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MS Excel Alternatives: Spreadsheet Tools That Get The Job Done

Spreadsheets are an essential part of modern businesses, and Microsoft Excel is the most popular software for managing, analyzing, visualizing, and forecasting data. This tool comes with a vast array of features and possibilities.

However, Excel can be complicated software to use, and not everyone can figure it out. Only one person can use Excel at a time,  making collaboration difficult. Moreover, Excel is a part of the Microsoft Office Suite that costs about $99 per year for business needs and $69 for personal use, making it quite an expensive option.

In case you're someone looking for a cheaper or easier-to-use tool, we have put together a list of Excel alternatives. But before we get into the alternatives, let's first understand if Spreadsheet tools are even important. Spreadsheet tools come with a wide range of functions that can help analyze data and convert it into easily presentable formats such as pie charts and tables.

Spreadsheet tools also help streamline and simplify complex calculations, taking an average person a long time to perform manually. Like the columns on Excel, we can go on and on, but we have a promise to uphold. So, here is that list of alternatives to Excel.

 

Google Sheets is the best alternative to Excel. It is an online application for work with graphs, reports and diagrams. The app gives collective access to the files so that a few users can see the same data in real-time. All the data is stored in the Cloud.

Other essential features are Google translate, Go Finance, Import Data, which greatly facilitate the work. You can manage your files in offline mode.

Hancom Office is a great alternative to MS Office. This software is very similar to Google Drive. It has three main functional features, such as Word for text editing; Cell for creating and working with spreadsheets similar to Excel; Show that helps to create a presentation.

Hancom Office supports all MS Office format files. You can run the program from desktop or mobile and manage your documents in real-time.

Zoho Sheet is a spreadsheet editor application allowing a user to create charts and diagrams, analyze data, edit and share all these documents. You can also provide universal access to these files. It is recommended for small companies. 

The app uses cloud-based storage that makes it possible to reach your docs everywhere anytime. Zoho Sheet supports formulas, and it can create graphics.

FreeOffice is an excellent app for teamwork and offers tools similar to the ones you can find in the Microsoft Office suite, like Text Maker, Plan Maker and Presentations. The Text Maker tool has a catalog of templates enabling you to create any document with ease.

The plan maker  feature of FreeOffice offers a menu with 350 features that will help you create spreadsheets, make calculations, and more, with no effort. And the best part - It's completely free!

Apple has worked out its spreadsheet program, which is easy to use and quick to manage. The application offers a wide selection of pre-made templates.

One of the main features is adding 3D graphs and diagrams to the document. You can share documents via email. Additionally, you still may save your docs as Excel files. Apple Numbers makes life easier.

LibreOffice is a free alternative to Microsoft Office. The application comes with features like Writer for editing texts, Calc for spreadsheets, Impress for presentations, Draw for diagrams, Math for applying formulas, and Charts.

LibreOffice supports various formats, and it will boost your office efficiency on a day-to-day basis, for free.

Quip is a Microsoft Office alternative that enables you to create beautiful documents on any device: phones, tablets and desktop. It offers a simple and elegant interface that combines documents and messages into a single chat-like thread of updates, making collaboration immediate and easy.

With Quip, you work with people, not files. Thousands of companies from a wide range of industries have adopted Quip to make communication and collaboration more efficient.

Gnumeric is an open-source application for work with spreadsheets. It allows you to make calculations, use formulas, build various charts and diagrams.

Gnumeric comes with a simple interface and features similar to Excel. Also, it's completely free.

WPS Office is a software from a Chinese developer created as an Excel alternative. It has an interface similar to Microsoft Office and it consists of three programs (Writer, Spreadsheets, and Presentations.)

In addition, WPS Office supports all file formats. It's a useful tool for those looking for alternatives to Microsoft.

Calligra is an open-source project that aims to deliver a comprehensive set of tools for document creation, data analysis, and presentation development. You can perform calculations, organize data, and create charts and graphs. It features a wide range of formulas and data manipulation tools.

Calligra allows you to design visually stunning presentations with slide templates, transition effects, and multimedia integration. Customize slide layouts for impactful presentations.

EtherCalc is an excellent tool for editing spreadsheets on the web for teamwork. The program allows not only document editing  but also chart insertion, formatting and sorting. It also has functions for counting data, links and summary.

EtherCald is similar to Google Sheets, since all your data is saved on the web, and people can edit the same document simultaneously. It's also compatible with GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Windows.

BIME Analytics is a simple but powerful application to analyze, visualize, and present data in your office. Data can be tough to work with and the creators of BIME understand this. That's why it has more than 25 templates for visualization.

This app allows you to create informative dashboards in no time. It is also compatible with Google's BigQuery and works for customers from all industries. Their clients vary from well-known companies to startup businesses.

Airtable is an online database management solution that allows you to organize anything, with anyone, from anywhere. With it, you can easily create and manage databases of anything.

The word "database" might throw you off a bit, but it's definitely worth taking a closer look at what Airtable can offer. Compared to most project management software, Airtable's features can look a bit unusual. However, that might be precisely the thing that saves you time and severe headaches.

Scoro is an all-in-one business managing application that allows you to control multiple tasks. This app enables you to plan and monitor workloads, meetings, deadlines, and projects.

This tool also separates contacts efficiently. You can convert all files into PDF format. Users can follow real-time dashboards for work routine and track the results immediately. It's really easy to score your work goals with Scoro!

Workzone is a powerful and easy to use project management software that helps you keep your project on track. It comes with a robust number of features like dashboards, to-do lists, time tracking, status alerts, and Gantt charts.

This tool allows you to see the status of all your projects and focus on what matters most. Get everyone on the same page with Workzone.

Redbooth is an open-source application for complex project management. It allows joint work and team communication. It can be really challenging to manage communications and projects when you have a large team, This tool attempts to change that.

With Redbooth, you can easily communicate, share files and host HD video conference meetings. These capabilities make it a great alternative to Slack.

Samepage allows you to write down all the tasks you are working on at the moment and figure out what to do next. You can also work from any device, add text, images, diagrams, videos, maps spreadsheets and make changes as needed.

With Samepage, you can run meetings, manages projects and coordinate events. No more excuses to remain on different pages any more!

Freedcamp is a free project management tool that will help you to organize anything, from a wedding to website development. With it, you can organize a workspace to view the whole project, track its key moments, set and assign tasks, use stickers and a lot more.

This tool can also be integrated with Google Calendar, Google Drive, Dropbox. Project Management can be really overwhelm when it doesn't have to be. Free yourself with Freedcamp!

With Podio you can organize and connect everything you work with. Manage your projects, customers, you name it. Work is structured so everyone knows what they're supposed to do, while always keeping sight of the bigger picture.

Podio removes the three main pain-points of modern collaboration: unmanageable email traffic, unstructured documents and inflexible, disconnected software systems.

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The world's biggest online directory of resources and tools for startups and the most upvoted product on ProductHunt History.

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