6 free alternatives to Microsoft Excel

Google Sheets

Google Sheets is Google’s cloud-based answer to Microsoft Excel, and it’s capable of doing the vast majority of what the average Excel user needs. It’s also hosted in the cloud and runs in a web browser, so it’s platform independent and can be run on Windows, macOS, and Linux systems.

You never have to worry about losing a single calculation, either — Google Sheets saves everything in Google Drive, making a crashed computer of no concern to your important data. As with Google’s other office tools, Sheets features real-time collaboration that allows multiple users to edit a document at the same time. Users can see the cursor position of other people in the document, see what they’re doing as they’re doing it, and chat right in the document window.

Advanced features that some Excel users need are missing, though, so if you’re an Excel power user, it’s a good idea to find out if the features you need are available before migrating. There have also been reported issues of formulas in Excel spreadsheets breaking when they’re uploaded to Google Sheets, so be aware that you could run into issues moving .xls or .xlsx files from your computer to Sheets. On the plus side, scripting is still available in Google Sheets, though it’s JavaScript based and not Visual Basic for Applications.

Zoho Sheet

Zoho Sheet is a spreadsheet software that includes collaboration, data visualization and automation features that help teams get work done faster. Zoho Sheet is a free, cloud-based spreadsheet tool that supports several file types, including Excel (.xls), .csv, .ods and .tsv formats to easily move your existing sheets into Zoho Sheet.

Collaboration in Zoho Sheet is easy, with real-time updates at the sheet level for any users in the document. Use macros and even VBA code to automate updates and speed up work. Collaborators can use Data cleaning to ensure that mistakes are caught quickly, or roll back to a previous iteration with Version History. And Zoho Sheet can easily be used via the mobile app or published to the web with granular controls over embedded data manipulation.

Zoho Sheet is part of the larger Zoho family of apps, which means that extensions and integrations are easy and fast. Use Zoho Forms to quickly consolidate information in a single Sheet, and Zoho’s AI, Zia, will help teams visualize data with pivot tables, charts or graphs.

Microsoft Office Excel Online

Not to be outdone by Google, Microsoft has created its own online version of Office, which includes a stripped-down version of Excel that is closer to Google Sheets than to the desktop version of Excel. It’s not to say that Excel Online is unusable or not worth your time–it’s definitely more like Excel than Google Sheets, so if you prefer a familiar interface, you may want to opt for Excel Online instead of going the Google route.

Recommending Excel Online to the average Excel user is fine–it does all the basics of the desktop version while adding automatic cloud saving in OneDrive, and it has real-time collaboration tools that Office 365 and Office 2019 lack. Excel power users may want to steer clear of Excel Online. Many of the features Excel power users rely on are gone, restricted, or read-only–there’s no VBA scripting, no creating external data connections, no find and replace, and no advanced charting features. All of those capabilities exist in Excel Online, but they’re read-only.

Apache OpenOffice Calc

When I talk to Windows users who hate the look of Microsoft Office’s post-2007 interface, I always recommend Apache OpenOffice. Calc, OpenOffice’s Excel alternative, does a good job of looking and feeling just like Office 2003, which is great if you’d prefer a time before the Office ribbon.

Prior to the advent of the cloud and the dominance of Google’s online office tools, OpenOffice reigned supreme among those looking for a free Microsoft Office alternative. There is one major drawback to OpenOffice, which is an issue with other free platforms: A lack of cloud support. There’s no native cloud connection or real-time collaboration for Calc, so if that’s a deal-breaker, you may want to avoid this one.

LibreOffice Calc

Like OpenOffice, LibreOffice is a free office suite that includes its own Excel alternative, also called Calc. It runs into the same restrictions as OpenOffice in that LibreOffice Calc lacks cloud support and real-time collaboration. What LibreOffice does have is a surprisingly robust list of features, many of which aren’t present in Excel.

LibreOffice has more functions than Excel, can compare two separate spreadsheet files, has more cell formatting options, and it can even handle imports of legacy spreadsheets from retired applications (Microsoft Works, Lotus 1-2-3, BeagleWorks, Claris Resolve, etc.) formerly available on Windows and macOS. There are also good reasons to skip LibreOffice, which include: It has limited macro recording abilities, it can’t handle outside data sources, it lacks the ability to display many advanced types of charts, and it can’t export documents as generic XML. So, before trying LibreOffice, read the features list to be sure your essentials are included.

WPS Office Spreadsheets

When it comes to robust features that are a true competition for Excel, WPS Office Spreadsheets cannot be beat and with good reason: It’s the only freemium product on this list. WPS Office is actually a paid product, but it does come with a fully-featured free version with one catch–it’s ad supported.

Don’t let that turn you off from giving WPS Spreadsheets a try–the ads are quick (generally lasting about 10 seconds), and only pop up when you try to print, save to PDF, or use some of its other more specific tools; once you watch an ad, that feature is unlocked for 30 minutes. If you decide you want to get rid of the ads in WPS Office, you need to pay $29.99 a year, or $119.99 for a lifetime license.