Structuring your data in Grist before building the tool
From shared spreadsheets to structured data: we start by listening to you.
With La Suite numérique, the French public sector is finally getting tools that are up to the task. But adopting these new tools and structuring data that is often scattered across many spreadsheets is far from easy. We help you get this migration right and build the business tools that will help your team succeed tomorrow.
When the shared spreadsheet is no longer enough
You may recognise the situation: a spreadsheet emailed around, several versions of the same file that end up contradicting one another, copying and pasting from a form, errors that are hard to correct, a spreadsheet nobody but its author knows how to change. At the other extreme, custom-built business software is expensive and inflexible.
Grist opens up a third way: the simplicity of a spreadsheet, with the rigour of a database. But the data still has to be well organised: without a clear structure, a Grist document can also become hard to follow. That is where we come in.
Who is it for?
Our offer is aimed first and foremost at the public sector. Your team doesn't use Grist yet? We help you get started on grist.numerique.gouv.fr.
We work at every stage: your first Grist document, migrating your spreadsheets, reworking a document that has become too complex, custom widgets. We also train your teams and support them as they start out on Grist.
Our approach
We always start by listening to you, to understand your project as a whole: the whole flow of work, each person's role and what gets in their way, and how your data connects to what your team does.
Understand your project: scoping
Together with you, we study your process, your organisation and what gets in the way today. We do this work with all the departments involved, getting them to talk to one another, so that each one can voice its concerns.
Describe your needs: the detailed specification
We set out what your tool must do and how your data fits together. This document is handed over to you.
Build your Grist with your data
Together with you, we organise your data in Grist: linked tables, and clear rules on who can see or edit what.
Train your staff and make them self-sufficient
Our aim: your staff understand their document and become more self-sufficient day to day. We train them, and you receive your Grist documents, technical documentation explaining how they are built, a getting-started guide and, where needed, a video tutorial.
To go further, we develop custom widgets: small modules displayed inside a Grist page to enter or present the data differently. They sit on top of this structure, can be picked up without training, like online software, and can be developed as open source.
You can entrust us with the whole process or only part of it, for example scoping and the specification. Any set-up, however, starts with scoping, even a short one.
Your first Grist? You are leaving your shared spreadsheets behind, or your team is starting out on grist.numerique.gouv.fr: we make your migration safe, from the structure of your data to the training of your teams.
Get your first Grist rightHas your Grist document become too complex? Tables nobody dares to change any more, Excel re-imports that break the views: we can start by reworking this document.
Rework your documentWho is behind Grist Factory?
I'm Antoine, and I founded Grist Factory in Bordeaux. Before that, I spent four years running a digital creative agency of about ten people, where I scoped projects, wrote specifications and managed delivery for institutions and cultural organisations. My recent experience at a higher-education institution convinced me that Grist and La Suite numérique give public-sector staff back control of their data.
What I bring to every project:
- hands-on project management: I manage your project from start to finish, from our first conversation until your teams have taken it over;
- an analyst's eye: I understand your processes and the logic of your data before proposing anything;
- a speciality, scoping: describing your needs precisely, with all the departments involved, before building anything.
I also develop open-source widgets and help other users on the Grist community forums.
Our widgets, open source and free of charge
At Grist Factory, alongside custom projects for our clients, we develop free, open-source widgets for the community.
Open code, to build digital commons
If you wish, we develop the tools we build for you as open source: their code is published under an open-source licence.
- Code you can review: your IT department and your CISO can examine it before any deployment.
- No lock-in: your team keeps the code and can develop it further, with or without us.
- A tool that serves others too: what is built for one team can be reused and improved by others.
This is what drives us: contributing, with the teams we support, to a shared effort to build digital commons around Grist. Tools built once, then shared and improved together.
Why Grist?
Grist combines the simplicity of a spreadsheet with the rigour of a database: tables are linked to one another, access rights are set per person or per group, and everything happens in the browser, with nothing to install. Grist is open-source software (Apache 2.0) published by Grist Labs, with major contributions from the French administration.
The instance run by the interministerial digital directorate (DINUM), grist.numerique.gouv.fr, is part of La Suite numérique. It is hosted in France on SecNumCloud-qualified infrastructure, the security qualification that ANSSI, the French cybersecurity agency, grants to cloud services. It has also received its security approval.
Grist provides the building blocks; our job is to assemble them with you, starting from your actual processes rather than a generic template. That is what separates a tool that is merely available from one your teams actually adopt.
Grist in French government: key figures
Grist is already widely used by the French State, and by local authorities as well.
30,000 users in March 2026
On grist.numerique.gouv.fr, the French State's instance, Grist grew from 5,000 users in February 2025 to 30,000 in March 2026.
Source: DINUM, 'La Fabrique du Libre #4', 12 May 202615 ministries and all 100 prefectures in January 2026
In January 2026, Grist was used by 15 ministries, all 100 prefectures and cities such as Lyon and Strasbourg.
Source: EU Open Source Observatory (OSOR, European Commission), January 2026First instance in July 2022
Grist has been used in French government since July 2022, when the ANCT opened the first instance; the DINUM instance was security-approved on 18 December 2024.
Source: the beta.gouv.fr page for grist.numerique.gouv.fr, accessed 5 October 2026
Frequently asked questions
Do we need to already be using Grist to work with you?
No. If your team doesn't use Grist yet, we help you get started on grist.numerique.gouv.fr and we train your teams. If you already use it, we work with you in the Grist where your documents live: grist.numerique.gouv.fr, your local authority's or public digital services operator's instance, an instance installed by your IT department, or Grist Labs' online service. We sell neither hosting nor licences.
There are free resources for learning Grist. Why call on us?
These resources are valuable, and we are happy to point you to them: webinars and documentation from the grist.numerique.gouv.fr team, an online course on Mentor, the ANCT's data help desk. But a migration that relies on one or two newly trained staff members remains fragile: the structural choices made at the start shape everything else. Our expertise lets us anticipate these issues and make your migration safe: we scope the project, build your documents with you, train your teams and support them until they are self-sufficient.
What kinds of organisations do you work with?
The public sector comes first, whatever your starting point: a first Grist to build, spreadsheets to migrate or a document to restructure. We also work with non-profits and businesses: our communication is aimed mainly at the public sector, but they are just as welcome.
Is Grist free?
On grist.numerique.gouv.fr, the French State's instance, yes: DINUM presents it as the State's free team platform. Elsewhere, Grist's core is open-source software (Apache 2.0 licence): a local authority or a department can install it on its own servers without paying for a licence. Grist Labs, which publishes Grist, also offers an online service, with paid plans. Our support, on the other hand, is a paid, tailored service: let's start by discussing your needs.
Can we migrate from Excel?
Yes. We don't just copy the file as it is: we start from what your data describes and build linked tables, then we check the data transfer with automated tests.
Do I have to go through every step?
No. You can entrust us with the whole process or only part of it, for example scoping and the specification. Any set-up, however, starts with scoping, even a short one, because we first need to understand the project as a whole: the whole flow of work, each person's role and what gets in their way, and how your data connects to what your team does.
Where do you work?
We work remotely, across the French-speaking world.
Where is our data hosted?
Wherever your Grist instance is: we do not host your data. The French State's instance, grist.numerique.gouv.fr, is hosted in France on SecNumCloud-qualified infrastructure, and it received its security approval on 18 December 2024. A self-hosted instance lives wherever your IT department or service operator installed it. For Grist Labs' online service, its documentation ('Data security' page, accessed 29 September 2026) states that it runs on Amazon Web Services in the United States: check this with your data protection officer under the GDPR.
Is my data secure?
Your data stays under your rules: in Grist, access rights are set per person or per group, and we work with the rights you grant us, for the duration of the project. Where confidentiality matters, our access to your documents can be covered by a signed agreement. Except in special cases, widgets run inside Grist itself: your data never leaves Grist. Every widget is audited by us before any deployment. Before installing a widget, we tell you whether it exchanges data with a service outside Grist. If the project gives us access to personal data, we act as a processor under the GDPR: we handle it on your behalf and on your instructions, under a written agreement.
What happens if Grist Factory is no longer available?
Your project stays in Grist, in your instance: the data and its structure belong to you and remain usable without us. You keep the specification, the technical documentation and the getting-started guide. Widgets are designed to rely as little as possible on outside components, the data remains readable in Grist even without them, and their code can be published under an open-source licence: another provider can take over.
A first Grist to build, a shared spreadsheet to put back in order, or a Grist document that has grown too complex? Let's talk about your project.
Grist is a trademark of Grist Labs.