Excel and Google Sheets are the two dominant spreadsheet platforms. Many professionals use both. But when it comes to choosing one as your primary tool, the decision depends on your use case, team size, and technical needs. Here is an honest comparison.
Collaboration: Google Sheets wins
Google Sheets was built for collaboration from day one. Multiple users editing simultaneously is seamless, with cursors visible in real time and changes saved instantly. Excel has added co-authoring through OneDrive and SharePoint, and it works well, but it still occasionally has sync conflicts and small delays. If real-time collaboration with five or more simultaneous editors is your primary need, Google Sheets is more reliable.
Data capacity: Excel wins decisively
Google Sheets caps at about 10 million cells and slows down significantly past 50,000 rows with formulas. Excel handles over a million rows per sheet and, with Power Query, can process tens of millions of rows. If your dataset has more than 20,000 rows, Excel is the practical choice. For big data analysis, there is no comparison.
Formulas and functions
Excel has more functions overall, especially with recent additions like XLOOKUP, LAMBDA, LET, FILTER, SORT, and UNIQUE. Google Sheets has some unique functions like QUERY (SQL-like syntax for spreadsheet data), IMPORTRANGE (pull data from other spreadsheets), and GOOGLEFINANCE (live stock quotes). Both platforms keep adding features, but Excel leads in formula power.
Automation and extensibility
Excel has VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) for macro programming and integrates with Power Query, Power Pivot, and the wider Microsoft Power Platform. Google Sheets has Apps Script (JavaScript-based), which integrates with Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs, and external APIs. If you are in the Microsoft ecosystem, Excel's automation is deeper. If you are in the Google ecosystem, Apps Script is more natural.
Cost
Google Sheets is free with a Google account for personal use. Google Workspace for business starts at about $8 CAD per user per month. Microsoft 365 Business Basic starts at about $8 CAD per user per month and includes Excel plus the full Office suite. Cost is roughly equivalent for business use. For personal use, Google Sheets has the free advantage.
Offline access
Excel works fully offline and always has. Google Sheets has offline mode through a Chrome extension, but it requires pre-enabling and has limitations with complex sheets. If you frequently work without internet (travel, remote sites), Excel is more reliable.
Visualization
Both platforms offer charts, but Excel has more chart types and more formatting options. Excel also integrates directly with Power BI for advanced interactive dashboards. Google Sheets connects to Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) for dashboard building. For quick charts, both are fine. For polished, presentation-ready visuals, Excel has the edge.
The verdict
Use Google Sheets for lightweight, collaborative work: shared budgets, team trackers, project lists, and anything where multiple people edit simultaneously. Use Excel for serious data analysis, financial modeling, large datasets, and anything that feeds into Power BI or the Microsoft Power Platform. Many organizations use both: Google Sheets for team collaboration and Excel for analytical heavy lifting. We offer training for both: [Excel training](/courses/microsoft-excel/) and [Google Sheets training](/courses/google-sheets/).