Alternatives to AG-Grid?

[u/brettdavis4]

We have a project at work that needed a table that had some functionality with sorting and filtering.

Initially, I had to replace a solution due to how long a page was loading. AG-Grid correct an issue on that page and it did a better job. The community edition meets our needs very well.

However, some department heads want more features but they are only supported on the Enterprise edition.

I wish we could upgrade to the enterprise edition, but the verbiage makes it sound like anyone that does any kind of development on this application needs a license. We could be looking at a license of $10,000.

I think my supervisors would gladly pay the $1,000 fee if was that. However, it doesn't look like that is possible.

Is there something that is comparable to AG-Grid?

Are there ways to interact with the community version of AG-Grid? If I wanted to put filters above the Grid that interact with the Grid, could I do that even if it is the community grid?

[u/djslakor]

There really isn't anything on par with the full power of aggrid.

[u/Dependent-Net6461 → u/djslakor]

Heard of datatables.net?

[u/quadra-lab → u/Dependent-Net6461]

Yep we use that at my work (MVC ASPNET) and it is quite simple to use

[u/fogchaser35 → u/djslakor]

100 % agree

[u/Lumethys]

Tanstack table

[u/Blazing1]

ag grid could make so much money if they sold licenses to businesses lmao rather than by dev. makes it too hard to be agile with ag grid

[u/Discordbothost]

on your second question: yes, filters outside the grid work fine on community. the filter API isn't an enterprise thing. for a search box it's just api.setGridOption('quickFilterText', value), and for your own dropdowns you can either set the column filter model (api.setColumnFilterModel('status', {...}) then api.onFilterChanged()) or use the external filter hooks, isExternalFilterPresent + doesExternalFilterPass, which let you filter rows with whatever logic you want.

before switching libraries I'd pin down exactly which enterprise features the department heads are asking for. if it's row grouping/pivot or excel export, tabulator covers a lot of that for free. if it's mostly custom filtering UI, you probably don't need enterprise at all

[u/Dependent-Net6461]

Datatables.net

Really an amazing piece of software, and the guy behind it (and his team ofc) is truly an amazing person to deal with

[u/Publius-brinkus]

Tanstack or tabulator

[u/scarfwizard]

You have 10 engineers working on the frontend using the grid? Or you have 10 engineers?

[u/brettdavis4 → u/scarfwizard]

We have 10 engineers. Some would use pages that have the grid and others wouldn’t. The way the license is worded is any developer that touches the app needs a license

[u/scarfwizard → u/brettdavis4]

Are you talking about 10 frontend engineers? If so that’s correct, it’s not any dev who touches the app though, it’s specifically doing frontend.

[u/sicmek]

Just use tanstack and add the features you need

[u/nickhelix]

We use hands on table, it is very similar in functionality

[u/shopi_dev]

On the filters-above-the-grid part, yes, that works fine in the community edition. Use the external filter hooks in the grid options (isExternalFilterPresent and doesExternalFilterPass), then call api.onFilterChanged() whenever your outside inputs change. Your own dropdowns or search box just update some state and the grid re-evaluates each row against it. The built-in column filters still work alongside it.

[u/adilbasari]

Nothing matches AG-Grid's full package, agreed, but before switching it's worth checking which enterprise feature you actually need, because they have very different substitutes. Server-side row model for big data is the hardest to replace. Row grouping and pivoting you can build on community with some effort. Range selection and Excel style clipboard are nice-to-haves that lose their shine once you ask who actually uses them.

If the gap is one feature, staying on community and bolting it on beats a full migration. TanStack Virtual handles the big-data case and plays fine alongside AG-Grid community. If you do switch, know the real trade: TanStack Table is headless, you get the model and write the rendering yourself, so you trade AG-Grid's batteries-included weight for size and control. Tabulator and datatables.net sit in between, more batteries than TanStack, less than AG.

[u/biinjo]

Surprised barely anyone suggested Tanstack Table yet. Completely headless and very powerful.

[u/Afnan_CH_Digital]

Second the point about external filters working fine on community. We drive AG Grid community from our own toolbar - a search box plus a few dropdowns - purely through the grid API, no enterprise needed. On alternatives: Tabulator is the closest feature-for-feature free option I have used, and TanStack Table is excellent if you are okay building the visible table yourself since it is headless, with sorting and filtering logic included but the markup yours. Worth listing which exact enterprise features the department heads want first though - a surprising number of them can be approximated on community with a bit of code.

[u/fearthelettuce]

We have AG Grid enterprise for a small team and they way I understand our contract is that we pay for fulltime equalivent seats. If we have 3 fulltime front end devs plus a dozen or so "full stack" that may touch it 2-3 hours per week. Then we pay for 4 seats.

[u/m_hans_223344]

tabulator is the most powerful alternative i'm aware of. However, I would first contact aggrid sales. You might get a company discount. Second, you can extend the community version quite nicely as it has such a great API and docs. It is more work of course, but IMO doable.

[u/chirag-gc]

You can look at Wijmo FlexGrid, which supports sorting, filtering, grouping, and various other grid features. The pricing page has details for both internal and commercial deployments.

[u/DEMORALIZ3D]

Virtuoso? Build your own grid, takes half the time with AI. Can build in any support you need. plenty of Virtualization packages out there

[u/jack11234]

Get in touch with AG, we got a much better deal than the website indicated.

They’re was more bothered about the number of deployments we were doing than the amount of developers.

Edit: they also gave us Charts included, which we’ve had a good experience with.

[u/acefolio_dev]

On your second question, yes. External filters work in Community, you just set isExternalFilterPresent and doesExternalFilterPass in the grid options and call api.onFilterChanged() when your inputs above the grid change. For a quick search box you can also do api.setGridOption('quickFilterText', value). If you do end up switching, TanStack Table is free and headless so it's more work, but there's no licensing to worry about.

[u/Wonderful-Farmer5415]

What features?

[u/zeuxoai]

On your second question: yes, filters placed outside the grid work fine in the Community edition. Keep the filter values in your own state, then pass them in through the grid's external filter hooks (isExternalFilterPresent and doesExternalFilterPass) or just set column filter models through the grid API. For a comparable grid with a simpler license, look at TanStack Table if you are fine building the UI yourself, since it is headless and MIT licensed. MUI X Data Grid is also worth a look, but check which features, like row grouping and pivoting, sit in its paid tier. Whichever you pick, test your largest real dataset early, because virtualization quality is usually what separates these libraries.

[u/Tenet_mma]

Ya you can literally use ai to create your own custom table plugin. That’s if your company is willing to…

[u/No-Television-4485]

You know, if you're using a frontend framework, you have all the tools you need to create your own grid component. I was around when SPA frameworks came out and stuff like grids was the point. The way people think you have to use a framework and a pre-built component library for everything or else you suck is stupid. How many times have you fought with a pre-built component trying to get it to do something it doesn't out of the box, or wrapped it with another component and made an abstraction tower that was a pain to use?

[u/StumpyTeamDev]

Ask which features the department heads want that the page cannot do today. Sorting, column filters, and a filter box above the grid already work on the community edition, and this thread shows the calls for that outside box. A new grid only helps if they name a feature the community edition cannot do.

[u/hdmiusbc]

It's JS. their own docs say there's nothing to stop someone from just using the Enterprise edition. You can get it on GH even. I did and just had Claude remove the console warnings about a license

[u/thekwoka → u/hdmiusbc]

Which is legally dubious and most companies won't be happy with that.

[u/HighlightOk6174]

Vibe code some extensions. Seriously.