Microsoft Excel vs Numbers

Google Workspace

Google Sheets

LibreOffice

Apache OpenOffice

Spreadsheet Server

Zoho Sheet

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

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.

LibreOffice is a cloud-based and on-premise suite of applications designed to help businesses, charities, and government organizations create, edit, and manage documents, spreadsheets, presentations, graphs, drawings, mathematical formulas, and more.

Apache OpenOffice is an open-source office suite that helps organizations create spreadsheets, presentations, and graphics, among other files. The writer module offers document templates, which allow team members to create letters, agendas, and faxes with table of contents, references, and notes.

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

Data Import/Export

Data Visualization

Document Management

Drag & Drop

File Sharing

Notes Management

Offline Access

Productivity Tools

Real-Time Updates

Search/Filter

Templates

Microsoft Excel

Android

Web-based

Windows

iPad

iPhone

Underwriter

It is so powerful, and I know I'm barely scraping the surface of what all it's capable of. It is amazing for tracking progress, analyzing data, and staying organzied.

Dentist

I like the ease of this software to input my numbers that have been acquired over the year and is a good reference to keep my numbers straight.

Student

Some of the error messages are hard to decipher when using the software and the functions have confusing variables to put in at times.

Administrative assistant 

I would easily recommend it as it's perfect for kids in school, in the work place etc. All it's features are detailed and open doors for me to be as creative as I want to be.

Owner

I absolutely love how useful it is. I have used to it keep track of inventory and sales. It's great for finances and things like that.

Creative Director 

Excel has made it easier for me to prepare and present my finances and assets, it's like having an account buddy who will help you calculate everything and present it as you wish.

Supply Chain Analyst

Excel is perfect for any user - beginner, intermediate, expert. Depending on your skill set and what you need to accomplish, Excel is the right tool for you and is super easy to learn and excel in.

Chief Executive Officer

The software cannot be readily integrated or harmonized with other information systems. The software is totally insensitive to human errors; it does not prompt the user when there is an error.

Senior Risk Manager

Great, I have loved the ease of building reports.I found it easy to learn and easy to use from the start.

System administrator

When there is a large amount of data entered into a spreadsheet it's inevitable to have trivial human mistakes made. Sometimes it's very difficult to find those mistakes later.

Designer

Super convenient and great way to organize table format data. Use it for budgets and super easy to input and find values.

Excel is easy to use, has a great UI and a fantastic support system. Once you use excel you will never want to use a replacement again.

Secretary

I love everything about the software nothing I don’t like simple easy to use love it very much totally awesome.

Assistant manager

It can be hard to figure out your mistakes. The macro feature cant be undone and can be harmful if ran an accident.

Overall, Excel is a great business application that can help track your companies growth, sales, budget, and etc. It's just great for dealing with any sort of numbers.

President 

I love using the preset formulas and integrate them into the database. Color coding important fields is also a good feature.

Software developer

Vary easy to use, worth it, great price, good customer support, and i like it.

Attorney

I like the fact that it is easy for my support staff to create and edit documents, and I then have an easy way to organize and analyze large chunks of information.

Microsoft Excel screenshot: Microsoft Excel - import data from other apps, including Power BI

Microsoft Excel screenshot: Microsoft Excel - create charts and graphs to visualize data

Microsoft Excel screenshot: Microsoft Excel - discover and reveal the insights hidden in data

Microsoft Excel screenshot: Microsoft Excel - visualize data with multiple chart types to understand it better

Microsoft Excel screenshot: Microsoft Excel -  share workbooks more ways for better results

Freelancers

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Non Profit

Public Administrations

Small Business

VP, Group Benefits

Microsoft Excel vs Numbers: Why they switched from Numbers to Microsoft Excel

Andrew B.:                                             Hello, I'm Andrew. I'm a director of sales. I started using Numbers and recently switched to Microsoft Excel. And for more reviews like this, please click below.
                                                       In terms of the use on a daily basis, both products basically allow us the ability to manage our data all in one complete area. It's very easy to upload different data, export different data, obviously sort through and customize the data, really saving a lot of number crunching on the backend.
                                                       Microsoft Excel is best for anybody who is looking for an all in one product to assist with any sort of data management for a large amount of data. It's very easy to filter, sort, create different custom templates, run different algorithms to be able to spit out useful data for you to better your business on the backside.
                                                       Numbers is great at being able to import large amounts of say lists from different groups of individuals, different cohorts, different tiers, things of that nature, to be able to put it all into one concrete document, to be able to sort, filter, and hopefully use to your advantage.
                                                       Both softwares were very easy to download. With Excel, there are a few different product choices there in terms of the Microsoft Office. So, it was a little bit more costly than Numbers, which obviously it came with the computer there. But in the end, we felt that was worth the extra investment there and it was very easy to download both and get both up and running.
                                                       When it comes to the top considerations for dealing with this software, for us it was really ease of use and then the cost basis. For both products, we felt that we were getting a little bit more are out of Excel than we were with Numbers. There's a little bit more customization that can go into it and the ease of use was a little bit easier. So, for us at the end of the day, Excel was an easy decision to make.

Zoho Sheet is that spreadsheet application that provides you with the space for organizing data, discussing reports with your team, and analyzing data, wherever you are. Zoho Sheet also provides native apps for both iOS and Android, thus, not tethering users to their laptops.

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.

Connect 140+ ERPs to Excel. Real-time financial reports using formulas you know. AI help built-in. Drill to details. Zero IT needed.

Numbers is a spreadsheet application designed to help teams create tables, charts, bars, columns, diagrams, and illustrations to visualize data via web browsers or using devices including Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Managers can create an audio representation of data charts using VoiceOver in iOS.

Customizable Reports

File Transfer

Real-Time Data

Numbers

Easy to navigate and preforms awesome for what I need it for. A nice look to showing my data.

Consultant/Coach

Very fast product- I would say for the most part it is easy to use- Stable product and options for exporting are  solid- I would call this a powerful program and being that it is free very affordable.

Programmer Analyst 3

The templates that have this app are great and help me to do some dynamic spreadsheets  I can share with my team in some meetings.

Manager

Wow what a great program, it is as powerful in the functions that Excel ha but it also looks great too.

Dispatch Associates 

My overall experience with this application is superb because I got lot of help from this application.

Associate Engineer 

It is great that the software is included with any Mac or Apple device. I like that it is useable across multiple devices And that spreadsheets can be shared with other users with the software.

Curriculum Writer

I love it because the spreadsheets I need to use don't require complex functions or formulas, so the simplicity of Numbers is perfect for my basic needs.

Director

Numbers is so easy to use, even if you haven't had any experience with these types of programs before. It is user friendly and has a beautiful interface.

Community Manager

Easy to use features, clean style, collaborative friendly (within the Apple users community), great at what the program is used for.

Composer

I love using Numbers on my iMac whenever I need to do anything with money, or anything that needs to be organized. It's great for any budget or invoice.

Personal Use

This isn't always a straight-forward process and often, there is some data loss or some cleaning up to do after the import.

Assistant to the Metropolitan

The best thing about Numbers is the best thing about most Apple products. It is a fully integrated Apple product with complete support across all Apple devices and Operating Systems.

Photographer

The only con I can think of is that if you are used to Microsoft, Numbers will be very confusing at first.

Founder

Apple Number's ended up a good choice for me as it broadly does fulfill most of my needs functionality-wise at no additional cost (since I already own Apple products including their cloud storage).

Web developer

Cell editing is snappy and intuitive, and I actually prefer just using the software. It is a massive help being able to edit documents on my phone and Macs, utilising the seamless cloud integration.

Social Media Manager

Numbers does not have too many editing options once you upload your document. It is a little weird to navigate the folders in the app too.

Publisher

I was annoyed when I wanted to copy a list into Numbers and it put everything in the same cell, when I wanted it to put every line in it's own cell.

Logistic coordinator 

Love the apple customer support and also apple trainings for this product. After years of using excel after starting my role within my company i made the company switch to excel since we all use macs.

Numbers screenshot: Numbers spreadsheets

Numbers screenshot: Numbers manage expenses

Numbers screenshot: Numbers templates

Numbers screenshot: Numbers customize charts

Editorial Director

Numbers for Everyday Use 

Speaker 1:                                             Hi, I'm Felicia and I am an editorial director and we switched from Microsoft Excel to Numbers. For more reviews, please click below. So I use spreadsheets on pretty much a daily basis for a number of the teams that I work with and they help solve problems of organizing information into easily understandable and accessible lists. It actually helps with numbers and creating the flow when it comes to expenses, when it comes to mileage, when it comes to cashflow, when it comes to keeping track of basically literally a lot of numbers. But in addition to numbers, I can track things like projects and lists and organize databases and organize other information. So basically business problems that need to be solved, not just on a daily basis, but on an hourly basis.
			                                                       So one of the things that I like about numbers is I do really like the visual display, the visual impact of it. It allows me to organize information in a very clear way that I can look at and understand. It's also pretty easy to use for showing a lot of information, whether it is numbers and charts and spreadsheets from a financial perspective, as well as database and lists of names and addresses and emails, and a lot of different information that I have to organize in a very systematic way. So Numbers is great for that systematic organization of information.
			                                                       So I find that Microsoft Excel is best for organizing numbers in situations where I have to add up sums, where I have to create, just situations where I do have to add up lots of numbers and information in a very smooth and easy way. I love the sums and some of the other features that Microsoft Excel has, and I find it is really best for that. It's also great for organizing information from databases, for exporting information and also for converting it to other formats.
			                                                       So I found it was pretty easy to get started with both Excel and Numbers. First, just the onboarding process with... Both companies make it super, super simple. There was a little bit of a learning curve with both actually, in terms of learning some of the features, learning how to put together sums, learning how to put together some of the features for organizing information, especially financial information. But once I got the hang of some of those features in Excel, I found them pretty easy to use. In terms of both, learning how to export the information into different formats was also really important for being able to send data to different people on a team, set things up to be able to say export into an email software program or other uses. Pretty easy though, and especially if you're willing to look at the help features, look at tutorials and ask for assistance.
			                                                       Top considerations for looking for this kind of software? Make sure that it's easily usable by a lot of people on the team. Make sure that you can convert data from one format to another. I find that no matter what program I'm using, whether it's Excel or Numbers, there are times that I have to export things into CSV files to be able to say, use them in other kinds of database programs. People I'm working with might have a different version of the program than the one I'm using, so I definitely need to convert things. And no matter what kind of spreadsheet I'm using, I want to be able to convert to PDFs, to be able to say, showcase information, to give it to somebody who can't easily edit it themselves so they can really see the work that I'm doing.
			                                                       So considerations, how easy is it to export information? How easy is it to learn how to use the specialized functions? How obvious is it? And then what's the user interface? What does it look like on my computer, and not just on my computer, but on my mobile devices, on my tablets. And how easy is it to be able to use, say a project that I'm working on across different platforms and even different devices. Those are some of the important considerations, not just how well does the spreadsheet component work, but how easy is it to use? How easy is it to share information and how easy is it to input information, even if you're working on lots of different projects.

VP / COO

An Excellent Free Alternative to Excel

Zach:                                                  Hi my name is Zach, I am the COO for my company. I started with Excel, moved to Numbers, and then I went back to Excel. So today I'm going to be talking about the comparison, and for more reviews like this, click the link below.
			                                                       Our company uses a lot of spreadsheets for organizing. We use them for shoots, for organizing talent, for looking at sales data and so we really needed a robust program that used spreadsheets.
			                                                       So like all things Mac, Numbers has a very intuitive and very clean looking user interface. Lot of nice colors, all the blocks have nice little clean widgets, so it's easy to navigate, and it integrates into the rest of Mac's office software.
			                                                       Microsoft Excel is the OG when people think of spreadsheets. So it's got all of the formulas, all the functionality that you could possibly need, it's got every kind of function you could possibly want to put into a spreadsheet. Plus it integrates very seamlessly with not only all of Office's other softwares, but even Google Sheets and Google Office offerings.
			                                                       Both programs are relatively easy to get started with. I think a lot more people are probably familiar with the Microsoft Office interface to begin with. But like all things Mac, Numbers is pretty intuitive to learn, though it is a bit different from the Microsoft Office, so you just have to learn where the same buttons are located. They might be ... In Excel it might be on the right but in Numbers, it's on the left. So it's just kind of learning the same function, different dialects.
			                                                       When I'm looking for a software to integrate into my company, I look for three things. I look for what is the learning curve. We are very busy and we don't have time to do a seminar for everyone to learn how to use this new program, so it's got to be intuitive.
			                                                       Next, it needs to be effective. We don't have time to find out six months later that we dedicated all this time to learn this only to find out that it doesn't accomplish the tasks we originally needed to accomplish. And then the third thing is pricing. It needs to have a good cost/benefit ratio. 
			                                                       Now for both of these programs, they usually come bundled into whatever office suite, whether it's the MacWorks or the Microsoft Office 365. So both of them have a fairly low barrier of entry for price, but I'd say those are the three things I'm looking or when selecting software.

Youth Pastor

Numbers for Apple - Workable, but Inferior to Excel

Steve:                                                 Hi, my name's Steve. I'm a youth pastor. I was using Microsoft Excel and I've switched to Apple Numbers. For more reviews like this, click below. I use these softwares for various tasks in youth ministry, keeping rosters, attendance sheets, planning events, seeing who's going to come to our annual summer camp or youth conference. Also, taking signups for youth events, like going to baseball games, things like that. Apple Numbers is exceptional if you want a spreadsheet that looks aesthetically pleasing. If you want a spreadsheet that is crisp and clear, easy to read, Apple Numbers is your tool.
			                                                       Microsoft Excel is best at putting together a spreadsheet that offers an incredible variety of functions and options. It can compute complicated formulas for you in a way that other spreadsheets seem to struggle with. Both softwares are essentially easy for the basic user. If you're looking to put together a simple spreadsheet, both softwares can help you with that. For more advanced questions, I would recommend YouTube tutorials for both of the programs.
			                                                       The top considerations would be to ask, what do you want it to do? Do you want a simple spreadsheet that looks pleasing or are you dealing with more complicated formulas and equations and data? If the latter, you want Microsoft Excel, if you want the former, a more pleasing spreadsheet, you want Numbers.

Portrait Artist

Use it every week for my business!

Isabel:                                                Hi, I'm Isabel. I'm a portrait designer, and this is a review of going from Excel to Numbers. For more reviews like this, just click below. I kind of have all my papers scattered everywhere, and when you have to keep track of your spending on everything, because when you own a business you have lots of different things that you spend your money on, and I have to go into different categories for each time for when you do your taxes at the end of the year. So I kind of had my papers all over the place, and then I was like I need to get myself sorted out. And I started out with Excel, and it's so robust which is great for if you're an accountant. But if you just have a little small business and you're not having to crunch tons and tons of numbers, and you also still want your reports to look pretty, Numbers is kind of the way to go. And so that's why I switched over to Numbers. 
			                                                       I found Numbers to be best for if you want to have a stunning presentation of what's going on with the data or the numbers that's going on in your business. So when I was like, I need to see how these things look, and you tell Numbers to go ahead and do the full presentation, they'll show you graphs almost in 3D and everything is just spaced out very nicely. It can do all the computations that I needed from Excel. It doesn't do as many as Excel, but I didn't need the way more that Excel could do. So I think I'm fine with Numbers, and it makes the pretty charts and I see exactly where everything is going. 
			                                                       I think Microsoft Excel is best if you're an accountant or something like that, because they already have a lot of the formulas already pre-programmed into Excel. Then they also have way more things that you can compute for. I mean Excel goes so, so deep it's almost like they have 200 more things that they can do over Numbers just to compute out all kinds of different things that are going on. Which is again why I think it's great for someone who is an accountant, but if you're just a small business and in my case I'm in the luxury market, so I take very few clients per year. I just didn't need all that amazing computation that Excel can do, which I think is great for people who need that. I just didn't need it. 
			                                                       Both of them, I think, it was pretty simple. You can just start it up on your computer, you load it into your computer you start it up, and it's immediately showing you here are the different templates, here's different things that you can do. Excel is a little bit easier in that it already has a lot of the computations already on there. You can just say, oh I'm figuring this out today. And then you just plug in your numbers and it will immediately get it for you. Numbers it gives those same types of hey are you going to figure this thing out? It just doesn't have as many of them pre-loaded like Excel does. 
			                                                       Well my main considerations at first were am I going to be able to keep track where all my spending is going? Then since I'm so visual, I was like this is great because now it also gives me all of these different graphs and I can see percentages and I can see just how different things load. It just made it visually so much easier to just get the overall picture of, hey I spent way more money on marketing this year, but that ended up proving to be a good thing because I made this much more money in return off of this one marketing thing. So yeah, I was just trying to get I guess a good picture of what was happening with the money that I was spending in my business. 

Numbers is a winner for me

Marc S.:                                               Hi. My name is Marc and I'm a business owner. I was using Excel, but I switched to Numbers. For more reviews just like this, simply click below.
                                                       Both of these products are amazing because they help me to organize my finances, organize my numbers to make sure that I'm aware of where I am. It's great to be able to present readouts to my stakeholders and to share with other business partners exactly how the business is doing and it works great with these two products.
                                                       What I love about Numbers, and I think what it's best for, is the blank canvas that you get to create from. Not only do you get to track numbers, but you get to create amazing graphs, amazing graphics that go along with the data, because some people look at numbers one way, but others are very visual. So you get to show a visual of what the numbers look like and that's absolutely phenomenal.
                                                       I think Excel is really great for spreadsheets and for breaking down numbers and making sure that you're able to showcase and tell the story with numbers. But yeah, they're super great with spreadsheets and breaking it down that way.
                                                       Both programs were fairly easy. With Excel, I had to really dig in a little bit. I bought a couple of books to help me dig in and really get to understand it. I think Numbers was just a little bit easier because I had had experience already with the spreadsheet type data. Numbers makes it really easy to be able to create new things from their templates and things like that. So it's fairly easy for both, but I think Numbers was a little bit easier just because I had had some experience already.
                                                       Some of the top considerations I think for using this type of software is ease of use, the ability to create not just the number piece, but again to be able to use graphics and things that will help tell the story in a different way. I think price point is extremely important to consider as well and the ability to use the product across different platforms. Very important for me and my business and I think you'll find it important as well.

Employee Benefits Consultant

Numbers is the best spreadsheet program on the market

Brandon G.:                                            Hello, my name is Brandon, I'm a health insurance agent. I was using Microsoft Excel, I am now using Numbers. For more reviews like this click below.
                                                       So previously I was using Microsoft Excel for more complex data functions in regards to charts and spreadsheets. For now in my current career it's more so boiled down to just keeping names together, just keeping addresses together, and although Excel does provide a lot more in regards to tools and functions, Numbers provides a much cleaner aesthetic for me to use, and that's why I have now made the full switch over to Numbers and use it for my current career.
                                                       So I believe Numbers is best for the person who is looking to just keep data together for personal usage, and maybe slight business usage. I say that because Numbers aesthetically is very pleasing to the eye, as with most Apple products are. So for somebody that just needs it for casual use, just keeping a couple of things together, maybe a spreadsheet or two without really going into too much functionality behind anything, I would recommend Numbers.
                                                       So Microsoft Excel is great for a lot of people, it does provide a lot more functions than any other spreadsheet based program on the marketplace. It is very user friendly, works with every computer as well, so you're not going to be limited by just an Apple product or a Windows product. And there's also lots of tools available online for somebody that does need more in depth tools and functions when it comes to their data and spreadsheets, and whatnot, so if somebody needs it for more intense business use, I would highly recommend Microsoft Excel.
                                                       So when it comes to Numbers, it's very simple. It does come with Apple already built in, so it's just as simple as opening the program and you're good to go. From there it really comes down to what you're trying to do, which once again, Numbers is very simple, very easy to look at. Now if we make the switch over to Microsoft Excel, because it is a part of Microsoft Office there is a signup fee, there is a signup tutorial based program that comes with it from the get go that you do run through, and then after you are pretty much thrown right into Excel, as with Numbers. But the difference is that Excel does give you a lot more upfront, so there's a lot more to look at, there's a lot more to do with Excel. So for the brand new user it might be a bit overwhelming, but after some usage, after some time with the program, experimenting, it'll become much easier to use.
                                                       So objectively Excel is a better program than Numbers. The purpose, however, is going to be paramount when choosing a program. So personally I use spreadsheets for very simple tasks, whether that's tracking names for work, or tracking very simple data for work, and it's also free, so for me the value of it was more so in that I could use it whenever I wanted to, I didn't have to worry about paying an annual fee for the program, and it's also very aesthetically pleasing. So Numbers, for me, was a no brainer. Now for somebody that's going to need more in depth chart functions, going to be crunching more numbers, need more formulas, basically, and is okay paying a fee, I'd bar none recommend Excel is the choice to go with there. Like I said before, it's going to depend on the purpose. For just a casual user I would recommend Numbers, for somebody that's going to need an in depth spreadsheet program that also allows access to a multitude of functions that Numbers does not have access to, I would recommend Microsoft Excel.

president

Super alternative to Excel

Francois L.:                                           Hi, my name is Francois. I'm the president of my company. I used to work with Excel, but now I'm using Numbers. If you want more reviews, click on the link below.
                                                       I used to work with Excel, now I work with Numbers. In both cases, I'm a simple user. I use the spreadsheet to list numbers, items, do sums, do some basic math, and most of the time, they do the right thing. I use them also to do great graphics, and I do prefer Numbers for the great graphics.
                                                       I used to fight with Excel all the time. I took a two-day course to learn how to use it. I'm not using it frequently. I'm using it enough, frequently, so that I want to be able to do things that I need to do in a very easy fashion, and with Excel, I think everything is complicated. Numbers, on the other hand, is simple. Everything is simple. Everything is simple. So, that's why I prefer to use Numbers, and every time I need these functions, even the advanced functions in Numbers, I find them easier to use than Excel. Excel, I always have to go back to the instruction's manual, tutorials on YouTube, and most of the time I just give up and call somebody to help me out. Not with Numbers. I do this all by myself.
                                                       I know that Excel, it's an amazing tool, and when it's time to program, to do heavy programming, heavy macros, I use Excel. I have to admit, I use Numbers most of the time, but when it's hard, when it's complicated, when it's very advanced, I don't even do it myself, but I know who to call. And I use Excel all the time, not Numbers.
                                                       When I started using Excel, my first question why was who can help me out? Because I just could not get it for some reason. I thought it was difficult. I took a two-day course to make sure I understood the basic functions. Now it's okay. But with Numbers for some reason, maybe because I had used Excel before, but with Numbers, everything is easy. Everything is easy to use, easy to start, and when you want graphics, you basically click on graphics, and it does it by itself. And the graphics are stunning in Numbers with respect to Excel. I think it's easier to start with Numbers than Excel.
                                                       Whenever I use to manipulate numbers, I usually need it yesterday, and that's the main reason why I use more Numbers than Excel. But these software spreadsheets I've been using, I used to use the Lotus 1-2-3 in the olden days, but they're amazingly useful when it's time to compile. I see people doing it in the words or pages in basically word processors. Don't. Don't. This is a spreadsheet. This is a very, very, very powerful tool, and if you need to take a course to make sure that you understand all this, do it, or ask for somebody to do it for you, but make sure you do use them. They are mostly used for, well, everything in fact. These are really powerful tools. Don't go without them.

Consultant

Valuable native spreadsheet software for Mac

Sam:                                                   Hi, my name's Sam. I'm a business owner. I used to use Microsoft Excel and recently switched to Apple Numbers. And for more reviews like this, click the link below.
                                                       So in my job, I need to spreadsheet to manage all sorts of forms. At the moment I'm coding surveys and using it to write code and the cells and produce these questionnaires. So both of them can do that. And that's why I need it.
                                                       Numbers is great. And I chose it because it's free. It's built into all my Mac devices and it works well with the Apple Ecosystem.
                                                       Excel, once you paid the subscription, has a lot more features than Numbers. And having made the shift, I do miss some of those features and it's taken me a while to find workarounds. It's got a lot more options for editing and coding and equations the numbers and formatting. It's also more familiar having grown up in the Microsoft Ecosystem and it's more ubiquitous across the workplace. So I'm often having to translate my numbers files into Excel files before sharing them, which is frustrating.
                                                       If you used spreadsheet software before, you'll find both of these easy. It takes a little tweaking if you're jumping between one and the other. And if you're brand new to spreadsheets, it's quite a gentle landing. It's just a table with rows and columns. And I think it's easy to then upskill yourself and grow more competent in the advanced features.
                                                       When looking for this type of spreadsheet software, I think the top consideration has to be what ecosystem are you in. If you're a heavy Microsoft user using their other products, I'd go with Excel. If you are not, then Numbers is a viable option. I think cost is a second consideration. If you want to save money, go with the free Numbers Native software. If you want to spend a bit of money, then Excel is more capable as a piece of software.

Technologist 

Best way to make charts

Ashley L.:                                             Hi, my name is Ashley. I'm an x-ray technologist. I switched from Microsoft Excel to Numbers. And for more reviews like this, you can click below.
                                                       So I use these softwares to track my budgeting, as well as while I'm in school, to make graphs and charts for tracking data, and they help me to keep everything organized and to visual the data much more fluently. I like Numbers best because I am a frequent Apple product user, so it's very easy to access all my documents, and my charts, and graphs from one of my products to another. It's just literally, you just save it and you can access it from any of your Apple products. And I just find the convenience, it's so much worth... It's so much more worth it than to have to open up one computer to see a graph or anything like that. So just the ability to see all my saved data from any of my devices is A1.
                                                       Microsoft Excel has a bit more features than Numbers, which is the only downside. So there is a lot more use of it. It's obviously much more widely known, so everyone mostly uses Microsoft Excel, while Numbers is kind of more only selected for Apple users. But Microsoft Excel has a lot more features. It's a lot more... You can do so much more with it, which is the only downside to using Numbers over Microsoft Excel.
                                                       So Numbers is very easy to pick up. It's a lot more, I'd said, basic over Excel. There's preset, if you're using a graph, using a chart, you need to make a budget, there's preset templates that you can use. Excel is a little more complex. I remember using Excel in school, so they had to kind of go through a basic lesson, but once you get Excel going, it's great.
                                                       I'd say the top considerations for these softwares is you want to obviously, if you look at what you're using it for, if you're going to be doing some more advanced data processing, you would probably want to go with Excel. If you're going for a more basic, easy to use, and really accessible through multi devices, you would want to go with Numbers.

Microsoft Excel vs Numbers Comparison (2026)

Microsoft Excel

Numbers

Overview

User verdicts

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives