Just like Chrome browser add-ons, Google Sheets add-ons offer a great way to extend the functionality of the Sheets program. They can do everything from helping you remove duplicates to quickly processing mail merges, and pulling data from other sources into your sheet. We reviewed dozens of them to pull together a list of the best Google Sheets add-ons for all your needs.
How to Add Google Sheets Add-Ons
If you’ve never used add-ons before, don’t be discouraged. You can add these little extensions to Sheets with a few quick clicks. Start from within an open spreadsheet and, from the menu bar, select Add-ons. Then, click Get Add-ons in the menu. Browse through the list, and when you find one you want to use, click Install.
Best for Fast and Easy Mail Merge: Yet Another Mail Merge
Yet Another Mail Merge (YAMM) is one of the top-rated mail merge add-ons for Google Sheets with good reason. It lets you send up to 50 emails per day for free, and you can create the email in Gmail and then pull it into the mail merge very easily. YAMM also offers real-time tracking on the messages you send, so you can quickly see if your message was delivered and who opened it.
Simple, easy interface.
Import contacts from Google Contacts or HubSpot.
Message templates available.
Useful for more than just marketing emails.
Limited to 50 free messages per day.
Best for Reporting: Supermetrics
If it’s your responsibility to create reports for web analytics, social media, or online marketing, then Supermetrics is the tool you want in Google Sheets. This add-on can pull data from a variety of places, and provides free templates to help you create a professional version of the exact report you need.
Pulls data from a variety of sources, including Google Analytics, AdWords, and other non-google systems.
Schedule automatic report creation.
14-day trial with full functionality.
The monthly subscription price is prohibitive for light users.
Reporting updates and functionality limited by subscription level.
Best With Fillable PDF Documents: PDFfiller
PDFfiller for Google Sheets lets you quickly fill out PDF forms using spreadsheet data so there’s no need to copy and paste from your spreadsheeting into a PDF document. Users can also automate the process with a data merge and protect and share documents easily.
Easily to complete fillable PDF document.
Quickly create fillable PDF documents.
One-click data merge.
30-day free trial period.
Users report the add-on is a little buggy.
Month-to-month subscription is expensive.
Best to Quickly Cleanup Sheets: Crop Sheet
It’s a simple thing, but having the ability to quickly delete unused columns and rows in a spreadsheet is more useful than you might imagine. By default, Google Sheets displays 26 columns and 1000 rows, and it’s not uncommon to have any of them left blank. Crop Sheet allows you to quickly clean up your spreadsheets so all that unused space doesn’t muck things up.
Can use data or selection for cropping limits.
Does exactly what it claims to do—remove empty cells.
Performs only the single function.
Best for Finding Email Addresses: Hunter for Sheets
If you’ve ever tried to find an email address for a contact at a specific domain name, you know it’s not always an easy task. Hunter for Google Sheets aims to make it easier. Use this add-on from within Google Sheets to find a list of email addresses that meet specific parameters. The address are returned with a confidence score to help you determine if they’re worth using.
Find publicly available email addresses without leaving Sheets.
Free for 50 searches per month.
If you need more than 50 searches per month, the monthly fee can be steep.
Some functionality limited for free accounts.
Best for Quickly Changing Text Case: ChangeCase
It can be tedious if you need to go through a large spreadhseet and change the case of text in a number of cells. ChangeCase can automatically change characters to all uppercase, all lowercase, first letter capitalized, and more.
Easily change character case in numerous ways.
Very fast on smaller documents.
Limited functionality.
Can be slow on large spreadsheets.
Best for Teachers Who Manage Student Projects: Doctopus
For teachers that manage student projects, Doctopus offers a functionality you may not find elsewhere. This handy little plug in can automate the distribution of assignments to your students and keep track of their activity during the project.
Automatically copy, distribute, and share files with a roster of students.
Permissions can be managed automatically or granularly.
Includes rubric view.
Rubric view can become cumbersome.
Steep learning curve.
The Goobric add-on for Google Sheets is a great companion to Doctopus that also attaches rubric-based grading capabilities to your tracking and management workflow.
Best for Managing Finances: Bkper
Bookkeeping and finance programs can be complicated, but Bkper aims to make them simpler. This handy add-on helps you manage your personal, household, or business finances. It uses bots to automate some functions and allows for collaboration with other people. The real-time dashboards also help you get a clearer picture of your finances in real time.
Simple, but robust accounting tool.
Connections to 10,000+ banks and credit cards.
Attach files and pictures to transactions.
Bkper files are difficult to locate in Google Drive.
Cannot connect to your bank without premium subscription.
Best to Remove Dupes: Remove Duplicates
Duplicate data in a spreadsheet can create havoc, and it can be difficult to find and remove. If you often need to de-dupe your Google Sheets, Remove Duplicates is a simple add-on that does exactly that.
Quickly removes duplicate entries in spreadsheets.
Highlight duplicate rows.
Pro version requires low one-time purchase.
Free version limited to one search per day.
Limited support for free users.
Best for Scraping Website Data: ImportFromWeb
If you have need to pull all the data from a website (e.g. for pulling price comparisons or competitive reviews), you’ve probably used IMPORTXML in the past. There’s an easier way. ImportFromWeb is easy to use and doesn’t encounter the slow downs that often plague IMPORTXML.
Fast way to scrape data from a website.
Uses proxies and emulators to increase number of accessible websites.
Faster than default IMPORTXML capability.
Limited to 500 requests every 6 hours.
Sites can block the scraper from gathering data.
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