The 5 Best Spreadsheets Software in 2024

Spreadsheet programs are like everything these days 💪

From storing data to processing, and presenting it – a spreadsheet is needed for everything. If you have the right spreadsheet program for yourself, half of your job is done.

But which is the best spreadsheet software for you? I cannot exactly tell that, but I can walk you through the list of some of the best spreadsheet programs out there with their upsides and downsides 🧐

So what are we waiting for? Let’s sift through the best spreadsheet programs on the market in 2024 right here.

What is a spreadsheet?

A spreadsheet is a computer application with a two-dimensional (rows and columns) interface. It is meant to help you store, process, and manipulate numbers 💹

But believe me, a spreadsheet can do almost anything. It can help you make budgets, set and track your goals, store tons of data, perform data analysis, and make informed decisions.

There’s nothing about numbers that you can’t do with a spreadsheet. If a spreadsheet is that important and useful, then what spreadsheet software you must run 🏃‍♀️

The market has a wide variety of free and paid options to offer. But to make sure you make the most use of a spreadsheet program – you must get the one that’s right for your needs and jobs.

After testing almost all spreadsheet programs, we have collated a list of the five most popular paid and free spreadsheet software options for you 5️⃣

Microsoft Excel

The word ‘Spreadsheet’ is somewhat synonymous with ‘Microsoft Excel’. Without a doubt, Excel is the most commonly known (and the most powerful) spreadsheet software known to mankind 💡

Excel got all the well-deserved hype soon after it was first developed in 1987. And since then, it is a permanent part of the Microsoft Office Suite. It comes up with an upgraded version frequently. Microsoft makes sure to bring the best out of a spreadsheet program.

When I say Excel is the most powerful of all – I mean it. Excel can process up to 10,48,576 rows and 16,384 columns in a single sheet. That makes 17,179,869,184 cells!

Microsoft Excel introduced more than 475 different functions that range from statistical to engineering to logical to lookup and whatnot. With a simple and user-friendly interface, you can expect a 7-year-old to play around with Excel super easily👦

And on the other hand, it offers such advanced and powerful functions that can help you sift through heaps of data single-handedly. It allows recording Macros, using VBA, and even creating your own functions.

Not mentioning the advanced filters, pivot tables, co-authoring, conditional formatting and other collaboration features of Excel would be a little unfair to this giant spreadsheet program 👀

For a data person – Excel is the best choice. However, if you are dealing with relatively simpler data jobs or datasets, Excel might be too resourceful for you.

Numbers

If you’re an Apple person, you know what this section is going to be about 🍎

Numbers is the spreadsheet program by Apple. It comes pre-installed on all Apple devices (so it’s free for Apple users). One big plus point for Numbers is its clean and modern interface.

It comes packed with many in-built templates that can help you with a variety of your daily tasks. You can use it to create really pretty templates, charts, and graphs super quickly 📊

And yeah, it makes collaboration across Apple devices really easy. However, here is the problem with Numbers.

It fails to handle large and complex sets of data. It is short of many features and functions that a normal spreadsheet program would offer. So, if you have much to work with data or if you need a powerful and robust tool that’ll sort your data in seconds – Numbers is never the right choice to make ❌

It will only suit you if you’re a Mac user so you get it for free. And if all that you have to do with a spreadsheet program is perform subtle functions and create pretty templates.

Google Sheets

If you’ve been looking for a free solution until now – this section is for you. Google sheets is a free cloud-based spreadsheet program ☁

You only need a Google Account (your Gmail account basically 📧) to log into Google sheets, and that’s it. The best part of Google Sheets: you can share it with your team and collaborate. All the members who have edit access to the sheet can make changes to it in real time.

Not only that, but you can also track the version history to see who made which changes. Leave comments for your colleagues and get real-time updates on the same. When it comes to collaborative features, no other app beats Google Sheets.

Google sheets are integrated with other G Suite apps like Google Forms, Google Classroom, Google Data Studio, Google Analytics, etc. This means you can easily pull data from any of these apps into your sheet.

Don’t worry about the data size, each user gets a free storage size of up to 15GB 😍

Google sheets are not as equipped as Excel, but you’d still find almost all the commonly used functions and features here (pivot tables and sparklines too). And not just the contemporary functions, Google Sheets has some Google-specific functions too.

Like GoogleTranslate will translate the cell contents for you in a go. And GoogleFinance will fetch you real-time security information for any security 📈

And as it is cloud-based, you can access it from any device, anywhere. Any device includes a Windows PC, Linux, and iOS systems.

Simply log on to your browser, sign in with your Google account, and go spreadsheeting 💻

Quip

Quip is just the on-point package of powerful spreadsheets, collaboration tools, charts, and documents 🎯

It was launched in 2012, and in 2016, Salesforce acquired it. With Quip, you can toggle between a spreadsheet and a document view at once. With 400+ built-in features, a very clean interface, and menu shortcuts for literally everything – Quip is an essential spreadsheet program.

In Quip, mind-blowing charts and graphs are only a quick away. Using it, you can create personalized channels to chat with your channel members within the spreadsheet interface 💭 Each spreadsheet has a chat sidebar that you can launch by clicking on the Show Conversation button at the top.

You can also use @mentions to grab the attention of a particular member in chats.

Compared to Numbers and Excel, Quip is an advanced spreadsheet program that facilitates chatting, collaboration, and active toggling between documents and spreadsheets 💪

SmartSheet

Spreadsheets are not meant to process numbers only. Sometimes, you’d need a multi-tasking spreadsheet program that’ll manage projects for you too 💁‍♀️

Smartsheet is a modern spreadsheet software that will help you create and manage projects, collaborate with your team, and crunch numbers, too.

With Smartsheet, you can create or customize any project management template. Add activities and timelines to it in Gantt view. Assign tasks to team members, and view and keep track of their progress under a convenient card or Kanban view.

Never miss out on key dates by tracking them under the calendar view. Same data – flexible views. Set automated workflows with reminders that’ll help you keep your pace intact.

Generate progress reports for your project to have a helicopter view of how’s everything going. Talking about collaboration, Smartsheet allows integration with other apps from Google Suite, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Slack 🤝

You can also use Alerts & Actions to request approvals on anything from your team members or external parties. Use smartsheet dashboards to present your data immaculately without having to show your internal workings.

Smartsheet is much more than a simple number-crunching spreadsheet program 🚀

Our favorite

When it comes to paid spreadsheet software programs – it’s hands down Microsoft Excel ✅

Excel spreadsheets make every penny spent on it simply worth it. It has a massive data storage and processing capacity and is packed with the most powerful features. Also, it offers reasonable plans for both individuals and enterprises that won’t go that heavy on your pocket. You ought to give it a try!

From free spreadsheet programs, I will vote for Google Sheets 📝 That’s because it’s easily accessible to everyone. You only need a Google account (you’d already have one for sure) to get your hands on it.

Also, let’s not forget how it makes collaboration super easy. But as it is only a cloud-based program, it lacks many features that you’d otherwise expect from a spreadsheet program.