SvGrid vs svelte-headless-table - SvGrid blog illustration

SvGrid vs svelte-headless-table

A practical comparison of SvGrid and svelte-headless-table covering reactivity model, rendering approach, feature scope, and when each is the right choice for a Svelte 5 project.

Both libraries will show up if you search "headless table Svelte." Both are TypeScript-first and genuinely Svelte-native. That is where the similarities end. svelte-headless-table was designed for the Svelte stores era, and it shows. SvGrid was designed for Svelte 5 runes from day one, and that shapes every API decision it makes.

SvGrid vs svelte-headless-table

If you are on Svelte 4, stop here - svelte-headless-table is the right call and you should use it. If you are on Svelte 5, read on.

The reactivity model difference is not cosmetic

svelte-headless-table's core primitive is a readable store wrapping your row array. You create a table instance from that store, attach plugins (sorting, filtering, pagination), then render through <Subscribe> blocks that unwrap the derived store values inside your markup.

That pattern works. It is correct Svelte 4 code. But in Svelte 5, stores are a compatibility shim, not the native primitive. Every <Subscribe> block is ceremony that runes eliminate. When your product manager asks to add a filter next week, you are editing both the plugin chain and the render loop - they are coupled through the subscribe pattern.

SvGrid stores all internal state as $state and $derived. Sorting state is $state([]). The displayed rows are a $derived computed over filter -> sort -> group -> paginate. You do not subscribe to anything. You read api.getDisplayedRows() and get a plain array, synchronously, at any call site.

This matters when you need to feed grid data into something else - a chart, a summary card, a server mutation. With svelte-headless-table you need to derive a separate readable from the plugin pipeline. With SvGrid you call one method.

What "headless-first" actually means in SvGrid

The <SvGrid> component is a convenience layer, not the only entry point. The grid is built on createGrid and createSvGrid, which expose the row model, column model, sort state, filter state, and selection state as plain reactive objects.

import {
  createGrid,
  tableFeatures,
  rowSortingFeature,
  columnFilteringFeature,
  rowSelectionFeature,
  type ColumnDef,
} from '@svgrid/grid'

type Order = {
  id: string
  customer: string
  region: string
  amount: number
  status: 'pending' | 'shipped' | 'cancelled'
}

const features = tableFeatures({
  rowSortingFeature,
  columnFilteringFeature,
  rowSelectionFeature,
})

const columns: ColumnDef<typeof features, Order>[] = [
  { id: 'customer', field: 'customer', header: 'Customer', width: 180 },
  { id: 'region',   field: 'region',   header: 'Region',   width: 120 },
  {
    id: 'amount',
    field: 'amount',
    header: 'Amount',
    width: 110,
    align: 'right',
    format: { type: 'currency', currency: 'USD' },
  },
  { id: 'status', field: 'status', header: 'Status', width: 100 },
]

const grid = createGrid({
  data: $state<Order[]>([]),
  columns,
  features,
  options: {
    sorting:      { state: $state([]) },
    rowSelection: { state: $state({}) },
    filtering:    { state: $state([]) },
  },
})

With grid in hand you can render whatever markup you want. grid.getRowModel().rows is a reactive array of processed row objects. grid.getHeaderGroups() gives you column headers. FlexRender handles cell rendering when you use snippets or components. The <SvGrid> component uses these same primitives internally.

svelte-headless-table offers a similar escape hatch - you can render without the provided helpers by reading the table object's derived stores directly. The ergonomics differ: SvGrid's primitives are synchronous rune values, svelte-headless-table's are async-readable stores.

Sorting and filtering: API surface compared

Here is the same requirement implemented in both libraries: a table with multi-column sorting and a controlled text filter on the customer name column.

With SvGrid through the <SvGrid> component and imperative API:

<script lang="ts">
  import {
    SvGrid,
    tableFeatures,
    rowSortingFeature,
    columnFilteringFeature,
    type ColumnDef,
    type SvGridApi,
  } from '@svgrid/grid'

  type Order = {
    id: string
    customer: string
    region: string
    amount: number
  }

  const features = tableFeatures({ rowSortingFeature, columnFilteringFeature })

  const columns: ColumnDef<typeof features, Order>[] = [
    { id: 'customer', field: 'customer', header: 'Customer', width: 180 },
    { id: 'region',   field: 'region',   header: 'Region',   width: 120 },
    {
      id: 'amount',
      field: 'amount',
      header: 'Amount',
      width: 110,
      align: 'right',
      format: { type: 'currency', currency: 'USD' },
    },
  ]

  let data = $state<Order[]>([
    { id: '1', customer: 'Acme Corp',     region: 'West',  amount: 4200 },
    { id: '2', customer: 'BlueSky Ltd',   region: 'East',  amount: 1850 },
    { id: '3', customer: 'Cornerstone',   region: 'North', amount: 7300 },
    { id: '4', customer: 'Delta Systems', region: 'West',  amount: 3100 },
    { id: '5', customer: 'Echo Partners', region: 'South', amount: 950  },
  ])

  let api = $state<SvGridApi<typeof features, Order> | null>(null)
  let filterText = $state('')

  function onApiReady(ready: SvGridApi<typeof features, Order>) {
    api = ready
    // default sort: amount descending
    api.setSort('amount', 'desc')
  }

  function applyFilter() {
    if (!api) return
    if (filterText) {
      api.setFilter('customer', { operator: 'contains', value: filterText })
    } else {
      api.clearAllFilters()
    }
  }
</script>

<input
  type="text"
  bind:value={filterText}
  oninput={applyFilter}
  placeholder="Filter by customer"
/>

<SvGrid
  {data}
  {columns}
  {features}
  rowId="id"
  sortable
  filterable
  height={360}
  {onApiReady}
/>

With svelte-headless-table, the same requirement means constructing a table from a writable store, creating a addSortBy plugin and a addColumnFilters plugin, threading them into the render loop, and writing your own filter input that pushes into the filter store. The render block alone is typically 60-80 lines for a three-column table once you account for header row, filter row, body rows, and the <Subscribe> wrappers at each level.

Neither is inherently wrong. SvGrid's API is more prescriptive and saves time. svelte-headless-table's API gives you more control over the HTML structure.

Feature scope and what you build yourself

svelte-headless-table gives you: sorting, filtering, pagination, column ordering, grouping (experimental), and selection - all as composable plugins. Everything else is your responsibility. Virtualization, inline editing, column resizing, cell formatting, keyboard navigation, copy/paste: you build those.

SvGrid's community package includes virtualization, inline editing, cell formatting, conditional formatting, column resizing, row pinning, column pinning, keyboard navigation, named views, export, and a server data source adapter. The enterprise package adds pivot, collaboration, and HyperFormula-backed formula cells.

That scope difference is intentional on both sides. svelte-headless-table's maintainers built a composable primitive and left rendering to you. SvGrid is designed to be production-ready out of the package, with the headless core available when you need to drop down to it.

When to choose which

Use svelte-headless-table when: you are on Svelte 4, or you have highly custom markup requirements and want total control over the HTML output, or you need a zero-opinion primitive to build a design system component on top of.

Use SvGrid when: you are on Svelte 5 and want rune-native reactivity, you need features like virtualization or inline editing without writing them yourself, or you want an imperative API (api.setSort, api.setFilter, api.applyTransaction) for programmatic grid control from outside the component.

The reactivity model is the clearest differentiator. If you find yourself writing <Subscribe> blocks and deriving filtered stores in Svelte 5, you are working against the runes model. SvGrid's design assumes runes as the baseline, which is the right assumption for any new Svelte 5 project.

// SvGrid: read displayed rows synchronously anywhere in your component
const visibleRows = api.getDisplayedRows()
const selectedRows = api.getSelectedRows()

// Feed directly into a chart, a summary, or a server POST
const total = visibleRows.reduce((sum, r) => sum + r.amount, 0)
await fetch('/api/export', {
  method: 'POST',
  body: JSON.stringify({ rows: selectedRows }),
})

// Update grid data reactively - no store subscription needed
api.applyTransaction({
  add:    [{ id: '6', customer: 'FreshCo', region: 'East', amount: 2200 }],
  update: [{ id: '2', customer: 'BlueSky Ltd', region: 'East', amount: 2100 }],
  remove: [{ id: '5' }],
})

The applyTransaction call is worth noting specifically. svelte-headless-table expects you to update the source store and let reactivity propagate. SvGrid accepts a transaction object and handles internal diffing itself. For bulk updates or server-push scenarios, the transaction pattern is meaningfully faster because SvGrid can skip reconciliation for rows that did not change.

Related reading: the svgrid-headless-core-createGrid post covers using createGrid directly when you want to skip the <SvGrid> render component entirely, and the svgrid-column-filtering-feature post goes deep on filter operators and composing multiple filter conditions on the same column.

Tagged: Headless core