Can I vibecode Rows?

KINDA · weekend project

price $8/moyou'd save $96/yrbuild time multi-daycategory 🗄️ databasesreplaced by 0 people

The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Rows, build connected spreadsheets with a limited set of API-powered cells. The hard boundary is integration catalog, formulas, ai, collaboration, and hosted computation, plus data model flexibility, collaboration, and integrations.

the prompt

Build a personal replacement for Rows in an empty repository.
Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, and Docker Compose; do not offer alternative stacks.
The core loop is: build connected spreadsheets with a limited set of API-powered cells, provide grid, form, kanban, and filtered views, and expose a documented API.
Make the first run work locally with one documented command.
Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward.
Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials.
Create workspaces, bases, tables, fields, records, attachments, relations, and saved views.
Support text, number, currency, date, boolean, select, formula-lite, and relation field types.
Build grid, form, kanban, and record-detail views from one canonical schema.
Add role-based permissions, optimistic concurrency checks, audit history, and trash restore.
Provide CSV import or export and a token-authenticated REST API generated from the schema.
Ship migrations, seed data, backups, health checks, and a schema export format.
Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states.
Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs.
Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path.
Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps.
Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane.
Deliberately leave out full spreadsheet formula compatibility.
Deliberately leave out hundreds of automations and integrations.
Deliberately leave out large-enterprise governance and vendor-managed scale.
Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used.

$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter) or copy it raw · this prompt is generated from the build plan · improve it via PR

why people still pay

People still pay for Rows because teams pay when a flexible database becomes a shared operational system with integrations and years of accumulated business logic. The recurring cost buys schema changes, formulas, permissions, imports, attachments, views, APIs, concurrency, backups, and migrations, not just the visible interface.

what you lose

xintegration catalog, formulas, AI, collaboration, and hosted computation

xreal-time multiplayer

xautomation and integration breadth

xscale and formula depth

xenterprise permissions

share on X ↗"I just replaced Rows ($8/mo) with one prompt"

the escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These folks already made it free.

Quadratic PersonalA real analysis spreadsheet with database connections and programmable cells; API work is less point-and-click than Rows.$0free↗

Stackby FreeRows with tables instead of theatre: two live API columns, manual refresh, and 100 automations a month.$0free↗

Superhuman Docs FreeConnected tables and manual-refresh integrations inside a formula-heavy doc; enough for small live reports, not data engineering.$0free↗

all 3 free alternatives to Rows →· no votes, no pay-to-list · just what's real

the numbers

Rows pricing

plan	monthly	annual (per mo)	what you get
free	$0/workspace	$0/workspace	Unlimited spreadsheets; 5 AI tasks/month; 10 integration accounts; 3 guests; 500 cell-enrichment operations/month; 500 API calls/month; 1 MB imports; 7-day history.
plus	$8/user	$6/user	200 AI tasks/month; 10 integration accounts; 10 guests; 1 million cell-enrichment operations/month; 50,000 API calls/month; 5 MB imports; 30-day history; daily refresh.
pro	$79/workspace	$59/workspace	1,000 AI tasks/month; 100 integration accounts; 1 million cell-enrichment operations/month; 1 million API calls/month; 100 MB imports; 2-year history; minutely refresh.
enterprise	custom	—	Unlimited AI tasks, integration accounts and guests; starts at 1 million cell-enrichment operations and 1 million API calls/month.

free tierunlimited spreadsheets, 5 AI tasks/month, 10 integration accounts, 3 guests, 500 cell-enrichment operations/month, 500 API calls/month, 1 MB imports and 7-day history

billingmonthly + annual; annual cards show $6 instead of $8 per Plus user and $59 + $6/user instead of $79 + $8/user for Pro

hidden costsEach workspace is upgraded and billed separately; Pro adds a per-member fee on top of the base; members added mid-cycle are prorated; every processed cell consumes an enrichment unit, and AI through the API consumes both API calls and AI tasks; taxes are extra.