What Better Sheets is and why it matters
Google Sheets is the most underrated tool in a modern professional’s toolkit. On paper it is “a spreadsheet”; in practice it is a database, a dashboard, a CRM, a planner and a document generator that all live in your browser for free. The problem is different: Google Sheets has no sensible learning curve. Either you can already write VLOOKUP and QUERY, or you drown in help articles and 40-minute videos where the first thirty minutes explain what a spreadsheet is for.
Better Sheets is an attempt to gather all Google Sheets education in one place: 600+ walkthroughs, 10+ courses, formula generators, ready-made templates and a set of small tools that solve one concrete problem in a minute. The project is run by Andrew Kamphey, described in the product as a Spreadsheet Wizard. Unlike big education platforms there is no university posturing here: a lesson lasts 5–10 minutes, shows one technique and immediately hands you a practice file.
In this review I break down what the library actually contains, where the free tier ends and the paid one begins, list pros and cons honestly, and compare Better Sheets with the alternatives — YouTube, Udemy, data-analysis courses and plain ChatGPT. In short: this is not “a spreadsheet course”, it is more like a subscription to ongoing spreadsheet help. Whether it is worth the money depends on how many hours a week you spend in Sheets.
At a glance: strengths and weaknesses
Let me start with the bottom line so you don’t have to read 2,000 words for the conclusion.
Pros:
- A huge library dedicated specifically to Google Sheets — not “Excel and spreadsheets in general”, but this platform with its QUERY, ARRAYFORMULA, Apps Script and LIMIT.
- Narrow specialisation instead of a vague course: each lesson solves one real problem rather than “covering the tool”.
- Live generators for formulas, QUERY, REGEXMATCH and conditional formatting — usable without knowing the syntax.
- A generous free tier: some templates, generators and reference material are available without paying.
- A subscription model that is clear and cheap compared with courses: from $9/month, or from $4.17/month when billed yearly.
- A one-off option (lifetime), including via AppSumo, for people who dislike subscriptions.
- The author answers questions personally — the subscription advertises this as “ask me anything”.
Cons:
- Google Sheets only. Excel, LibreOffice and OnlyOffice are not covered, and in corporate environments that is half the market.
- English-only content: no Russian interface or subtitles, a real barrier for part of the audience.
- The library is uneven in places: strong Apps Script lessons sit next to two-minute “quick tip” clips.
- No structured programme with assessments, certificates or deadlines — this is self-study, and you organise your own discipline.
- Some of the most useful material is behind the membership, and the value of 600 lessons only materialises if you genuinely work in Sheets every day.
What’s inside: lessons, courses and how the library is organised
The Better Sheets library has several layers, and understanding this before paying matters, because “600+ tutorials” and “10+ courses” are different things.
Tutorials. The main body is 600+ short walkthroughs, organised by tags: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Formulas, Automating, Data Analysis, Data Management, Conditional Formatting, Data Validation, Great Sheet Design, Google Apps Script and more. The tagging is genuinely useful: if you need “build a filtered dropdown list” rather than “learn spreadsheets”, you find the right lesson in a couple of clicks. Most tutorials are members-only; a small selection lives free on YouTube.
Courses. On top of that sit 10+ courses where lessons follow a logical order instead of a scattered feed. Topics include beginner fundamentals, advanced formulas, automation, dashboard building, selling your own sheets and an introduction to Apps Script. Courses matter most if you are starting from zero: they provide sequence rather than tricks.
Generators. One of the most practical parts. Describe your task in plain language — “sum last month’s sales for Ivanov only” — and you get a formula ready to paste. Separate generators exist for QUERY, sparklines, REGEXMATCH/REGEXREPLACE and conditional formatting. For anyone who cannot recall QUERY syntax, this saves hours. Free access is capped by daily limits; membership removes them.
Tools. 50+ small utilities: a sheet-to-CSV/Excel downloader, progress-bar and visual-formula builders (star ratings, statuses), a CHAR symbol table and a script explainer that turns code into plain-language comments. These are not “education” strictly speaking, but everyday utilities — and they are what makes the subscription valuable week to week.
Templates. A separate library: habit trackers, a year calendar, business-idea generators, finance sheets, planners and even an escape-room game inside a spreadsheet. Some are free; the full catalogue opens with membership. Quality varies, but the premise is right: most people do not want to design a sheet structure, they want to take a working one and adjust it.
Sites and Portal Builder. An interesting feature: you can publish a sheet as a simple web page on a Better Sheets subdomain. Useful for a price list, catalogue, schedule or a lightweight internal portal when spinning up a website for one page makes no sense. If the subscription lapses, the published site is unpublished, but the data stays on the service.
Apps Script: what many people actually come for
Google Apps Script deserves a section of its own. It is the JavaScript-like automation language inside Google Workspace, and the internet offers exactly two extremes: dry official documentation and videos where someone reads code aloud. Better Sheets fills the gap: a directory of ready-made scripts for specific tasks, a code explainer (paste a script, get line-by-line plain-language comments) and lessons on custom functions.
This is where the service differs most from ordinary video courses. Automation is the least understood and most lucrative part of spreadsheets: emailing from a sheet, automatic screenshots, wiring Sheets to Forms and Gmail, scraping data, scheduled reports. If your goal is to stop doing the same thing by hand, this block delivers the fastest result.
Pricing: what it costs and what you get
This part is simple and transparent, which is refreshing in this market.
- Free — free templates, generators with daily caps, some tutorials, reference material and the YouTube channel.
- $9/month — full library access, billed monthly.
- $50/year (list price quoted as $90; a discounted rate is currently active) — roughly $4.17/month. The best balance of price and access.
- $500 one-off (lifetime) — everything current and future, plus several hours of personal help inside your own sheet, per the service description.
- $275 lifetime via AppSumo — the same lifetime access without personal consulting hours; the AppSumo listing holds a rating around 4.8/5 from more than a hundred reviews.
You can cancel at any time, and new members get a described grace period with refunds. When billing ends, a site published from a sheet is unpublished but the data remains — resubscribing unlocks and republishes it.
For comparison: one decent Google Sheets course on a third-party platform costs $20–80 and goes stale within a year. A yearly Better Sheets subscription at $50 is cheaper than a single course and is updated continuously. That is arguably the strongest economic argument for it.
Tests: what was actually checked
Now the part that can be verified without paying for a subscription, plus an assessment of what the product documents claim.
Free tier. It opens without a card: several templates download, the formula generator works, and the function reference and the “Google Sheets Explained” section are fully available. This is enough to judge whether the author’s style suits you — short videos, fast pacing, no intros. If it irritates you, don’t pay, because the style doesn’t change.
Quality of explanations. The lesson format is: problem → formula demonstrated → practice file. That is noticeably more practical than an A-to-Z tour of functions. For comparison, official help explains the syntax but never tells you which real task the function is for.
Coverage. A quick sweep of typical needs — filtering, dropdowns, pivot tables, Forms integration, automated emails, dashboards, large-array work — shows the niches are covered. One predictable gap: Excel-specific territory (full Power Query, VBA, the data model) is absent by design.
Generators. The formulas produced are functional and paste into a sheet without edits in most standard cases. It is not magic but a careful translation of your task into formula syntax; complex logic sometimes needs a rephrased prompt, yet it is still faster than writing it yourself.
Speed vs alternatives. Compared with working it out alone, the saving is multiples: five minutes of video instead of 30–40 minutes of searching and reading. Against free YouTube, the difference is no ads and material organised by topic rather than dumped in channel chronology.
What cannot be tested. Community responsiveness, the author’s actual reply time inside the membership and the quality of the five personal hours included in the $500 tier cannot be judged from public sources. The promises look reasonable, but they remain promises, not measured facts.
Comparison with alternatives
YouTube and free channels. Free and occasionally excellent, but unstructured: to find one technique you sift through dozens of clips. If you need one walkthrough a month, YouTube is enough. If spreadsheets are part of your job, the subscription wins through tag search and the absence of ads.
Courses on Udemy and similar. They provide structure and a certificate, cost $20–80, and are updated rarely. A good choice if you want “a course, done”. Better Sheets is stronger on update speed and applied generators, weaker on academic rigour.
Google’s own help and documentation. Free, accurate, dry and without task context. An excellent reference, a poor teacher.
ChatGPT and other AI assistants. Today this is the most serious competitor. AI will also write a formula from a task description. The difference: Better Sheets gives an explanation, a practice file and verified context for a specific function, rather than a plausible answer that sometimes fails in your sheet. A sensible approach is to use both: AI for the draft, the service for understanding.
Data-analysis courses. If your goal is a career as an analyst, Better Sheets is too narrow — no Python, SQL or statistics. This is a tool for people already working in spreadsheets who want to get faster in them.
Who it’s for, and who should skip it
Subscribe if: you are a freelancer, marketer, operations manager, accountant, analyst or small-business owner; Google Sheets is your core tool; you want to stop burning hours on repetitive actions; you need templates and automation rather than theory.
Skip it if: you work in Excel and have no plans to switch; you need a certificate for your CV; you want an academic data-analysis course; or the budget is tight and English is uncomfortable — YouTube covers 90% of basic techniques for free.
On the language barrier: it is real. The interface, videos, comments and templates are all English. If you can read technical documentation in English, no problem; if not, the service becomes an extra language drill.
Verdict
Better Sheets is a rare example of a narrow product doing its narrow job well. It is not “a spreadsheet course” or “a data school”, but a subscription to ongoing, practical help for people who live in Google Sheets. 600+ tutorials, formula generators, templates and tools cover the whole path from “I don’t know how to add two columns” to “my sheet sends emails automatically”.
Scores: library 8/10, generators and tools 8/10, Apps Script automation 9/10, structure and feedback 6/10, value for money 9/10. Overall a solid 8 out of 10.
The optimal entry path: try the free tier for a couple of days, then take the $50 yearly plan if you found a relevant lesson at least twice. And don’t buy lifetime on day one — the annual plan is cheaper and tells you whether spreadsheets will stay in your work long term.
FAQ
Is there a free version? Yes: some templates, capped generators, reference sections and tutorials on YouTube. Sign-up for the free tier is minimal.
What happens if I cancel? Access closes, a site published from a sheet is unpublished, and your data is retained and unlocked if you return.
Is there a lifetime deal? Yes — $500 on the site (including personal help hours) or $275 on AppSumo without them.
Is it suitable for beginners? Yes, there are dedicated beginner tutorials and a fundamentals course. But you must be willing to study independently and in English.
Will it help me learn Excel? No. The service is entirely about Google Sheets, and Excel’s syntax and functions differ.