Microsoft Excel vs Adobe Acrobat

Google Sheets

Docusign

Numbers

LibreOffice

Dropbox Sign

Foxit PDF Reader

Compare Microsoft Excel and Adobe Acrobat based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

Google Workspace

Google Workspace is a suite of applications from Google which offers a number of tools to communicate and collaborate with colleagues, store files, and manage data from all devices.

Google Sheets is a cloud-based spreadsheet platform designed to help businesses of all sizes collaborate with clients and partners to create and edit data on spreadsheets.

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365, formerly Office 365, provides web, desktop, and mobile apps for Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher, Skype, OneDrive, Exchange Online, and more

Excel is a spreadsheet management software program with data analysis tools to help users track and visualize data for greater insight and more ways to share data.

Charting

Collaboration Tools

Commenting/Notes

Customizable Templates

Database Creation

Data Import/Export

Data Visualization

Document Management

Drag & Drop

File Sharing

Multiple Projects

Notes Management

Office Suite

Offline Access

Productivity Tools

Project Management

Real-Time Data

Real-Time Updates

Search/Filter

Task Management

Team Collaboration

Templates

To-Do List

Version Control

What-if Analysis

Reviews for Microsoft Excel come from a wide variety of industries, including Information Technology and Services (6% of reviewers), Education Management (6%), and Computer Software (5%). The most frequent use case for Excel cited by reviewers is spreadsheets (89% of reviewers).

Users and use cases

Some users say Excel offers good value for money due to its features, integration, and flexible payment options. However, some reviewers report high costs, frustration with subscriptions, and note free alternatives as more appealing for basic needs.

Value for money

The Microsoft Excel integrations most frequently cited by reviewers are: Microsoft 365 (a document management product rated 4.8 out of 5 for its integration with Microsoft Excel), Microsoft PowerPoint (a presentation product, 4.6), and OneDrive (a cloud storage product, 4.7).

Integrations

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet tool with key features that include data import/export, search/filter, data visualization, offline access, document management, collaboration tools, and more.

Microsoft Excel

Web-based

iPad

Android

Windows

iPhone

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

Microsoft 365 Apps for business

Microsoft 365 Business Standard

Microsoft 365 Business Premium

Engineer

What I liked most about Microsoft Excel is that it is very powerful for organizing data, making calculations, and creating tables and charts in a clear and efficient way.

Director for sales and business development

It runs smoothly most of the time, works well on my phone when I’m not in the office, and helps me keep my business records, reports, and numbers organized without stress.

Payment Processor

Excel is a powerful, versatile tool for data management, analysis, and visualization, ideal for small to medium-sized projects and widely accessible.

Embedded software engineer

What I like least about Microsoft Excel is that complex spreadsheets can quickly become difficult to manage and understand, especially when they contain many formulas, links, or multiple sheets. If they are not organised well, it can be easy to make mistakes or lose track of how certain results were calculated.

Vice President of Sales and Operations

We have schedules, quotes, order forms and monthly reports all in Excel that we use for various daily activities.

Customer Service Administrator

Features like Pivot Tables and XLOOKUP make slicing and dicing data incredibly efficient. Because it is almost always bundled with Microsoft 365, the value is exceptionally high.

As an employee at an accounting firm, I use Excel every day. Whether just simply to make a spreadsheet totaling expenses for a client, to creating a new workpaper for an audit, it makes my job so much easier.

Agent

The ability to turn data sets into different types of graphs and to illustrate year over year gains and losses.

Accounts officer

The formulas, filters, and conditional formatting let you turn raw details into something visual and logical, and that sense of clarity is something you really value.

While powerful, there is a breaking point. If you load a workbook with too many volatile formulas, complex formatting, or hundreds of thousands of rows, it can become sluggish, freeze, or crash entirely.

Case Manager Assistant

Microsoft excel is a self-taught tool on how to balance your work whether it be finance, clients data, keeping up with provider contacts or simply just having easy access to information.

Business Administrator

It is a tool I use daily for reporting purposes, as well as running macros I have set up, which organize my data in certain columns to produce text files for my job.

Executive Assistant

With its many effective and useful functionalities and features such as the Math equations like SUM, AVERAGE, IFS AND COUNTIFS; the text and lookup functions like the Vlookup and Trim.

Project Manager

We have made in house calculators using it, we using it for estimation, creating graphs and charts from large data sets, and more.

Graphic Designer

It makes organizing, analyzing, and visualizing data straightforward with powerful formulas, pivot tables, and charts.

Product Marketing Manger

Customizable datasheets, tables, formulas, search within sheets and in columns, automation options, and sorting functions.

Data analyst

VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP are my favorite features since they make merging and comparing various datasets quite simple.

Senior IT Engineer

Its inbuilt capabilities enable me to match thousands of rows within a short time and identify missing transaction or duplicate entries.

It allows to build tracking tables, schedules, budgets, or even HR reports very quickly.

Community Manager

Super powerful to record and track  data as basic CRM, lets me create tables, and link Zapier for automations.

Director of Implementation

The wat you can organize data, create pivot tables, add formulas, and alot of other neat features makes excel an extremely valuable tool.

Developer Web Apps etc.

Offers many many ways of formating and presenting data, including complex spreadsheets - at least far more complex than I would ever use.

Finance Director

Microsoft Excel is a core tool in my daily work for financial analysis, budgeting, and reporting.

You didn’t enjoy the moments where a sheet became cluttered, or when you had to dig through menus to find a basic function that should’ve been easier to access. And when something didn’t calculate the way you expected, it could be frustrating because Excel doesn’t always explain what went wrong it just gives you an error and leaves you to figure it out.

The auto save feature isn’t always trustworthy and the cross platform compatibility makes data sets and charts look wonky.

Financial Accountant

It helps me organize information clearly, and I really like the automatic calculations and visual tools like conditional formatting and graphs.

Sales Education Associate

I like al the detailed functions that you have the ability to use, from drop down menus to setting up strict rules and formulas, there are endless things you can do on excel all in one platform.

Quality Technician

It is a powerful tool for organizing, analyzing or visualizing data, whether for simple asks or complex projects.

After all these years, I still have irritating issues with points and commas and when I import csv data, most of the time the columns with dates are wrong.

Autonomous Remote Assistant

Microsoft Excel is extremely reliable and is the best program for me in managing, sorting, and calculating numbers and data.

Instructional Designer

A high number of spreadsheets slows down the performance, and some complex formulas can cause issues when working through linked spreadsheets.

Projects manager

It is part of the Microsoft 365 package and due to that is inexpensive. Although I have used a m0bile version and had no issue with it, I tend to use it on the computer due to the larger screen size.

Performance Marketing Specialist

For people who want to dig deep into data and turn vast data sets into actionable insights, Excel has a plethora of tools and formulas to help you do this.

HR Manager

Sometimes I need to search platforms for ways to create or fix something and It might take me four different search engines to finally find out how to do it.

Researcher

It can be confusing to try and do some of the equations to make calculations between columns. If you make a mistake it can change all of the data

Sales Coordinator

Excel allows to build a database for visualizing data and making graphics.

Advisor and senior analyst planning and engineering Europe

Easiness of use, integration, availability of tutorial within community and Microsoft website, continuous improvement, balance between performance and easiness of use

AI and Automation Engineer

The thing I don't like about Microsoft Excel is that it cannot efficiently store and manage large datasets in itself.

Chief

For complex tasks it requires a huge amount of previous knowledge about the app, and that is going to lead you to take some classes or studying before being able to use it profesionally

Project Engineer and CAD Specialist

The constant, updated, integration with other products is unbeatable. And the length of its relevance means that there is always a tried-and-true solution to any issue you are trying to resolve.

Suitable for small personal projects to large-scale business applications, with support for thousands of rows and columns.

Warehouse Manager

File looking with shared workbooks is something that slows me down. If team members have excess to it they can create conflicts and duplicate the version when saving changes.

Real Estate Advisor

I used to use it a long time ago for spreadsheets, tracking expenses, analysing data, like a real database for me.

Engineering Associate

I use Excel on a daily basis and it is great for everything i need, usually there are engineering trial results and i know my data is safe

Some features do not work on my mobile device , and it makes me use it less often than my laptop device or iPad.

Systems Analyst Trainee

It's been a breeze to use when keeping track of purchases that have been made for our dept., it's kept our time sheet organized and in one place and allows for easy data entry and logging.

Solutions Engineer

It has many great options for formatting sheets, calculations, macros, and functions. Since it is so widely used, there is a lot of free how to info on the internet.

What I liked least about Microsoft Excel is that it can be difficult to learn at first, especially for advanced formulas and functions, which may confuse new users.

QA Member

It allowed me to manage quality control data more efficiently, cutting down the time it took to generate weekly production reports.

Tax Accountant

I enjoy using Microsoft Excel for keeping track of my clientele and organizing data.

Data Management

Formulas

Charts and Graphs

Tables and Pivot Tables

Data Analysis

Reporting

Accounting and Finance

Features

Budgeting

Spreadsheets

Limited security and permissions

Student

The learning curve is steep, sometimes the formulas can malfunction and an error can occur, sometimes it is hard to find the answer you seek for a problem, excel spreadsheets can be vulnerable to security threats

Self Employed

Sensitive information stored in the spreadsheet may not be safe and secured from hackers even when password protected.

50% of reviewers feel negative about Excel’s security and access control. Users report concerns about inadequate protection for sensitive data, difficulty managing permissions, and vulnerability to unauthorized changes or data loss. Reviewers mention that password recovery is not possible if forgotten, and collaboration features can be confusing or insufficient. They indicate that the lack of robust security measures and version control makes Excel less suitable for handling confidential or large-scale data in team environments.

Difficulties with large files

Must take Microsoft office overall for the use of all products, Hanging of software while using large datasets, all loss of data and sometimes corruption of data, and the overreliance on the .csv format as .xls format doesn't work with all software,

62% of reviewers feel negative about Excel’s file management. Reviewers say working with large or complex files often leads to slow performance, freezing, or crashes. Users mention that file size grows quickly, making storage and sharing cumbersome. They find it challenging to collaborate in real time, manage multiple versions, or recover lost data. Issues with importing/exporting formats, accidental deletions, and compatibility between different versions are also commonly cited as sources of inefficiency and frustration.

High cost and licensing frustrations

53% of reviewers feel negative about Excel’s pricing. Users think the software is expensive, especially with the shift to a subscription-based model that requires ongoing payments. Reviewers express frustration over the need to purchase the entire Office suite, additional in-app purchases, and the lack of affordable options for casual or small business users. Many compare Excel unfavorably to free alternatives, stating that the cost can be prohibitive and makes it less accessible for some individuals and organizations.

Inconsistencies across versions

Sr Director

Sharepoint / 365 online version lacks key features, such as inability to easily replace images in cells (right click > change picture from file is not available, curious as it works online with PowerPoint).

42% of reviewers feel negative about Excel’s version updates. Users note that differences between desktop, online, Mac, and Windows versions lead to compatibility issues, missing features, and confusion. Reviewers mention frustration with frequent interface changes, loss of functionality after updates, and the need for additional training. They say version mismatches can cause file errors, hinder collaboration, and make it difficult to maintain consistent workflows, especially in organizations using multiple platforms or older software.

Performance and error challenges

Excel in working life

the most unpleasant thing is that it consumes a lot of resources when executing complex tasks, and if you have another application open it can crash and cause errors in the tasks.

65% of reviewers feel negative about Excel’s bugs and issues. Users report frequent crashes, slowdowns, and glitches, especially when handling large datasets or complex formulas. Reviewers indicate that error messages can be confusing and troubleshooting is often difficult, particularly for less experienced users. They mention that human errors are hard to detect, and autosave or recovery features don’t always prevent data loss. Many feel that these technical problems disrupt workflow and cause frustration during critical tasks.

Essential for daily tasks

Materials Controller

Basically this is a mandatory useable to everyone because this software can do i lot of things like creating your daily,weekly,monthly and yearly schedule in every aspect also in business this software is very helpful

96% of reviewers feel positive about Excel’s usefulness in daily activities. Users report that Excel supports a wide range of everyday functions, from simple calculations and scheduling to complex data analysis and reporting. Reviewers appreciate the software’s adaptability, stating that it fits seamlessly into both personal routines and business workflows. They find that Excel’s features, such as automation and integration with other Microsoft tools, enhance productivity and make it indispensable for managing recurring tasks.

Robust reporting capabilities

Field Manager

It takes me half as much time to complete the same tasks as my colleagues using alternative statistical tools. And for the preparation of reports with a high number of tables, I prefer doing everything in Excel over MS Word.....due to advanced versatility it offers me in formatting layouts and content structure.

96% of reviewers feel positive about Excel’s reporting functions. Reviewers appreciate how Excel enables them to generate detailed, customizable reports with charts, tables, and visualizations. Users say the software’s advanced formatting, automation, and integration with external data sources make it easy to analyze and present information clearly. They value the time saved in preparing reports for management, clients, or personal use, and highlight Excel’s versatility in supporting everything from financial summaries to operational dashboards.

Versatile information organization

98% of reviewers feel positive about Excel’s organization capabilities. Reviewers appreciate how Excel helps them manage lists, schedules, and large volumes of information efficiently for both personal and professional tasks. They indicate that the software’s customizable spreadsheets, sorting features, and integration with other tools make it easy to keep data structured and accessible. Users think Excel’s flexibility allows them to handle everything from project management to inventory tracking, and they value the time saved by having information neatly organized and easy to share or present.

Large Enterprises

Freelancers

Small Business

Mid-size Business

Microsoft

iLovePDF

iLovePDF is an online service that provides comprehensive tools for PDF document management. The platform offers features for organizing, optimizing, converting, editing, and securing PDF files, including merging, splitting, compressing, and converting PDFs to and from various formats. Available as both web and mobile applications, iLovePDF enables users to work with documents across different devices.

Edit Pdfs

Edit Pdfs is a smart PDF editing tool with automatic text and image recognition.



Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is a cloud-based software designed to help businesses view, sign, and annotate PDF documents from desktops, browsers, or mobile devices. Users can create customizable forms by adding various tools such as drop-down lists, barcodes, signature fields, list boxes, and more.

Adobe Acrobat is PDF editing software that can be used to create, convert and share PDF documents. It can convert documents in Microsoft Office formats to PDFs, and vice versa. PDFs can be viewed, annotated, and signed using Adobe Sign and the free Acrobat Reader mobile app.

Microsoft Excel vs Adobe Acrobat Comparison (2026)

Microsoft Excel

Adobe Acrobat

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives