Google Sheets Vs Excel: Which is a Better Spreadsheet?

When seeking the finest spreadsheet tool for your project, choosing between Google Sheets and Excel could prove to be tough.

The most effective approach for making a decision is to first consider both the positive and negative aspects of each spreadsheet tool. You are free to choose the option that provides the greatest solution to the requirements of your use case.

In this article, we'll compare and contrast Google Sheets and Excel in terms of their respective features, collaborative capabilities, user interfaces, and other aspects.

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Google Sheets vs Excel: Collaboration 

Since it is the most similar to the cloud-based Google Sheets spreadsheet program, we'll concentrate on the cloud-based (Office 365) version of Excel for our comparison.

Both of these spreadsheets offer quite similar approaches to the sharing of spreadsheets. In the top left corner of the Excel Online spreadsheet window, there will be a notification that reads "Saved to OneDrive." This notification will display next to the file name. Because of this, you will have the ability to rename the document and save it in any location that you choose within your OneDrive account.

The facilities for collaborating with others are, in many respects, equivalent to those found in Google Sheets. There is a button labeled Share located in the very top right-hand corner of the spreadsheet window. Clicking this button will open the Sharing menu.

Simply input the email addresses of the individuals you would like to collaborate with on this document here. You have the option to pick Copy link and then manually send the link to the file to the recipient if you do not want to share the file itself.

The Share button and the corresponding text box for entering the email addresses of recipients are both accessible from the upper right corner of the Google Sheets interface.

When working on papers with people who also use Google Sheets (for Excel) or Microsoft OneDrive, collaboration is facilitated in an easier manner (for Google Sheets). You can still transmit the file to a recipient who does not have an account, despite the fact that they do not have one. If you choose to give them access to your spreadsheet by sharing it with them, they will maintain that access.

Both require collaboration in the here and now with other individuals. If there are other individuals working on the document at the same time as you, you will be able to see the profile images of those people in the top right corner of the screen. Both apps provide functions like chatting and commenting in order to facilitate users' ability to communicate with one another in real-time.

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Excel and Google Sheets both offer functions that are comparable to one another

Both Google and Microsoft have been devoting a significant amount of time and resources to increasing the number of features that can be accessed in their respective online spreadsheet applications. Both the online edition of Excel and the online version of Google Sheets contain over 400 formulas (which are referred to as "functions" in Google Sheets). Excel's online version contains significantly more formulas than Google Sheets' online version.

Excel Online possesses a number of capabilities that are absent in Google Sheets, and vice versa. Despite this, in the vast majority of situations, you should be able to employ a variety of functions that are offered to accomplish the same computations. Both of these platforms give users access to the most common functionality found in spreadsheets.

You can view a list of all Excel formulae in Excel Online by selecting the "fx" button that is located in the box that is situated above the spreadsheet and close to the name of the cell that is presently selected. If you follow these steps, an Insert Function window will show up, in which you will be able to look through all of the formulas.

If you are using Google Sheets, select Insert from the menu, and a list of all of the available functions will be displayed. You can examine a list of the most commonly used functions as well as specific function categories if you select Function from the navigation menu.

To get the most out of these functions and formulas, you should become familiar with the IF and COUNTIF features of Google Sheets as well as the formulas used in Excel. You will be able to determine which platform offers the functions that are necessary for your project with the help of this information.

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Google Apps Script vs. Excel Macros

One of the most important areas in which Google Sheets outperforms Excel Online is in its capacity to automate spreadsheets through the use of programming code. These are the similar kinds of instructions that you might discover in the VBA or Macros scripting languages that are utilized by the desktop version of Excel. Excel Online does not include the aforementioned features and capabilities.

On the other hand, clients have access to the programming capabilities of Google Apps through the use of the Google Sheets app that is hosted in the cloud. This all-encompassing programming environment is incorporated right into your Google account, giving you the ability to automate not only Google Sheets, but also Google Docs, Gmail, and a wide variety of other Google applications.

One of the drawbacks of using Google Apps is that its programming language might have a steep learning curve. The typical user of Google Sheets will go years without ever being exposed to the Apps Script programming language. However, if you want to automate the processing of user inputs or the maintenance of your spreadsheets according to a schedule, you should learn Apps Script. This will allow you to achieve your goals more quickly.

There is a good online reference website that is maintained by the firm that you may use if you are interested in learning how to build your own scripts for use with Google Apps.

Processing of Data with Great Power

The size of your dataset should be the primary factor in determining whether you use Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. This is an absolute requirement if you have a substantial amount of data and need to perform calculations on it.

You are able to manage a maximum of 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns in the most recent version of Excel Online. This comes out to slightly more than 17 million cells.

There is a limit of 18,278 columns that can be used in Google Sheets. There is no restriction on the number of rows that can be created in a Google Sheet, but the maximum number of cells is 5 million.

The sizes of the datasets are significantly different from one another. For this reason, researchers who frequently work with enormous data sets should carefully explore the possibility of importing the data into an online version of Excel and completing their computations and reports on that platform.

Different visualizations using the same number

The charting capabilities available in Excel Online were mostly developed for numerical data. When you select Insert from the menu, a dropdown menu containing these options will become visible. You may access it by selecting Charts.

The vast majority of them take the form of column, line, pie, or bar charts, all of which are perhaps present in the spreadsheet you're using right now.

In addition, you have a selection of creative visualization tools available to you, such as scatter plots, spider charts, and deviation charts.

On the other hand, Google Sheets contains a lot of them, and it also features visualizations that enable you to add more widgets that can act as dashboards. A hierarchical framework, which may include a geographical map and a level gauge, may be utilized to assist in the organization of the textual information that is provided.

It's possible that this is because Google Sheets provides stronger web-based features for compiling data from a variety of sources. Because of the frequent geographical focus of this information, a visualization that is based on maps is the appropriate choice.

The selection of the appropriate platform becomes more challenging in light of these factors. There are around 32 different kinds of charts that can be accessed across both systems. Excel Online is a good option to consider if the majority of the data you are working with consists of numerical or monetary information. However, Google Sheets is the way to go if you need to organize your data geographically, express additional textual material in a table or tree structure, or if you need to organize your data in any other way.

Excel and Google Sheets, both available online, are also free to use

It's possible that the price difference between two online spreadsheets that are otherwise comparable will be the decisive factor in the end. Given the circumstances, the prices are not going to be of much assistance. Both Google Sheets and Excel Online are available to users at no additional cost. You will have access to Google Sheets as soon as you have created a Google Account, which is very simple to do.

 In order to use Excel Online, you will first need to register a free account for Microsoft Office Online and sign up for a Microsoft account.

In light of the fact that cost is not a decisive factor, it is essential to conduct an in-depth analysis of the contrasts outlined above in order to determine which platform is most suitable for your project.