I stopped paying for Microsoft 365 about two years ago. Not because Excel is bad – it’s genuinely excellent software – but because I realized I was spending $100/year to use maybe 15% of its features. Most months, I needed a spreadsheet for budgets, project tracking, some VLOOKUP formulas, and the occasional chart.
So I tested every free spreadsheet tool I could find. Some for weeks, some for months. A few of them replaced Excel entirely for my workflow. Others fell apart the moment I tried anything beyond basic data entry.
Here’s what actually works in 2026 if you want to ditch Excel without losing functionality.
Quick Comparison Table
| Tool | Best For | Max Rows (Free) | Offline | Collaboration | Excel Compatibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Sheets | Real-time teamwork | 10M cells | Limited | Excellent | Good (no VBA) |
| LibreOffice Calc | Full desktop power | 1,048,576 | Yes | No | Excellent |
| ONLYOFFICE | Self-hosted teams | 1,048,576 | Yes | Yes (server) | Excellent |
| Zoho Sheet | Business workflows | 2M cells | No | Good | Good |
| Apple Numbers | Mac/iOS users | 1,000,000 | Yes | iCloud only | Fair |
| Ethercalc | Quick sharing | Unlimited | No | Real-time | Basic |
| Grist | Database-like data | 5,000 rows free | Self-host | Yes | Import only |
| Cryptpad Sheet | Privacy-focused | No hard limit | No | Encrypted | Basic |
| WPS Office | Excel look-alike | 1,048,576 | Yes | Cloud sync | Very Good |
Looking for other free productivity tools? Check out our roundup of the best free Microsoft Office alternatives for a broader overview of the full suite.
Google Sheets – Best for Most People
Look, there’s a reason Google Sheets dominates this category. It just works. You open a browser, start typing, share a link, and suddenly five people are editing the same spreadsheet simultaneously without emailing files back and forth.
What I actually use it for: Budget tracking with my partner (we both edit in real time), client project timelines, quick data collection via Google Forms that auto-populates a sheet, and meeting notes with embedded charts.
The numbers: Free with any Google account. Supports up to 10 million cells per spreadsheet. 15GB shared storage across Google Drive. Up to 100 simultaneous editors. 400,000 cells with data for imports.
Where it falls short: Performance tanks hard when you push past 50,000 rows with formulas. I tried analyzing a 200K-row CSV export once and Chrome basically froze. Offline mode exists but it’s flaky – you need to enable it in advance and it doesn’t always sync properly when you reconnect. No VBA support, though Apps Script is surprisingly powerful once you learn it.
Formula compatibility: Most Excel formulas work identically. XLOOKUP, FILTER, SORT, UNIQUE – all there. The gaps show up in specialized financial functions and array formula behavior. LAMBDA works too, which is nice.
Pros
- Zero setup – works in any browser immediately
- Best real-time collaboration of any spreadsheet tool
- Generous free tier with 15GB storage
- Excellent integration with Forms, Slides, Docs
- Version history saves automatically
Cons
- Needs internet for full functionality
- Slow with large datasets (50K+ rows)
- No VBA macro support
- Limited chart customization compared to Excel
LibreOffice Calc – Best Desktop Alternative
If you want something that feels like Excel, runs offline, handles million-row spreadsheets, and costs exactly zero dollars – LibreOffice Calc is it. I’ve been using it on and off since 2019 and it’s gotten significantly better with each release.
Current version as of writing: LibreOffice 24.8. It opens .xlsx files with near-perfect fidelity. Pivot tables, conditional formatting, data validation, solver – all present. The interface looks dated compared to Excel’s ribbon, but everything is there if you know where to look.
Performance test I ran: Loaded a 500K-row dataset with 12 columns. Opened in 4 seconds on my M2 MacBook Air. Applied SUMIFS across the full range – calculated in under a second. Try that in Google Sheets and you’ll be waiting a while.
The macro situation: LibreOffice has its own Basic macro language that’s similar to VBA but not identical. Simple VBA macros (loops, basic object manipulation) often run without modification. Complex ones with ActiveX controls or Windows API calls won’t work. There’s also Python scripting support, which honestly makes more sense in 2026.
The downsides are real though. No real-time collaboration unless you connect it to a Collabora server (which is not free for hosted). The UI feels like 2015. Updates sometimes break things – I had a chart rendering bug after updating from 24.2 to 24.8 that took two weeks to get patched. And file save dialogs default to ODS format, so you need to remember to save as .xlsx if you’re sharing with Excel users.
Pros
- 100% free, open source, no account needed
- Handles 1M+ rows without breaking a sweat
- Best .xlsx compatibility of any free tool
- Runs on Windows, Mac, Linux
- Partial VBA support plus Python scripting
Cons
- No native real-time collaboration
- UI feels outdated
- Occasional bugs after major updates
- Default saves to ODS (needs manual .xlsx selection)
ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors – Best Excel Look-Alike
ONLYOFFICE surprised me. The spreadsheet component looks almost identical to Excel’s modern interface – same ribbon layout, similar icon style, even the color scheme is close. If you’re switching from Excel and don’t want to relearn anything, this is probably your smoothest transition.
Why it deserves attention: The .xlsx compatibility is arguably better than LibreOffice for complex files. I tested it with a heavily formatted financial model (conditional formatting, nested IFs, custom number formats, embedded charts) and it rendered correctly on the first try. LibreOffice missed some of the conditional formatting colors.
Free tier details: The desktop app is completely free for personal use. No feature limits, no watermarks, no signup required. You download it, install it, done. The cloud/server version (ONLYOFFICE Workspace) has a free community edition for self-hosting with real-time collaboration for up to 20 users.
What caught me off guard: The plugin system. There are plugins for translation, OCR, photo editing, even a basic AI assistant built in. The macro system supports JavaScript (not VBA), which is actually more useful for web-savvy users.
The catch: It’s slower than LibreOffice with very large files. A 300K-row sheet took about 8 seconds to open versus LibreOffice’s 3 seconds. And the free desktop version doesn’t include real-time collaboration – you need either the self-hosted server or a paid cloud plan for that.
Pros
- Most Excel-like interface of any free alternative
- Superior .xlsx rendering for complex files
- Free self-hosted collaboration (community edition)
- JavaScript macro support
- Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Cons
- Slower with large datasets than LibreOffice
- Real-time collab requires server setup
- Fewer templates than competitors
- Smaller community for troubleshooting
Zoho Sheet – Best for Business Teams
Zoho Sheet sits in an interesting spot. It’s cloud-based like Google Sheets but adds features that small businesses actually need – audit trails, granular permissions, workflow automation, and better data visualization. The free plan covers up to 5 users, which is enough for a small team.
Free plan limits: 5 users, 1GB storage, 65,000 rows per sheet (but 2 million cells total per workbook), 1000 API calls per day. Honestly generous for a team of freelancers or a small startup.
What stands out: The “Zia” AI assistant can write formulas from natural language descriptions. I typed “show me total sales by region for Q1” and it generated the correct SUMIFS formula. Not perfect every time, but useful. The pivot table interface is also cleaner than Google Sheets – closer to Excel’s experience.
Integration play: If you’re already in the Zoho ecosystem (CRM, Projects, Books), the connections are seamless. Data flows between apps without manual exports. That’s where Zoho Sheet’s real value is – not as a standalone tool, but as part of the suite.
The frustrations: Loading speed. Zoho Sheet consistently takes 3-4 seconds longer to load than Google Sheets, even on fast connections. The mobile app is functional but cramped. And if you ever exceed the free tier, pricing jumps to $4/user/month – not expensive, but the jump from free to paid feels abrupt.
Pros
- 5 free users with collaboration
- AI formula assistant included
- Good integration with Zoho ecosystem
- Better data visualization than Google Sheets
Cons
- Slower loading than competitors
- 65K row limit per sheet on free plan
- Mobile experience is cramped
- Less useful outside Zoho ecosystem
Apple Numbers – Best for Mac and iPad Users
Numbers is free on every Apple device. If you own a Mac, iPhone, or iPad, you already have it. And honestly? For personal spreadsheets – budgets, meal planning, simple trackers – it’s more pleasant to use than Excel. The canvas-based approach where you place tables freely on a page makes certain layouts much easier.
Where Numbers genuinely wins: Visual design. The charts look better by default than any competitor. The templates are gorgeous. If you’re creating a spreadsheet that other people will look at (reports, proposals, project plans), Numbers produces better-looking output without you tweaking anything.
The reality check: Numbers is not a serious Excel replacement for data work. The formula library is smaller. There’s no pivot table (they added “categories” which is a simplified version). Performance drops noticeably past 20,000 rows. Cross-platform sharing is iCloud-only or export-to-xlsx (which loses some formatting). And forget about macros entirely.
Who should use this: Mac users who need simple, good-looking spreadsheets and don’t work with large datasets or complex formulas. If your spreadsheet work is budgets, lists, and basic calculations, Numbers is genuinely the nicest experience.
Pros
- Free on all Apple devices
- Beautiful default styling and charts
- Excellent templates
- Smooth iCloud sync across devices
Cons
- No pivot tables (only “categories”)
- Weak with large datasets
- Apple-only ecosystem
- Limited formula library
- No macro/scripting support
Grist – Best for Database-Style Spreadsheets
Grist is weird in a good way. It looks like a spreadsheet but behaves like a relational database. You define column types (date, reference, choice list), create relationships between tables, and write Python formulas instead of cell-reference ones. It’s what you’d get if Airtable and Excel had a baby, but open source.
Free plan: Self-hosted is unlimited. The hosted version (getgrist.com) gives you 5,000 rows across all documents for free. That’s tight for data-heavy work, but plenty for CRM-style tracking, inventory management, or project databases.
Why this matters: If you’ve ever built a “database” in Excel with VLOOKUP connecting multiple sheets, Grist does that properly. Define a relationship once, and it stays consistent. No more broken lookups when someone inserts a row in the wrong place.
Not for everyone: If you just want a grid to type numbers into, Grist is overkill. The learning curve is steeper than a regular spreadsheet. Python formulas are powerful but less intuitive than =SUM(A1:A10). And the 5,000 row free limit on hosted means you’ll hit the wall fast with real data.
Pros
- Relational data model (no more VLOOKUP chains)
- Python formulas for complex logic
- Open source, self-hostable
- Granular access controls per column/row
Cons
- 5,000 row limit on free hosted plan
- Steeper learning curve
- Not a traditional spreadsheet experience
- Smaller community and fewer resources
WPS Office Spreadsheets – Best Interface Clone
WPS Office is the closest visual clone of Microsoft Excel you’ll find. The ribbon, the icons, the keyboard shortcuts – they deliberately mirror Excel’s layout. For people who know Excel’s interface by muscle memory and just want something free that works the same way, WPS delivers.
Free version includes: Full spreadsheet functionality, 1GB cloud storage, cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS), PDF tools, and doc/slide editors. There are ads in the free version – banner ads in the sidebar and occasional popup prompts to upgrade.
Compatibility surprise: WPS handles .xlsx files extremely well. Complex conditional formatting, sparklines, data validation dropdowns – all render correctly. I threw my most complicated Excel budget template at it (nested IFs, dynamic named ranges, custom chart formatting) and it looked identical to how it appears in Excel.
The ad situation: This is the big trade-off. The free version shows ads. Not aggressive popups, but persistent sidebar banners and occasional full-screen prompts after saving. Premium removes them for $30/year. Whether that bothers you depends on your tolerance – I found them mildly annoying but not deal-breaking.
Privacy note: WPS Office is developed by Kingsoft (Chinese company). The privacy policy allows data collection. If that’s a concern for you, LibreOffice or ONLYOFFICE are fully open-source alternatives with no telemetry.
Pros
- Nearly identical Excel interface
- Excellent .xlsx compatibility
- Cross-platform including mobile
- Built-in PDF tools
Cons
- Ads in free version
- Privacy concerns (data collection)
- Cloud features limited on free tier
- No real macro support in free version
Ethercalc – Best for Quick Collaboration Without Accounts
Ethercalc is dead simple. Go to ethercalc.net, create a spreadsheet, share the URL. No signup. No account. No installation. Anyone with the link can edit in real time. It’s like Google Sheets stripped down to the absolute essentials.
When to use this: Quick brainstorming sessions. Collecting data from a group where you don’t want to force everyone into Google accounts. Temporary spreadsheets that don’t need to persist. It’s a tool for specific moments, not daily work.
Limitations are obvious: No formula support beyond basics. No charts. No conditional formatting. No file attachments. No mobile app. The interface looks like it was built in 2012 (because it was). Data can disappear if the instance restarts. Don’t put anything important here without exporting it.
You might also want to check out our guide on Airtable vs Google Sheets if you’re deciding between traditional spreadsheets and more structured data tools.
Cryptpad Sheet – Best for Privacy
If your spreadsheet data is sensitive – financial records, salary info, medical tracking – and you don’t trust Google/Microsoft with it, Cryptpad offers end-to-end encrypted spreadsheets. The server operators literally cannot read your data.
Free plan: 1GB encrypted storage. Spreadsheets, documents, presentations, kanban boards all included. No account needed for basic use (but you lose data if you clear cookies without registering).
The spreadsheet itself: Functional but basic. Standard formulas work. Collaboration is real-time and encrypted. But the feature set is closer to Ethercalc than Excel – limited chart options, no pivot tables, basic formatting only. You’re trading features for privacy.
Who needs this: Journalists handling sources. Small businesses with sensitive financial data. Anyone who’s been burned by a data breach. Health trackers who don’t want their data sold. It’s niche, but if privacy matters, nothing else in this list matches it.
Pros
- End-to-end encryption by default
- No account required for basic use
- Open source and auditable
- Zero-knowledge architecture
Cons
- Limited spreadsheet features
- 1GB storage cap on free plan
- Performance slower than mainstream tools
- Small user base means fewer resources
How to Choose the Right Alternative
After testing all of these for real work over the past two years, here’s my honest framework:
You collaborate frequently with non-technical people – Google Sheets. Nothing else is as frictionless for sharing.
You work with large datasets locally – LibreOffice Calc. It handles big files better than anything else that’s free.
You want Excel’s exact interface without paying – WPS Office (if you tolerate ads) or ONLYOFFICE (if you don’t).
You’re on Mac and your needs are simple – Apple Numbers. It’s already on your machine and it’s beautiful.
You need database-like structure – Grist. It solves problems that spreadsheets shouldn’t be solving but always do.
Privacy is non-negotiable – Cryptpad. Nothing else offers real encryption.
For most people reading this? Start with Google Sheets. If you hit its limits, move to LibreOffice Calc. That covers 95% of use cases without spending a dollar.
If you regularly convert Excel files to other formats, our guides on converting PDF to Excel and our original Excel alternatives roundup have additional tool recommendations.
FAQ
Is Google Sheets a good free alternative to Microsoft Excel?
Google Sheets is the most popular free Excel alternative. It handles most spreadsheet tasks well, supports real-time collaboration, and works in any browser. It struggles with files over 10MB and complex macros, but for 90% of users it’s more than enough.
Can LibreOffice Calc open Excel files without breaking formatting?
LibreOffice Calc opens most .xlsx files correctly, including formulas, charts, and conditional formatting. Complex VBA macros won’t run natively, and some pivot table features may render differently. For standard spreadsheets, compatibility is around 95%.
What is the best free Excel alternative for large datasets?
For large datasets (100K+ rows), LibreOffice Calc handles up to 1 million rows locally without lag. If you need collaborative analysis on big data, Zoho Sheet supports up to 2 million cells per workbook on the free plan. Google Sheets caps at 10 million cells but slows down significantly past 50K rows.
Is there a completely free spreadsheet app with no limitations?
LibreOffice Calc and ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors are both 100% free with no row limits, no feature locks, and no accounts required. They run offline on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The trade-off is you lose real-time cloud collaboration unless you set up your own server.
Do free Excel alternatives support VBA macros?
No free alternative runs VBA macros natively. LibreOffice has partial VBA support through its own macro engine (works for simple macros), and it offers LibreOffice Basic as its scripting language. Google Sheets uses Apps Script (JavaScript-based) instead. If you rely heavily on VBA, you’ll need to rewrite macros regardless of which tool you pick.