LearningFlow LearningFlow vs Google Sheets
Google Sheets is a real spreadsheet and a good one: pivot tables, array formulas and co-editing on a file of up to 10 million cells. The difference here is not formulas but what surrounds the data. An app reads a base under a contract scoped to named tables, columns and rows.
Data · Sources last read 13 September 2026
Choose Google Sheets if
Choose Google Sheets when the spreadsheet is the record everyone works from, not a by-product of something else.
- A timetable or fee ledger built on nested lookups and array formulas
- An Apps Script trigger that emails the bursar an arrears list every Monday
- Charting 400,000 rows held in BigQuery through Connected Sheets, without SQL
Choose LearningFlow if
Choose LearningFlow when software reads the table and you must be able to narrow or withdraw that access.
- A supply teacher who needs two columns of one table until the end of term
- A sign-up app and a reporting app on the same table, with no export in between
- The base stays with the college when the teacher who built it leaves in July
Where the two are built differently.
One app, one database.
One app means one door. Whatever the form is allowed to do, it is allowed to do everywhere. Stopping a parent from reading the other thirty replies is a rule you write inside the app, and have to keep writing correctly.
Several apps, one base, a contract each.
Each app holds its own contract: which tables, which columns, which rows, and which of read, insert, update and delete. The reminder never sees a medical note. Suspend one app and the other two keep running.
What each one does.
Written from each product's own documentation. Where something is true only on a higher tier, the row says so.
| Google Sheets | LearningFlow | |
|---|---|---|
| Formula work | Pivot tables, array formulas, nested lookups and charts, all long established. | A base holds tables, columns and rows, and has none of that formula engine. |
| Size of one table | Up to 10 million cells or 18,278 columns, and further through Connected Sheets. | Holds the class lists, consent records and stock counts an app reads, not a store for bulk analysis. |
| Sharing part of a table | Sharing is per file, so a collaborator reads the whole file, not two named columns. | A grant names the tables, the columns and a row filter, and carries an expiry date. |
| Choosing the model | Gemini is built into Sheets and included in Workspace plans, with usage limits by plan and no model picker. | Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Grok and DeepSeek among others, gated only by an admin override. |
| Files it hands back | .xlsx, .ods, .pdf, .csv and .tsv first sheet only, plus zipped HTML. That is the list. | An .xlsx with working formulas, and .pptx, .docx, .mp4, .mp3 and .png from the same place. |
| How it is paid for | Per user per month inside a Workspace plan, from S$9.40 for Business Starter as listed. | Credits from a shared wallet, with no subscription required. |
| Switching a service on | Documented at organisational-unit and access-group level, not for one named person. | Seven capabilities per member, granted by a role and then opted into by the person. |
| Students and assignments | No learner role in Sheets; rosters and per-student copies live in Google Classroom. | Students are a user type here, with their own accounts, join codes and assignments. |
What comes with it here.
Fifty-nine tools, ready now
A marking rubric, a quiz, levelled text or report comments, picked from a public gallery.
A Linux machine for your file
Python 3.12, pandas and LibreOffice work on your upload with the network switched off.
A narrated whiteboard video
One sentence becomes an MP4 in 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1, with subtitles burned in or alongside.
Learning records, no extra store
Ingest an xAPI package, use the built-in SQL LRS, or point at the college's own LRS.
Where Google Sheets is the better choice
If the spreadsheet is the record itself, keep it in Sheets. A school office running a timetable, a fee ledger or an MIS extract needs pivot tables, array formulas and a file that holds 10 million cells, and a base does none of that. Education Fundamentals is free for qualifying institutions, so Sheets, Classroom and an admin console reach every student at no licence cost. Keep the ledger there and use LearningFlow for the authoring around it.
The whole stack against Google Sheets.
The table above compares the two at the job they share. This one runs every capability past both, because what a school is choosing between is usually a tool that does one job and a workspace that does many. Hover any mark to see what it means, and a partial one to see exactly what is limited.
| LearningFlow | Google Sheets | |
|---|---|---|
| Ask and read | ||
| Chat with AI | ||
| Research the web and write it up | ||
| Read text off an image or a scan | ||
| Agent browses the live web | ||
| Make | ||
| PowerPoint deck | ||
| Spreadsheet with working formulas | ||
| Word document | ||
| Image generation | ||
| Video generation | ||
| Narrated whiteboard video, corrected scene by scene | ||
| Voice-over | ||
| Song generation | ||
| Interactive web page | ||
| Edit what it made, online | ||
| Slide and design templates | ||
| Presenter on camera, from a photo you supply | ||
| Teach | ||
| Ready-made teacher tools | ||
| Build your own tool, no code | ||
| Lesson that branches on the answer | ||
| Hears them read aloud, checks pronunciation | ||
| Assign to a class with a join code | ||
| Assignments and submissions | ||
| Student accounts | ||
| LTI link from your LMS | ||
| Learning records to your own LRS | ||
| SCORM 1.2 package out | ||
| Build | ||
| Working app | ||
| Full working platform templates | ||
| Several apps over one database, rights each | ||
| App sends email or WhatsApp | ||
| App runs on a schedule | ||
| App accepts webhooks | ||
| Generate real-time apps | ||
| Generate AI-driven apps | ||
| Shared database | ||
| Revoke one app's access, not the others | ||
| Run | ||
| Run any tool from your own software | ||
| Choose the AI model, on every plan | ||
| Switch a feature off per group | ||
| Organisation keeps the work when staff leave | ||
| We do not do this | ||
| Transcribe a video or audio file | ||
| Custom domain for a published app | ||
Before they decide.
Can LearningFlow read our Google Sheets live?
No. There is no Sheets connector, and the Work with AI sandbox has no network at all. You upload an .xlsx or a .csv, work on it there, and download what comes back. For a table that a published app needs to read, rebuild it as a base.
We already pay for Google Workspace. Do we have to drop it?
No. Sheets stays the mark book and the budget, and LearningFlow does the tools, apps and video. There are no seats to buy here, so running both means paying Workspace per user and LearningFlow only for the credits you spend.
A teacher leaves in July. Who keeps the work?
In LearningFlow the organisation does. The orgId is stamped when the base is created and never moves, so removing the member deletes their membership row, not the base. In Sheets it depends where the file sat. A shared drive file belongs to the team, a My Drive file belongs to that teacher, and an admin must transfer it before the account is deleted. Anything left in Trash is not included in the transfer.
Can our own software call either one?
Both. The Sheets API v4 allows 300 reads and 300 writes a minute per project, 60 per user, at no extra cost within quota. LearningFlow flows answer POST /task/:taskId with an x-api-key and optional streaming, and published apps also take signed webhooks and cron schedules.
Where is the line between a base and a spreadsheet?
If a person is working the numbers, use Sheets. If software is reading the table, use a base. A consent list that a form writes to and a reminder job reads belongs in a base. A budget model with nested lookups belongs in Sheets, and moving it across would be a downgrade.
Where this came from. Read on 13 September 2026. Google Sheets changes its product and its prices without telling us, so check anything that decides a purchase.
Try it on your own work.
Teachers get credits every month, free. No card, no seat count.