Google Docs & Sheets
Browser-based documents and spreadsheets with real-time collaboration.
Cost
Free to start, paid to go further
Free with a personal Google account, with storage counted against your Drive quota.
Open source
No
The code is private. You depend on the company that makes it.
Your data
Goes to their servers
Your files and text are sent to the company running the service.
Use it for this
Working with other people on the same file, and never losing work to a crash.
Do not use it for this
Very large spreadsheets and advanced Excel features. It slows down where Excel keeps going.
A moment where you would reach for it
Three people editing the same document in a meeting without emailing versions around.
How hard is it to pick up?
Anyone can use this on day one.
Worth knowing before you use it
Sharing settings are the risk. 'Anyone with the link' means exactly that.
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.