Microsoft Excel
The spreadsheet most workplaces actually run on.
Cost
You have to pay
Excel for the web is free with a Microsoft account and covers basic work; the desktop version is paid.
Open source
No
The code is private. You depend on the company that makes it.
Your data
Stays on your computer
Nothing is uploaded. This matters for anything confidential.
Use it for this
Analysis, modelling and reporting — and being the format everyone can open.
Do not use it for this
Very large datasets, reproducible analysis, and anything that needs an audit trail.
A moment where you would reach for it
Combining two exports on a shared ID and building a summary table from the result.
How hard is it to pick up?
Straightforward, but expect an hour of figuring it out.
Other things that do this job
No tool is best at everything. These solve a similar problem, with different trade-offs.
About this entry
Checked on 1 Sept 2026. Prices and free limits change without warning, and often quietly. Treat everything above as a starting point and confirm on the official site before you rely on it.
Nothing here is sponsored. A tool appears because it solves a real problem, not because someone paid for it to be listed.