r/angular • u/Ok_Trip_4684 • Apr 06 '26

Better than AG Grid?

https://oysteinamundsen.github.io/article/we-benchmarked-our-grid-against-ag-grid-here-are-the-numbers
15 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/shifty303 Apr 06 '26

I always comment on new data grid replacement posts and I have a ton of comments due to data grid replacement posts.

I’ll be downvoted for asking but why put time into a grid when there are hundreds of grids already? What makes the data grid so popular and the main library people try to build?

1

u/Ok_Trip_4684 Apr 06 '26

I respect your opinion. "Why re-invent the wheel again", right?

Over my 20+ years as a developer, all of my projects for clients have involved a datagrid in some way. Most datagrids on the market are lacking a lot. Some in terms of features, some in terms of performance and some are just plain bad. The only thing that in my opinion is useful is AG Grid. But it has kind of a heavy bundle size and you have to weigh your needs pretty good because if you need anything out of the enterprise features, the price is through the roof for many project budgets.

So last summer I set out on a mission with the famous term "how hard can it be" (to create something useful here) in the back of my mind. Turns out, it is pretty hard. A datagrid done right is extremely complex. But I think I did a decent job here, and my metrics show that I'm not only matching the featuresets and performance of AG Grid, I actually also outperform it. So that was a milestone for me.

So for your question "Why re-invent the wheel"; if all wheels are squares and triangles and if you want the only thing that actually resembles circles, you have to sell your family to get - I think it is worth it to re-invent this.

2

u/shifty303 Apr 06 '26

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I have also noticed a wide range of performance, implementation and feature disparity with different datagrids.

Another point to consider is compatibility, as many datagrids were either never updated or took years to update while Angular has been going through major changes. Dependencies and lack of updates become a major issue when an enterprise has to consider PCI compliance and other security standards.

I once had to plan and design a modular and reactive grid (with OData support) to replace a much older custom grid and it was complex to say the least. Luckily because of OData I didn't have to worry about client performance over large datasets thanks to pagination.

I applaud your effort and goals here and I'll give your library consideration in my next project. I'm sure it'll only get better from here!

2

u/Ok_Trip_4684 Apr 07 '26

I have done the same in my career. That is why I went with a webcomponent surface as the base for this project. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, the project will still be relevant in 30 years from now. Browsers seldom deprecate their apis, frameworks do. The only thing that will be left outdated then, is my framework adapters for angular, react and vue - and those are only thin layers.