Leading industry players AG Grid and TanStack Table, the two main datagrid and table providers, have united as open-source partners to unify their ecosystems and educate users about 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 via drastically different architectures and paradigms, each offering unique trade-offs, opinions and optimisations depending on use-case. These differences and trade-offs are complimentary to one another and together form the best two datagrid and table options available in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem.
As part of the groundbreaking collaboration between the market ‘competitors’, AG Grid and TanStack table will jointly educate the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem about the differences between their two libraries, giving users a better understanding of when to choose which, and actively redirecting them 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 when appropriate.
In terms of some of their differences, TanStack Table is a Headless UI library for building powerful tables & datagrids for TS/JS, React, Vue, Solid – it is optimal for people wanting to implement their own Graphical User Interface (GUI) to it. AG Grid, on the other hand, is a ‘batteries included’ data grid, meaning it can be used out of the box and gradually customised or configured to meet business need.
Niall Crosby, CEO, CTO and Founder of AG Grid, said: “This partnership with TanStack Table fully capitalises on our open-source models, and ensures that users are given all the information required to make the correct choice about which data grid or table offering to pursue, depending on their specific requirements. Between us, AG Grid and TanStack Table holds everything a business 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, whilst simultaneously educating users about each of our strengths and limitations.
“For us, this partnership is very complimentary as both AG Grid and Tanstack Table solve the Data Grid problem in different ways and are both industry leading in their respective ways. Looking at the wider industry, it is likely 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 in the ways of AG Grid and the ways of Tanstack Table so 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 simply wannabe clones AG Grid or Tanstack Table. You can think of this as an Electric Car maker and a Petrol Car maker. We help people decide if they should go Electric or Petrol, and advise one of our companies accordingly. Having multiple Electric or Petrol car makers in the mix doesn’t fit the model.”
“Both companies have extensive experience providing support and training for customers, and the founders of each firm are heavily 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 honoured that AG Grid is invested in the success of it’s open source ecosystem! This open-source partnership will ensure that it’s easier than ever for our community to understand and objectively decide which data grid or table solution works best for them.”
To learn about the differences and trade-offs between the two libraries, start by reading the introduction to TanStack Table and the introduction to AG Grid.
