Excel Alternatives for Windows, Mac, Linux and the Web

Microsoft Excel is not going anywhere, but the desktop app is a subscription for most people. The Microsoft 365 comparison page lists Personal at $99.99 a year or $9.99 a month, Family at $129.99 a year for up to 6 people, and Premium at $199.99 a year. The one-time Office Home 2024 costs $179.99 for one PC or Mac, without Copilot. On the business side, Microsoft 365 Business Basic at $7 per user a month, paid yearly, includes Excel only on the web and mobile.

The free route is Excel for the web with a Microsoft account, which covers most formulas but drops some desktop features. If that is not enough, the six alternatives below run from the closest match for everyday spreadsheet work to tools that change how you store data. Prices are in US dollars.

Prices below are as of November 8, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

Google Sheets

Google Sheets is the spreadsheet most Excel users already know. It is free with a Google account, runs in any browser, and handles live co-editing better than Excel for the web. Functions such as QUERY, IMPORTRANGE and GOOGLEFINANCE have no direct Excel twin, and Apps Script covers the automation you would write in VBA.

Companies usually buy it as part of Google Workspace. Business Starter is $7 per user a month on a one-year plan with 30 GB of pooled storage per user; Business Standard at $14 on the same plan adds Gemini inside Docs and Sheets and 2 TB per user.

Best for: Teams that share and edit spreadsheets together every day.

Pricing:

• Personal Google account: free
• Workspace Business Starter: $7 per user a month on a one-year plan
• Business Standard: $14 per user a month on a one-year plan
• Business Plus: $22 per user a month on a one-year plan
• Flexible monthly billing: about $8.40, $16.80 and $26.40; the one-year plan saves 16%

Watch out for:

• A spreadsheet tops out at 10 million cells, per Google's file size limits, well below what desktop Excel can hold.
• VBA macros do not run; they need rewriting in Apps Script.

Official site: Google Sheets.

LibreOffice Calc

LibreOffice Calc is the free desktop answer, with pivot tables, macros, conditional formatting and solid .xlsx import and export. The Document Foundation released LibreOffice 26.8 in August 2026, adding calculated fields to pivot tables and a Shuffle command for ranges, and XLSX form controls now appear in the Navigator.

It works fully offline: The Document Foundation says no component of the suite needs network access, and it has chosen not to add generative AI. For offices with strict data rules, that is a selling point rather than a gap.

Best for: People who want a free, private desktop spreadsheet on any operating system.

Pricing:

• Free and open source, no paid tier
• Optional donations to The Document Foundation

Watch out for:

• Some newer Excel chart types still do not render, though 26.8 stops them from being damaged on save, according to OMG Ubuntu's 26.8 review.
• Macros use LibreOffice Basic or Python, so complex VBA needs testing or rewriting.

Official site: LibreOffice Calc.

ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors

ONLYOFFICE is built around Microsoft's Office Open XML formats, so .xlsx files open with layout and formulas closer to Excel than in most free suites. The interface uses a ribbon with tabs, which makes it the least jarring change for long-time Excel users.

Version 10.0.0 was released on October 22, 2026 and is a rebuilt app. It adds optional AI Tools in beta, with support for MCP servers and web search, and moves the AI plugin out of the default install. The desktop apps are free for personal and professional use under AGPL-3.0.

Best for: Excel users who exchange .xlsx files with clients and want a free desktop editor.

Pricing:

• Desktop Editors: free for personal and professional use, AGPL-3.0
• Online collaboration (ONLYOFFICE Docs and DocSpace): separate paid plans

Watch out for:

• Version 10.0 cannot carry over some settings from older versions, and local templates were removed, per the ONLYOFFICE changelog.
• The AI features are beta and need a separate add-on install.

Official site: ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors.

Apple Numbers

Numbers takes a different approach from Excel. Instead of one big grid, a sheet is a canvas holding several small tables, charts and text boxes, which makes it good for budgets, trackers and reports you want to look tidy. It opens and exports .xlsx files.

The app is free on Mac, iPad and iPhone, and Numbers for iCloud runs in a browser on Windows. A 2026 update for Mac added new trigonometry and statistics functions for all users.

Best for: Apple users who build presentable spreadsheets rather than heavy models.

Pricing:

• Numbers: free to create, view and edit spreadsheets
• Apple Creator Studio subscription: premium templates and new intelligence features

Watch out for:

• The designed template collection is for Apple Creator Studio subscribers, as MacRumors reported in January 2026.
• There is no native app for Windows or Android, and large data sets slow it down sooner than Excel.

Official site: Apple Numbers.

Zoho Sheet

Zoho Sheet is a free online spreadsheet with apps for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS that also work offline. Zoho says its assistant, Zia, suggests charts and pivot tables, answers questions about your data in plain English, and can write formulas and VBA macro code or explain the ones already in a file.

It belongs to the Zoho suite, so it sits next to Zoho CRM and the other Zoho apps under one login. For small teams that do not want a Google or Microsoft account, it is the quickest free option here.

Best for: Small teams that want a free cloud spreadsheet with AI help on formulas and macros.

Pricing:

• Free for individuals and teams
• Also included in Zoho Workplace plans

Watch out for:

• The generative features of Zia are powered by ChatGPT, as the Zoho Sheet homepage says, which matters if your company limits sending data to outside AI services.
• Its add-on and template library is far smaller than Excel's or Google Sheets'.

Official site: Zoho Sheet.

Airtable

Many Excel workbooks are really small databases: a client list, an inventory, a content calendar. Airtable fits that job better, with typed fields, linked records between tables, forms for data entry and Kanban, calendar and gallery views of the same data.

The free plan works for a trial run. Team costs $20 per editor a month billed yearly or $24 monthly, and people who only read are free on Team and Business.

Best for: Workbooks that track records and need forms, links and views rather than formulas.

Pricing:

• Free: 1,000 records per base, 1 GB of attachments per base, 100 automation runs a month
• Team: $20 per user a month billed yearly, $24 monthly
• Business: $45 per user a month billed yearly, $54 monthly
• Enterprise Scale: custom

Watch out for:

• The free plan holds only 1,000 records per base, as the Airtable plans guide lists, so a large Excel sheet will not fit.
• It is not a calculation tool; financial models and what-if analysis stay easier in a spreadsheet.

Official site: Airtable.

How to choose

When to stay with Excel

Stay with Excel if you depend on Power Query, Power Pivot, large VBA projects or add-ins your company has built, or if your finance team swaps complex models with banks and auditors. No alternative here matches the desktop app on those. Microsoft 365 Apps for business at $10 per user a month, paid yearly, is the cheapest business plan with desktop Excel. If you are also replacing slides, our PowerPoint alternatives page covers that side of Office.

Frequently asked questions