Microsoft Excel Review: Is It The Right Spreadsheets Software For Your Team?
Best for SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise
Free Trial Available
GDPRStarts from $5
Overview
Pricing
Features
Buyer feedback
Alternatives
Security & Compliance
Support
FAQ
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What is Microsoft Excel?
Microsoft Excel has helped make the world more productive and businesses more valuable to their owners by helping people analyze large sets of data. Developers have built a simple user interface that operates in the same way as other Office apps for maximum familiarity. From creating, modifying, and sharing spreadsheets on mobile devices to managing workbooks on Excel Online, Excel is ready to take productivity beyond borders.
Pricing
Free Trial available
Best For
Suited for solo users, small teams, SMBs, and enterprise
Security & Compliance
GDPRData residency:Global
Platform
Web + mobile app (iOS & Android)
Installed - Windows
Installed - Mac
Microsoft Excel was reviewed internally using user feedback, in-house testing, and market research to assess its performance, reliability, and user experience. Learn how we review products and our evaluation process.
Who should consider Microsoft Excel
- Use cases
- Financial analysis, Data reporting and visualization, Inventory and project management
- Team types
- Financial analysts, Project managers
- Company size
- Small Business, Large Enterprises
- Workflow style
- Simple and streamlined
- Setup complexity
- Low
Why teams choose Microsoft Excel
Familiar user interface consistent with other Microsoft Office apps
Robust data analysis and visualization capabilities
Wide platform availability including desktop, mobile, and online
Is Microsoft Excel right for you?
Best for familiar, powerful spreadsheet data analysis and visualization.
Choose Microsoft Excel if
- You need robust financial analysis and reporting tools.
- Your team values a familiar Microsoft Office interface.
- You require spreadsheet access across desktop, mobile, and online platforms.
Consider alternatives if
- Your team demands advanced real-time multi-user collaboration features.
- You work regularly with extremely large datasets causing performance issues.
What buyers should know before shortlisting Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet platform with strong data analysis tools and a straightforward interface. It's used across finance, operations, and business analysis roles.
Before shortlisting, verify that Excel meets your actual workflow needs. If you work with datasets larger than 1 million rows, performance degrades significantly—consider alternatives like Power BI or specialized databases.
Check whether your team needs real-time collaboration; Excel's co-authoring works in OneDrive and SharePoint but has latency issues with simultaneous edits across 5+ users. Confirm your integration requirements: Excel connects to most enterprise systems via Power Query, but custom API integrations require VBA or Power Automate, which adds setup time.
Pricing traps to watch: the per-user Microsoft 365 subscription ($6–20/month depending on tier) adds up quickly for large teams. If you only need spreadsheets, Google Sheets is free and handles most workflows.
Excel's advanced features—pivot tables, VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH—have a learning curve; if your team lacks SQL or formula experience, training time will extend your implementation. In a demo, test your largest dataset to confirm speed, run a sample integration with your actual data source, and verify that your team can access shared files without permission issues.
Microsoft Excel pros and cons
- Microsoft Excel pros
Familiar user interface consistent with other Microsoft Office apps
Robust data analysis and visualization capabilities
Wide platform availability including desktop, mobile, and online
- Microsoft Excel cons
Lacks advanced collaboration features compared to specialized cloud tools
Can become slow or unstable with extremely large datasets
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See how it stacks up
Compare Microsoft Excel side-by-side with top Spreadsheets Software alternatives.
What is the pricing of Microsoft Excel?
Microsoft Excel Pricing Plans
Microsoft 365 Family (For Home)
Premium apps included
Usage: Up to 6 people
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote: Premium
OneDrive cloud storage: Up to 6 TB (1 TB per person)
Outlook
Show more +
Microsoft 365 Personal (For Home)
Premium apps included
Usage: 1 person
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote: Premium
OneDrive cloud storage:1 TB
Outlook
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Office Home & Student 2019 (For Home)
Classic apps included
Usage: 1 PC/Mac
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote: Classic
Microsoft 365 Business Basic (For Business)
Office apps included (Web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint included)
Services included: Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams
Web and mobile versions of Office apps
Email and calendaring
Teamwork and communication
Show more +
Weighing your options?
Not sure if Microsoft Excel fits your budget?
Microsoft Excel reviews and ratings
Buyer sentiment
Users generally praise Excel for its powerful data handling and familiar interface but note limitations in collaboration and performance with very large files.
What buyers like
- Ease of use
- Functionality and features
- Integration with other Microsoft products
Common complaints
- Collaboration limitations
- Performance issues with large datasets
Are you using Microsoft Excel?
What users are saying
AN
Andrew N
12/02/20
The most complete spreadsheet tool on the market
What do you like best? One thing I love most in Microsoft Excel is it's numerous features or tools are invaluable in the business community, and ...
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JV
Justin V
12/02/20
Excel Review
What do you like best? I use Excel for my personal use in helping to keep track of my monthly budget. While at work I use it to create electrical ...
Read more
VR
Viren R
12/01/20
Microsoft Excel-A one stop solution for all your data management
What do you like best? Excel formulas Text formatting Data handling Programming What do you dislike? It's very hard to say the ...
Read more
JG
Jeremy G
11/30/20
Amazing Versatility.
What do you like best? I use excel to analyze my social media marketing efforts, I love the versatility of excel, from pivot tables to slicers, ...
Read more
TF
Theresa F
11/28/20
The best software to do calculations
What do you like best? I really like the complexity of the operations that can be carried out with the data entered, using only the tools of this ...
Read more
RG
Rahul G
11/27/20
Helpful tool
What do you like best? Excel helps in my office work. Easy to use and always there is something to learn. Excel is very helpful in data check and ...
Read more
- See if Microsoft Excel fits your business
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- A demo or quick answers, your call
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What are the features of Microsoft Excel?
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Microsoft Excel security and data handling
Key compliance certifications and security features for IT and security teams evaluating Microsoft Excel.
Certifications
Developer & data
Alternatives to Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel Support Options
Frequently Asked Questions About Microsoft Excel
Common questions buyers ask before choosing Microsoft Excel.
Microsoft Excel is a Spreadsheets Software. Microsoft Excel offers Spreadsheet View, Data Analysis, Collaboration, Real-time Editing, Mobile App and many more functionalities.
Microsoft Excel is a strong fit if: You need robust financial analysis and reporting tools.; Your team values a familiar Microsoft Office interface.. Consider alternatives if: Your team demands advanced real-time multi-user collaboration features.; You work regularly with extremely large datasets causing performance issues..
Buyers commonly note the following limitations of Microsoft Excel: Lacks advanced collaboration features compared to specialized cloud tools; Can become slow or unstable with extremely large datasets; Pricing can be complex due to multiple licensing options.
Some top alternatives to Microsoft Excel includes SpreadsheetWEB, Apple Numbers, Zoho Sheet, Google Sheets and Sheet2APi.
Microsoft Excel offers Free Trial, One-time license, Subscription pricing models
The starting price of Microsoft Excel is $5
Ready to try it?
Get started with Microsoft Excel
Start your free trial — no credit card required.
About the reviewer
Rajat Gupta is the founder of Spotsaas. Over the past two years, he has reviewed 2,000+ tools across CRM, HR, AI, and finance — applying hands-on product research and a background in commerce and the CFA program to evaluate software through a business and ROI lens. His goal: help teams make software decisions they won't regret.
Disclaimer: This research has been collated from a variety of authoritative sources. We welcome your feedback at [email protected].
