Spreadsheets may be vital to every organization, having the capacity to merely contain a company’s financial data, or execute intricate computations based on fluid data. Whether your organization employs spreadsheets, you likely use either Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, depending on if you are already subscribing to Microsoft 365 or Google Workplace.

If you are not a client of either, you may select the application that best meets your requirements. Like the case throughout both the Microsoft 365 and Workspace suites, the distinction between Excel and Sheets is an issue of power vs. ease.

Though that balance is the objective of these two programs, the distance between the pair is a little bigger than in their related apps like Word and Docs, or PowerPoint and Slides.

While compute power is less crucial in programs that consume less data, power and features may be a noticeable difference-maker between Excel and Sheets. In this piece, we will investigate the conflict between Microsoft Excel versus Google Sheets, and how one may carry you far further than the other.

Microsoft Excel versus Google Sheets: Pricing

Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are charged by person, per month, with multiple levels of pricing, storage, and functionality. Microsoft’s desktop programs are not accessible via the company’s Business Basic subscription ($5/user/month), so consumers at that level will have to be pleased with Excel Online.

Meanwhile, every Google Workplace membership includes with all its online applications. Google does not offer downloading desktop programs, and everything must be operated out of a web browser.Microsoft provides its desktop applications for as cheap as $8.25/user/month, but customers miss out on additional functionalities like Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Exchange Online under that plan.

As for how much disk storage is accessible across all these subscriptions. Spreadsheets may be up to a maximum of 2GB in size, so unless you have numerous files of this size, it is doubtful you’ll make much of a hole in your cloud storage with spreadsheets alone. One TB of capacity on Microsoft’s most cheap option would be more than enough to accommodate all your Excel spreadsheets and lots more. With only 30GB on their basic plan, Google’s lowest option may not be enough, but the others will.

The capabilities throughout both the full M365 and Workspace suites might break the tie if you are doubtful, however depending on your organization, the difference in spreadsheets may be a determining factor.

Microsoft Excel versus Google Sheets: Features

Unlike some of the other productivity tools of M365 and Workspace that depend on layout and style to be effective, spreadsheet features are about one thing: \sPower. Without the capacity to calculate all of the data your firm requires, a spreadsheet would be meaningless.

Excel functions more smoothly when it is dealing with more data. Excel can hold more data as it is, having the potential to manage over 17 billion cells, whereas Sheets can accommodate 5 million. Will your spreadsheets demand more than 5 million cells of data? Probably not, however regardless of its value, this largely relates to the disparity in power between each program.

Because Sheets is a web tool, it slows down dramatically while working with bigger worksheets.

Given that it does not have a desktop version, spreadsheets of a certain size will be bogged down for the remainder of their lives.

By utilizing Google Chrome, Sheets may be brought offline while not connected to the internet, however some have noted that the offline version also suffers. None of these concerns are evident in Excel, which was created to analyze enormous volumes of data, and not only to be a collaborative center. Excel can be brought offline with no loss of computational power and greater power to begin with. Perhaps the most noticeable drawback for Sheets from a functionality sense is the absence of Power Query and PowerPivot. Power Query is a tool inside Excel that will automatically retrieve tables of data from other sources and inserts them to your spreadsheet.

You may easily update these tables by refreshing them. Without Power Query, you are required to input all your data manually in Sheets. While Sheets does include pivot tables, the absence of PowerPivot precludes users from leveraging data from many sources. Visualization of data is also a little more sophisticated in Excel, with significantly more charting choices than Sheets, and a more understandable structure for customisation. Formatting cells may also suffer in Sheets, which does not allow subtotals and unequal merging of cells.

This is not to suggest that Sheets is absolutely devoid of features. The platform offers Google-specific formulae like =GOOGLEFINANCE, which will retrieve stock prices, and =GOOGLETRANSLATE, which will translate text to a new language. Overall, the muscle of Excel much surpasses that of Sheets. If you employ enormous spreadsheets and require the maximum capability, invest in the desktop edition of Excel and thank us later.

Microsoft Excel versus Google Sheets: Collaboration

The apps inside M365 were designed as distinct, fully formed systems, with the potential of online collaboration added later in their existence. Meanwhile, Workspace was developed with collaboration in mind, sacrificing certain functionality to promote simplicity of use. Both platforms’ papers may be modified by numerous individuals simultaneously, saving to the specified disk virtually quickly.

It is easy to distribute your spreadsheet rapidly with Sheets, and the technique to do so is much more obvious. This includes altering permissions, where it takes a few more clicks in Excel to discover the option. Excel files also must be stored in OneDrive prior to sharing. In smaller files, there will also be less latency in Sheets when different workers work on the file. Like was previously indicated, the more data a file contains, the more Sheets will lag. The larger spreadsheets should be transported to a desktop software anyhow, which is only doable with Excel. Google Sheets is superior for collaboration on smaller spreadsheets, although that margin narrows the bigger the files get.

Keep in mind that although you usually won’t be sharing your internal budgets around, there may be a circumstance when you need to share spreadsheets with other parties. Compatibility may become a problem, since millions of organizations use Microsoft, and Google’s online documents are not currently compatible with Microsoft files. Though Google has indicated it will roll out compatibility with Microsoft documents since the introduction of its online applications, they have yet to deliver on that promise.

Microsoft Excel versus Google Sheets: Verdict

Of any of the other applications of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, the difference between the capabilities of Excel and Sheets is the largest. If your firm barely uses spreadsheets of lower numbers and sizes, you may simply use Google’s free version of sheets.

If spreadsheets drive your company, there is no viable alternative to Excel that can get massive assignments done.