What If Excel and Heroku Had a Baby?

    We've always had a thing for spreadsheets. Their simplicity, flexibility, and universal appeal make them indispensable in our data-driven world (plus, does anyone else feel like the world makes way more sense inside a grid?). It's no wonder spreadsheets are a staple in every industry, from startups to global enterprises.

But here's the catch: spreadsheets have their limits. We've all felt the frustration of trying to make them do things they're just not cut out for. They groan under the weight of our increasingly complex and unique demands, tasks they were never really designed to handle. And while there are tools out there trying to fill this gap, they often miss the mark – these tools are too rigid for our creative needs and not specialized enough for our specific use cases. But they're also so wonderful – so cheap, easy to maintain, and accessible for a wide range of users.
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When teams outgrow their spreadsheet-based workflow, they often resort to building custom software. Now, this comes with a whole host of issues—building and maintaining a custom code base can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. One way to cut maintenance costs is to use a platform-as-a-service like Heroku to maintain the servers and runtimes for you. This means developers can focus on the part of the software stack that adds the most amount of value for your team.

So, we have two good examples of software systems that struck a good balance between power and usability – spreadsheets offer a user-friendly interface for non-coders who can introduce a layer of customization, and platforms-as-a-service like Heroku offer a streamlined, low-maintenance way to deploy custom applications.

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What if these two had a baby? That's where SheetRocks comes in. SheetRocks is a platform for building spreadsheet-backed apps that provides an easy-to-use spreadsheet backend for administration and analysis, and a serverless runtime that coders can use to build more complex functionality on top of the spreadsheet, without having to worry about infrastructure headaches like upgrading databases or setting up deployment pipelines. We've got the best of both worlds: the custom code, simplified deployment, scalability, and language support from our Heroku lineage, mixed with the user-friendly, coding-light, and powerful backend of Excel's genetics.

From the ease of data entry and formatting to charts and powerful data analytics, SheetRocks brings the best of traditional spreadsheets to the table. But we don't stop there. Not only is our API thoroughly documented and tested, but our platform is also enriched with advanced features like the ability to write custom Python formulas, webhooks, and the ability to serve static files directly from the spreadsheet interface. Whether you're a coding wizard or not, SheetRocks is designed to be your ally.

Our customers love this combination: the app-like capabilities of SheetRocks let them build fully app-like experiences (for example, forms with advanced logic, client portals, custom CRMs, etc.), while having the app backed by a complete, powerful spreadsheet means they stay in control of the data, insights, and processes.

SheetRocks inherits some of the best traits from its spreadsheet and platform-as-a-service ancestors, but it also has some of its own pixie dust mixed in. It's so magical how nature unfolds, isn't it?