Google Sheets has become so much more than just a simple spreadsheet tool. With the ability to analyze data, create dashboards, automate workflows, and even build entire applications, Sheets empowers anyone to unlock deeper insights from their data.
But the functionality doesn‘t stop there. Google Sheets supports add-ons – third party extensions that enable you to supercharge your spreadsheets even further.
In this post, we‘ll explore 10 powerful Google Sheets add-ons to help you take your data skills to the next level. For each add-on, we‘ll look at:
- Key features: What extra capabilities does this add-on provide?
- Use cases: When might you use this extension? What problems can it help solve?
- Considerations: What should you think about before installing this add-on? Are there any limitations?
We‘ll also cover the quick steps to install add-ons, plus tips on choosing the right ones for your needs.
Let‘s dive in!
How to Install Add-ons in Google Sheets
Installing add-ons only takes a few clicks:
- Open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets
- Click the Extensions menu
- Select Add-ons > Get add-ons
- Find an add-on to install
- Click Install and authorize access to your Google account
And that‘s it! The add-on will now show under the Add-ons menu in your Sheets toolbar whenever you need it.
Now let‘s look at 10 fantastic add-ons to try in your spreadsheets.
1. Coupler.io – Effortlessly Import Data
Key Features: Automates data imports from 150+ apps including Stripe, Salesforce, Mailchimp
Use Cases: Regularly import marketing, sales, support data from other tools into Sheets. Create unified dashboards.
Considerations: Free plan has some limitations but is handy for basic imports. Subscription plans unlock more advanced workflows.
Coupler makes it super easy to reliably import the latest data from your other cloud apps into Google Sheets on a schedule.
Say you want to combine your sales metrics from Salesforce with marketing analytics from Google Analytics – Coupler handles all that heavy lifting automatically in the background.
The result? A single source of truth in Sheets, updated automatically with your latest data. No more scrambling to pull reports and combine siloed data sources manually.
2. AppSheet – Turn Sheets into Mobile & Web Apps
Key Features: Build fully-customizable mobile (iOS, Android) and web apps powered by Sheets
Use Cases: Create lightweight internal tools, client portals, mobile field workforce apps
Considerations: Generous free tier. Paid plans for larger commercial applications.
AppSheet flips traditional app development on its head. Instead of starting with code, you start with data – your existing Sheets, forms, and databases.
In minutes, AppSheet generates a scalable, containerized application architecture around your data. The result? Secure and robust web and mobile apps customizable to match your branding and needs, no coding required.
It‘s a remarkably efficient way to transform Sheets data into interactive apps that extend your business capabilities for both internal and external users.
3. Retool – Build Business Tools Faster
Key Features: Drag-and-drop UI builder. Connect data sources like Sheets. Handle full CRUD workflows.
Use Cases: Admin panels/dashboards for internal teams. Client/partner portals. Marketing sites.
Considerations: Free up to 5 team members. Growth plans available.
If you find yourself wishing your Sheets data had a more intuitive, visual interface for analysis and editing by your team, Retool is for you.
It lets you quickly overlay an elegant, interactive UI on top of any data source, including Sheets. Give your users a tailored way to create, read, update, delete records without needing to touch the raw data.
Retool saves huge amounts of developer time otherwise spent on building custom admin panels, internal tools, and dashboards.
4. Awesome Table – Transform Data into Web Apps
Key Features: Instantly turn Sheets data into tables, charts, maps, calendars. Embed anywhere.
Use Cases: Interactive directories, price lists, event calendars. Great for intranets.
Considerations: Simple publish-and-embed flow. 30-day free trial.
Awesome Table makes it remarkably easy to showcase your Sheets data in sleek, customizable interfaces for the web.
Whether you want to help customers search your product catalog, allow employees to browse an internal directory, or embed dynamic visualizations on your site, Awesome Table handles it all.
Filtering, search, permissions, and embedding handled automatically. An easy way to unlock more value from Sheets data.
5. Stacker – Build Custom Business Apps
Key Features: Create full-fledged apps – both web and mobile. Handles forms, views, workflows and more.
Use Cases: Internal tools/portals. Custom CRMs. Client maintenance portals. Field workforce enablement.
Considerations: 15 day free trial. Paid plans for commercial use cases or more data rows.
If you find yourself wishing you could build a custom app tailored exactly to your business needs – without months of development work – meet Stacker.
Connect your Sheets data, choose from dozens of layout types like grids, kanban, gallery, and Gantt charts, pick your colors and branding, add fields for data entry forms, set up views and permissions…and Stacker handles the rest.
The end result is a fully functional app – web and iOS/Android – built precisely to your specifications, minus the dev hassle. And as your needs grow over time, Stacker makes it easy to iterate without major rework too.
6. Glide – Instant No-Code Database Apps
Key Features: Choose any Sheets spreadsheet. Instantly generate a web app or mobile app powered by the data.
Use Cases: Simple internal tools/trackers. External catalogs/directories/portals.
Considerations: Generous free tier. Paid plans for larger commercial use cases.
Like magic, Glide can transform any Google Sheet into a working web or mobile app in seconds. Simply pick your Sheet, and Glide automatically builds a clickable interface for browsing, editing, searching, and filtering your data.
Need to quickly spin up a simple client/partner portal based on back-end Sheets data? Add some new product listings to an ecommerce catalog? Streamline field workforce enablement? Glide makes it almost embarrassingly easy.
And unlike legacy app dev methods, your app instantly reflects any changes made to the source Sheets without needing new releases or app store approvals.
7. Sheet2Site – Build Sites from Sheets
Key Features: Generate multi-page websites from Sheets in minutes. Hundreds of templates. Easy customization.
Use Cases: Marketing sites for products/services. Online catalogs/price lists/directories.
Considerations: 15-day free trial. Subscription pricing model for ongoing use.
Sheet2Site eliminates the need for web dev skills just to create good-looking sites. Simply connect your Sheets data, choose one of hundreds of professionally designed templates, customize styles like fonts/colors, and Sheet2Site auto-generates the full website.
Easily add rich features too, like filters, dropdowns, counters, popups, and Mailchimp integration. Plus make inline edits right in the published site (no need to touch source code or files).
Whether you need an online directory of services, ecommerce product listings, or interactive employee org charts, Sheet2Site turns Sheets into sites with ease.
8. Text2Data – Uncover Insights from Text
Key Features: Text analysis via NLP and machine learning. Entity/keyword/sentiment analysis. Custom classifiers.
Use Cases: Social listening and community analysis. Content marketing optimization. Research analysis.
Considerations: Offers limited free usage. Paid plans vary by use case. Transactional or monthly option.
If your business revolves around analyzing written content – say for marketing, research, support, or public relations – Text2Data supercharges your process.
The AI analyzes text across nearly 100 parameters to uncover hidden details that would take teams many hours to surface manually: keywords, topics, entities, semantic relationships, reading complexity, key phrases, verbatims, emotions, and more.
Piping your source documents into Sheets + Text2Data makes for incredibly powerful analysis in just seconds, all visualized back in the Sheets interface.
9. Document Studio – Automate Reports and Documents
Key Features: Dynamic templates + merge fields for custom documents. Connect data from Sheets or other sources. Scheduled generation.
Use Cases: Automate drag-and-drop generation of multi-record proposals, reports, documents, certificates, newsletters.
Considerations: Simple pricing model based on number of records/documents generated per month.
If your team spends hours turning data in Sheets into formal reports, proposals, certificates, or documents, Document Studio will transform your process.
Turn your templates into dynamic documents with special merge fields mapped to your data source. Document Studio handles the automated merging/generation behind the scenes, allowing for bulk document creation in batches based on your latest data in Sheets or other sources.
An enormous time-saver for sales teams, HR managers, finance analysts, and marketers alike.
10. Mailshake – Simplify Outreach Email Campaigns
Key Features: Email automation and tracking. Editor with merge tags for personalization. Email analytics and engagement metrics.
Use Cases: Send cold outreach and follow-ups at scale. Client/customer nurture campaigns.
Considerations: Free version. Multiple paid tiers depending on volume. Transactional pricing available.
Reaching out personally to hundreds or thousands of leads and contacts via email usually doesn‘t scale…without help.
That‘s where Mailshake comes in – allowing you to upload spreadsheets of contact data from Sheets to fuel automated (but personal-sounding!) email campaigns at scale.
Design beautifully branded emails with merge fields linked back to your Sheet that include custom details for each recipient. Automate drips over time. Track open, clickthrough, and reply rates to optimize your outreach.
Transactional pricing means you only pay per email sent. And with its Sheet integration, Mailshake makes effective engagement easy even for Excel die-hards.
Tips for Choosing the Right Add-ons
With so many options, here are some quick tips on selecting the best Google Sheets add-ons for your needs:
Consider setup and permissions – Does the add-on handle user permissions and access rules? Or will you need to configure this separately?
Understand pricing – Some add-ons are completely free. Others offer free trials or usage tiers. Know any limitations before installing enterprise-wide.
Match features to current gaps – What business problems do your users struggle with in Sheets today? Choose add-ons that directly target current pain points.
Review support options – Is prompt support available in case you get stuck? Can you easily uninstall if needed?
Start small, then scale – When possible, first test new add-ons with a smaller pilot team before rolling out more broadly.
Power Up Your Google Sheets!
Add-ons give us a way to enjoy Google Sheets even more – with new menus and buttons that enable us to visualize, gain insights, create tools and apps all from within Sheets.
I hope spotlighting these 10 powerhouse examples gets your mind racing with ideas on how to push Sheets even further than you thought possible.
The ability to import and merge data automatically, build mobile apps, create dashboards, generate entire websites, and handle so many other high-value use cases makes Sheets more versatile than ever before.
So power up your spreadsheets and unlock deeper business potential with the help of add-ons! Just don‘t forget to grab a coffee first – because once you realize what you can build, you‘ll be buzzing with ideas for hours.
