I would like to buy this lifetime license on appsumo but would like to try it first. Does the free trial available on website, include all features as included in this appsumo deal? If so, how many days is the trial?
Hello, can I use this tool to generate a chart based on information received through a form/ webhook. Then, I can return the generated image as a file via integration. I'm asking because I have a form that produces a result, and it would be great to customize the response with a personalized radar chart.
No matter you use form or web hook, you can connect those sources using exiting connectors (gsheet, http api), they are live connections, so basically connect once, refresh every time you use it.
Columns also has existing api to return graph image to you, please check out its API page, example code included already.
Let me know if this answers all your questions. More questions, you can use its support chat or email.
Q: Feature to split Google Sheet into several tables and graphs
If i have 10 google forms that linked to 1 google sheet (let say 200 different data in the google sheet now), does instacharts have feature to custom split that 1 google sheet to create 10 different tables and graphs (each table and graph has 20 data) ?
if yes, 1. Can all the 10 tables and graphs be placed in 1 page (1 instacharts page) 2. Can all the 10 tables and graphs be placed in 10 different pages (10 instacharts pages)
A: Seems Instacharts is another product, did you post the question in the wrong place?
If not, the answers to your questions are yes, you can use filter to create individual graphs/tables for each form, make sure you have identifier field to filter for each form, and you can place any graph in one Columns page.
as long as you have a field to identify what form a record is from, you can use a filter/condition to filter the data that belong to a specific form to build the graph, and then you can duplicate the graph 10 times, change the filter for each graph to have 10 different result (graph/table) to be placed in a single page.
Awesome. That means, we can add a filter to create 10 different tables or graphs from that 1 Google Sheet.
But to display those 10 tables and graphs, can we optionally choose to display those 10 different tables and graphs into either: a) 1 page (1 url) , OR b) 10 different pages (10 different URLs) ?
Q: Graph and table displayed from google sheet data
Can ColumnsAi work in this case below:
A building has 10 rooms (10 diff managers) Each room has 20 equipments (1 mngr to record daily reading of the 20 equipmnts) That means there are totals of 10 rooms x 20 equipments = 200 equipments
Each manager has their own login details to record daily reading of 20 equipments .
That means, everyday, 10 managers will fill in 10 forms (1 form for each room).
Then after they fill in the forms, all the data (reading) will automatically be shown (displayed) into the website , so that all people (public) can see the reading and data.
Public people can choose which room and which equipment reading to read.
Can ColumnsAi do all above? If not, which part of the above can ColumnsAi do? Does ColumnsAi display all the data (from the forms) inserted by the manager?
A: As long as you use the same form to let all managers submit the answers, it should go to the same spreadsheet which you can link in Columns as a data source, then graphs built from this data source can be pivoted or filtered by those fields easily.
When linking Google Form to Google Sheet , it will append data into Google Sheet and, thus the size will grow daily.
Question. Can ColumnsAi extract only the latest data (today's data) from Google Sheet (and remove or ignore the previous data) and then show the data 1. In table form format? 2. In graph or diagram?
A: form data in spreadsheet should have a time field indicating when an answer was submitted.
no matter what graph/table format you are using, you can use a macro time filter such as current date or 3 days ago, this will effectively filter data for latest 1 day or 3 days. schedule your graph for daily update. It should do the work.
A: I think you refer to "Team Management" which is an management page where a team creator/admin manages a team properties, such as user membership, you can add/remove users to the team to share the same team workspace for creating and sharing graph stories.
When embedding a chart on a page, there is a link that says -> view on columns, where the user can switch between the chart and the tables. The user can also download the data. Is it possible to remove this link when embedding a chart?
It also allows anyone to just embed the chart without giving any proper rights to use the data.
I'd ideally not want the data to be downloaded or have the user go to an external link.
A: Yes. You can disable the "view on columns" button as well as "graph filter", these two settings are located at the bottom of general setting tab.
You can also set domain whitelist in the graph sharing dialog so that the graph can only be loaded in the domain you specified, others can not do that.
So I think these are solutions for both of your concerns.
Q: Columns is not recognizing a valid date format??
When I connect my Google Sheets file to Columns, it is not recognizing the date column as a valid Time series. Why is that?? The current format is "05-20-2025". The schema is only seeing it as text. According to the documentation, this is a valid format (UsDateFull: 'M/d/yyyy', 'MM/dd/yyyy').
Please click "Email" from this page - https://columns.ai/contact to get in touch through email.
Q: Process to get more seats
I got the tier 1. Amazing software. What is the exact process for getting more seats? It looks like I should get tier 2 to get 3 seats and then put in the redeem codes but not sure if that is the best way to get more seats.
Concerned that if I just grab tier 2 the codes might not go to my main account and it might cause a mess. A video tutorial to show upgrading for the visual learning sumolings would be fantastic.
The way you described is correct - by redeeming multiple codes in your main account, you automatically become admin of a newly created team which has a shared workspace for every member you added.
Just a Note: due to low adoption, we have stopped enhancing team feature, instead of improving sharing functions across different accounts. So you can also get multiple license for different people, and use data sharing function to share connected data.
Has the pull/sync data from Sharepoint now been built, or not yet? If not, ay ETA? This would be our main use case, so really important for us (and I would think, to many others)... Thanks!
Hi! 1) Plan 1 differs from Plan 2 only on seats (1 for P1, 3 for P2)? 2) Both Plan 1 and Plan 2 AppSumo LTD maps to Premium? 3) Plan 2 really have SSO integration? Your Premium doesn't have that SSO?
A: Thanks for your questions. Here are the answers: 1) yes 2) yes 3) no - SSO integration was implemented with Okta, but nobody used, we don't plan to maintain it any more.
Expanding charting capability is always on the roadmap, but it's all driven by demand. So I would not promise those advanced special cases to be supported easily soon.
Q: Since you don't offer Bar Charts (e.
g. TradingView Lite integration) for Stocks and other Financial Assets (correct me if I simply missed it being present already): 1) Could I integrate an external library to create my own template? 2) If not external libs are supported, could I at least define my own SVG / Path as template to use to dynamically "plot" data to my liking?
I am fully aware that this is likely a very exotic use case, so dont bother to tell me its not there/not planned. :)
Maybe a case of overloaded language -- I think the user meant candle stick style stock/FX charts instead of standard bar charts used in analytics landscape.
Thanks for helping clarify this, :) yes, we have boxplot type which is similar to candle stick but not very limited, definitely not suitable for stock type of analysis presentation.
Possibly - Columns will not focus on specialized charting, like candle stick for stock market. Unless there is a strong demand, otherwise likely it will not be prioritized in short time as I can tell.
Q: Free trial
I would like to buy this lifetime license on appsumo but would like to try it first. Does the free trial available on website, include all features as included in this appsumo deal? If so, how many days is the trial?
ShawnCao
Jul 31, 2025A: You can start a 7-day free trial any time - https://columns.ai/#pricing, all features included.
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Q: Create a specific answer with chart
Hello, can I use this tool to generate a chart based on information received through a form/ webhook. Then, I can return the generated image as a file via integration.
I'm asking because I have a form that produces a result, and it would be great to customize the response with a personalized radar chart.
ShawnCao
Jul 28, 2025A: Yes. You can.
No matter you use form or web hook, you can connect those sources using exiting connectors (gsheet, http api), they are live connections, so basically connect once, refresh every time you use it.
Columns also has existing api to return graph image to you, please check out its API page, example code included already.
Let me know if this answers all your questions. More questions, you can use its support chat or email.
Share Columns
Q: Feature to split Google Sheet into several tables and graphs
If i have 10 google forms that linked to 1 google sheet (let say 200 different data in the google sheet now), does instacharts have feature to custom split that 1 google sheet to create 10 different tables and graphs (each table and graph has 20 data) ?
if yes,
1. Can all the 10 tables and graphs be placed in 1 page (1 instacharts page)
2. Can all the 10 tables and graphs be placed in 10 different pages (10 instacharts pages)
ShawnCao
Jul 22, 2025A: Seems Instacharts is another product, did you post the question in the wrong place?
If not, the answers to your questions are yes, you can use filter to create individual graphs/tables for each form, make sure you have identifier field to filter for each form, and you can place any graph in one Columns page.
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My bad, i was asking the same question becoz are similar.
But my question: When we insert 1 Google Sheet (as a data source) , can Columns Ai split & customize that 1 Ggl Sheet into 10 graphs & tables?
For example, that 1 Sheet has 200 data:
20 electric
20 civil
20 mech
20 electronic
20 medic
20 equipmnt
20 HVAC
20 hrdware
20 software
20 land
Can Columns create 10 diff graphs & tables as above
yes, that's exactly what I commented.
as long as you have a field to identify what form a record is from, you can use a filter/condition to filter the data that belong to a specific form to build the graph, and then you can duplicate the graph 10 times, change the filter for each graph to have 10 different result (graph/table) to be placed in a single page.
Awesome. That means, we can add a filter to create 10 different tables or graphs from that 1 Google Sheet.
But to display those 10 tables and graphs, can we optionally choose to display those 10 different tables and graphs into either:
a) 1 page (1 url) , OR
b) 10 different pages (10 different URLs) ?
the smallest unit is a graph/table on Columns which is called a story.
You can put as many stories on a page as you wished.
Similarly, one Google sheet is one data source, you can create as many stories as possible from one data source.
Thats awesome Shawn
Q: Graph and table displayed from google sheet data
Can ColumnsAi work in this case below:
A building has 10 rooms (10 diff managers)
Each room has 20 equipments (1 mngr to record daily reading of the 20 equipmnts)
That means there are totals of 10 rooms x 20 equipments = 200 equipments
Each manager has their own login details to record daily reading of 20 equipments .
That means, everyday, 10 managers will fill in 10 forms (1 form for each room).
Then after they fill in the forms, all the data (reading) will automatically be shown (displayed) into the website , so that all people (public) can see the reading and data.
Public people can choose which room and which equipment reading to read.
Can ColumnsAi do all above? If not, which part of the above can ColumnsAi do?
Does ColumnsAi display all the data (from the forms) inserted by the manager?
ShawnCao
Jul 21, 2025A: As long as you use the same form to let all managers submit the answers, it should go to the same spreadsheet which you can link in Columns as a data source, then graphs built from this data source can be pivoted or filtered by those fields easily.
Share Columns
Nice
Q: Linking Google Form to Google Sheet
When linking Google Form to Google Sheet , it will append data into Google Sheet and, thus the size will grow daily.
Question. Can ColumnsAi extract only the latest data (today's data) from Google Sheet (and remove or ignore the previous data) and then show the data
1. In table form format?
2. In graph or diagram?
ShawnCao
Jul 21, 2025A: form data in spreadsheet should have a time field indicating when an answer was submitted.
no matter what graph/table format you are using, you can use a macro time filter such as current date or 3 days ago, this will effectively filter data for latest 1 day or 3 days. schedule your graph for daily update. It should do the work.
Share Columns
awesome
Q: Team permissions
What are the team permissions?
ShawnCao
Jun 15, 2025A: I think you refer to "Team Management" which is an management page where a team creator/admin manages a team properties, such as user membership, you can add/remove users to the team to share the same team workspace for creating and sharing graph stories.
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Yes!
I want to understand further of your need, would you like to have a quick meet & chat? If yes, let's find a time - https://zcal.co/cao
I have no issues. You answered my question, thank you!
Q: Roadmap
Are there plans to add new features to this product? I want to use it more but it feels like LLMs can compete with this product with a single prompt
ShawnCao
Jun 8, 2025A: if you think LLMs can compete with Columns, then personalized data story design / hosting and sharing are not major benefits you need.
It is not a simple LLM wrapper - LLM takes < 5% of it, I think. Feel free to send feature request to its support channels.
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Q: Chart Embeds - Prohibit data download
When embedding a chart on a page, there is a link that says -> view on columns, where the user can switch between the chart and the tables. The user can also download the data. Is it possible to remove this link when embedding a chart?
It also allows anyone to just embed the chart without giving any proper rights to use the data.
I'd ideally not want the data to be downloaded or have the user go to an external link.
Is there a solution?
Thanks
ShawnCao
May 26, 2025A: Yes. You can disable the "view on columns" button as well as "graph filter", these two settings are located at the bottom of general setting tab.
You can also set domain whitelist in the graph sharing dialog so that the graph can only be loaded in the domain you specified, others can not do that.
So I think these are solutions for both of your concerns.
Share Columns
Q: Columns is not recognizing a valid date format??
When I connect my Google Sheets file to Columns, it is not recognizing the date column as a valid Time series. Why is that?? The current format is "05-20-2025". The schema is only seeing it as text. According to the documentation, this is a valid format (UsDateFull: 'M/d/yyyy', 'MM/dd/yyyy').
ShawnCao
May 24, 2025A: We will use support channel to analyze your data and see why DATE is not recognized, based on what you provided, it should.
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You are right, that’s a valid date, it should work. But do all values follow the correct format?
Can you share your sheet with me to test? Can send email or live chat.
Verified purchaser
Yes, I can share. Please send me your email address. Thanks
Please click "Email" from this page - https://columns.ai/contact to get in touch through email.
Q: Process to get more seats
I got the tier 1. Amazing software. What is the exact process for getting more seats? It looks like I should get tier 2 to get 3 seats and then put in the redeem codes but not sure if that is the best way to get more seats.
Concerned that if I just grab tier 2 the codes might not go to my main account and it might cause a mess. A video tutorial to show upgrading for the visual learning sumolings would be fantastic.
ShawnCao
May 1, 2025A: Thanks for your comment!
The way you described is correct - by redeeming multiple codes in your main account, you automatically become admin of a newly created team which has a shared workspace for every member you added.
Just a Note: due to low adoption, we have stopped enhancing team feature, instead of improving sharing functions across different accounts. So you can also get multiple license for different people, and use data sharing function to share connected data.
Share Columns
Verified purchaser
Can I remove or replace team member accounts just in case I don't work with them anymore in the future ?
You can freely add/delete members from your team management page.
Q: Comparison with chart pixel and instacharts
Can you please let me know how columns.ai is different from the other 2 offerings in Appsumo like instacharts and chart pixel?
ShawnCao
May 20, 2025A: I am not sure what they are good at - what do you need? I can help answer if Columns fits your need or not.
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Q: Is MySQL support ready?
ShawnCao
Mar 10, 2025A: Unfortunately not. Sorry about that.
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Q: Are you able to make it work in Bulgarian language?
ShawnCao
Feb 1, 2025A: it works with any language, though UI is in English.
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Q: Interactive Maps?
Hi, is it possible to create an interactive map like this and embed on my website?
https://www.authorityhacker.com/side-hustle/infographic/
If so, take my money!
ShawnCao
Jan 16, 2025A: Check out this - https://columns.ai/visual/view/mdjQtHG3FgvSyy
Way more flexible than anything you find on other tool - just design your own theme to visualize your map and share it or embed it.
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thank you for the quick reply, I will check it out.
FYI. current tooltip on choropleth has some issue, now it's fixed.
Q: can we pull/sync data from excel web/sharepoint?
ShawnCao
May 14, 2024A: It’s on our Todo list but not available yet.
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Verified purchaser
I hope it is available soon. ;)
another question, except USA, world and China maps, are there any chart/report map from other country ?
Map is also to support country by country, currently only US and World are supported.
Has the pull/sync data from Sharepoint now been built, or not yet? If not, ay ETA? This would be our main use case, so really important for us (and I would think, to many others)...
Thanks!
I'm so sorry - given the current resources we have, we will not be able to put this in plan, at least for yr 2025.
Q: csv on google drive
I use python to update a CSV file on google drive. Could Columns access it and stay up to date in real time?
ShawnCao
Jan 5, 2025A: Yes. You will need to make sure your csv file is accessible by Columns.
You will need HTTP API connection type when setting up this data source.
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Q: About Plan 1 vs Plan 2
Hi!
1) Plan 1 differs from Plan 2 only on seats (1 for P1, 3 for P2)?
2) Both Plan 1 and Plan 2 AppSumo LTD maps to Premium?
3) Plan 2 really have SSO integration? Your Premium doesn't have that SSO?
Regards!
ShawnCao
Jan 3, 2025A: Thanks for your questions. Here are the answers:
1) yes
2) yes
3) no - SSO integration was implemented with Okta, but nobody used, we don't plan to maintain it any more.
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Q: Can Column.
ai do more advanced statistics like inferential statistics, calculating p-value, confidence intervals, etc
Thanks
ShawnCao
Jul 12, 2024A: No now, we don't have built any modeling scenarios into it yet beyonds the basic aggregations.
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Will it be supported later ? Is it in the roadmap ?
Expanding charting capability is always on the roadmap, but it's all driven by demand. So I would not promise those advanced special cases to be supported easily soon.
Q: Since you don't offer Bar Charts (e.
g. TradingView Lite integration) for Stocks and other Financial Assets (correct me if I simply missed it being present already):
1) Could I integrate an external library to create my own template?
2) If not external libs are supported, could I at least define my own SVG / Path as template to use to dynamically "plot" data to my liking?
I am fully aware that this is likely a very exotic use case, so dont bother to tell me its not there/not planned. :)
ShawnCao
Jul 1, 2024A: I think there is a chance to inject some of your custom avg for styling. But yes, not planned for now.
And I’m curious why the title says “since you don’t offer bar charts”, isn’t Bar Chart the basic one on Columns?
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Maybe a case of overloaded language -- I think the user meant candle stick style stock/FX charts instead of standard bar charts used in analytics landscape.
Thanks for helping clarify this, :) yes, we have boxplot type which is similar to candle stick but not very limited, definitely not suitable for stock type of analysis presentation.
Will the candle stick chart supported later ?
Possibly - Columns will not focus on specialized charting, like candle stick for stock market. Unless there is a strong demand, otherwise likely it will not be prioritized in short time as I can tell.
Q: What is the website?
ShawnCao
Dec 14, 2024A: https://columns.ai
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Thank you,