Last updated May 2025
AppSheet is a no-code platform that enables users to create mobile and desktop applications to help digitize their processes. These applications include powerful automations that can perform actions on connected data. Users can connect their existing data or manage it in our native data source: AppSheet databases.
AppSheet databases offer a data modeling and interaction experience that is familiar to Area120 Tables users. Many of the use cases that Tables supports are also supported across AppSheet. However, there are some features and behaviors that are not currently replicated within AppSheet. This document provides an overview of the differences between Area120 Tables and AppSheet databases.
Workflow setup
The primary distinction between a workflow setup in Area 120 Tables and one in AppSheet lies in the components used to create the workflow. In Tables, both the Bot and Form builders are integrated within the data editing interface.
In AppSheet, bots are built and managed in the App editor and Forms are a type of view for Apps. When data is connected to an app in AppSheet, a form view is automatically generated for each table. In AppSheet databases, a database is a collection of tables similar to Workspaces from Tables. A table can only belong to on database.
Specific Features
Note that this list may not be comprehensive, and specific feature availability may be subject to change.
Access control
|
Feature in Tables |
AppSheet database support |
AppSheet workaround |
|
Share via email address |
Yes, however sharing via Google groups is not currently supported. The team is investigating adding this functionality. |
Share with individual users. |
|
Share each individual table |
No, this is not supported.
|
Connect the database to an app and use expressions or security filters to limit what users can see. |
|
Specify editor/writer/viewer permissions for databases |
Yes, this is fully supported. |
|
|
Transfer ownership of a table |
Yes, however ownership is governed at the database level. |
Transfer ownership of the entire database. |
Automation
|
Feature name |
AppSheet database support |
|
Bot events such as: Column value changes, Row added, Row deleted, scheduled events |
Yes, this is fully supported. However, Column value changes are currently in Preview. |
|
Bot actions such as: Send email, call a webhook, call Apps Script etc. |
Yes, this is fully supported |
Availability and Usage limits
|
Feature name |
AppSheet database support |
|
Database limit, row limits, columns limits |
Yes, limits are subject to AppSheet license type. See limitations by plan here. |
|
Sign in with Gmail
|
Yes, this is fully supported. |
|
Support for international locales
|
Yes, this is fully supported. |
Column types and Data
|
Feature name |
AppSheet database support |
AppSheet workaround |
|
People column |
No, this is not supported. |
Email autocomplete is supported via the Email column type. To record multiple emails in one cell, use the Enumlist of type Email column. |
|
Drive attachment column |
Yes, however users must manually enter the file path of the attachment. The team is investigating linking directly from Google Drive. |
|
|
File attachments column |
Yes, however files cannot be saved directly in the database. Files must be saved in a file store such as Google Drive first. |
|
|
Metadata columns |
Yes, however only Row ID and Update timestamp are supported |
Connect the table to an app and use expressions to populate metadata for a row. |
|
Checklist column type |
No, this is not supported. |
Use an Enumlist of type tag column. |
|
Relationships and Lookup columns |
Yes, this is fully supported. In AppSheet databases, relationships are called references. |
|
|
Summary columns |
No, this is not supported. |
Connect the table to an app and use virtual columns to compute summaries with expressions. |
|
Smart columns |
No, this is not supported. |
AppSheet provides support for predictive models |
|
Change a column’s type |
Yes, this is fully supported. |
|
|
Comments |
AppSheet databases have row level comments, similar to Tables but there is no tagging capabilities yet. |
Setup an automation to alert the table or item owner about a notification. |
Governance
|
Feature name |
AppSheet database support |
|
On / off control |
Yes, this is fully supported for AppSheet admins. Admins can disable AppSheet entirely or disable AppSheet databases specifically |
|
History & Audit log |
Yes, this is fully supported. |
Integrations
|
Feature name |
AppSheet database support |
AppSheet workaround |
|
Direct API |
No, this is not supported. |
Use the AppSheet REST API to read or write data in an AppSheet database connected to an app. |
|
Export to Sheets |
Yes, however this must be done via an app. See how to copy a data source here |
|
|
Import from Sheets |
Yes, however users cannot import a Sheet into an existing database |
Import the Sheet into a new database. |
Views and Layouts
|
Feature name |
AppSheet database support |
|
Layout options: Grid/Kanban/Map/Queue/ Calendar etc. |
Yes, this is fully supported. |
|
Column config: Grouping / filtering / sorting |
Yes, this is fully supported. |