For a while, Google Sheets lured people away from Excel. But many people came back after realizing that Google Sheets is far from beating Excel.
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Microsoft built Excel primarily for offline use. That means you can create, edit, and save files, as well as access all of its advanced features—from PivotTables to Macros—without an Internet connection. While Excel does have some cloud-based features, they feel like add-ons for the offline-first approach in a good way.
Google Sheets, on the other hand, cannot be used offline unless you install the Google Docs Offline extension. Even then, you still won't have access to all the features.
For example, you can't import files, access settings, create tables, drawings, or macros. Additionally, offline extensions are only available for Chromium browsers like Google Chrome and Edge, meaning you can't go offline if you're using something like Firefox or Safari .
One thing that gives Excel the performance advantage is that it takes advantage of the full processing power of your device. This means that Excel can access files faster and handle large data sets—over 1 million rows and 16,000 columns—more efficiently. Google Sheets can crash much more quickly, especially as your spreadsheet grows, due to factors like browser limitations (e.g., Chrome’s memory usage limits).
This isn't to say that Excel doesn't have its fair share of issues, but you're unlikely to run into browser-related issues. Chrome, for example, is notorious for hogging memory. This problem is made worse by running Google Sheets and the Google Docs Offline extension.
There are times when you use Google Sheets and encounter errors or notice a significant drop in overall system performance because Chrome is using too much RAM .
Excel has a technical advantage over Sheets in that its built-in features allow it to handle a wide variety of tasks. Excel can be used for everything from budgeting and accounting to complex financial modeling and data analysis. The latter two tasks are made possible by Excel’s unique features like Power Query and Power Pivot.
Excel also offers better customization with VBA, allowing you to create macros, custom functions, and a user-friendly interface in your spreadsheets. Furthermore, conditional formatting in Excel is more advanced, with Google Sheets lacking options like data bars, icon sets, and some complex rules.
While integrating Copilot into Microsoft 365 comes at a small price increase, it's still worth it compared to paying separately for Copilot Pro . It can help you create formulas, summarize Pivot Tables and charts, or analyze data to gain some insights.
While Google Sheets and the Gemini integration are free, they are much more limited than Excel and Copilot . Gemini in Google Sheets feels more like a gimmick than a truly useful feature.
Excel has been around since 1985 and Google Sheets since 2006. Since Excel has been around for two decades, it has a long history and a strong presence in the business world. It is a widely recognized tool and is so ingrained in many business workflows that it is hard to let go.
Even organizations that use other software like Tableau may require it to interact with Excel to, for example, take advantage of its advanced data analysis and reporting capabilities. Excel's widespread use is also one reason why it has so many add-ins - they're in high demand.
Because Excel has been around for much longer than Google Sheets, developers have had more time to develop a wide variety of add-ins. With so many different add-ins, Excel can help you be more productive, whether you’re performing complex calculations, doing advanced analytics, or creating automations and visualizations. That means if you want more functionality in your spreadsheets, you’re more likely to find it in Excel than in Google Sheets.
Google Sheets has the advantage of being quite user-friendly, having better real-time collaboration capabilities, and being seamlessly integrated with Google Workspace apps. But Excel just offers more when it comes to offline capabilities, performance, advanced features, Copilot integration, and add-ins.
Considering that this is an industry standard that isn't going away anytime soon, the choice to go back to Excel is understandable.
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