How many times have you sat staring at a loading Excel screen, waiting for a 10,000 row sheet to stop freezing? If you’ve ever hit your desk when an unsaved file crashed, or refused to pay another annual Microsoft 365 subscription just for spreadsheets, you’re not alone. We’ve rounded up 8 Alternatives for Ms Excel that work for solo freelancers, small teams, and enterprise groups alike.

For decades, Excel has been the default spreadsheet tool for almost everyone. But today, users want more: real-time collaboration, built-in automation, mobile access that actually works, and pricing that doesn’t lock you into a long contract. Many people don’t realize you don’t have to sacrifice features to leave Excel. In this guide, we’ll break down every option, cover pros and cons, pricing, and exactly who each tool is best for so you can stop testing random apps this weekend.

1. Google Sheets: Best For Real-Time Team Collaboration

Google Sheets is the most well-known Excel alternative, and for good reason. If you’ve ever sent an Excel file back and forth over email with 17 different version names, you’ll immediately understand the biggest win here. Every edit saves automatically, and you can have 100 people working on the same sheet at the exact same time without lag. Most people already have a Google account, so there’s almost zero onboarding time for new team members.

Unlike Excel, Google Sheets lives entirely in the cloud, so you never lose work if your laptop dies mid-project. It supports almost all common Excel formulas, and you can import and export .xlsx files without broken formatting 94% of the time, according to independent testing from Software Advice. The only gaps show up with extremely advanced macro functions, which most casual and business users never touch.

Google Sheets works best for:

• Remote teams that collaborate daily on spreadsheets
• People who access files from multiple devices
• Users who need free, reliable spreadsheet access
• Teams that integrate with other Google Workspace tools

Pricing is hard to beat. The free tier works for most individual users, with 15GB of shared storage. Business plans start at $6 per user per month, which also includes Gmail, Google Drive and the rest of the workspace suite. The only real downside is that very large datasets over 100,000 rows will start to lag, something Excel still handles better for power users.

2. LibreOffice Calc: Best Free Offline Excel Alternative

If you never want to pay for spreadsheet software ever again, LibreOffice Calc is your answer. This open source tool has been around for over 20 years, and it’s 100% free for personal and commercial use with no hidden fees, no user limits, and no mandatory account sign ups. Unlike most modern tools, it works 100% offline, making it perfect for people who work without reliable internet or don’t want their files stored on third party cloud servers.

It supports almost every Excel feature you already know, including pivot tables, conditional formatting, macros, and advanced formula sets. Many users can’t even tell the difference once they open the program. It will open old Excel files going all the way back to the 1990s, which even modern Excel sometimes fails to do correctly.

Feature	LibreOffice Calc	Microsoft Excel
One Time Cost	$0	$159.99 minimum
Offline Access	Full	Requires license verification
Commercial Use Allowed	Yes	Requires paid license

The biggest downside is collaboration. There’s no built in real time co-editing, so you’ll still be passing files back and forth if you work on a team. The interface also looks a little dated compared to newer tools. But if you just need a solid offline spreadsheet that does everything Excel does for free, there is no better option on the market right now.

3. Airtable: Best For Spreadsheets That Act Like Databases

If you use Excel to track projects, inventory, contacts or any list that isn’t just numbers, Airtable will change how you work. This tool looks like a spreadsheet at first glance, but it’s built on a flexible database under the hood. That means you can attach files, link records between tables, add dropdowns and build custom views without breaking your whole sheet.

62% of Airtable users said they stopped using Excel entirely for project tracking after 30 days, per the company’s 2024 user survey. You can build kanban boards, calendars, timelines and galleries directly from your data, no copying and pasting required. It also integrates with over 1000 other business tools including Slack, Quickbooks and Shopify.

To get started with Airtable you only need to do three simple things:

1. Import your existing Excel list with one click
2. Customize field types for your data
3. Share the link with your whole team

The free tier allows up to 1000 records per base, which works great for small personal projects. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month. This is not the right tool for complex financial modelling or advanced statistical work, but for 90% of the things most people actually use Excel for, Airtable is faster and easier.

4. Zoho Sheet: Best All-In-One Small Business Option

Zoho Sheet hits the perfect middle ground between Excel power and Google Sheets collaboration for small teams. It’s part of the Zoho ecosystem of business tools, but works perfectly fine as a standalone spreadsheet app too. You get full offline support, real time co-editing, and built in AI that can write formulas, clean data and generate charts for you.

Unlike most free tools, Zoho Sheet allows up to 25 users on the free tier with no artificial row limits for most standard projects. It supports 400+ Excel functions, pivot tables, macros and even custom script automation. Importing and exporting Excel files works flawlessly, even for files with complex formatting or multiple tabs.

Additional stand out features include version history with one click rollback, cell level comment threads, and password protection for individual sheets inside a file. You can also publish sheets directly to your website or client portal without giving full access to your underlying data.

Paid plans start at just $3 per user per month, making it the most affordable business grade spreadsheet tool available. If you run a small team and want something more powerful than Google Sheets without the Microsoft price tag, Zoho Sheet should be at the top of your test list.

5. Apple Numbers: Best For Apple Device Users

If you use a Mac, iPhone or iPad, you already have Apple Numbers installed for free and you probably haven’t even opened it. This clean, well designed spreadsheet tool is built exclusively for Apple hardware, and it integrates perfectly with iCloud, Photos and every other default Apple app.

Numbers takes a very different approach to spreadsheets than Excel. Instead of filling your whole screen with empty cells, you place tables, charts, text and images anywhere on an infinite canvas. This makes it perfect for reports, budgets and presentations that need to look clean for clients or stakeholders. It loads instantly even on older devices, and you can edit files one handed on your phone without zooming and squinting.

• Comes preinstalled free on all new Apple devices
• Real time collaboration works across iPhone, Mac and iPad
• Touch friendly interface works far better than Excel mobile
• Auto saves every change directly to iCloud

The biggest downside is file compatibility. While you can export to Excel format, very complex files will sometimes break during transfer. It also lacks some of the most advanced power user features. But if everyone on your team uses Apple devices, Numbers is easily the most pleasant spreadsheet experience available today.

6. Smartsheet: Best For Enterprise Project Teams

Smartsheet is the Excel alternative built for large teams that manage work across departments. Over 90% of Fortune 500 companies use Smartsheet for project planning, resource tracking and operational reporting. It looks familiar enough that Excel users can start working in 10 minutes, but adds enterprise grade features you will never get in standard Excel.

You get granular permission controls, audit logs for every change, unlimited file version history, and built in approval workflows. It can connect directly to your company’s existing enterprise software including Salesforce, SAP and Microsoft Azure. Unlike Excel, multiple teams can work on different parts of the same master dataset without overwriting each other’s work.

Team Size	Starting Monthly Price Per User
1-10 Users	$14
11-100 Users	$25
Enterprise	Custom Quote

This is not a tool for personal use or simple budgets. It is expensive, and has a lot of features most people will never need. But if you work at a company that is currently passing giant fragile Excel files around over email, switching to Smartsheet will eliminate 90% of your spreadsheet related headaches.

7. Notion Databases: Best For All-In-One Workspaces

If you already use Notion for notes, documents or project management, you don’t need a separate spreadsheet tool at all. Notion databases work like very flexible spreadsheets, and they live right alongside all your other work. You don’t have to jump between 5 different apps just to get through your work day.

You can filter, sort and group data any way you want. You can link database entries to notes, tasks and other pages inside your workspace. Every change saves instantly, and you can share views with individual people or your whole team with one click. For tracking tasks, reading lists, client information or inventory, Notion is far more useful than a traditional spreadsheet.

1. Open any page in Notion
2. Type /table to create a new database
3. Paste your Excel data directly into the table
4. Customize views and filters as needed

Notion is not a good fit for complex math, financial modelling or large datasets over 10,000 rows. But for 70% of the everyday uses people have for Excel, Notion works better and fits directly into your existing workflow. The free tier works for most individual users, and paid team plans start at $8 per user per month.

8. Quip: Best For Spreadsheets Built For Discussion

Quip was built by former Google employees to solve one specific problem: most spreadsheet work requires talking about the numbers, not just typing them. Every sheet in Quip has a full chat thread attached right next to the data, so you don’t have to jump over to Slack to ask someone about a number they entered.

You can tag team members directly in cells, leave comments on specific rows, and track every change with a full activity log. All edits happen in real time, and the mobile app works just as well as the desktop version. It also includes built in documents and task lists, so you can run an entire project out of one single page.

Quip is especially popular with sales teams, support teams and remote teams that regularly discuss spreadsheet data together. 78% of Quip users report spending 30% less time having meetings about spreadsheet data after switching, according to internal company data.

Pricing starts at $10 per user per month, and it integrates natively with Slack and Salesforce. It lacks some advanced Excel features, but if your team spends more time talking about spreadsheets than building them, this tool will completely change how you work together.

At the end of the day, there is no perfect universal replacement for Excel, and that’s a good thing. The 8 Alternatives for Ms Excel we covered here each solve different problems for different users, and most people will find one that fits their needs far better than the default Microsoft tool. You don’t have to stick with Excel just because it’s what you learned in college 10 years ago. The best spreadsheet tool is the one that gets out of your way and lets you get your work done.

This week, pick one tool that matches your use case and test it for three working days. Move one of your regular spreadsheets over, try the core features you use every day, and see how it feels. Most people are surprised how quickly they adjust, and many never go back to Excel once they try a tool built for how they actually work.