Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Google Sheets

Grist is a modern relational spreadsheet that combines the flexibility of spreadsheets with the structure and robustness of a database. It’s designed for building collaborative, spreadsheet-like data apps with strong data modeling, views, and access controls.

Key Features

• Relational tables with typed columns and references between records
• Spreadsheet-style formulas with full Python syntax and access to the Python standard library
• Multiple views and dashboards, including charts, card views, calendar widgets, and linked widgets
• Import/export tools (including CSV and Excel formats) and incremental imports for updating existing datasets
• Built-in forms that write directly into tables
• REST API, outgoing webhooks, and support for external/custom widgets
• Granular sharing and access control, including rules for rows, columns, and tables
• Portable document format based on SQLite for easy backup and migration

Use Cases

• Replace complex spreadsheets with a structured, collaborative system for operational data
• Build lightweight internal tools (CRMs, inventory trackers, project trackers) with no-code layouts
• Collect data via forms and produce dashboards and reports for teams

Grist is a strong fit for teams that want spreadsheet familiarity while gaining relational modeling, safer collaboration, and integration-friendly workflows. It can be self-managed for tighter control and supports a broad range of data-driven workflows without requiring a full custom app build.

CryptPad is a web-based collaboration suite that provides real-time editors and a drive-like workspace with end-to-end encryption. Documents are encrypted in the browser before being stored or shared, reducing server-side access to content.

Key Features

• End-to-end encrypted editors for collaborative work in real time
• Multiple app types, including rich text, code, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, kanban, and whiteboards
• CryptDrive-style file organization with folders and shared documents
• Link-based sharing to collaborate without requiring recipients to create an account
• Designed to minimize sensitive data exposure to operators (zero-knowledge-style content storage)

Use Cases

• Privacy-focused alternative to cloud office suites for teams, schools, and organizations
• Secure collaboration on meeting notes, project planning boards, and shared spreadsheets
• Sharing files and documents via links without exposing personal identifiers

Limitations and Considerations

• While content is encrypted, clients must still trust the server to deliver honest application code (risk of active attacks)
• Security depends on instance configuration and keeping deployments up to date

CryptPad combines familiar collaboration workflows with strong privacy properties, making it well-suited for groups that need real-time editing without giving a provider access to document contents. It can be used as a full collaboration workspace for documents, boards, and shared files.

ONLYOFFICE Docs is a self-hostable collaborative online office suite that provides web-based viewers and editors for text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and PDFs. It is designed to be integrated into other platforms and supports real-time co-authoring with high compatibility for Office Open XML formats.

Key Features

• Web-based editors for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDF, and forms
• Real-time collaborative editing with comments and change tracking
• Document conversion service for common office formats
• Plugin and macro support for extending editor capabilities
• Integration options for third-party sync-and-share/DMS platforms via APIs
• Multi-language interface and localization support

Use Cases

• Add in-browser document editing to a file sync/share or DMS platform
• Team collaboration on office documents with review workflows
• Embed document viewers/editors into custom web applications

Limitations and Considerations

• Community Edition licensing is AGPLv3; some advanced capabilities are reserved for commercial editions
• Some security features (such as end-to-end encryption “Private Rooms”) depend on other ONLYOFFICE components rather than Docs alone

ONLYOFFICE Docs fits organizations that need browser-based office editing on their own infrastructure, especially when OOXML compatibility and integrations are key. It can be deployed as a standalone document server or embedded into other products to provide collaborative editing.

Nextcloud Office integrates Collabora Online into Nextcloud to provide real-time, high-fidelity editing of documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings inside the Nextcloud ecosystem. It preserves layout and formatting across many file formats and enables collaborative workflows including comments, suggestions and anonymous public-link editing.

Key Features

• Real-time multi-user collaborative editing with per-author highlighting and comments
• High-fidelity server-side rendering that preserves document layout and formatting
• Broad file format support (DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, ODF and many import/view formats)
• Integration with Nextcloud apps (Files, Talk, Tasks, Whiteboard, Text, Tables, Collectives) for seamless workflows
• Anonymous editing via public shared links and granular share controls
• AI-powered document generation and diagram generation features (configurable)
• Federated editing support across Nextcloud instances with version and configuration requirements

Use Cases

• Teams collaborating on documents, spreadsheets and presentations without relying on third-party cloud services
• Educational deployments where compatibility with varied Office formats and centralized control are required
• Organizations needing on-premise office editing with integration into existing Nextcloud workflows and access controls

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires a separate Collabora Online / COOLWSD service to run alongside Nextcloud; the app itself is only the Nextcloud integration
• Collabora Online can be resource intensive and typically needs dedicated CPU/RAM for good performance at scale
• Some enterprise-grade stability, scalability and support features are provided only via commercial Collabora/Nextcloud offerings
• Federated collaborative editing requires compatible versions and specific configuration (trusted servers and embedding/CSP settings)

Nextcloud Office is suitable for organizations that require on-premise collaborative document editing tightly integrated with their Nextcloud instance. It provides a feature-rich, extensible editor experience while keeping data under server control.

Nextcloud Tables is a table and lightweight app builder integrated into Nextcloud that lets users create structured tables, custom views and combine tables into simple applications. It provides spreadsheet-like editing, rich column types and an API for automation and integration.

Key Features

• Create custom tables with flexible column types (plain text, rich text, links, numbers, progress, star rating, boolean, dates/times, single/multi-select, user/group references).
• Pre-built templates and CSV/spreadsheet import with automatic type detection (dates, currencies, percentages) to migrate spreadsheet data quickly.
• Multiple views and filters per table (saved filters, custom sort) and server-side sorting for large datasets.
• Combine tables and views into Applications (top-toolbar entries) to expose curated data sets as simple apps inside Nextcloud Hub.
• Sharing and permissions integrated with Nextcloud users/groups; supports sharing with teams and group-based access controls.
• OpenAPI-documented backend API for automation, integrations and third-party clients; includes developer documentation and migration guides.
• Modern frontend stack with TypeScript, Vite and Vue; uses rich-text rendering (tiptap) and state management (Pinia migration referenced in changelogs).

Use Cases

• Team inventories, light CRM, task/checklist tracking and structured project spreadsheets accessible to a team inside Nextcloud.
• Build small internal apps by combining tables and views (e.g., volunteer management, event registrations, expense tracking) without custom code.
• Import legacy spreadsheets or CSV exports and convert them into shareable, permissioned Nextcloud datasets with filtered views.

Limitations and Considerations

• Mobile client support is available (third-party/official Android client projects exist), but some clients note limited support for table views and combined Applications; mobile feature parity may be incomplete compared to the web UI.
• As a Nextcloud app, functionality depends on the host Nextcloud version and server configuration; feature availability and performance can vary with Nextcloud releases and server resources.

Nextcloud Tables provides a practical, integrated way to manage structured data inside Nextcloud Hub, bridging spreadsheets and simple apps. It is geared toward teams already using Nextcloud who need permissioned, shareable tables and lightweight internal applications.

Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE) is the development version of Collabora Online, a server that enables viewing and editing office documents in a web browser using the LibreOffice/Collabora Office core. It is intended for testing, home use, and small teams, and is typically updated on a frequent release cadence.

Key Features

• Browser-based editing and viewing for common office document formats
• Multi-user collaborative editing with real-time updates
• Server component (coolwsd) designed to be integrated behind a reverse proxy
• Native Linux packages available for Debian/Ubuntu (deb) and RPM-based distributions
• Central configuration via coolwsd.xml and service management via systemd

Use Cases

• Adding online document editing to an existing collaboration platform
• Evaluating Collabora Online features and compatibility before production deployment
• Home or small-team shared editing of office documents in a private environment

Limitations and Considerations

• Not recommended for production environments compared to Collabora Online supported editions
• Typically expects TLS certificates by default; many deployments use reverse-proxy TLS termination instead

CODE is a practical way to run and test the Collabora Online stack on your own infrastructure while retaining the core collaborative editing capabilities. For production-grade deployments, consider the supported enterprise offerings and operational guidance.