows, build connected spreadsheets with a limited set of API-powered cells. The hard boundary is integration catalog, formulas, ai, collaboration, and hosted computation, plus data model flexibility, collaboration, and integrations. If you'd rather build, the exact one-shot prompt is free at puedovibecodearlo.app/rows.
