It comes down to where your data lives and what you need to do with it. If your data is captured in Gravity Forms and you want to display, edit, or moderate those submissions on the front end, GravityView is the native fit: it reads your live entries and turns them into searchable tables, directories, and single-entry pages. If your data lives in a spreadsheet, CSV, Google Sheets, WooCommerce, or Fluent Forms, or you are hand-building a pricing or comparison table, Ninja Tables (WPManageNinja) is the simpler, lower-cost, more general choice, and it has a free version. The two are not mutually exclusive, and plenty of sites run both: Ninja Tables for static, hand-maintained tables and GravityView for live form submissions. The deciding question is almost always whether your data starts as Gravity Forms entries or as something else.

Not natively. Ninja Tables connects to manual entry, CSV, Excel, and JSON imports, Google Sheets, WooCommerce, WP Posts, and custom SQL, but it has no Gravity Forms connector. Its one native form integration is for Fluent Forms, WPManageNinja’s own form plugin. The only way to get Gravity Forms data into Ninja Tables is to export your entries to a CSV and import that file, which produces a static snapshot that will not update as new entries arrive. If you want the table to stay in sync with live submissions, GravityView reads your Gravity Forms entries directly, so it reflects new, edited, and deleted entries automatically.

No, GravityView’s only data source is Gravity Forms entries. If your data already lives in a spreadsheet, CSV, Google Sheets, WooCommerce, or Fluent Forms, Ninja Tables connects to all of those directly and is the better fit for non-form data. There is a well-trodden bridge if you prefer GravityView, though: import your CSV into Gravity Forms first with GravityImport, and from that point the rows are normal entries you can display, search, edit, and export like any other form data. The trade-off is that this is an import rather than a live link to the original spreadsheet, so choose GravityView when the data should ultimately live in Gravity Forms, and Ninja Tables when it should stay in its source.

This is where the two part ways. GravityView turns the same Gravity Forms data into more than a table: it offers Table, List, the interactive DataTables layout, Maps, and a DIY layout, and it can link each row to its own single-entry detail page. That makes it suited to member and business directories, job boards, real-estate or event listings, and searchable databases, not just a single grid. Ninja Tables outputs styled, interactive tables, plus charts through its companion Ninja Charts, but it does not build directories or individual detail pages. If you only need one well-designed table or chart, Ninja Tables covers it; if you need a browsable, linkable set of records, GravityView is built for that. The DataTables, Maps, and DIY layouts require GravityView Pro.

Yes, but the two work differently. With GravityView, logged-in users can edit their own Gravity Forms entries from the front end, and you decide exactly which fields are editable and who has access, so a submission can be updated without anyone touching the WordPress admin. You can also leave editing off and show entries as read-only, or pair editing with the built-in approval workflow so changes are reviewed before they go live. Ninja Tables also offers front-end editing, which is a Pro feature, but it edits the cells of a table directly rather than managing form submissions, their fields, and their permissions. So if the goal is letting people maintain their own records, GravityView’s editing is purpose-built; if you just need to tweak values in a static table, Ninja Tables handles that.

Yes, and it is one of the most common things people build with GravityView. Using GravityView Pro and its Advanced Filtering extension, you can restrict a View so each logged-in user sees only the entries they submitted, which is the basis for client portals, account dashboards, and “my submissions” pages. One thing that trips people up: enabling front-end editing alone does not hide other people’s entries; the per-user filtering is what limits the list to the current user, and that comes from Advanced Filtering. Ninja Tables has no equivalent per-user view of Gravity Forms entries, both because it does not read Gravity Forms data and because it is built to show one shared table rather than a personalized list.

Both are built with large tables in mind. GravityView paginates results by default so the page does not wait for every entry to load, and its DataTables layout (part of GravityView Pro) is designed for data-heavy sets: it processes data on the server and loads only the rows currently on screen, so a View backed by thousands of entries stays responsive. Ninja Tables also handles large tables and switches to AJAX-based processing for big datasets. In practice, performance at scale depends as much on your hosting and database as on the plugin, but for thousands of live Gravity Forms entries that need fast search and sorting, GravityView’s DataTables is the purpose-built option, while Ninja Tables is well suited to large static or imported tables.

Ninja Tables is the cheaper and more self-contained option. It has a genuinely free version on WordPress.org, and Pro starts at $79/yr for a single site, with agency and unlimited tiers available. GravityView has no free version: it starts at $119/yr, the DataTables, Maps, and DIY layouts need GravityView Pro at $199/yr, and because GravityView is an add-on for Gravity Forms it also requires a Gravity Forms license starting at $59/yr. So on price alone Ninja Tables wins, especially for non-form tables. What the higher GravityView cost buys is the live Gravity Forms connection plus the entry editing, approval, directories, and single-entry pages that a standalone table plugin does not include. Both also offer a one-time lifetime license if you would rather not renew, GravityView from $499 and Ninja Tables from $309, and both come with a money-back guarantee, 14 days for Ninja Tables and 30 days for GravityView.

Both can get your data out, with different formats and triggers. Ninja Tables exports a table to CSV and JSON, and that is included in the free version. GravityView exports entries to CSV and TSV out of the box; its DataTables layout adds front-end buttons that let visitors export the visible table to CSV, Excel, PDF, or print; and the GravityExport add-on adds advanced Excel and PDF reports delivered through a secure, shareable link. If you only need a plain spreadsheet of submissions, Gravity Forms itself can also export entries to CSV from the admin. So for a quick CSV both tools are covered, but if you need Excel or PDF output, or front-end export buttons your visitors can use, that points to GravityView with its DataTables and GravityExport options.