These 6 spreadsheet apps put Microsoft Excel to disgrace

If you happen to’ve ever needed to calculate, arrange, visualize, or type by means of giant swaths of numerical information units, then there is a good likelihood that you have relied on Microsoft Excel to do a lot of the heavy lifting. As one of many first mainstream digital spreadsheet applications to hit the PC world, Excel has turn out to be a ubiquitous utility throughout the productiveness world.

Through the years, Microsoft has bolstered the capabilities of Excel, whereas additionally introducing it to competing platforms like Mac, iPadOS, and Android. That being stated, the standard Excel program has turn out to be more and more bloated resulting from characteristic creep, and Microsoft’s perpetual subscription-based enterprise mannequin is much less pro-user than ever earlier than.

Fortunately, there are a selection of stellar spreadsheet program choices out in the marketplace, a few of that are totally free and open-source (FOSS), and a few of which give attention to offering a cleaner consumer interface or superior digital collaboration flows. Listed here are six Excel alternate options that give Microsoft’s iconic spreadsheet app a real run for its cash.

LibreOffice Calc

A free and open-source lover’s dream

LibreOffice is a free and open-source suite of applications that features the whole lot you want to get began with a productive workplace movement. Included throughout the package deal is Calc, a spreadsheet app that provides huge functionality with out the large price ticket to match. Calc is full-featured, with tons of styling choices, a whole repository of customized templates, a State of affairs Supervisor for analyzing information, and a solver element for figuring out optimum values inside a dataset. By way of UI, Calc is considerably dated with its cluttered toolbar, but it surely manages to maintain important instruments effectively organized and simply accessible.

Apache OpenOffice Calc

Spreadsheeting with out the subscription charges

Apache OpenOffice is just like LibreOffice in that the 2 share a standard ancestry within the digital productiveness world. Each workplace applications are free and open-source, with the previous being maintained by the Apache Software program Basis and the latter by The Doc Basis. OpenOffice’s Calc program options wonderful compatibility with spreadsheet file codecs, and it is no-nonsense method to quantity crunching is appreciated. The app’s interface is fairly dated, with icons that appear to be they have not been touched in years, however the strip of choices alongside the highest make for a handy and highly effective setup general.

WPS Workplace Spreadsheet

A go-to cross-platform various

The cross-platform WPS Workplace suite is pretty well-known, coming pre-installed on most Amazon Hearth tablets. The app’s Spreadsheet element is fashionable and approachable, with a Microsoft Workplace-style ribbon UI close to the highest that may be collapsed to extend vertical display screen actual property. Spreadsheet itself is free to obtain and set up, although a recurring subscription payment is required to unlock superior modifying options. As a primary various to Excel, Spreadsheet is competent, with large file format compatibility and a presence on practically each PC and smartphone platform out in the marketplace.

Polaris Workplace Sheet

Spreadsheets, with a pinch of synthetic intelligence

Polaris Workplace is one other in style assortment of workplace productiveness apps, with availability throughout each PC and cell. This system’s Sheet element is a strong substitute for Excel, with a cell interface that I discover to be well-optimized for the small, tall screens all of us carry round in our pockets. Sheet is absolutely appropriate with Microsoft Workplace file codecs, coming in a package deal that’s light-weight and non-resource-intensive. The app’s built-in NOVA AI assistant can faucet into numerous giant language fashions (LLMs), together with from OpenAI, Perplexity, and different main gamers within the area. Sheet is free to get began with, although it gives a paid subscription possibility for unlocking further options and cloud storage.

Google Sheets

Digital collaboration made simple

In some ways, Google Sheets is the anti-Microsoft Excel. The place Excel was born in the course of the native PC program paradigm period, Sheets is a element of Google Workspace (previously GSuite), which was designed from the bottom up for the fashionable web age. As such, Sheets is primarily accessible by way of the online and thru a devoted cell app, with tightly-integrated on-line options optimized with real-time collaboration in thoughts. Sheets additionally advantages from Gemini AI integration, which places it forward of different spreadsheet applications from a cutting-edge software program standpoint. Whereas it is true that Microsoft gives its personal web-based variant of Excel with Copilot AI integration, Google Sheets stays the de facto commonplace for a lot of workplace employees.

Apple Numbers

Quantity crunching with Apple’s signature match and end

If you happen to personal an Apple system, then you have got out-of-box entry to the corporate’s proprietary iWork suite of workplace functions. Numbers is Apple’s equal to Excel, and it focuses on offering an intuitive consumer interface that slots seamlessly throughout the firm’s ecosystem. Numbers includes a ton of templates to select from, information filtering choices, Good Classes for fast numerical group, and a handy desk summarization utility. Whereas the app does embrace its personal in-house file format, it is simple to export spreadsheets for viewing and modifying on PC, Linux, Android, and different platforms.