Handsontable has a lot more features, though. Maybe your unique selling points are enough, I don’t know, just on paper handsontable appears to provide a lot more for the price. I’m not suggesting you change it, just something to be aware of for your marketing.
For me, personally, handsontable was too expensive too though (I’m just one guy self funding my project) so ended up going with an open source table component instead.
It all depends on what somebody is looking for: a sortable data table for presentation, a table (structure) editor, a spreadsheet, a data grid? All these things look very similar, but they require different approaches really.
You'll always lose on one of the other. Ag-Grid and DataTables are perfect for presentation, not so much for Excel-like editing. Handsontable & Jexcel try to implement all features of Excel, at the cost of performance & bugs.
I have to make sure that in my marketing I make very clear that my product won't be able to do X,Y and Z, but it's the best at A,B and C. To prevent disappointed buyers.
I am thinking to add some interactive comparison pages like: DataGridXL vs Handsontable, DataGridXL vs Ag-Grid, DataGridXL vs DataTables, etc... to really show & describe the differences between the products.
Anyway, you're always welcome to use the free version. It only requires that you keep the branding link visible, which might not be too bad for your app
Absolutely agree and the open source alternatives tend to do one or two things only (while HoT, DGXL etc seem to offer a lot more in a single package), so for me, it came down to deciding what exactly do I need and if I need something else, maybe I need to use a different one for that.
> I have to make sure that in my marketing
I don't think you need to do too much over what you already have. Maybe put a bit more emphasis on why the "Reliable" part matters. The little blurb on your page about not messing up the DOM isn't really selling it to me, I just looked at it and thought "yeah ok whatever", but this and performance seem to be two of your main distinguishing factors, so I'd lean on them more. Focus on what makes DGXL special. That's just me though.
> Anyway, you're always welcome to use the free version.
I may give it a try. For my main use case, I think the branding is a bit too in-your-face (it would look out of place inside the rest of my web app -- maybe you can provide multiple styles to pick from, just thinking out loud), but overall it looks great so its definitely getting bookmarked.
Thanks for your feedback, really appreciate it! I think you're right that the "Reliable" feature might not tell the user much.
Perhaps I need to show GIFs of other products to show the numerous ways these products get messy. Anyway, just an idea. Will think about it more, very good point.
You're allowed to adjust the color & type of the branding link, as long as it remains visible :-)
For me, personally, handsontable was too expensive too though (I’m just one guy self funding my project) so ended up going with an open source table component instead.