Google Sheets Vs Excel: Which is better for you? [2024]

Features

Google Sheets

Microsoft Excel

Stackby

Type

Spreadsheet 

Spreadsheet 

Spreadsheet-Database Hybrid 

Data analysis

You can have your own version of a built-in tool as an explore feature which will help you automatically analyze data by asking questions.

Have your own version of a built-in tool as an analyze data feature to help you automatically analyze data by asking questions.

You can pull data from all of your various sources, visualize it in myriad ways, and connect to more than 2,000 apps to analyze and draw the insights you need. And you can do it all automatically.

Visualization

Limited visualization options.

An excellent product for statistical analysis and visualization.

Can visualize data in different views like: Grid, Kanban boards, calendars, galleries or forms, and through apps like charts, pivot tables etc.

Collaboration

Google Sheets takes collaboration seriously with real-time communication. Not only can you comment, but you can also reply, edit, solve and have a mini-discussion with your colleagues while working on the table. Google Sheets is better for teams that need a simple spreadsheet solution with great collaboration feature

Provides a comment feature for working with others. In the desktop app, these comments are static unless you save them to OneDrive. Otherwise, you'll need to use the Excel Web App for real-time communication. Different versions of Excel can make collaboration difficult. Excel is best for those who work alone and need advanced data analysis tools.

Users can assign tasks, leave comments, and track progress in real-time, improving communication and reducing the need for endless email threads. With its customizable access permissions, businesses can ensure that the right people have access to the right data.

Simplicity

If you want to collaborate on a spreadsheet,  Google Sheets is the best choice 

If your business requires  serious calculations, then Excel is the best application for you

Ease of use of spreadsheets but works like a relational database. With the simplicity of spreadsheets, the functionality of databases and integrations with best business APIs, Stackby gives you the flexibility to build your own work tools your way.

Speed

As per usage slower than microsoft excel

As per usage faster than google sheets

Build complex workflows, really fast.

Price

If you want to go beyond free, Google Workspace plans start at $6 per month per user with access to other Google apps and business features, and Google One plans start at $2 per month for 100GB of storage.

For Excel, you can subscribe to Microsoft 365 with personal plans starting at $7 per month or purchase Excel for one PC or Mac for $160.

Free to begin and different pricing models depending on number of users along with a free forever plan for individuals and small teams getting started.

Interface & User Permissions

Google Sheets has a comprehensible interface which is easy to navigate. You can share your files with anyone but you can also grant specific permissions like owner, edit, comment, and view.

Excel offers some advanced features with an overwhelming UI. It can appear intimidating initially due to hundred of commands spread across multiple tabs.

Known for its flexibility and user-friendly interface, making it easy to set up workflows and manage complex data. Also collaborating with your team is as easy as inviting them on to a stack or workspace that you want to work on. You can give restricted access to users too.

Keyboards and shortcuts

You can use most  of the Excel shortcuts in Google Sheets if you enable ‘Enable shortcuts’ for compatible worksheets. Some keyboard shortcuts may not work with all keyboards and language settings.

Excel has tons of keyboard shortcuts that even Google Sheets lacks. But they vary based on the version you are using.

Stackby has handy keyboard shortcuts, some of them mimicking your spreadsheet experience.

Formulas

Google Sheets is catching up with Excel in terms of formulas but creating a graph in Google Sheets must be done manually, as there are no built-in formulas or charts, unlike Excel spreadsheets.

Excel is preferred because it has a huge library of built-in formulas. You can perform complex calculations in Excel.

It supports over 100+ formulas from everything to adding to numbers, text, date-time functions to using conditional IF and SWITCH conditions.

Saving data

With Google Sheets, you don't need to save files manually.

Excel is easy to use, but you have to manually save the file. 

Data gets stored automatically and you can even retrieve data deleted within the past week from the  Recycle Bin of your stack.

Bringing data from other tools

You can import data from different sources in different formats in Google Sheets.

In Excel, you can import data from different data sources like text file, xml file, web page etc.

With Stackby’s numerous integrations it’s easy to import data from external apps into your boards.