Industry leading players AG grid and TanStack tablethe two main providers of datagrids and tables, have united as open source partners to unite their ecosystems and educate users on how and when to choose between their different approaches.
AG Grid and TanStack Table operate within the same problem space as each other, but are implemented through drastically different architectures and paradigms, each offering unique tradeoffs, opinions, and optimizations depending on the use case. These differences and trade-offs are complementary to each other and together make up the best two datagrid and table options available in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem.
As part of the groundbreaking collaboration between the “competitors” in the market, AG Grid and TanStack table will jointly inform the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem about the differences between their two libraries, helping users better understand when to choose which one, and actively refer to the other provider when goals and limitations of either are not met.
The open source partnership also improves the quality of both libraries through shared experience, knowledge, and even code if needed.
In terms of some of their differences, TanStack Table is a Headless UI library for building powerful tables and datagrids for TS/JS, React, Vue, Solid – it’s optimal for people who want to implement their own graphical user interface (GUI). AG Grid, on the other hand, is a ‘battery included’ data grid, meaning it can be used right out of the box and gradually modified or configured to meet business needs.
Niall Crosby, CEO, CTO and Founder of AG Grid, said: “This partnership with TanStack Table takes full advantage of our open source models and ensures that users get all the information they need to make the right choice about which data grid or table to emulate depending on their specific requirements Between us, AG Grid and TanStack Table have everything a company or developer needs to create a powerful table or datagrid for TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Angular, Vue or Solid, and we hope to further improve our respective services by learning from each other, while at the same time informing users about all our strengths and limitations.
“For us, this partnership is highly complementary as both AG Grid and Tanstack Table solve the Data Grid problem in different ways and are both industry leaders in their respective ways. Looking at the broader industry, it is likely that there will be more collaborations between other brands in the future, especially when customer problems can be solved through combined expertise.
“In our case, our goal is to educate users about the ways of AG Grid and the ways of Tanstack Table, so that they can choose which mechanism is best for them. Other solutions are either direct competitors of ours (trying to solve in one of these two methods) or are just wannabe clones AG Grid or Tanstack Table. You can think of this as an electric car manufacturer and a petrol car manufacturer. We help people decide whether to go electric or petrol and advise one of our companies accordingly. Having multiple electric or petrol car manufacturers in the mix doesn’t fit the model. ”
“Both companies have extensive experience providing support and training to customers, and each company’s founders are deeply involved in social media discussions, presentations and speaking at major conferences,” added Crosby.
Tanner Linsley, creator of TanStack Table, added: “We are excited about the future of datagrids and tables and we at TanStack are honored that AG Grid is investing in the success of its open source ecosystem! This open source partnership will make it easier than ever for our community to understand and objectively decide which datagrid or table solution works best for them.”
To learn more about the differences and trade-offs between the two libraries, start by reading the introduction to TanStack Table and the introduction to AG Grid.
