Skip to content
Water LLM

Guides › vs a spreadsheet

Comparison

Do I need a CRM, or is a spreadsheet enough?

The short answer

A spreadsheet is enough while you have a few dozen relationships and the discipline to update it. It stops working when keeping it current becomes the job: typing in last-contact dates, scanning for who has gone quiet, counting session hours. Water LLM keeps the spreadsheet — and does that updating for you from Gmail and Calendar.

Launching soon on the Google Workspace Marketplace. $30/month, or $300/year — one plan, every feature.

Side by side

Water LLMa plain spreadsheet
Last contact datesFilled in nightly from Gmail, Calendar and LinkedInTyped in by you, when you remember
Who’s gone quietFlagged: Ghosting, Follow-Up Due, Needs Follow-UpA filter you build, on dates you maintained
Session hoursCounted from Google CalendarAdded up by hand
Before a meetingA briefing with goals and last time’s notesSearch your inbox and notes
Check-in emailsDrafted in Gmail for the people who are slippingWritten from scratch
Google ContactsTwo-way syncSeparate
Price$30/month, or $300/yearFree
OwnershipA Google Sheet in your DriveA Google Sheet in your Drive

Which one is right for you?

Choose Water LLM if…

  • You have more relationships than you can keep in your head
  • You’ve stopped updating your sheet, or never started
  • You bill hours or packages and want them counted
  • You like spreadsheets — you just don’t want to be the one typing

Choose a plain spreadsheet if…

  • You have a handful of clients and a weekly habit of updating them
  • You don’t want any tool reading your email or calendar
  • Nothing has slipped yet, and you’d notice if it did

Common questions

I already keep clients in a spreadsheet. Can I bring it with me?

Yes. Your Google Contacts come in on the first sync, and the add-on can import contacts from a CSV and from your LinkedIn export, matching against people already in the CRM rather than duplicating them. Columns of your own can sit alongside Water LLM’s.

Is it still a spreadsheet afterwards?

Yes. It’s a normal Google Sheet. Cancel, and you keep it with everything in it.

What do I need to use it?

A Google account with Gmail and Google Calendar. A free Gmail account works; Google Workspace is recommended if you have a large contact database, because Workspace accounts get higher daily limits from Google.

How much does it cost?

One plan with every feature: $30 a month, or $300 a year ($25 a month). No per-seat pricing and no feature tiers. Water LLM is launching soon — join the waitlist and we’ll email you when it’s on the Google Workspace Marketplace.

Try the CRM that runs in your own Google Sheet.

Join the waitlist and we’ll email you the day Water LLM is on the Google Workspace Marketplace.