The best free and paid online spreadsheets!

Whether you are an individual or a professional, spreadsheets such as Excel can be very useful to us. However, depending on our activity, we do not have the same needs, and above all we do not have the same budget to acquire one.  

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

Comparison table of the best online spreadsheets 2022!

Spreadsheet

Free 

Note

Online

Google Sheets

Yes

Framacalc

Yes

Zoho sheet

Yes

Officedocs

Yes

Smartsheet

No

Airtable

No

RowShare

No

OnlyOffice

No

Who P

No

Which free online spreadsheet to use?

picture 28

The choice of your online spreadsheet will firstly depend on the features you need and the price you are willing to pay to benefit from them.

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

Google Sheets

Google Sheets online spreadsheet

Google Sheets, as the name suggests, was created by Google to meet the needs of its users. Available directly on the browser, it is completely free and you will just need to register or log in with your Google account to start using it. It is very complete, and offers the possibility of sharing documents and collaborating online.  

The +
  • Totally free
  • Very easy to use
  • Compatible with Excel
  • Online sharing and collaboration
  • Pre-made templates available to help you get started
THE -
  • Can only be used with a Google account
  • No possibility to work offline
  • Limited protection, because the data remains in the hands of Google

FramaCalc

framacalc

FramaCalc is accessible directly via the website, and quite simply offers the creation of spreadsheets. No registration required, all you have to do is go to the site, “Create a calc” and start working. Its functionality remains limited compared to Excel and other spreadsheets, but it is nevertheless very useful and easy to use.  

The +
  • No registration and 100% free
  • Accessible directly via the browser
  • Real-time collaborative editing
  • Easy spreadsheet sharing
  • Automatic and historical backup
THE -
  • “Calc” tables are automatically deleted after 365 days to avoid overloading their database, so consider exporting them if you want to keep them longer.
  • “Calc” tables cannot contain more than 100,000 rows and cannot be multi-sheet

Zoho Sheet

zohosheet

Zoho Sheet, for its part, offers multiple features. To begin working online, you will be asked to create an account with your email address to activate your registration. Then you can start creating your tables. Please note that this site offers integrated sharing and collaboration solutions which are ideal if you are a business. It is also available as a mobile application.

The +
  • Completely free features
  • Perfect for businesses
  • Compatible with most files (Excel, PDF, HTML, etc.) and also with Android
  • Online technical support available 24/7 to help you
  • Very interesting data protection solution
THE -
  • Offline mode is limited so prefer to use it if you have a good 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 -
  • Does not allow tables to be saved in many different formats
  • It is not possible to see more than the last 10 saved documents
  • Does not allow several people to collaborate on the same documents, is not very fluid and sometimes buggy

What about paid spreadsheets?

picture 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 however sometimes be necessary (even if not obligatory as you saw in the previous point) to pay for get a good spreadsheet. 

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

Smartsheet

smartsheet paid online spreadsheet

Smartsheet offers a free trial before you commit to a paid subscription: prices then vary depending on the number of people who will use it in your company (this can range from 3 people to more than 200). Its features are actually designed for businesses and to boost their efficiency. Everything is collaborative, and your teams will be able to work together on their projects, and their site is very secure, which protects all your data perfectly.

Many features are also available for the productivity of your business such as online messaging to be able to chat in real time with your colleagues, management of your calendar for all your appointments and deadlines. You also have the ability to electronically sign your important documents and reports and have a mobile application so you can enjoy it anywhere, even on the go.

The +
  • Everything is collaborative to allow very good teamwork
  • Lots of features
  • Very useful if you are a business manager
THE -
  • It is not free and the higher your number of associates or employees, the higher the price.
  • It is not suitable if you do not unlock all these features

Airtable

airtable

Airtable offers free and paid features. The free "subscription" will be the most cost effective if you don't need to have access to a lot of different things, and allows you to create all the documents you will need. Relatively close to Smartsheet in terms of services and features, its strengths and weaknesses are also the same.

The +
  • The interface is very customizable
  • Ability to enter many lines (such as email addresses, phone numbers, URLs, barcodes…)
  • Possibility of having the creation date of the table as well as its modification date(s)
  • Interaction with other applications such as Facebook or DropBox possible
  • The monthly cost you pay will depend on the number of users actually using it.
THE -
  • The function allowing access to tables to certain collaborators may be practical, but it is not very easy to use, because users have certain "ranks" (editor, commentator, reader) and it sometimes you have to recreate the same table to be able to filter the people authorized to access it

RowShare

rowshare

RowShare is an online collaborative table software that offers you table templates to simplify all your documents. Free for up to 3 users, it is then possible to subscribe to a monthly subscription depending on the number of your employees (€29.00 for 4 to 5 users, €119.00 for up to 25 users and €199.00 for 50 users) and allows you to work together on your team projects.

The +
  • Real-time collaboration that lets you 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 possibility of choosing the collaborators who have access to the tables
THE -
  • The functionality of choosing document access permissions is not easy to master
  • It is not possible to copy/paste columns into another table
  • It is not designed to work correctly on Mac

OnlyOffice

onloffice

OnlyOffice offers a local application alongside its Cloud version. This spreadsheet will allow you to create very personalized tables and graphs, and other software is integrated, such as a CRM, your emails or your document management. It is possible to take advantage of a 30-day free trial before opting for the paid version (€1020 for life for 50 users, €2040 for life for 100 users, €4080 for life for 200 users).

The +
  • Very quick and easy to access
  • Intuitive and very secure
  • Ability to write in several 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

Who P

who P

Finally, Quip, which is also designed for businesses like the previous sites. You can 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
  • Which makes it very practical, especially when traveling.
  • Possibility of preventing access to certain documents by collaborators
THE -
  • The ability to export documents to PDF does not work correctly
  • Document personalization is not very advanced
  • Embedding images in documents has some issues

Why use an online spreadsheet and not software?

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Spreadsheet or other software must be installed directly on your device, computer (desktop or laptop) or smartphone, and they can be either free or paid for, depending on the features you need. When you need to unblock all their services to be able to make the most of them, this takes the form of a monthly or annual subscription that will need to be paid to continue to use it optimally.

In addition, software, whether on a computer or on a smartphone in the form of applications, generally takes up space on your device's storage memory. If your storage capacity is not very large or you want to optimize it for other software or other services, this is not necessarily the best option.

Whatever your profile, you don't necessarily need a spreadsheet on a daily basis, nor have a lot of options. Downloading software is interesting, but it sometimes has a price for correct use and above all “takes up space” unnecessarily if it is not used every day.  

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

Can they be used on smartphones?

picture 15

An online spreadsheet means “Internet connection” and therefore generally being able to be online to edit your documents. Although all are accessible via a smartphone, the website is not necessarily optimized for reading other than on a computer.  

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

Here are the most used spreadsheets for Android

  • Google Sheets (available on iOS and Android)
  • Zoho Sheets (available on iOS and Android)
  • OpenOffice Calc (available on iOS under the name AO Office and on Android under the name AndrOpen Office (available on iOS and Android) 
  • 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 application, created especially for Apple smartphone users. 

Finally, which online spreadsheet to use?

picture 26

As you have seen, there are many different spreadsheets online, some paid, some 100% free, and not all of them necessarily have the same features. Likewise, you will not have the same use for it whether you use it for personal purposes or for professional reasons with your team at work.

You should carefully consider your reasons for needing a spreadsheet before purchasing a monthly subscription to a paid online spreadsheet. For example, do not hesitate to use the free trial months of certain spreadsheets to get an idea of ​​their fluidity, their ease of use, the functionalities they offer, etc.

On the other hand, if your spreadsheet will be used for single use, that is to say, only contain your personal information, the free option would suit you perfectly!

This entire list of online spreadsheets, free and paid , is not exhaustive. You may be satisfied with these because of all the features they offer, and perhaps you will find an even better online spreadsheet or you will ultimately prefer to opt for software to download and install on your computer .

New sites and new software are created every day to make life even easier for users, business owners or not. Those that we have presented to you in this article continue to evolve to make their interface or their functionalities more and more fluid, interactive and attractive in order to best satisfy their users.

However, there could be new ones tomorrow, which could be just as effective, or even more interesting, than those that already exist on the online spreadsheet market. Nothing is fixed, everything is constantly evolving and online spreadsheets are very up to date on this: they are constantly evolving to best adapt to all your needs and expectations, whatever 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!