Excel is essential for most professions; for advanced analytics, Power BI is better.
About
In practice. What you can do with Microsoft Excel.
Microsoft's spreadsheet application for analyzing, visualizing, and organizing data. Formula support, pivot tables, charts, VBA macros. Desktop and web versions.
Practical uses
Manage budgets, lists, tabular data.
Analyze and visualize simple data.
Automate repetitive tasksMacros.
Features & use cases
Analytics
Charting
Data visualisation
Pros and cons. What Microsoft Excel does well, and what to expect.
Pros
Universal standard for tabular data.
Very complete free web version.
Real-time collaboration in Microsoft 365.
Very powerful formulas and automations.
30+ years of archive compatibility.
Cons
Microsoft 365 costs if you want full desktop.
Less efficient than BI for large volumes.
Learning curve for advanced formulas.
When it makes sense. Keep Microsoft Excel, or challenge it?
Keep if
You need standard spreadsheet software.
You work with columnar data.
Microsoft Excel becomes worthwhile when
+You use it at least once a week
+The monthly cost ($7) is small next to the time it saves you
Challenge if
You only want the basic free tool.
You're looking for relational databases.
Microsoft Excel becomes too expensive when
−You use it less than once a month
−A simple free version or a tool already in your stack would do
Our verdict. What to know about Microsoft Excel.
Why this verdict
Average
Microsoft Excel is fairly easy to replace with an alternative, no free tier to test before paying, clearly documented use cases.
