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Appling is an unincorporated community in central Columbia County that remains the county's legal county seat, even though most Columbia County government offices now operate in nearby Evans.

The community is named for the Appling family; William Appling, who had settled in the area in 1772, offered the county five acres of his land for a courthouse and jail, and a courthouse was built on the site in 1793.

An act of the Georgia General Assembly on November 29, 1794, formally designated Appling as the county seat of Columbia County.

In December 1816, Appling was incorporated as a village laid out as a 600-by-600-yard square with the courthouse in the middle.

The Columbia County Courthouse in Appling reached its present form in 1856, when it was remodeled around the core of an 1812 courthouse in a vernacular style with Greek Revival and Italianate influences; the original solid wood doors of the earlier courthouse are still in use.

In the early 19th century, Appling was the political, educational, social, and religious center of Columbia County, with Mt. Carmel Academy and the Columbia Institute located nearby.

Appling lost its status as an incorporated city on June 1, 1995, when a 1993 Georgia law requiring cities to provide at least three municipal services stripped the charters of 187 inactive Georgia cities.

The old county jail in Appling was renovated by the Columbia County Historical Society, which now meets there.

Columbia County was created on December 10, 1790, as Georgia's 12th county, and it had grown to 156,010 residents by the 2020 census; Appling lies along U.S. Route 221 between Harlem and Clarks Hill Lake, within the Augusta metropolitan area.