The links tab in your team spreadsheet is the real incumbent
3 min read · Comparisons & buying guides
Most teams do not choose between bookmark managers; they choose between a bookmark manager and the Links tab already in their team spreadsheet. The spreadsheet wins on cost and familiarity and fails in two predictable ways: access is all-or-nothing, so a contractor who needs two links gets all forty rows, and nobody owns maintenance, so dead links pile up. Linksley replaces it when access needs to differ per person and someone should be accountable for keeping links current.
Row 41 has been dead since March
Somebody made a Links tab in the team spreadsheet. It was the right call at the time. Two years later it has forty-one rows, three of the URLs 404, two point at a tool you stopped paying for, and the person who added them left in the spring. Nobody deletes rows in a shared sheet — deleting looks like vandalism when you are not sure who needs what.
It got chosen for good reasons: free, already open, instantly shareable, and everyone knows how to use it. Those reasons do not go away. They just stop being enough.
Failure one: access is all-or-nothing
A spreadsheet is one file with one permission surface. The contractor who needs the staging URL and the brand kit gets a link to the whole sheet — including the vendor portal, the payroll login and the row somebody labeled "do not share." The workaround is a second sheet, which is now a second thing to maintain and the day it drifts nobody notices.
A link tool splits this by design. In Linksley, a board is the unit of sharing: give the contractor one board, cap them at view-only, and the cap is enforced in the app and in the extension. "Can share" delegation lets a team lead hand out access without you being the bottleneck, and required boards let an admin push the list every member must have.
Failure two: nobody owns row 41
A spreadsheet has editors, not a maintainer. There is no signal when a link dies, no owner for a section, and no exit process — when the person who curated it leaves, nothing happens except a slow decline. Retrieval is ctrl+F against a file you first have to find, which is why people ask in chat instead, which is why the link gets pasted again.
A spreadsheet stores links; it does not govern them or put them where you work.Boards have owners, can be reassigned to a successor when someone leaves, and one action revokes a leaver's access while every link stays with the workspace. And they can be your new tab page, cached locally so the list is already open instead of waiting to be found.
When the spreadsheet is honestly fine
Keep it if the list is static, the group is small and trusted, and people consult it rarely. A ten-row reference for four colleagues who all have the same access is not a problem looking for a product. Migrating that is work with no payoff.
Switch when one of three things happens: you start onboarding people regularly and the sheet becomes the induction, you bring in contractors or clients who should see part of it and not all of it, or the links change often enough that stale rows cost real time. Import is not the hard part — export the sheet's links as a bookmarks HTML file or paste them onto a board — the hard part is deciding someone owns them.
Common questions
Is a spreadsheet of links good enough for a team?
For a small, trusted group with a short static list, yes. It stops being good enough when different people need different access, when new hires arrive regularly, or when links change often enough that dead rows waste time.
What is the main risk of sharing links in a spreadsheet?
Over-sharing. A spreadsheet has one permission surface, so anyone who needs two links gets the whole file, including rows meant for staff only.
How do I move a link spreadsheet into a bookmark manager?
Create a board, add categories that match your sheet's sections, and paste the links in — or import a browser bookmarks HTML file if you already have one. Each import lands as a board with its categories in Linksley.
Who keeps shared links up to date?
That is the point of moving off a spreadsheet: a board has an owner, can be reassigned to a successor when that person leaves, and access is revoked in one action while the links stay with the workspace.