Show HN: Create Web Calculators and APIs with Excel Spreadsheets

#1

Post by huan23 » Sat, Jul 25, 2020, 3:14 PM UTC

Show HN: Create Web Calculators and APIs with Excel Spreadsheets
lambdaxl.com

Re: Show HN: Create Web Calculators and APIs with Excel Spreadsheets

#2

Post by huan23 » Sat, Jul 25, 2020, 3:25 PM UTC

Hey HN!

Creator of LambdaXL here. Sharing a side project that I have been working on for the past couple of months now. LambdaXL is a no code platform that lets you upload an Excel spreadsheet and it will turn it into a web calculator that you can embed into your website or you can share a link to it directly.

It uses Excel under the hood to ensure full compatibility (formulas, cross sheet references, even charts) , unlike some of the other solutions online that converts your spreadsheet into PHP/JavaScript/Python/etc.

It also saves every request so you can see what your users are doing.

Here is an example of a calculator that gets generated: https://lambdaxl.com/query/embed/b3b05024-eac5-4443-a67d-52a...

Re: Show HN: Create Web Calculators and APIs with Excel Spreadsheets

#3

Post by crystal88 » Sat, Jul 25, 2020, 3:48 PM UTC

This is so cool. Is this free to use?

Re: Show HN: Create Web Calculators and APIs with Excel Spreadsheets

#4

Post by huan23 » Sat, Jul 25, 2020, 3:49 PM UTC

crystal88 wrote: post #3

This is so cool. Is this free to use?

Hey, thanks for checking us out. Yeah we have a free forever plan to get started.

Re: Show HN: Create Web Calculators and APIs with Excel Spreadsheets

#5

Post by LoriR » Sat, Jul 25, 2020, 4:02 PM UTC

It's pretty neat. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Show HN: Create Web Calculators and APIs with Excel Spreadsheets

#6

Post by huan23 » Sat, Jul 25, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

LoriR wrote: post #5

It's pretty neat. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you!

Re: Show HN: Create Web Calculators and APIs with Excel Spreadsheets

#7

Post by raylui34 » Sun, Jul 26, 2020, 1:06 AM UTC

my wife is a financial analyst who swears by excel spreadsheets, I think she'll find this very useful

Re: Show HN: Create Web Calculators and APIs with Excel Spreadsheets

#8

Post by pmdulaney » Sun, Jul 26, 2020, 2:59 AM UTC

A similar product?

https://github.com/handsontable/hyperformula

Re: Show HN: Create Web Calculators and APIs with Excel Spreadsheets

#9

Post by huan23 » Sun, Jul 26, 2020, 10:43 AM UTC

pmdulaney wrote: post #8

A similar product? https://github.com/handsontable/hyperformula

Hey, thanks for the question.

The primary difference between the two products is that they translate your spreadsheet into a JavaScript function that can run clientside whereas we are actually using Excel to do the execution in our backend.

In terms of the pros and cons, I’d expect theirs to be faster, especially for simple calculations, since they don’t have the overhead of Excel connections that we do and can avoid the network connection if you run it clientside, whereas ours is more Excel compatible and comprehensive. For example, LambdaXL can support pivot tables and charts, but they can’t. Looking at their website, they say they support “100+ Excel formulas”. I believe Excel has around 460 formulas, and so some of the edge case / niche formulas are likely not supported.

Re: Show HN: Create Web Calculators and APIs with Excel Spreadsheets

#10

Post by huan23 » Sun, Jul 26, 2020, 10:46 AM UTC

raylui34 wrote: post #7

my wife is a financial analyst who swears by excel spreadsheets, I think she'll find this very useful

I would love to get her setup and get some feedback! We have a free plan that you can use, and if that isn’t enough, message me at contact (at) LambdaXL (dot) com and I can give you a coupon code to get a free trial for the higher plans.