The 7 best alternatives to Excel

The office suite Microsoft 365 Microsoft has more than 1.100 billion users worldwide, a spectacular figure that reflects the success of its programs. Among them, perhaps the most notable is its spreadsheet tool. In this post we are going to analyze some of the most popular features of Microsoft. best alternatives to Excel.

It is true that for many years Microsoft Office Excel has been the reference software when it comes to spreadsheets. It has powerful features and great capabilities that make it perfect for both individual users and organizations and businesses. An excellent solution for managing and analyzing data.

So, with Excel being the best option, why should we look for alternatives? There are several reasons for this. On the one hand, the existence of Other options are more or less the same, but cheaper or even free.; on the other hand, there are similar programs that offer some more specific functions that cannot be found in Excel.

All this is reflected in our selection: the 7 best alternatives to Excel:

airtable

The first of our alternatives to Excel is called airtableThis tool is very flexible, combining the simple features of spreadsheets with the complexity of databases. Its interface is visually attractive and it is not difficult to learn how to use it.

Among other advantages, with Airtable you can seeVisualize data in different formats, allows you to add comments and notifications to work in real time, as well as configure your options for automate repetitive tasks. Excel is superior only in terms of graphics quality.

However, it must be said that Airtable's advanced features, the ones we are really interested in, are only available in the Payment plans ($20 per month for individual users and $45 for businesses).

Link: airtable

Equals App

A platform designed to streamline data collection and reporting tasks. Equals App It is a very efficient tool capable of centralizing and updating metrics automatically. It allows the user to
create custom dashboards for data visualization and makes it really easy to share data and reports between team members.

If you are relatively comfortable with Excel, learning how to use Equal App is very easy. Only the more complex functions require a little more time. These functions are paid for, available for $39 per month.

Link: Equals App

Gnumeric

This is one of the best free alternatives to Excel: Gnumeric. It is a open source spreadsheet program equipped with several functions for data analysis and reporting. And all with an aesthetic very similar to that of the original Microsoft program, which can be very helpful for those who are too accustomed to it.

Its performance is fast and efficient, even if we use it on computers that are already a few years old. It can carry out complex calculations and offers many different options for data visualization. A plus in its favor is the fact that it has a community of users and developers dedicated to constantly updating and improving the program.

There are some aspects that could be improved, such as cloud integration, but can you ask for more from a free program?

Link: Gnumeric

Calc (LibreOffice)

Of all the alternatives to Excel that exist, the one of the LibreOffice spreadsheets (call Calc) is probably the best known. We are talking about an open source office suite that offers us a very complete set of data analysis and report generation tools.

Among its main features it should be noted that it is a open source platform with regular updates, fully compatible with Microsoft Office file formats, and advanced data analysis and visualization capabilities.

It needs to improve aspects such as cloud integration and its user interface is not as intuitive as other alternatives. However, it is a free program continuously reviewed and improved by the user community.

Link: Calc (LibreOffice)

WPS Office

WPS Office It is a very complete office suite that includes an excellent spreadsheet application, Easy to use and with many advanced features availableAmong other interesting aspects, it is worth mentioning its aesthetic similarity to Excel, the possibility of choosing between different writer modules and the direct export function to PDF.

But the most important thing is undoubtedly its ability to perform complex calculations and provide data analysisThe basic version is available for free. However, to access the advanced features you have to pay $29,99 per year (just over 2 euros per month at the current exchange rate).

Link: WPS Office

Apache (OpenOffice)

Along with Calc from LibreOffice, we can consider the Apache application of the OpenOffice office suite as one of the best Excel alternatives available today. It is another open source spreadsheet software packed with features for data management and analysis.

Visually, Its interface is very similar to other previous versions of Microsoft Office, which is a great help when it comes to getting familiar with its options (i.e. the learning curve is lower). Apache allows us to perform complex calculations and data manipulation, with a special focus on stability.

Link: Apache (OpenOffice)

Smartsheet

The last proposal on our list of best Excel alternatives is SmartsheetIn this case, we are dealing with a work management platform that combines project management functions with spreadsheets.

Automated tasks, workflows, dGantt charts or custom views are some of the features worth highlighting in Smartsheet. All of these aspects have been designed with the user in mind. team project management and the needs of users for make data-driven decisions.

Smartsheet's weak points include the difficulty of learning how to use its advanced features (available from $7 per month) and the limited range of features available. graphics options, clearly inferior to those of Excel.

Link: Smartsheet