AgGrid vs Angular Material Table: 7 Key Differences That Matter for Your Next Angular Project
Introduction
If you’re building an Angular
application, chances are you’ll need a data
table at some point. And that’s usually when
the big question comes up:
👉 Should I use AgGrid or Angular Material Table?
Both options are popular among Angular developers, but they serve very different purposes. While Angular Material Table is great for simple UI-driven projects that follow Google’s Material Design principles, AgGrid is built for enterprise applications where large datasets, complex features, and scalability are non-negotiable.
In this blog, we’ll walk
through 7
reasons why AgGrid is better than Angular Material Table for
most serious, data-intensive projects. If you’re working on
dashboards, CRMs, or enterprise-level apps, you’ll see why AgGrid
stands out as the right long-term investment.
1. Feature Depth & Customization
When evaluating UI components, feature depth is usually the first comparison point.
AgGrid:
Offers advanced features like row grouping, pivoting, hierarchical data display, drag-and-drop columns, and more.
Supports custom cell renderers, meaning you can render Angular components directly inside cells (buttons, dropdowns, or charts).
Includes built-in support for sorting, filtering, virtualization, and many grid options that usually save weeks of custom coding.
Angular Material Table:
Provides only the basic features: column sorting, simple pagination, and some filtering.
Customization is possible, but requires building additional logic and often becomes clunky for advanced requirements.
👉 If you’re building a simple table for a small app, Angular Material might do the job. But for complex, enterprise-grade UIs, only AgGrid delivers the flexibility you’ll need.
2. Performance with Large Datasets
One of the biggest reasons companies choose AgGrid is performance with huge datasets.
AgGrid:
Designed for high-performance rendering thanks to virtual scrolling (only the visible rows are rendered at a time).
Supports infinite scrolling and server-side row models — allowing you to work with millions of rows without crashing the browser.
Uses efficient change detection to handle rapid updates in real-time dashboards.
Angular Material Table:
Works fine with small datasets (up to a few thousand rows).
Once the data grows larger, performance drops significantly because it doesn’t have virtualization or server-side row model support out of the box.
👉 If your project involves financial data, analytics dashboards, or logs with millions of rows, AgGrid is the clear winner.
3. Enterprise-Grade Functionality
For enterprise applications, it’s not just about displaying rows—it’s about enabling rich data interactions.
AgGrid:
Supports data exports to CSV, Excel, and PDF.
Offers range selection, clipboard copy-paste, inline editing, and row grouping.
Has built-in charting options for visual reporting within the grid.
Includes row drag-and-drop, pinned rows/columns, and tree views for hierarchical data.
Angular Material Table:
Lacks direct support for exports, row grouping, pivoting, or charting.
Developers need to rely on third-party libraries or custom implementations to get enterprise-level features.
👉 If you’re
targeting enterprise
clients, they expect dashboards and grids to come
with these features out
of the box—that’s exactly what AgGrid excels at.
4. Flexibility & Theming
Aesthetics and customization are also critical when building polished UIs.
AgGrid:
Offers multiple built-in themes (Alpine, Balham, Material Theme).
Supports custom SCSS overrides, allowing you to create branded table experiences.
Flexible enough to work outside of Material Design constraints—great if your product has its own design system.
Angular Material Table:
Strictly follows Google’s Material Design principles.
Consistency is great, but customization is limited. Departing too far from Material guidelines means writing a lot of custom CSS.
👉 If you want flexibility and brand-specific UI experiences, AgGrid offers far more control than Angular Material Table.
5. Integration with Angular Ecosystem
Since both are Angular-friendly, integration matters.
AgGrid:
Works seamlessly with RxJS/Observables for live data streams.
Compatible with Reactive Forms for inline editing inside grid cells.
Provides multiple hooks and callbacks to extend and customize grid behavior.
Plays well with third-party Angular libraries (NgRx, GraphQL clients, etc.).
Angular Material Table:
Integrates with Angular basics easily, but is less flexible with features like Reactive Forms or live-streaming Observables.
Developers often need to write custom services to handle advanced use cases.
👉 For a project with real-time updates, complex workflows, or reactive forms inside grids, AgGrid integrates much better with Angular’s reactive ecosystem.
6. Community & Enterprise Support
Support and learning resources can make or break a library’s usability.
AgGrid:
Huge community adoption with tons of GitHub stars, StackOverflow questions, and blog tutorials.
Provides paid enterprise support, ensuring guaranteed help for businesses.
Frequent updates and active development cycle.
Angular Material Table:
Maintained by the Angular team but evolves slowly compared to AgGrid.
Community support exists but is limited since fewer developers push Material Table to enterprise use cases.
👉 If you’re working on a critical Angular project for clients, enterprise support from AgGrid provides peace of mind.
7. Long-Term Scalability
Finally, consider scalability—can your choice grow with your project?
AgGrid:
Built for long-term enterprise growth.
Adaptable to dashboards with multiple grids, large-scale data sync, and real-time monitoring.
Already trusted by Fortune 500 companies and is continuously expanding its feature set.
Angular Material Table:
Great for MVPs, prototypes, or small/medium apps.
Struggles to scale as feature requests grow—you’ll often find yourself building missing features from scratch.
👉 If scalability is
important from day one, AgGrid
future-proofs your project.
Conclusion
When comparing AgGrid vs Angular Material Table, the answer ultimately comes down to project complexity.
Choose Angular Material Table if:
Your app is small.
You just need a quick, lightweight data table with minimal features.
You want strict Material Design compliance without custom branding needs.
Choose AgGrid if:
You’re building an enterprise-level application.
You need to handle large datasets efficiently.
Your project requires exports, pivoting, grouping, editing, and flexible theming.
You care about long-term scalability and enterprise-grade support.
👉 Bottom line: Angular
Material Table is great for simple apps, but AgGrid is the clear
winner for enterprise Angular development.