Microsoft excel is a part of Microsoft Office that is used for creating
spreadsheets, result sheets, charts, tables, reports etc. Microsoft excel is
a commercial spreadsheet application build and designed by Microsoft, Excel
Online is very useful for small enterprises on a tight budget.
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| Best Microsoft Excel Alternatives |
free alternatives to microsoft excel. Although, Microsoft excel is a
feature rich application and has a vast number of functions with awesome
navigable structure. But it has some drawbacks as well which lead its users
to look for best Microsoft Excel Alternative. Let’s head to the article and
see what are those best excel alternatives.
Top 10 Best Microsoft Excel Alternatives
In this list I have rounded up top 10 best Microsoft excel alternatives tools
but, before moving to alternatives of MS Excel, firstly we will see why
Microsoft office excel and why it’s alternatives. Below I have described why
Microsoft excel is used and what are the characteristics which make it so
useful. Afterward, we will get to know why we should opt for Microsoft excel
alternatives!
Usage of Microsoft excel
Apparently Microsoft excel is one of the best spreadsheet programs which is
widely used for maintaining data, creating charts, making results etc and the
best part about excel is it doesn’t require any additional technical skills.
Some of it’s uses are described below.
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Apart from basic uses I said above, Microsoft excel is also used to bring
information from various files and documents together and place them at the
single location. -
With the help of excel, a user can define custom formulas across a grid of
cells for the calculation and make the calculation easy which makes excel
more appealing to its users. -
You can use various charts and graphs with the help of excel and make your
data more emphasis to business reports.
Drawbacks of Microsoft excel
Though, Microsoft excel is possibly the most used computer programs by
professionals and widely used for creating spreadsheet’s but still it holds
some drawbacks as well. Now heading over the drawbacks of MS Excel and after
that, we will see which is the best alternative of Microsoft excel.
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The main drawback of Microsoft excel is it’s not free. And if you have
planned to buy it, then you may not find it cheap since it is an expensive
application. -
The another drawback of excel is, it is NOT available on all the platforms.
Furthermore, it doesn’t have reliable collaboration and sync features, and
it also lacks many customization options. -
Furthermore, it lacks some customization options and sometimes using a big
file can make program slower. And as the result, it drop downs the computer
performance. If you face the slow computer at any point of time consider
reading our previous guide
25 Quick Ways To Speed Up Your Computer
Performance.
So, in order to overcome these drawbacks, you can try these excel alternative
tools I have described below, best free alternatives to microsoft
excel.
1. Best Cloud_Based Excel Alternative. Google Sheets
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| best microsoft excel alternatives |
Google Sheets from free alternatives to microsoft excel. When we are talking
about best Excel alternative then
Google Sheets
deserves to be at the first place. Google sheet contains every single thing
which a Microsoft excel program should have. It covers all the drawbacks I
mentioned above! Apart from that, unlike Microsoft office excel, it doesn’t
need any installation neither it consumes space.
Google sheet best free alternatives to microsoft excel. With the help of
google sheets, you can easily create and modify tables, charts, and other
spreadsheets. Google Sheets also enables versioning and stores detailed change
documentation. So if you have ever felt the need of free Microsoft Excel
alternatives you can go for it. The best part about this google sheet is, it
can be edited by multi people at a time. And all the data or changes would be
saved in real time, Google Sheets files are saved to the cloud, And Best Free
Spreadsheet Program.
2. Microsoft Office Online (Excel)
If you are not satisfied with google sheets functionalities and still looking
for spreadsheets alternative then Microsoft Office Online could be a better
choice for you. This is a clone of a Microsoft excel program. This is almost
like a Microsoft excel suite but online with minor addition features.
In this spreadsheet alternative tool, you will find many features but not all
since some power user features like mail merge, macros, Format Painter,
shading, borders, etc are lacking. that is contained by Microsoft office excel
2007,
The features you will find In all excel versions like Microsoft office excel
2007, Microsoft office excel 2010 or in any other versions, you may feel
missing Microsoft Office Online. Also, it does not have any offline version.
So to keep using this free excel Microsoft alternative, internet connection is
must to have. Else the app would be useless.
3. Smartsheet
Smartsheet from free alternatives to microsoft excel. Smartsheet is another
yes best alternatives for MS Excel for power users. Though it’s not a free
tool but you can get 30 days trial for free. Afterward, the payment can be
made on the monthly or yearly basis depends upon the choice.
Smartsheet renders almost all the features Ms excel does. Moreover, it offers
great collaboration features as well. Apart from the basic features, it has
some addition features as well like Calendar View, Gantt etc. Smartsheet’s
plans cost Basic $16/month with 3 GB storage, Team plan $50/month with 45 GB
storage for 3 users and Customized plan with for a price of $270 with 375 GB
space up to 25 users.
4. Zoho Sheets
Zoho sheet is not completely free alternatives to Excel but a good one!!. Zoho
docs is an office suite that makes managing documents simple. It offers
alternatives for MS Excel in the form of Zoho sheets.
Zoho docs have got the most easiest and simple interface along with reliable
collaboration. However it’s not the completely free tool but it offers some
free space. You can use Zoho sheet for 1 GB of storage. If you want more than
that space and features, you will have to pay.
It costs $5/month with 50 GB storage and $8/month with 100 GB will complete
features.
5. Apache OpenOffice Calc
Apache OpenOffice calc is one of free Microsoft excel alternatives you can go
for. Like Microsoft office Apache OpenOffice is a full-blown office suite and
Apache OpenOffice calc is a spreadsheet application like Microsoft excel that
is used for creating and editing programs.
This tool is completely free and has no limits regarding space and features.
But unlike Microsoft excel it’s not very feature rich program since it has
limited features which make it less competitor to Microsoft excel (Open source
software that can-be modified to fit ) . And if you talk about the interface
then let me tell you, the interface is bearable but the information regarding
the options is explained quite unwell.
6. Best for Apple Users – Numbers
For an iOS or Mac OS users, Numbers can be a perfect choice since it is a
built-in spreadsheet creation tool in all Apple devices. If you are an iOS
user then definitely you should opt for Numbers only.
For iOS and mac users Numbers can be a best Microsoft office alternatives. If
you have been using Microsoft excel then the structure of Numbers you may find
different than Excel and it may take a little longer to get used to it. But
once you are into it, it can be the best approach.
In short it is the best tool for both beginners and frequent users. This tool
is created by Apple itself so you will find this spreadsheet tool in all apple
devices inbuilt.
7. WPS Office Suite
Though, WPS office suite is probably very known to android users. But if you
don’t know about it then, PS office suite is an office suite for smartphones
and tablets. This is a best Microsoft office alternatives for basic and minor
editing which can be done on phones.
is there a program like excel for free? Yes, there are WPS Office Suite. WPS
Office Suite is a completely free tool on Smartphone but with limited
functionality still basic tasks and can be done on this suite with ease.
Moreover, to use WPS Office suite you don’t need to create any account on
phones unlike Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.
8. LibreOffice Calc
LibreOffice Calc from free alternatives to microsoft excel, LibreOffice Calc
is another great Excel alternative which is quite similar to Microsoft office
excel 2003. If you have been using Microsoft office excel 2007 and Microsoft
office excel 2003 then hardly you will face any difficulty in operating this.
It has a very easy to understand interface and amazing import and export
features and is pretty similar to Office 2003. It is totally free Excel
alternative. This is basically used as spreadsheet editing tool.
9. Gnumeric
Gnumeric is one of the spreadsheet alternatives which is released under the
authority of GNU public license and is a component in GNOME office suites. It
lets users to process thousands of entries in a go without any obstruction you
face in Microsoft excel.
Gnumeric is best microsoft excel alternatives for Linux and android and iOS,
including Windows. As it is clear with its name that it is best at performing
numeric calculations its calculation and results are as accurate as Microsoft
excel that too more reliable and faster. So if you are in search of best
alternatives to Microsoft excel then you can go for Gnumeric as well. It’s
completely free tool.
10.PlanMaker
This is the most cheaper Microsoft excel alternatives. If you are looking for
alternatives to excel that too in a very cheap rate then nothing would suit
you better than Planmaker. Though there is no competition with Microsoft
excel, but still it has pretty similar functions to excel docs.
why Planmaker is one of the best free alternatives to Excel. Along with
the basic features, you can also use color for writing and highlighting the
fonts to make your work more attractive. Planmaker is not completely free but
you can use its free trial for 30 days. Afterward, you will have to pay €69.99
for Standard version and €89.95 for the professional version.
So, I guess now you have found the best Microsoft Excel alternatives and also
free alternatives to excel since I have shared some of the free alternatives
as well. Sometimes using Microsoft excel might be difficult and cost much than
our budget and for android users handling PC programs like Microsoft excel
2003, Microsoft excel 2007, and Microsoft office itself can be a little tough
task to handle.
Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs )
Is There a Free Version of Microsoft Excel?
Yes : If you’re a student, teacher or faculty member, All you have to
do is fill out this form on Microsoft’s
website
with your school email address: Get started with Office 365 for free, through
Microsoft, with Word Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, Microsoft Teams.
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