Sheet Ninja
Ranked 4 of 6 backend services by recommenders
Lets you use a Google Sheet as a quick backend without setting up a database. Critics mainly object to paid plans, request limits and a distracting landing page.
Lets you use a Google Sheet as a quick backend without setting up a database. Critics mainly object to paid plans, request limits and a distracting landing page.
23 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 12
- approval share
- 48%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Quick backend without database setup
“it's a much lower friction onboarding story than "set up a database."”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders” “Really good project for a quick data back end.”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders” Cool, great project
“Cool project though the only risk I see is that if the target audience are vibe coders”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders” “This is a great project, very cool”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Not free; paid plan questioned
“Sheet Ninja isn't free. Even on their side, "free" does not mean what you think it means.”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders” “Except the sheets-to-api SaaS charges $9/month if you want more than 250 requests.”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders” “A pay option like this definitely seems worse than the Firebase backend”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders” - Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders”
- Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders”
Landing page scrolling and carousel problems
“The animations in the page keeps interrupting me and scrolling me up after I scroll past them.”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders” “Just impossible to read the landing page on mobile due to endless carousel sliding”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders” “If I scroll down it auto scrolls up after 2 seconds.”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders” Low request and capacity limits
“Except the sheets-to-api SaaS charges $9/month if you want more than 250 requests.”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders” “tiny capacities for every metric”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Sheet Ninja – Google Sheets as a CRUD Back End for Vibe Coders”
Other backend services people recommend
The four most recommended other backend services, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PocketBase | 67 | 12 | 85% | 9 | — | Approved |
| InstantDB | 23 | 10 | 70% | 6 | — | Approved |
| PostgREST | 12 | 3 | 80% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Sheet NinjaThis page | 11 | 12 | 48% | 3 | — | — |
| Hasura | 7 | 1 | 88% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
22 of the 25 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it can be useful if you want to use an existing Google Sheet”
“it's a much lower friction onboarding story than "set up a database."”
“does Google sheets let you fetch rows in O(log(n)) time or aggregate numbers?”
“This is a great project, very cool”
“You do not need to go through these guys”
“it can be a good way to meet their request”
“A pay option like this definitely seems worse than the Firebase backend”
“tiny capacities for every metric”
“Except the sheets-to-api SaaS charges $9/month if you want more than 250 requests.”
“Sheet Ninja isn't free. Even on their side, "free" does not mean what you think it means.”
“Cool project though the only risk I see is that if the target audience are vibe coders”
“this ninja platform is also not free”
“I haven’t noticed a scrolling issues, btw”
“Just impossible to read the landing page on mobile due to endless carousel sliding”
“Really good project for a quick data back end.”
“Don’t really get the purpose for this apart from throw away projects.”
“I'm not sure I see why this needs to be a paid service”
“This site is pretty broken.”
“If I scroll down it auto scrolls up after 2 seconds.”
“Looks great! I've definitely wanted this exact thing before.”
“The animations in the page keeps interrupting me and scrolling me up after I scroll past them.”
“No, because I use seek.ninja. The LLM's are also better.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.