1 jqxGrid: The Gold Standard in Enterprise Data Grids

jqxGrid from jQWidgets tops our list—and for good reason. It’s not just a grid; it’s a full-featured data management platform trusted by Fortune 500 companies worldwide.

With support for over 1 million rows via virtual scrolling, adaptive column resizing, multi-level grouping,inline editing, Excel-style filtering, and PDF/Excel/CSV export, jqxGrid delivers desktop-grade functionality in the browser. Its data binding engine intelligently handles JSON, XML, and array sources with zero configuration.

Standout Features in 2025:

• AI-Powered Column Detection: Automatically identifies data types (currency, date, percentage) and applies appropriate formatting.
• Dark/Light Mode Themes: 20+ professionally designed themes with full CSS variable support.
• Accessibility: Compliance with keyboard navigation and screen reader optimization.
• Framework Integration: React, Angular, Vue Grid components

Performance

jqxGrid renders 100,000 rows in under 80ms on average hardware, thanks to its optimized DOM recycling and requestAnimationFrame-based rendering loop.

Code Example

<div id="jqxGrid"></div>

<script>
  const data = [
    { name: "Alice Johnson", sales: 45000, region: "North" },
    { name: "Bob Smith", sales: 62000, region: "West" }
  ];

  $("#jqxGrid").jqxGrid({
    source: data,
    theme: 'energyblue',
    columns: [
      { text: 'Name', datafield: 'name', width: 200 },
      { text: 'Sales', datafield: 'sales', cellsformat: 'c2', width: 120 },
      { text: 'Region', datafield: 'region' }
    ],
    pageable: true,
    virtualmode: true,
    rendergridrows: function() { return data; }
  });
</script>

Why #1? Unmatched balance of performance, features, and long-term support. Perfect for mission-critical applications.

2 Smart.Grid: The Future of Web-Native Data Grids

Also from jQWidgets, Smart.Grid redefines what a modern data grid should be. Built as a Web Component with zero dependencies, it works natively in any framework—or no framework at all.

Smart.Grid uses shadow DOM, CSS custom properties, and template-driven rendering, making it incredibly lightweight and themeable. It supports hierarchical data, drag-and-drop, conditional styling, formula evaluation, and touch gestures out of the box.

2025 Highlights:

• FAST Progressive Rendering: Only visible cells are rendered—ideal for mobile and low-powered devices.
• CHART Built-in Charting: Click a column to generate bar, line, or pie charts instantly.
• CRUD Command Column: Add Edit/Delete/Custom buttons with one line of config.
• Tree Data with lazy loading
• Full TypeScript Support

Performance

Loads 500,000 rows with sub-50ms interaction latency. Uses Web Workers for sorting and filtering to keep the UI thread responsive.

Code Example

<smart-grid id="grid"></smart-grid>

<script>
  const grid = document.getElementById('grid');
  grid.dataSource = [
    { product: "Laptop Pro", price: 1499, inStock: true },
    { product: "Tablet Air", price: 599, inStock: false }
  ];
  grid.columns = [
    { label: 'Product', dataField: 'product', template: 'text' },
    { label: 'Price', dataField: 'price', template: 'currency' },
    { label: 'Available', dataField: 'inStock', template: 'checkBox' }
  ];
  grid.paging = true;
  grid.sorting = true;
  grid.filtering = true;
</script>

Why #2? Perfect for modern SPAs, PW, and micro-frontend architectures. The most framework-agnostic grid available.

3 AG-Grid: Enterprise Powerhouse with Open Core

AG-Grid remains a titan in the JavaScript grid space. Its Community Edition is free and feature-packed, while the Enterprise Edition adds pivoting, server-side row model, and advanced clipboard support.

Key Strengths:

• Row Grouping & Aggregation with live summaries
• Integrated Charting API
• Tree Data with lazy loading
• Full TypeScript Support

Performance Note:

Handles 1M+ rows via the Server-Side Row Model, delegating sorting/filtering to the backend.

Ideal For: Large-scale analytics platforms where data lives on the server.

4 Kendo UI Grid: Polished and Production-Ready

Telerik’s Kendo UI Grid offers a premium experience with deep integration into Angular, React, and Vue. It includes batch editing, frozen columns, detail templates, and responsive design by default.

2025 Additions:

• Adaptive Rendering: Switches to mobile-optimized layout automatically
• AI Anomaly Highlighting: Flags outliers in numeric columns

Best For: .NET and Java enterprise teams needing rapid development.

5 Ext JS Grid (Sencha): Desktop-Class Richness

Sencha Ext JS delivers the most desktop-like grid experience in the browser. With buffered rendering, lockable columns, and widget columns, it’s built for complex UIs.

Standout Features:

• Spreadsheet Selection Mode
• Infinite Scrolling
• MVC Architecture Support

Use Case: Internal business tools mimicking Windows desktop apps.

6 Handsontable: Excel in the Browser

Handsontable is the closest you’ll get to Microsoft Excel in JavaScript. It supports formulas, cell merging, comments, and undo/redo stacks.

2025 Updates:

• Web Worker Formula Engine
• Collaborative Editing via ShareDB

Perfect For: Financial modeling, budget planners, and data entry forms.

7 Tabulator: Lightweight, Modular, and Fast

Tabulator is a free, open-source grid with a clean API and modular design. You only load the features you need.

Key Features:

• Responsive Layouts
• Custom Formatters
• Download as CSV/JSON

Great For: Prototyping, dashboards, and lightweight admin panels.

8 DataTables: The jQuery Classic, Still Going Strong

DataTables remains popular for its simplicity and vast plugin ecosystem. It adds pagination, search, and sorting to any HTML table in minutes.

Modern Twist:

Now supports responsive extensions and server-side processing.

Ideal For: Legacy jQuery projects or WordPress plugins.

9 RevoGrid: Built for Scale

RevoGrid is an MIT-licensed grid optimized for massive datasets. It uses virtual DOM diffing and CSS Grid for layout.

Highlights:

• 10M+ Row Support
• Excel-Style Copy/Paste
• GPU-Accelerated Sorting (Beta)

Use Case: Log viewers, IoT dashboards, and big data explorers.

10 Grid.js: Minimalist and Modern

Grid.js is a tiny (~15KB) grid with React, Vue, and Svelte support. It focuses on simplicity and performance.

Features:

• Server-Side Pagination
• Search & Sort
• Custom Cell Templates

Best For: Static site generators, documentation portals, and small apps.

Comparison Table: At a Glance

How to Choose the Right Grid for Your Project

1. Data Volume > 100K rows? → Use jqxGrid, Smart.Grid, or AG-Grid with virtualization.
2. Need Excel-like editing? → Handsontable or jqxGrid.
3. Framework-first development? → Smart.Grid (Web Components) or Kendo UI.
4. Budget-conscious startup? → Tabulator, DataTables, or Grid.js.
5. Real-time collaboration? → Smart.Grid with WebSocket sync.