Excel alternatives in 2026: 8 Options Compared
- 1
Google Sheetsteams editing one sheet togetherVisit - 2
LibreOffice Calca free desktop Excel replacementVisit - 3
ONLYOFFICE SheetsExcel-faithful files on desktop or cloudVisit - 4
WPS Office Spreadsheetan Excel-like interface on desktop and phoneVisit - 5
Apple NumbersMac and iPhone users wanting polished sheetsVisit
- Google Sheets is the best free collaborative sheet, while LibreOffice Calc is the best free desktop replacement.
- ONLYOFFICE and WPS Office come closest to Excel file fidelity for sharing with Excel users.
- Airtable and Smartsheet suit teams that need a spreadsheet look with database or project features.
- Check macro and pivot support before switching if your files rely on them.
Quick comparison
| Product | Ideal for | Price from | Free version | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Sheets | teams editing one sheet together | Free | Yes | Visit |
| LibreOffice Calc | a free desktop Excel replacement | Free | Yes | Visit |
| ONLYOFFICE Sheets | Excel-faithful files on desktop or cloud | Free | Yes | Visit |
| WPS Office Spreadsheet | an Excel-like interface on desktop and phone | Free | Yes | Visit |
| Apple Numbers | Mac and iPhone users wanting polished sheets | Free | Yes | Visit |
 Zoho Sheet | teams already using Zoho apps | Free | Yes | Visit |
 Airtable | teams needing a spreadsheet with database power | Free | Yes | Visit |
 Smartsheet | projects and jobs tracked in a grid | $9 per member per month | Free trial (30 days) | Visit |
The best excel alternatives
Here is our shortlist for excel alternatives, ordered from the most broadly useful picks to the more specialised ones. Every entry below is a real product you can sign up for or buy today, with pricing taken from the vendor site or app store listing where we could verify it.
Google Sheets
Ideal for: teams editing one sheet together
This one is aimed at teams editing one sheet together. Google Sheets is the easiest switch for teams, with several people editing the same sheet at once, automatic saving and a free tier that covers most everyday work. It opens and edits Excel files directly, so sharing with Excel users is painless.
Power users will miss full macro support, Power Query and some advanced Excel analysis features. If your files are simple or collaborative, that gap rarely matters.
- Best real-time collaboration
- Free with a Google account
- Edits Excel files directly
- Advanced Excel features like full macros and Power Query are missing
LibreOffice Calc
Ideal for: a free desktop Excel replacement
Think of LibreOffice Calc as the pick for a free desktop Excel replacement. LibreOffice Calc is a full desktop spreadsheet that costs nothing, works offline and reads and writes Excel files, which makes it the best free replacement for solo users. It handles formulas, charts and pivot tables for most everyday and business work.
Very complex Excel files with macros or intricate formatting can shift in translation, and the interface is more functional than modern. For most users, the price and offline access outweigh those limits.
- Completely free and offline
- Opens and saves Excel files
- Runs on Windows, Mac and Linux
- Interface feels dated
- Complex Excel files can lose formatting
ONLYOFFICE Sheets
Ideal for: Excel-faithful files on desktop or cloud
For Excel-faithful files on desktop or cloud, ONLYOFFICE Sheets deserves a close look. ONLYOFFICE Sheets is the pick when files must go back and forth with Excel users without formatting drift, thanks to its close handling of Excel formats. The free desktop editors cover the core work, and the cloud version adds collaboration.
A few advanced features need paid plans, and the community is smaller than LibreOffice. If file fidelity is your top concern, it is the strongest free option.
- Strong Excel format fidelity
- Free desktop editors
- Collaborative cloud option
- Some advanced features sit behind paid plans
- Smaller community than LibreOffice
WPS Office Spreadsheet
Ideal for: an Excel-like interface on desktop and phone
This is the option we would point an Excel-like interface on desktop and phone toward first. WPS Office Spreadsheet looks and feels close to Excel, which shortens the learning curve for switchers, and its free tier covers desktop and mobile editing. It opens and saves Excel files well for everyday work.
The free version shows ads, and the Pro tier at $69.99 a year adds the fuller feature set. If you want Excel familiarity without the subscription, the free tier is a fair compromise.
- Familiar Excel-like interface
- Free tier with mobile apps
- Good Excel compatibility
- Free tier includes ads
- Pro features need a subscription
Apple Numbers
Ideal for: Mac and iPhone users wanting polished sheets
Apple Numbers earns its place here for Mac and iPhone users wanting polished sheets. Apple Numbers is free on Mac, iPhone and iPad, with a clean design and attractive charts that suit presentation-ready sheets. It imports and exports Excel files, so sharing with Excel users works for most files.
It is Apple-only for the full experience, and its function list is shorter than Excel. For Apple households and small teams, the polish and price are hard to argue with.
- Free on Apple devices
- Polished design and charts
- Imports and exports Excel files
- Apple devices only for the full app
- Fewer functions than Excel
Zoho Sheet
Ideal for: teams already using Zoho apps
If your shortlist is built around teams already using Zoho apps, start with Zoho Sheet. Zoho Sheet is a capable web-first spreadsheet with real-time collaboration, pivot tables and a broad function set, plus desktop apps for offline work. It fits naturally next to Zoho CRM, Projects and other Zoho business apps.
Outside the Zoho suite there is little reason to pick it over Google Sheets, and the deepest features sit behind paid Workplace plans. For Zoho teams, though, it is the obvious sheet.
- Free online sheet with desktop apps
- Real-time collaboration
- Zoho suite integration
- Less reason to adopt outside the Zoho suite
- Advanced features need paid plans
Airtable
Ideal for: teams needing a spreadsheet with database power
Among the options here, Airtable speaks most directly to teams needing a spreadsheet with database power. Airtable looks like a spreadsheet but behaves like a database, with linked records, kanban, calendar and gallery views that suit content, projects and inventory tracking. The free tier covers small teams getting started.
It caps records on the free plan and is not built for heavy financial modelling, so Excel power users will feel the limits. For organising work rather than crunching numbers, it is a strong pick.
- Linked records and multiple views
- Templates for projects and content
- Good integrations
- Free tier caps records per base
- Not a full Excel replacement for heavy analysis
Smartsheet
Ideal for: projects and jobs tracked in a grid
For readers focused on projects and jobs tracked in a grid, Smartsheet is a strong match. Smartsheet suits teams that run projects in a grid, with dates, owners, dependencies and dashboards built around the sheet. It bridges spreadsheets and project management without forcing a new way of working.
There is no free plan, and Excel imports only bring in the first tab, so migration needs care. For project-driven teams, the structure is worth the $9 per member starting price.
- Grid interface with dates, owners and dependencies
- Dashboards and reporting
- Strong templates
- No free plan
- Imports only the first tab of Excel files
How we picked these
We compared official feature pages, pricing pages, app store listings, privacy policies and public reviews for each product on this list, and we kept only products that exist and work today and that truly fit the topic. Where a price had changed between sources or we could not verify it on the vendor site, we wrote See website rather than print a number we could not stand behind. We also weighed who each product is really for, not just how long its feature list runs. A product with a smaller set of features can be the better buy when it matches your workflow, your budget and the size of your team, and we say so plainly in each write-up. We also checked what each product costs over a full year, not just the headline monthly price, since annual billing, seat minimums and add-on fees can change the real total by a wide margin. Free plans were judged against their limits too: a free tier that caps the exact feature you need most is not really free for your use case, and we say so in the write-up when that is the case. Where prices differed between the vendor site and review listings, we trusted the vendor site, and where we could not confirm a figure on the vendor site at all, we wrote See website rather than repeat a number from a third party. That caution is deliberate, because a wrong price is worse than no price when you are building a budget.
Switching without breaking your files
Before you switch, test your five most important files in the new app: open them, check formulas, charts and pivot tables, and save them back to Excel format to see what changes. Files with macros, Power Query or complex conditional formatting are the ones most likely to lose something in translation.
Then move in stages rather than all at once. Keep Excel for the files that depend on its advanced features, run the new tool for collaborative or everyday sheets, and only retire Excel when the new app has proven itself on your real work for a month.
Finally, before you commit to one of the options above, run it on a real task from your own work rather than a polished demo project. Use the free tier or trial for a full week, invite the people who will actually use it every day, and test the one workflow you cannot live without, whether that is exporting your data, inviting a teammate, sharing a result with a client or getting help when something breaks. Note how long each step takes and where you get stuck, since those friction points are what you will live with for months. The product that handles your real task with the least friction is the right one, even if another option looks stronger on a feature comparison page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free Excel alternative?
Google Sheets is best for collaboration and LibreOffice Calc is best for a free desktop replacement. ONLYOFFICE is best when files must move back and forth with Excel users without formatting changes.
Can Excel alternatives open Excel files?
Yes, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc, ONLYOFFICE, WPS Office, Apple Numbers and Zoho Sheet all open and save Excel files. Complex files with macros or advanced features may lose some formatting, so test important files first.
Is Google Sheets better than Excel?
Google Sheets is better for real-time collaboration and free access, while Excel is better for advanced analysis, macros and Power Query. Most households and small teams do fine with Sheets; analysts usually need Excel.
What is the best Excel alternative for Mac?
Apple Numbers is free and polished on Mac, while LibreOffice Calc and Google Sheets work well across platforms. Numbers suits presentation-ready sheets, while Calc suits heavier analysis.