
Show HN: Sheet2Site – Create Websites Out of Google Sheets - andreyazimov
https://www.sheet2site.com
======
andreyazimov
Hi HN,

I made a tool that can generate a website from Google Sheets. It using Google
Sheet as a DB.

Examples of sites: [https://www.sheet2site.com/s/best-cities-for-digital-
nomads/](https://www.sheet2site.com/s/best-cities-for-digital-nomads/),
[https://www.sheet2site.com/s/best-coffee-shops-for-work-
in-c...](https://www.sheet2site.com/s/best-coffee-shops-for-work-in-canggu/),
[https://www.sheet2site.com/s/top-100-cryptocurrencies](https://www.sheet2site.com/s/top-100-cryptocurrencies),
[https://darkmodelist.com](https://darkmodelist.com)

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prakster
I love your idea. And there's a huge market of individuals living on Excel
that will pay you for doing this. Congrats!

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andreyazimov
Thanks. I hope!

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staticvar
FWIW, YC funded startup Cloud Stitch does something similar
[https://cloudstitch.com/](https://cloudstitch.com/)

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starikovs
One cool thing about sheet2site is that the sheet2site's idea is presented
clearer than the cloudstitch's one. I mean when I opened sheet2site website I
understood what it does in a moment. But in case of cloudstitch I have to
force my brain to work to understand what this means: "Cloudstitch lets you
manage websites & run your business, all from your office suite."

~~~
andreyazimov
haha, thanks :) Maybe if you are "true" startup you can't be simple and clear?
:)

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ada1981
Looks like HN broke your server ;) Looking forward to checking it out when you
get it running.

Is there a service that can easily stress test your app? Like a "TEST HN"
service? Would be nice to run a project through that before posting to HN.

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andreyazimov
Just checked and seems work, can you please try one more time?

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jedimastert
Checked it just now. Broke for me.

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andreyazimov
maybe me now?

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adamwi
Great work!

An alternative I have been using recently for some projects is Molnify [1], it
has more focus on exposing calculation logic in the app created and less
control over background images and layout. Takes either a Excel file or a
google sheet doc as input.

[1] [http://www.molnify.com/](http://www.molnify.com/)

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benpixel
I like the simplicity. Also, I'm assuming it's not free, it would be nice to
know what's the price before signing up. Maybe you could just add some sort of
a disclaimer, e.g. Generate / Create new site (free up to 1k visitors/month,
$5 after). Good luck!

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andreyazimov
Agree! I've just added that for 1 custom domain it's for $5 /mon and for
unlimited domains $10 / mon

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faitswulff
Oh! If you don't mind my asking, how do you go about selling custom domains?
Or if there are resources you can point me to, that would be helpful, too.

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benpixel
Not sure @andreyazimov is actually selling domains, only allowing you to
connect your own, right? But if you want to actually sell domains via your
application I'm sure that's possible via Namecheap API or something similar.

~~~
andreyazimov
I do not selling domains for sure, just connecting :)

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overcast
Reaffirming that Excel truly is the universal format for everything. Good
work!

~~~
andreyazimov
Agree! Go Excel! :)

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derwiki
Too funny -- about a month ago I built a web site backed by a Google Sheet so
that my father could easily update content. Great idea with Sheet2Site and
good luck!

~~~
andreyazimov
Thanks :)

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svenvdz
Nice work Andrey! Good luck with your $1000 MRR challenge.

~~~
andreyazimov
Thanks!

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drinchev
This looks like a really cool idea.

What I noticed is that is somehow hard to understand how to create the page. (
Click here, then there, then copy paste, then click publish, etc... ). If this
process was more it would be awesome.

Keep going the good work! I checked your $1k goal and wish you all the best in
achieving it!

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andreyazimov
yeah, agree this instruction is sucks . Can you maybe suggest how I can
improve it?

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fragmede
Move the steps around to remove switching between apps. My recommendation
would be: 1, 6, 4, 2, 3, 5, with title and background info/other info as
"advanced" config.

Make steps have sub steps, so step 1 is use this template, step 2 is prepare
the spreadsheet; sub-step 2a is "press publish", sub-step 2b is "edit title on
the main-page sheet" Step 3 is "Publish!" With sub-step 3a being copy url, 3b
paste, etc.

It requires changing the code a bit, but should _feel_ simpler, since there's
no switching back and forth, and some complexity is hidden inside the sub
steps.

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lzy
Typo on your homepage image;

[https://www.sheet2site.com/img/tabs.png](https://www.sheet2site.com/img/tabs.png)

"backgroung"

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andreyazimov
Thanks. Fixed

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georgeoliver
Fun idea. I learned recently that Sheets also works as a JSON service to post
and get data if you have a static site and don't want to stand up a DB server.

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hckern3ws
Any resource for this you can point me to?

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georgeoliver
There's a bunch on the web actually. The gist is that you create a Google App
Script linked to your Sheet and deploy it publicly, which can receive GET and
POST requests and respond as you like. See:

    
    
      http://chriszarate.github.io/sheetrock/
    
      http://douglasduhaime.com/posts/crud-operations-on-static-file-sites.html
    
      https://github.com/liddiard/google-sheet-s3
    
      https://www.johnastewart.org/coding/twine-game-data-to-google-sheets-via-javascript/
    
      https://medium.com/@dmccoy/how-to-submit-an-html-form-to-google-sheets-without-google-forms-b833952cc175

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AngeloAnolin
Tried to access the site, but getting the error. Screenshot [1]

[1] [https://ibb.co/kYtL5H](https://ibb.co/kYtL5H)

~~~
andreyazimov
Fixed. Please try now

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callahanrts
Great idea! Any ideas for expansion? I imagine you could map rows/columns to a
bootstrap-like grid system for more custom layouts.

~~~
andreyazimov
Thanks) I'm thinking to add a custom script from the sheet. Like Google
Analytics or chat

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seanwilson
Can you explain the backend? When the spreadsheet is updated, is the generated
website automatically updated?

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andreyazimov
It's just getting a JSON from a spreadsheet.

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nvusuvu
Your copy:

They are working but I need to explain you how :)

could be improved to

They are working but I need to explain to you how to use it. :)

~~~
andreyazimov
Done! Thanks!

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danvoell
The site is down for me. HN Hug.

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andreyazimov
Yeah probably with HN traffic, now seems work. Can you please try one more
time?

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prats019
All of the links seem to throw application error.

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andreyazimov
All should works now :)

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ndethore
Awesome work Andrey!

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andreyazimov
Thanks!

