Spreadsheets are the most widely used data tool, but Excel and Google Sheets weren't built for big data. Both slow down or crash when working with big datasets and lack connectivity to data sources. So big data users look for alternative spreadsheets to connect to their data sources and work with big data.
In this guide we compare Row Zero vs Rows. While both are popular alternative spreadsheets, there are clear reasons to choose one over the other. Skip to a section below or continue reading for the full guide.
- What is Row Zero?
- What is Rows?
- Biggest difference between Row Zero and Rows
- Power and Speed Comparison
- Data Connectivity Comparison
- Rows Pricing vs Row Zero
- Feature Comparison
- Choosing Row Zero or Rows
- Other Rows Alternatives
- Conclusion
What is Row Zero?
Row Zero is the best spreadsheet for big data. Row Zero works like Excel and Google Sheets but is specifically engineered for big data and connectivity. It can can handle billion row sheets (1000x Excel's limit) and connects directly to your data sources, so you can build dynamic pivot tables, charts, models, and metrics on top of your data that auto-update as source data updates. Row Zero is free to try.
What is Rows?
Rows bills itself as "the new way to spreadsheet" and is a re-imagined spreadsheet experience built around collaboration, interactivity, and data connectors. Like Row Zero, Rows is also free to try. Rows supports a wide range of data connectors (Salesforce, Hubspot, Stripe, etc.) and the Rows API lets you read and write data to your spreadsheets and build custom integrations. Rows also offers a wide range of pre-built templates and has a Community feature where users share and access datasets, calculators, tools, and templates. Rows AI is an AI data analyst powered by ChatGPT that can perform spreadsheet work with natural language (i.e. add columns, create charts, filter/sort, etc.). 
Biggest difference between Row Zero and Rows
Row Zero is a spreadsheet built for big data and speed and matches the experience of Google Sheets and Excel. You can do all your favorite spreadsheet work like pivot tables, formula functions, filter, sort, graph, etc. in basically the same way you do in Excel. Row Zero lets big data be big and blows past the limits of traditional spreadsheets.
Rows offers a re-imagined spreadsheet experience that differs from Excel and Google Sheets and is centered around data connectivity and collaboration as "the spreadsheet where data comes to life".
Power and Speed Comparison
Row Zero is the world's fastest and most powerful spreadsheet. Row Zero is specifically built for big data. You can import massive files or connect to your data warehouse and import entire data tables and still have room to build auto-updating pivot tables, charts, and dashboards. Enterprise plans can support billion row datasets with is 1000x bigger than Excel's max row limit of ~1 million rows. 
For Rows, power and speed are arguably its biggest limitation. CSV imports are limited to 100 MB. Each table in Rows is limited to 100,000 rows or 1 million cells. This is about 10x smaller than the Excel row limit of 1,048,576 rows and Google Sheets limit of 10 million cells. So while Row Zero is signficantly more powerful than Excel, Rows is signficantly less powerful than Excel and dramatically less powerful than Row Zero. You can view Rows platform limits here. 
If power and speed are important to you, Row Zero is clearly the best spreadsheet alternative.
Data Connectivity Comparison
While Row Zero has built-in connectors to data warehouses and databases, Rows supports a much larger set of data sources, more frequent data refresh, and also offers the Rows API which lets you import data to and from your spreadsheet for custom integrations. However, the Rows data limits mentioned above mean you're limited on how much data you can actually import from these sources. If you don't work with big data and want a lot of data connectors, Rows is the clear winner for connectivity. If you want to import large data sets from your data sources and/or primarily work with data from your data warehouse, then Row Zero is the better choice.
Rows Pricing vs Row Zero
Rows and Row Zero both offer affordable pricing plans compared to other spreadsheet alternatives. Both Row Zero and Rows are free to try. While the free plans have limitations, they allow you to experience the core value props of each tool so you can decide if you want to upgrade. Rows paid plans are priced similar to Row Zero - Rows start at $6/month on an annual plan and Row Zero starts at $8/month. Both have a more expensive Business plan, and then an Enterprise plan with custom pricing.
You can review Rows pricing here. 
And view Row Zero pricing here. 
Feature Comparison
Both Row Zero and Rows support some of the same features like Excel-compatible formulas, pivot tables, charts, connecting to data sources, and collaboration features. However, there are several key differences in features.
Unique Row Zero features
Row Zero makes it easy to work with big data in a spreadsheet with seamless connectivity to data sources, support for various file types, and the power to handle big data.
Big data power and speed - Row Zero is specifically engineered for big data power and speed. Row Zero supports billion row data sets (1000x Excel's limits) and is significantly faster than Excel and Google Sheets for working with big data.
Dynamic connections to data sources - Row Zero spreadsheets connect directly to your data sources with live connections that can be refreshed/automated to pull in new data. Everything you build on top of connected data stays in sync and automatically updates. So you can create dynamic pivot tables, charts, dashboards, reports, and analysis that auto-update with source data. And Row Zero's big data power lets you import entire database tables into the spreadsheet so you can work with big data live or use it as a powerful spreadsheet GUI for your database or data warehouse.
Excel-compatible - Row Zero matches the experience of Google Sheets and Excel, so you can do your spreadsheet work the way you normally would - just with much more power and speed and seamless connections to your data sources.
Modern security and data governance - Row Zero is a cloud spreadsheet that securely connects to your data sources so you can keep your data in the cloud and eliminate ungoverned CSV downloads and locally stored Excel files. Row Zero is HIPAA and SOC 2 compliant. Enterprise plans enable single sign-on (SSO) and advanced access controls. With Row Zero, you can signficantly improve data governance across your spreadsheets.
Native Python integration: Row Zero speadsheets have a native Python development environment, which allows you to write custom spreadsheet functions, import data through Python packages, and import popular Python libraries like pandas and scipy. Here are some examples: yfinance, nfl-data-py, pybaseball.
Supports big files and formats - Row Zero makes it easy to open very large CSV, TXT, parquet, JSONL, and TSV files. Row Zero will also automatically unzip and open .gz files and .zip files. And if your Excel file is too big or slowing down, you can simply upload your XLSX file to Row Zero for a faster ride in a big data spreadsheet.
Unique Rows features
Rows is a no-code spreadsheet and self-serve analytics tool that empowers anyone to analyze data, automate data workflows, and collaborate around a spreadsheet.
- Data connectors - Rows supports a myriad of data connectors to databases (Postgres, MySQL, etc.), data warehouses (Snowflake, Redshift, etc.), and popular SaaS tools (Salesforce, Hubspot, Notion etc.).
- AI spreadsheet analyst - Rows AI is powered by ChatGPT and lets you transform your spreadsheet with simple chat prompts. For example, you can add columns, create charts and pivot tables, sort and filter data, and clean and enrich your data with AI.
- Rows X is a Chrome extension that lets you scrape tables and lists from websites and import them into Rows.
- Collaboration and interactivity - Like Row Zero and Google Sheets, Rows supports real-time collaboration and sharing, but adds some unique features like buttons, checkboxes, forms, and intput fields. You can also embed Rows charts and tables onto your website.
- Templates, tools, and calculators - Rows offers a wide selection of pre-built templates and data enrichment tools.
- Rows Community - The Rows Community portal lets you share and discover spreadsheets, templates, calculators, and datasets publicly.
When to choose Row Zero over Rows
When you want a faster and more powerful alternative to Excel and Google Sheets, Row Zero is best. If you want the normal spreadsheet experience and features, but need more power and native connections to your data, that's exactly what you get with Row Zero. So if you work with big data and need to be able to work with the actual raw data to analyze, clean, or transform that data, Row Zero is the best spreadsheet for you.
When to choose Rows over Row Zero
If you don't need to actually work with the raw data inputs and want a spreadsheet interface to be your home base for pulling in data outputs from a lot of sources and analyzing in a central location, then Rows may be the best spreadsheet for you. Rows supports more data connectors, has a built-in AI analyst, and has more collaboration and interactivity than a typical spreadsheet.
Rows is more about making big data small and Row Zero is more about letting big data be big.
Other Rows Alternatives
Coefficient.io is probably a more direct Rows competitor and is very focused on data connectivity. The key difference with Coefficient is that you stay within your spreadsheet of choice (e.g. Google Sheets or Excel), so Coefficient brings data connectivity, templates, dashboards, and AI to your existing spreadsheets whereas Rows brings those to a new spreadsheet experience. Coupler.io is also another alternative to Rows and Coefficient that offers a solution similar to Coefficient. Another Rows alternative is Gigasheet which is also centered around making big data more accesible and is a standalone replacement to Excel and Google Sheets like Rows. In terms of costs, Rows pricing is a considerably cheaper than Coefficent, Coupler, and Gigasheet.
Conclusion
Row Zero excels with unmatched speed and power to work with big datasets and connects live to your data sources. Since Row Zero matches the experience of Google Sheets and Excel, it's a great Excel alternative and Google Sheets replacement for big data users. Rows shines with a bigger selection of pre-built data connectors, a spreadsheet AI analyst, and a broader set of features, templates, and tools that go beyond a traditional spreadsheet. If you need these features, Rows could be a great solution for you. If you're looking for a faster, more powerful alternative to Excel and Google Sheets, then Row Zero is the best spreadsheet for you.