The best free and paid online spreadsheets!

Whether you're an individual or a professional, spreadsheets like Excel can be very useful. However, depending on your business, your needs will differ, and you'll certainly have different budgets for acquiring one. 

In this article, we will talk about the best free and paid online spreadsheets. 

Comparative table of the best online spreadsheets of 2022!

Spreadsheet

Free 

Note

Online

Google Sheets

Yes

Framacalc

Yes

Zoho sheet

Yes

Officedocs

Yes

Smartsheet

No

Airtable

No

RowShare

No

OnlyOffice

No

Quip

No

Which free online spreadsheet should I use?

image 28

Your choice of online spreadsheet will depend first and foremost on the features you need and the price you are willing to pay to be able to use it.

Would you simply like to create a personal or team spreadsheet to optimize your work? What advanced features do you think you'll need, and most importantly, would you prefer it to be free? Below, you'll find the complete list of the best online spreadsheets of 2022 !

Google Sheets

Google Sheets online spreadsheet

Google Sheets, as its name suggests, was created by Google to meet the needs of its users. Available directly in your browser, it's completely free, and you'll just need to sign up or sign in with your Google account to start using it. It's very comprehensive and offers the ability to share documents and collaborate online. 

The +
  • Completely free
  • Very easy to use
  • Compatible with Excel
  • Online sharing and collaboration
  • Pre-designed templates are available to help you get started
THE -
  • Usable only with a Google account
  • No option to work offline
  • Limited protection, as the data remains in Google's hands

FramaCalc

framacalc

FramaCalc is accessible directly through the website and simply allows you to create spreadsheets. No registration is required; all you have to do is visit the site, click "Create a spreadsheet," and start working. While its features are somewhat limited compared to Excel and other spreadsheet programs, it is nonetheless very useful and easy to use. 

The +
  • No registration required and 100% free
  • Accessible directly via the browser
  • Real-time collaborative editing
  • Sharing easy spreadsheets
  • Automatic backup and history
THE -
  • "Calc" spreadsheets are automatically deleted after 365 days to avoid overloading their database, so remember to export them if you want to keep them longer.
  • "Calc" spreadsheets cannot contain more than 100,000 rows and cannot span multiple sheets

Zoho Sheet

zohosheet

Zoho Sheets, on the other hand, offers a wide range of features. To start working online, you'll need to create an account with your email address to activate your registration. Then, you can begin creating your spreadsheets. This site offers integrated sharing and collaboration tools that are ideal for businesses. It's also available as a mobile app.

The +
  • Completely free features
  • Perfect for businesses
  • Compatible with most file formats (Excel, PDF, HTML, etc.) and also with Android
  • Online technical support is available at all times to help you
  • A very interesting data protection solution
THE -
  • Offline mode is limited, so it's best to use it if you have a good internet connection
  • Some additional features require payment

Officedocs

officedocs

Offidocs is the online version of the software of the same name. It allows you to create spreadsheets, choose backgrounds, borders, and other layout options. The spreadsheet also allows you to save in OpenDocument or Excel format and offers a "Smart Sum" function to save even more time. 

The +
  • Completely free even after several months
THE -
  • It does not allow saving tables in many different formats
  • It is not possible to view more than the last 10 saved documents
  • It doesn't allow multiple users to collaborate on the same documents, it's not very smooth, and it sometimes has bugs

What about paid spreadsheets?

image 27

If you need many more features and especially if you are the manager of a large company with more than 25 employees, it will sometimes be necessary (even if not mandatory as you saw in the previous point) to pay to get a good spreadsheet. 

If you still don't want to have to download any software, you can find some very good spreadsheets online .

Smartsheet

Smartsheet, a paid online spreadsheet service

Smartsheet offers a free trial before you commit to a paid subscription: pricing then varies depending on the number of users in your company (ranging from 3 to over 200). Its features are specifically designed for businesses and to boost their efficiency. Everything is collaborative, allowing your teams to work together on projects, and the site is highly secure, ensuring all your data is perfectly protected.

Numerous features are also available to boost your company's productivity, such as online messaging for real-time communication with colleagues, and calendar management for all your appointments and deadlines. You can also electronically sign important documents and reports, and access a mobile app so you can use it anywhere, even on the go.

The +
  • Everything is collaborative to allow for excellent teamwork
  • Numerous features
  • Very useful if you are a business manager
THE -
  • It is not free, and the more partners or employees you have, the higher the price.
  • It's not suitable if you don't unlock all these features

Airtable

airtable

Airtable offers both free and paid features. The free subscription will be the most cost-effective option if you don't need access to a wide range of features, and it allows you to create all the documents you might need. Relatively similar to Smartsheet in terms of services and features, its strengths and weaknesses are also the same.

The +
  • The interface is highly customizable
  • Ability to enter multiple lines (such as email addresses, phone numbers, URLs, barcodes…)
  • Option to have the table's creation date as well as its modification date(s)
  • Interaction with other applications such as Facebook or Dropbox is possible
  • The monthly cost you will pay will depend on the number of users who actually use it
THE -
  • While the feature allowing access to boards for specific collaborators is convenient, it's not very user-friendly, as users have different "ranks" (editor, commenter, reader), and sometimes the same board needs to be recreated to filter access

RowShare

rowshare

RowShare is an online collaborative spreadsheet software that offers spreadsheet templates to simplify all your documents. Free for up to 3 users, it then becomes available as a monthly subscription depending on the number of your collaborators (€29.00 for 4 to 5 users, €119.00 for up to 25 users, and €199.00 for 50 users), allowing you to work together on your team projects.</p>

The +
  • Real-time collaboration that allows you to work more efficiently and simply with your entire team
  • A simple, customizable and fluid interface, dynamic file sharing
  • Online technical support in case of problems
  • The ability to connect to other software such as Microsoft 365
  • The ability to choose which collaborators have access to the dashboards
THE -
  • The feature for choosing access permissions to documents is not easy to master
  • It is not possible to copy/paste columns into another table
  • It is not designed to work properly on a Mac

OnlyOffice

onloffice

OnlyOffice offers a local application alongside its cloud version. This spreadsheet program allows you to create highly customized tables and charts, and other software is integrated, such as a CRM, email, and document management system. A 30-day free trial is available before you can subscribe to the paid version (€1020 lifetime license for 50 users, €2040 lifetime license for 100 users, €4080 lifetime license for 200 users).

The +
  • Very quick and easy to access
  • Intuitive and very secure
  • Ability to write in multiple languages ​​on the same document
  • Very easy and compatible PDF export
  • Ability to write documents in different formats (Word, Excel or PDF)
THE -
  • Difficulty connecting with OS/Linux
  • Synchronization with Drive or Dropbox
  • No real customer support

Quip

team

Finally, Quip, which is also designed for businesses like the previous sites, allows you to easily create numerous documents and spreadsheets and chat live with your colleagues using the messaging service.

The +
  • Easy to use on both PC and mobile
  • This makes it very practical, especially when you're on the go
  • Option to restrict access to certain documents for collaborators
THE -
  • The option to export documents as PDFs is not working correctly
  • Document customization is not very advanced
  • Integrating images into documents has some problems

Why use an online spreadsheet and not software?

image 29

Spreadsheet and other software programs are installed directly onto your device, whether it's a desktop or laptop computer or a smartphone, and they can be either free or paid, depending on the features you need. When you need to unlock all their services to take full advantage of them, this is done through a monthly or annual subscription, which you'll have to pay for to continue using them optimally.

Furthermore, software, whether on a computer or as apps on a smartphone, generally takes up space on your device's storage. If your storage capacity is limited or you want to optimize it for other software or services, this isn't necessarily the best option.

Whatever your needs, you may not necessarily require a spreadsheet on a daily basis, nor do you need a huge number of options. Downloading software is convenient, but it can sometimes be expensive for proper use and, more importantly, it takes up unnecessary space if it's not used every day. 

It is therefore preferable to use online spreadsheets, which are often more collaborative if you are working in a team, and which sometimes offer better options. 

Are they usable on smartphones?

picture 15

An online spreadsheet requires an internet connection, and therefore generally the ability to be online to edit documents. Even if all spreadsheets are accessible via smartphone, the website is not necessarily optimized for viewing on anything other than a computer. 

Some of the online spreadsheets mentioned in this article have mobile apps. Using a spreadsheet on Android can be useful when you don't have your computer available.

Here are the most commonly used spreadsheet apps for Android

  • Google Sheets (available on iOS and Android)
  • Zoho Sheets (available on iOS and Android)
  • OpenOffice Calc (available on iOS as AO Office and on Android as Andr) 
  • Smartsheet (available on iOS and Android)
  • Airtable (available on iOS and Android)
  • OnlyOffice (available on iOS and Android)

If you are looking for a spreadsheet to install on your iPhone, you also have Apple's Numbers app, created specifically for users of the Apple smartphone. 

Finally, which online spreadsheet should I use?

image 26

As you've seen, there are many different online spreadsheets available, some paid, some completely free, and they don't all necessarily have the same features. Similarly, their usefulness will differ depending on whether you're using them for personal purposes or for professional reasons with your team at work.

service, carefully consider your reasons for needing a spreadsheet program . For example, don't hesitate to take advantage of free trial months offered by some spreadsheets to get a feel for their performance, ease of use, features, and so on.

On the other hand, if your spreadsheet is only intended for one purpose, i.e., to contain only your personal information, the free option would be perfectly suitable!

This list of online spreadsheets, both free and paid , is not exhaustive. These may satisfy you with their range of features, and you might find an even better online spreadsheet, or you might ultimately prefer to download and install software on your computer.

Every day, new websites and software are created to make life even easier for users, whether they are business owners or not. Those we've presented in this article are constantly evolving to make their interfaces and features increasingly fluid, interactive, and attractive in order to best satisfy their users.

However, new ones could emerge as early as tomorrow, potentially just as effective, or even more appealing, than those already available on the online spreadsheet market. Nothing is static; everything is constantly evolving, and online spreadsheets are very much in tune with this: they are continuously evolving to best adapt to all your needs and expectations, regardless of your profile. 

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Hello me, it's François :) Editor in my spare time who loves sharing his passion: TT High tech! 😍 Whether it's hardware, software, video games, social media and many other areas on the site. I share with you my analyses, my tests, tutorials and my favorites on various media. I am a knowledgeable and demanding technophile, who does not just follow fashion, but who seeks to guide you towards the best solutions. So stay tuned!