# Svelte Headless Table vs AG Grid A full enterprise grid vs a Svelte-native headless table toolkit ## Overview AG Grid is a complete, styled data-grid platform with community and paid Enterprise features, including pivoting, master/detail, range selection, charts, and a server-side row model. It has no first-party Svelte adapter; Svelte applications can mount the JavaScript grid directly or use an outdated community wrapper. @humanspeak/svelte-headless-table is a first-party Svelte 5 headless toolkit for applications that want to own the markup and do not need spreadsheet-grade enterprise features. - **Svelte Headless Table site:** https://table.svelte.page - **Svelte Headless Table npm:** https://www.npmjs.com/package/%40humanspeak%2Fsvelte-headless-table - **Svelte Headless Table slug:** svelte-headless-table - **Category:** Multi-framework enterprise grid - **Approach:** Configuration-driven `ag-grid-community` core + framework wrappers - **Website:** https://www.ag-grid.com - **GitHub:** https://github.com/ag-grid/ag-grid - **npm:** https://www.npmjs.com/package/ag-grid-community ## Feature comparison | Feature | @humanspeak/svelte-headless-table | AG Grid | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Svelte 5 Native | Yes | No | `ag-grid-svelte@0.3.0` is an unofficial wrapper declaring `svelte: ^3` and `ag-grid-community: ^28 \|\| ^29 \|\| ^30`; current `ag-grid-community` is v36.1.0. Direct JavaScript mounting remains possible. | | First-Party Svelte Support | Yes | No | | | TypeScript Support | Yes | Yes | | | Headless Rendering | Yes | No | | | Sorting | Yes | Yes | | | Column Filters | Yes | Set / number / date filters | | | Pagination | Yes | Yes | | | Group By | addGroupBy plugin | Row + value grouping (Enterprise) | | | Pivot Tables | No | Enterprise only | | | Tree Data / Sub-Rows | Yes | Enterprise only | | | Master / Detail | No | Enterprise only | | | Row Selection | Yes | Yes | | | Column Resizing | Yes | Yes | | | Column Reordering | Yes | Yes | | | Virtual Scroll | addVirtualScroll plugin | First-class row virtualisation | | | Server-Side Row Model | BYO — store handles fetch | Enterprise only | | | Range / Cell Selection | No | Enterprise only | | | Licence | MIT | Community MIT, Enterprise commercial | | | GitHub Stars | Smaller community | ~15k | | ## Svelte Headless Table strengths - First-party Svelte 5 support via the package peer dependency — no community wrapper required - Application owns semantic table markup and can use any design system - Every shipped plugin is MIT; grouping and hierarchical rows are not paid features - Smaller conceptual and bundle surface for conventional application tables ## AG Grid strengths - Industry-leading feature set — pivot, master/detail, range selection, integrated charts - Server-Side Row Model handles infinite / large datasets through the framework, not the app - Enterprise support contracts available with SLAs - Battle-tested in financial, analytics, and BI dashboards at very large scale ## Svelte Headless Table limitations - You build all table markup, controls, and styling - Far smaller ecosystem and less evidence from very large production datasets - No pivot tables, range selection, or master/detail out of the box - No managed server-side row model — you wire data fetching yourself ## AG Grid limitations - No first-party Svelte integration; the unofficial wrapper targets Svelte 3 and AG Grid v28–30 while the current core is v36 - Pivot, tree data, master/detail, and server-side row model are gated behind the paid Enterprise licence - More package and API surface than conventional tables need - Markup and theming are controlled through AG Grid APIs rather than application-owned table elements ## Verdict Choose AG Grid when the grid is a major product surface and you need pivoting, master/detail, range selection, managed server-side data, enterprise support, or its mature ecosystem. Choose @humanspeak/svelte-headless-table for a Svelte 5 application table when first-party Svelte integration, application-owned markup, a smaller surface, and MIT grouping or hierarchical-row features matter more than enterprise-grid breadth. AG Grid Community is also MIT; licensing only differentiates features that AG Grid reserves for Enterprise. ## Keywords ag-grid svelte, ag-grid alternative, ag-grid enterprise, svelte enterprise data grid, ag-grid community