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Dev tools · April 12, 2024

UG

Using Google Sheets as the back end/APIs of your app

Hello everyone! At a company I worked for, we needed to develop an MVP (basically a web page) and apply certain business logic to a Google Drive spreadsheet that was frequently updated by the Sales team. In this case, we had two options: Develop a backend to replace the current spreadsheet and have the sales team use it as a new "backoffice" - This would take a very long time, and if the hypothesis we were testing was wrong, it would be time wasted. Create the web page and use Google's SDK to extract data from the spreadsheet. We chose to go with the second option because it was quicker.…

In plain words

This tool enables developers to use Google Sheets as a backend and API for web applications. It streamlines the integration process between web pages and Google Sheets data by handling OAuth authentication, API configuration, and data extraction logic. Built for rapid prototyping and MVP development, it allows teams to test business hypotheses without building a full backend system, letting existing spreadsheets maintained by non-technical users continue serving as the data source while developers focus on frontend features.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

Hello everyone! At a company I worked for, we needed to develop an MVP (basically a web page) and apply certain business logic to a Google Drive spreadsheet that was frequently updated by the Sales team. In this case, we had two options: Develop a backend to replace the current spreadsheet and have the sales team use it as a new "backoffice" - This would take a very long time, and if the hypothesis we were testing was wrong, it would be time wasted. Create the web page and use Google's SDK to extract data from the spreadsheet. We chose to go with the second option because it was quicker. Indeed, it was much faster than creating a new backoffice. But not as quick as we imagined. Integrating with Google's SDK requires some effort, especially to handle the OAuth logic, configure it in the console, and understand the documentation (which is quite shallow, by the way). Anyway! We did the project and I realized that maybe other devs might have encountered similar issues. Therefore, I developed a tool that transforms Google spreadsheets into "realtime APIs" with PATCH, GET, POST, and DELETE methods. Since it's a product for devs, I think it would be cool to hear your opinions. It's still quite primitive, but the basic features already work. https://zerosheets.com

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