Blog

Spreadsheets have changed a lot over the past few years. Once reserved for accountants, they are now part of the new and agile way of building applications. Integrations connect your current system to third-party apps and allow you to automate and complete a wide variety of tasks while enhancing your various business functions. In this article, we’re covering some of the top Google Sheets integrations every spreadsheet expert should know. 

Before we get started, let’s look at the…

Two Types of Spreadsheet Integrations

Import/export data between applications and spreadsheets

There are a few different ways you can do this:

• Using a spreadsheet’s built-in import functions – With Google Sheets integrations, you’d use the “IMPORTDATA” function to pull data from a given URL in CSV or TSV format, or “IMPORTRANGE” imports a range of cells from a specified spreadsheet. In SheetRocks, we have import tools built right into the SaaS to make it simple and fast to import spreadsheets that are formatted as either .csv or .xlsx file formats.

• Using a 3rd party data import tool – there are a number of services, add-ons, and tools that specialize in getting data from a variety of sources into Google Sheets and Excel spreadsheets.

• Scripting (writing custom code) – a good option for programmers.

Low code / no-code app development tools

The use of no-code technology is gaining traction among many organizations and teams, since it opens up software application development to a wider audience, allowing non-programmers to design and create applications.

SheetRocks is a spreadsheet SaaS that readily facilitates the development of low-code and no-code applications built directly off of data stored within spreadsheets.

And, Google’s answer to this need in the market? AppSheet. AppSheet allows you to build Google Sheets integrations and then develop your own powerful applications.

In this article, we’re going to be focusing on spreadsheet integrations that are facilitated by low-code and no-code app development tools.

Online Spreadsheets With Robust Integration Support

Let’s compare two powerful online spreadsheets that both offer robust integration support. Those are Google AppSheet and SheetRocks.

What is Google AppSheet?

AppSheet is a platform for no-code development that allows anybody with no coding skills to create mobile and web applications. AppSheet apps can be created using data sources such as Google Sheets, Excel, Cloud SQL, Salesforce, and other similar connectors. Its main claim to fame is that it facilitates a wide variety of Google Sheets integrations.

AppSheet allows you to incorporate automated workflows into your apps, allowing you to create custom reports, send notifications, generate emails, and modify data across any connected source.

What is SheetRocks?

SheetRocks is a high-performance spreadsheet solution for spreadsheet rockstars who want to quickly perform complex analysis of large datasets, without needing to code a thing! 

SheetRocks offers extremely flexible, robust integration support – even going so far as to provide its customers with done-for-you custom integration and development services. 

“With SheetRocks’ done-for-you custom integration and development services, you can integrate your spreadsheets with any data source you want, and automate just about any routine task you want, all while never writing a single line of code. SheetRocks developers do all that heavy lifting for you!”

That means you can integrate your spreadsheets with any data source you want, and automate just about any routine task you want, all while never writing a single line of code. SheetRocks developers do all that heavy lifting for you!

Let’s look at some of the pros and cons when compared to AppSheets…

Google Sheets integrations vs SheetRocks integrations

5 SheetRocks & Google Sheets Integrations Every Spreadsheet Expert Should Know

We’ve already established that SheetRocks spreadsheets can be integrated with any custom data source you want, but let’s focus on the most common spreadsheet integrations on the market. Those are integrations between a spreadsheet and MS Excel, Zapier, Okta, Twilio, and Amazon Redshift.

Microsoft Excel & Google Sheets Integrations – What You Need To Know

Excel and Google Sheets are two of the most well-known spreadsheet software programs on the market. Excel is a more advanced tool in terms of its built-in functions, but it lacks the collaboration and sharing capabilities of Google Sheets. 

If your data is saved in Microsoft Excel and you want to create an app using AppSheet, it’s not an issue. You just need to upload it to a cloud source (i.e. SharePoint or OneDrive).

Examples of Google Sheets integrations with Excel:

• Automatically sync Excel and Google Sheets to update when a record has been changed
• Add a row in Excel when a new row is created in Google Sheets

As far as Google Sheets integrations go, this one is a bit of a curious one. What it’s trying to do is fix the Google Sheets performance limitation problem and Excel’s lack of collaborative capabilities by syncing the two softwares together (which doesn’t make a lot of sense, if you think about it!)

If you want to avoid that ^^ entire mess and get your spreadsheet to run in a highly-collaborative, high-performance environment, the obvious answer is to import your clunky XLXS files into SheetRocks and call it a day.

After all, SheetRocks is 120x faster than Google Sheets and 4x more powerful than Excel, plus it’s real-time collaborative and capable of analyzing way over a million rows of data at a time – so… if you’re interested in learning more about SheetRocks, go ahead and visit this webpage today.

Zapier spreadsheet integration

Zapier automates tedious tasks by connecting web apps with automated workflows, called “Zaps”. There are a number of pre-made workflows you can use to make your work life simpler, whether it’s collecting leads, crunching numbers, or simply gathering information.

Both SheetRocks and AppSheet use a simple webhook to trigger automated Zapier Zaps. You can also write Zapier Zaps that add, delete, find (read), or update records in both SheetRocks and AppSheet tables and invoke AppSheet actions.

Zapier spreadsheet integration examples:

• Send a Slack message each time a row in a spreadsheet is updated
• Add email subscribers to Mailchimp for new spreadsheet rows
• Save Eventbrite attendees into a spreadsheet

Okta spreadsheet integration

With Okta, you can add authentication and authorization services to your applications in a customizable, secure, and easy-to-use manner. It is similar to using an OpenID provider but allows for Okta-specific features such as group controls to be used. 

For example, you may want to limit access to certain apps to the Sales Team and others to the Support Team. Using Okta as an authentication source allows this.

Okta spreadsheet integration examples:

• Create a new Okta account each time a new row is added to a spreadsheet
• Deactivate Okta user each time a new row is added to a spreadsheet
• When a new event is created in Okta it’s automatically added as a row a spreadsheet

Twilio spreadsheet integration

Twilio is an API used by developers for establishing communication. You can use it to send SMS, WhatsApp, Voice, Video, email, as well as IoT across your customer journey. When integrated with a CRM, you can follow interactions across platforms. 

One of the biggest success stories of Twilio is Deliveroo. As part of their global messaging services, they use Twilio for programmable SMS services ranging from order notifications, driver notifications, marketing messages, and customer service campaigns. The use of Twilio has helped Deliveroo go from a 2-person team to $2 billion, in just 6-years. 

Twilio spreadsheet integration examples:

• Send Twilio SMS messages when a new row is added to a spreadsheet
• Save new Twilio calls as a new row in a spreadsheet
• Create a new spreadsheet row for new Twilio recordings

Amazon Redshift spreadsheet integration

Amazon Redshift (aka AWS Redshift) is a fully-managed petabyte-scale cloud-based data warehouse product designed for large scale data set storage and analysis. It is also used to perform large-scale database migrations.

If your app development skills are a bit more advanced, there are tons of great things you can build on top of RedShift. Such as a predictive model that embeds results into another app via a data API. Or, you could create an automated ad-bidding app, where bids across certain ad networks are adjusted on a real-time basis. 

Amazon Redshift spreadsheet integration examples:

• Add a new spreadsheet row for new Amazon Redshift Clusters
• Retrieve records based on SQL WHERE query

Getting started with integrations

If you want to start building a low-code application like the examples mentioned above – why not give SheetRocks a try! 

Unlike AppSheets, we support any integration you want. If we don’t have it already, we’ll even build it for you (now, that’s great service)!

Start your trial today for just $1.