Google is Shutting Down Tables, Its Airtable Rival

Google Tables, a work-tracking tool and competitor to the popular spreadsheet-database hybrid Airtable, is shutting down. TechCrunch: In an email sent to Tables users this week, Google said the app will not be supported after December 16, 2025, and advised that users export or migrate their data to either Google Sheets or AppSheet instead, depending on their needs.

Launched in 2020, Tables focused on making project tracking more efficient with automation. It was one of the many projects to emerge from Google's in-house app incubator, Area 120, which at the time was devoted to cranking out a number of experimental projects. Some of these projects later graduated to become a part of Google's core offerings across Cloud, Search, Shopping, and more. Tables was one of those early successes: Google said in 2021 that the service was moving from a beta test to become an official Google Cloud product. At the time, the company said it saw Tables as a potential solution for a variety of use cases, including project management, IT operations, customer service tracking, CRM, recruiting, product development and more.

Unsurprising

[sziring]

These spreadsheets on roids are the first on the chopping block. Simple Saas apps that will be replaced by AI.

Re:

[dbialac]

I'm remembering Lotus Improv. It had the audacity to compete with 123. One of the nice features it had was the ability to rename rows and columns, which in turn made formulas clear as to what math was being performed on a particular row/column. I never threw away my disks for it.

Re: Unsurprising

[drinkypoo]

These days you can assign names to ranges and columns within them.

It actually looked good

[excelsior_gr]

until Bobby signed up.

Google...

[joshuark]

Google has tabled the Tables leaving no table for any sheet of work.

JoshK.

*shakes head*

[Shakes Fist]

Really? This is why I stopped using Google years ago. Suck in some early adopters, get lots more people on board, then shut it down.
Complete waste of time.

Re: *shakes head*

[Equuleus42]

It's definitely a trend:
https://killedbygoogle.com/ [killedbygoogle.com]

Re:

[nadass]

It's definitely a trend: https://killedbygoogle.com/ [killedbygoogle.com]

KilledByGoogle seems to have been killed (or abandoned?) cuz there's no new entries for 2025 -- and this is hardly the first project to discontinue this year.

Re:

[h33t l4x0r]

Meh. Any non-google Airtable alternative would be shut down by now too.

Re: *shakes head*

[Miram]

Yep. And businesses are built on Excel. Want me to switch from Excel? The product better be around for 10 years minimum.

Won't somebody think of the NoSQL

[VampireByte]

I thought relational SQL databases were dead and NoSQL was taking over.

Re:

[they_call_me_quag]

You are mistaken on multiple fronts. Specifically: (1) relational SQL databases are not dead (2) Airtable is a relational database but it does not support SQL.

Re:

[bn-7bc]

So its a rekarional db than can't be queried in a way thet allmist all other relational dbs can, good work google, you failed no wondrer it died i bet very few used it

Re:

[they_call_me_quag]

You still don't get it. I was referring to Airtable, which is relational that does not support SQL. It turns out that most human beings do not exit the womb being fluent in SQL and the vast majority of humans never learn SQL. Airtable earns many many millions of dollars per year and has a multi-billion dollar valuation selling a relational database --with absolutely no support for SQL-- to ordinary people.

Google Tables was their weak attempt to copy Airtable. It failed. But Airtable is still a viable busine

Re:

[OrangAsm]

SQL or NoSQL, that is the query.

No support

[Miram]

I was looking at using Google Tables at work some years back. And there was AppSheet and another beta app. But I didn't want to try moving any business processes away from Excel to Tables because it takes so much time to change business processes and this just looked like it's in beta. Google just proved again not to rely on them. Specifically the one thing stopping me for pushing to change to Tables was uncertainty about support.