A while ago I created a Swedish site called Laddboxguiden where you can browse and compare different EV home chargers. The site is using a nocode tool called Spreadsimple and I love how quick and easy it was to get this site up and running. I've experimented with quite a few website builders and nocode tools over the years, but SpreadSimple is one of those tools that really surprised me with how simple it is to use. It doesn't try to do everything, and I think that's actually one of its biggest strengths. Instead of overwhelming you with hundreds of settings and complicated workflows, it focuses on making it incredibly easy to turn a Google Sheet into a fully functional website. For someone like me who enjoys building small websites and experimenting with different ideas, this is a pretty fantastic approach. I don't necessarily want to spend weeks developing a website every time I come up with a new idea. Sometimes I just want to see if something works, get it online, and improve it along the way. That's exactly where SpreadSimple shines, and it's the main reason I decided to use it for this particular project.
The idea behind Laddboxguiden was pretty straightforward. There are lots of different home chargers for electric vehicles on the Swedish market, and figuring out which one to buy isn't always easy. Different chargers have different features, charging capacities, connectivity options, and prices. Some support dynamic load balancing, others have different smart features, and some are simply better suited for certain installations. I wanted to make it easier to get an overview of the available options without having to jump between dozens of manufacturers' websites. A website where visitors could browse different chargers, see their specifications, and narrow down the alternatives based on what they were looking for. Normally, building something like this would require a fair amount of work. You would need some kind of database to store the products, a way to manage the content, and a frontend that displays everything nicely. You would also need to implement features like filtering, searching, and sorting. None of these things are particularly groundbreaking from a technical perspective, but they all take time to build, test, and maintain. With SpreadSimple, most of that functionality is already there, which meant that I could spend more time focusing on the content and less time worrying about the technical side of things.
The whole concept behind SpreadSimple revolves around Google Sheets, which essentially becomes the content management system for your website. Instead of logging into a traditional CMS and creating individual product entries, you manage everything in a spreadsheet. Each row represents an item, and each column contains a particular piece of information. For a website about EV chargers, you might have columns for the manufacturer, product name, price, charging capacity, connectivity, load balancing, images, descriptions, and links to retailers. Once you connect the spreadsheet to SpreadSimple, the platform reads the information and uses it to create your website. What I particularly like about this approach is that Google Sheets is something most people are already familiar with. You don't need to learn an entirely new system for managing your content. If you know how to add a row, edit a cell, and organize information into columns, you're already most of the way there. And since it's Google Sheets, you can also take advantage of formulas, sorting, and other spreadsheet features to organize your data before it's displayed on the website. It's a remarkably simple concept, but it makes a lot of sense for websites that are built around collections of products, businesses, properties, or other types of structured information.
Getting started with SpreadSimple is refreshingly straightforward. You can choose one of the available templates, connect an existing Google Sheet, or use its AI website creator to generate a starting point. If you choose the spreadsheet approach, you simply provide the link to your Google Sheet, and SpreadSimple generates a website based on the information it contains. From there, you can start customizing how everything looks and decide which information should be displayed in different parts of the website. One of the central features is something called column mapping, which basically means connecting columns in your spreadsheet to elements on the website. For example, you might have a column called "Product Name" in your spreadsheet. You can map that column to the title element in SpreadSimple, and the product names will automatically appear as titles on your website. The same applies to images, specifications, descriptions, prices, and buttons. You don't have to follow a particular spreadsheet structure either, which gives you quite a bit of freedom to organize your data in whatever way makes the most sense for your project. Once you've mapped everything correctly, SpreadSimple takes care of displaying the information in a consistent layout, and you can start experimenting with the available design options.
One of the things that makes this approach especially useful is how easy it becomes to update the website later. Let's say a manufacturer releases a new home charger that you want to include in your comparison. Instead of creating a new webpage from scratch, you simply add another row to your Google Sheet and fill in the necessary information. SpreadSimple then picks up the changes and displays the new product on the website. The same thing applies when you want to update a price, change a product description, or correct a specification. You edit the information in the spreadsheet, and the website reflects those changes after the data is synchronized. For a website that displays information about many different products, this is a huge advantage, especially if you're managing everything yourself. It also means that the content is kept separate from the design. You can work on the data without having to worry about accidentally messing up the layout of your website. Likewise, you can experiment with the design without touching the underlying product information. I think this separation is one of the reasons SpreadSimple feels so easy to work with. Instead of having everything mixed together in a complicated editing interface, you have one place where you manage the content and another where you control how that content is presented.
Another feature I really appreciate is the built-in filtering and sorting functionality. This is particularly important for a comparison website like Laddboxguiden because visitors usually have some idea of what they're looking for. Someone might want a charger that supports dynamic load balancing, while another person might care more about charging capacity, connectivity, or price. Without filters, visitors would have to scroll through every product and manually compare the specifications, which isn't a particularly enjoyable experience. With SpreadSimple, you can create filters using columns from your Google Sheet. You select which columns should be filterable, and the platform generates the corresponding controls on your website. The available filter values are based on the information in the spreadsheet, so you don't have to create every filtering option manually. There are also different types of filters, including options for working with numerical ranges, which can be useful when comparing products by price or other measurable attributes. Search and sorting functionality make it easier for visitors to find particular products or organize the results according to their preferences. These might sound like fairly basic features, but they're exactly the kind of things that can take a surprising amount of time to implement when building a website yourself. Having them available without writing any code makes SpreadSimple particularly attractive for directories and comparison websites.
Something else that works well is the way SpreadSimple handles individual product pages. You can display products in a grid or list on the main page, with each item showing the most important information. Visitors can then open a dedicated details page to see a more complete description, additional images, specifications, and other relevant details. For Laddboxguiden, this type of structure makes a lot of sense because the main page can focus on helping people discover different charging stations, while the individual product pages provide more detailed information about each model. It's a nice balance between keeping the overview simple and still being able to include a reasonable amount of information. SpreadSimple also gives you options for customizing the URLs of individual pages, which is useful if you want clean and descriptive links instead of random identifiers. Because the product pages use the same underlying layout, you don't have to design every page individually. That consistency is something I appreciate, both from a maintenance perspective and for the visitor experience. When you add a new item to the spreadsheet, it can follow the same structure as the products that are already there, making it much easier to grow the website over time without creating additional design work.
Of course, the actual design is another important part of building a website, and this is an area where SpreadSimple takes a slightly different approach compared to more advanced website builders. You get a selection of layouts and design settings that allow you to change the appearance without having to work with HTML or CSS. You can customize colors, images, card layouts, headers, and various other elements to make the website feel more like your own. However, I wouldn't say that SpreadSimple gives you unlimited creative freedom, because it definitely doesn't. If you're used to building fully customized websites, you'll eventually come across things that you can't change exactly the way you want. But I actually think that limitation can be a good thing. One of the biggest problems with many website builders is that they give you so many customization options that you end up spending far too much time adjusting tiny details. You move something a few pixels, try another font, change the spacing, and suddenly you've spent an entire afternoon working on something that probably doesn't matter very much. With SpreadSimple, you can make the website look good without getting lost in endless design decisions. For a directory or comparison website, the content is usually much more important than having a completely unique design anyway. The goal is to help visitors find the information they need, and as long as the website is clean, easy to navigate, and works well on mobile devices, that's already a pretty good starting point.
Another thing worth mentioning is that SpreadSimple takes care of hosting, which removes quite a few of the technical responsibilities that normally come with launching a website. You don't have to set up a server, install a content management system, configure a database, or worry about keeping plugins updated. The platform hosts the website for you, and you can connect your own domain name if you want to use a more professional address. SSL is handled by the platform as well, so that's another thing you don't have to configure separately. This might not sound particularly exciting, especially if you're already comfortable working with hosting providers and traditional website platforms, but it removes a lot of the small tasks that can slow down a project. When you're experimenting with a new idea, reducing that kind of friction makes a big difference. I think it's easy to underestimate how much time is spent on things that have very little to do with the actual purpose of a website. Setting up infrastructure, fixing configuration issues, updating software, and troubleshooting compatibility problems can all be necessary when building a traditional website. With a hosted nocode platform like SpreadSimple, most of those concerns disappear, allowing you to focus on what you're actually trying to create.
I also like that SpreadSimple isn't limited to simple directories and comparison websites. Although the Google Sheets approach is particularly well suited for listings and catalogs, the platform includes functionality for creating online stores as well. You can add shopping carts, order forms, payment integrations, product variations, and other ecommerce features, depending on the type of website you're building and the plan you're using. There are also integrations for analytics, automation, and other services, which can be useful if you want to connect your website to additional tools. For Laddboxguiden, the main goal is to help people browse and compare products rather than to operate a traditional online store, but it's interesting that the same platform can be used for a variety of different projects. You could build a directory of local businesses, a real estate listing website, a collection of digital resources, a job board, or a simple product catalog. As long as the content can be organized into rows and columns, there's a reasonable chance that SpreadSimple could be a good fit. That's probably one of the reasons I find the tool so interesting. It's not necessarily about building one particular type of website, but about being able to turn structured information into something useful on the web with very little effort.
There are also some options for search engine optimization, which is obviously important if you want people to discover your website through Google. SpreadSimple offers settings for things like page titles, meta descriptions, and URLs, along with support for connecting analytics and webmaster tools. These features are useful, especially for a content-driven website where organic search traffic could eventually become an important source of visitors. That said, I wouldn't expect SpreadSimple to provide the same level of SEO flexibility as a fully customized WordPress website or something built from scratch. There are naturally some limitations when you're using a hosted platform with a predefined structure, and you don't have complete control over every technical aspect of the website. If your project depends heavily on advanced technical SEO, highly customized page templates, or a large amount of editorial content, it's worth looking into those limitations before committing to the platform. For a relatively straightforward product directory, however, the available functionality may be perfectly sufficient. I also think it's worth remembering that SEO isn't just about the technical platform. Having useful, well-organized, accurate information is at least as important, and a website that makes it easy for visitors to find and compare products already has a good foundation to build on.
One limitation that becomes apparent when you start working with SpreadSimple is that it isn't intended to replace a fully custom web application. If you wanted to build a highly specialized comparison tool with complicated calculations, unusual user interactions, and advanced dynamic functionality, you might eventually run into problems. There are ways to extend the platform with custom styling, scripts, and integrations, but you're still working within an existing system rather than having complete control over the underlying application. This is the trade-off with most nocode tools, and it's something I think you have to accept from the beginning. You're giving up some flexibility in exchange for being able to build something much faster and with less technical effort. For certain types of projects, that exchange is absolutely worth it, while for others it might not make sense at all. Personally, I think SpreadSimple works best when you have a relatively clear idea of how your information should be structured and displayed. If your website is essentially a collection of items that people need to browse, search, filter, and learn more about, the platform covers a lot of what you need. If the entire idea depends on functionality that SpreadSimple doesn't support, trying to force it into the platform would probably create more problems than it solves.
There's also an interesting trade-off when using Google Sheets as a database. On one hand, it's incredibly convenient because you can add new information, reorganize your content, and make changes without touching the website builder itself. On the other hand, you need to be a little disciplined about how you structure your data. For example, if you're going to use a particular column for filtering, it's important that the values are consistent. If one product says "WiFi", another says "Wi-Fi", and a third says "Wireless", you might end up with several different filter options for essentially the same feature. The same applies to prices, product categories, charging capacities, and other specifications. You also need to think about how missing information should be handled, because not every manufacturer provides exactly the same specifications in exactly the same format. This isn't really a problem with SpreadSimple itself. It's simply something that comes with using structured data, and you'd have to think about it regardless of which platform you used. Still, it's worth taking the time to organize your spreadsheet properly from the beginning. For a comparison website, the quality of the underlying data ultimately determines how useful the website becomes. You can have the nicest design in the world, but if the product information is incomplete, outdated, or inconsistent, visitors aren't going to get much value from it.
This also brings me to something that I think is important to mention when talking about nocode tools in general. Just because a website is easy to build doesn't necessarily mean it's easy to run successfully. SpreadSimple can take care of a lot of the technical work, but it can't automatically make your website useful or interesting. For a project like Laddboxguiden, the real work is collecting accurate information about different EV chargers, deciding which specifications matter, presenting everything clearly, and keeping the content up to date. New products are released, older models disappear, prices change, and manufacturers introduce new features. If you want the website to remain useful, you have to keep working on the information behind it. What SpreadSimple does is make that process considerably less complicated. Instead of spending time maintaining a custom database and updating individual product pages, you can focus on the spreadsheet and the information it contains. And if you eventually want to automate parts of that process, Google Sheets provides a convenient starting point for connecting other tools and workflows. I wouldn't necessarily recommend trying to automate everything from the beginning, though. Sometimes the simplest solution is to maintain a well-organized spreadsheet manually, especially when the website is still relatively small.
Another advantage of this setup is how easy it is to experiment. Because the website is based on a spreadsheet, you can try different ways of organizing information without making major changes to the underlying structure. You might start with a fairly basic product catalog and later decide to add more detailed specifications, new categories, or additional filtering options. As your understanding of what visitors are looking for improves, you can gradually adjust the content and presentation. This makes SpreadSimple particularly suitable for small projects and side projects where you might not know exactly what the final website should look like from the beginning. With a more traditional development approach, you might feel pressured to plan everything carefully before starting, especially if changing the database or frontend later would require additional development work. SpreadSimple makes the process feel much more flexible because so much of the website is driven by the spreadsheet. You can start with something relatively simple, publish it, and make improvements over time. I think this is one of the most appealing aspects of nocode tools in general. They make it possible to test ideas without committing a huge amount of time or money before you even know whether anyone is interested.
Pricing is another thing worth considering when deciding whether SpreadSimple is the right choice for a project. The platform offers different plans, and the features available depend on which one you're using. There's a free option for getting started, while more advanced functionality, higher limits, and certain customization options require a paid subscription. I won't go into the exact prices here because they can change, but I think it's important to look at the long-term cost rather than just how inexpensive it is to launch the website. A subscription can seem like an unnecessary expense when you're technically capable of building something yourself, but there's also value in not having to maintain everything. Hosting, updates, functionality, and a lot of the technical infrastructure are handled for you. On the other hand, if you're planning to run a large number of websites or need features that require more expensive plans, those subscription costs can add up. As with most tools, it comes down to what you're trying to accomplish and how much time you're willing to spend on development and maintenance. For a small directory or comparison website, I think the convenience can easily justify the cost, particularly if your alternative is spending several weeks building a custom solution.
One thing I find interesting about SpreadSimple is that it represents a slightly different way of thinking about websites. Traditionally, you start by choosing a website builder or CMS, creating pages, designing layouts, and then filling those pages with content. SpreadSimple almost reverses that process. You start with the information, organize it into a spreadsheet, and let the platform turn it into a website. For certain types of projects, that approach feels much more natural. If you already have a spreadsheet containing hundreds of products, businesses, events, or other entries, you might be surprisingly close to having everything you need to publish a website. You don't necessarily need to import the information into a complicated system or manually recreate it somewhere else. You can use the data you already have and build the presentation around it. I think there's something quite appealing about that simplicity, especially at a time when many tools seem to become more complicated with every new feature they introduce. SpreadSimple takes a familiar tool that millions of people already use and turns it into something much more powerful, without requiring users to become developers.
Looking back at the process of building Laddboxguiden, what stands out to me most is how little friction there was between having the idea and getting a working website online. That's something I value a lot, because I tend to get ideas for different websites and online projects quite frequently, and I know how easy it is for those ideas to remain unfinished. Sometimes the biggest obstacle isn't that the project is particularly difficult. It's simply that there are too many small things to take care of before you have anything to show for your work. You need to choose a tech stack, set up hosting, design the interface, build the database, implement the functionality, and make sure everything works together. By the time you've finished all of that, some of the initial excitement might already be gone. SpreadSimple removes a large part of that process. You still have to create the content and make decisions about how the website should work, but you can get to the interesting part much sooner. For me, that's probably the biggest selling point. It makes building certain types of websites feel more like putting together a useful resource and less like managing a software development project.
Would I use SpreadSimple for every website I create? Definitely not. There are plenty of situations where I'd prefer WordPress, another nocode platform, or a completely custom solution. But that's not really a criticism of SpreadSimple, because I don't think it's trying to replace all those alternatives. It has a fairly specific approach to building websites, and when your project fits that approach, it can be incredibly efficient. I also appreciate that it doesn't require you to become an expert in the platform before you can create something useful. The basic concept is easy to understand, the connection to Google Sheets makes content management straightforward, and many of the features you'd expect from a directory or catalog website are available without additional development. There are limitations, of course, and it's worth understanding them before getting too invested in a project. But for someone who wants to turn a spreadsheet into a searchable, filterable, publicly accessible website, I think it's a tool worth exploring.
For me, Laddboxguiden has been a nice example of how much you can accomplish with a relatively simple setup. The website doesn't need a complicated backend or a custom-built content management system to serve its purpose. It needs organized product information, a clean interface, and a convenient way for visitors to browse and compare different EV chargers. SpreadSimple provides the foundation for all of that, while Google Sheets makes it easy to manage the content. I still need to put effort into researching products, improving descriptions, and keeping the information relevant, but those are exactly the things I'd rather spend my time on. That's what I like most about this kind of tool. It doesn't eliminate the work involved in creating a useful website, but it removes a lot of the unnecessary technical work that can get in the way. If you have an idea for a directory, product catalog, comparison website, or another project built around structured information, SpreadSimple is definitely worth a look. It might not be the most powerful website builder out there, but sometimes having the right features and being able to launch quickly is much more valuable than having complete control over every little detail.
Top comments (0)