Best Excel Alternatives in 2026

Google Sheets remains the easiest Excel alternative to recommend, because almost anyone with a Google account can open, edit and share a sheet in seconds. Multiple people can work in the same file at once, comments and version history are built in, and it opens and edits Excel files directly in the browser. For budgets, lists, school work and small business tracking, it covers most daily needs without a subscription. The limits appear with very large files, complex Excel macros and heavy offline work. Sheets works offline in Chrome with setup, but it is not as strong offline as a desktop app. If your main need is live collaboration and simple to medium analysis, Sheets is the best free starting point, and paid Google Workspace plans add storage and admin controls from $7 per user per month.

LibreOffice Calc is the classic free desktop alternative, and it is still the best choice if you want a full spreadsheet app on your computer without a subscription or an account. It opens and saves Excel files, supports pivot tables, charts and a wide function set, and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. For personal finance, data cleaning and offline work, it is more than enough. Collaboration is the weak spot, since Calc is built for one person on one computer rather than live multi user editing. Some complex Excel files also shift formatting when opened and saved again. If you work alone, offline, and want zero cost, Calc is hard to beat, and it pairs well with the rest of LibreOffice for documents and presentations.

ONLYOFFICE is the pick for people who trade Excel files back and forth and hate formatting surprises. Its sheets keep Excel layouts, formulas and styles closer than most free tools, and the desktop editors are free for personal use on Windows, Mac and Linux. A cloud workspace option adds collaboration for teams that want to self host or use a hosted plan. The trade off is setup. The desktop app is simple, but the full collaborative workspace needs more configuration than Google Sheets. Paid cloud plans add admin controls and storage. If file fidelity matters more than instant browser sharing, ONLYOFFICE is the most Excel like free option in this list.

Zoho Sheet is a capable browser spreadsheet that works well on its own and even better inside the Zoho suite, next to Zoho CRM, Projects and other business apps. It supports pivot tables, conditional formatting, a broad function set and real time collaboration, and it imports and exports Excel files. For small teams already using Zoho, it avoids adding another vendor. Outside the Zoho world, there is less reason to pick it over Google Sheets, since Sheets has a larger sharing community and more third party integrations. Paid Zoho Workplace plans start at about $3 per user per month billed yearly and add storage and suite apps. If your business already runs on Zoho, Sheet is the natural spreadsheet choice.

Apple Numbers is free on Mac, iPhone and iPad, and it is the most design friendly spreadsheet in this list, with clean templates and easy charts for presentations and personal planning. It imports and exports Excel files, and you can also edit sheets in a browser through iCloud. For home budgets, school projects and simple business sheets on Apple hardware, it feels effortless. It is not a full Excel replacement for analysts, since pivot tables and macros are limited and the Windows experience is browser based. If you live in the Apple world and want a free, attractive sheet app without learning a new interface, Numbers is an easy win. If you need heavy Excel compatibility, pair it with Sheets or Calc for work files.

WPS Office Spreadsheets will feel familiar to Excel users from the first minute, with a similar ribbon, tabs and layout, plus free apps for Windows, Mac, Linux and phones. It opens and saves Excel files well, handles common formulas and charts, and includes the wider WPS suite for documents and presentations. That familiarity shortens the learning curve for teams switching from Microsoft Office. The free version includes ads, and some advanced features sit behind the paid Pro plan, which costs about $5.83 per month billed yearly in some listings. Read the privacy and cloud terms before storing sensitive work files, as with any free suite. For a free, Excel like experience on desktop and mobile, WPS is the closest visual match in this list.

Airtable looks like a spreadsheet, but it works more like a simple database, with linked records, kanban, calendar and gallery views on top of a grid. That makes it ideal for content calendars, inventory, applicant tracking and project lists where rows need to connect to each other. Templates help small teams start fast, and the mobile apps are solid. It is not the best tool for heavy formulas, pivot analysis or large financial models, and the free plan limits records per base. Paid Team plans start at $20 per user per month billed yearly. If your work is really about tracking linked items rather than crunching numbers, Airtable will feel more useful than a plain sheet. If you need pure spreadsheet analysis, stay with Sheets or Calc.

Smartsheet suits teams that manage work in a grid but need project controls, with Gantt charts, card views, automated alerts and approval workflows built around rows and columns. It imports Excel files and exports sheets, so existing project lists can move over without rebuilding them from scratch. Managers like the dashboards and reports that roll up many sheets at once. Casual users may find it heavier than a simple spreadsheet, and there is no permanent free plan, only a trial, with Pro plans from $9 per member per month billed yearly. That cost makes sense when a whole team runs projects in it, but not for a single personal budget. Choose Smartsheet when dates, owners and approvals matter as much as the numbers.

Grist is for spreadsheet fans who keep hitting the limits of a flat sheet and want linked tables without learning a full database tool. You can build relational tables, use Python formulas, create custom views and dashboards, and self host the community edition if you want full control of your data. It imports and exports spreadsheets, so existing files can become a starting point. The community and template library are smaller than for Airtable or Google Sheets, and the interface takes a little learning. Paid plans start at $8 per user per month billed yearly. If you like formulas, want real database structure, and prefer open source control, Grist is a distinctive and powerful alternative to Excel.