Microsoft Excel is the spreadsheet standard in many businesses, schools, and financial workflows. Its formulas, PivotTables, charts, data tools, automation, collaboration, and near-universal XLSX format make it the safest choice when a workbook must work with other people.

Mac users also have credible alternatives. Apple Numbers is free, approachable, and unusually good at presentation-ready spreadsheets. LibreOffice Calc is a free, open-source desktop tool with deep traditional spreadsheet features. ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors provides a free, cross-platform suite designed around Microsoft Office formats and can connect to several collaboration platforms.

This comparison focuses on the Mac experience: Excel compatibility, formulas, data analysis, automation, collaboration, visual design, offline use, and current pricing.

Quick Verdict

Choose Microsoft Excel if you exchange workbooks with businesses, use complex formulas or data tools, depend on VBA macros, or need the lowest risk of compatibility problems.

Choose Apple Numbers if you make personal budgets, plans, trackers, invoices, or attractive reports and mainly work with other Apple users.

Choose LibreOffice Calc if you want the most capable free and open-source conventional spreadsheet, especially for offline work and OpenDocument files.

Choose ONLYOFFICE if you want a free desktop suite with a familiar ribbon interface, strong emphasis on XLSX compatibility, tabbed documents, and optional collaboration through connected cloud platforms.

Feature Comparison

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is the strongest all-round choice when spreadsheets are part of professional work. It is the native home of XLSX files, so it preserves complex formulas, formatting, charts, PivotTables, external connections, macros, and workbook behavior more reliably than an alternative that must translate the format.

Excel's depth matters most as files become larger or more interconnected. Tables, dynamic array formulas, conditional formatting, PivotTables, charts, data validation, named ranges, forecasting, what-if analysis, and Power Query data-import tools cover work ranging from a simple expense sheet to repeatable reporting systems.

Automation is another major advantage. Excel for Mac supports VBA macros, although some Windows-specific add-ins, controls, and data-model features do not have exact Mac equivalents. Organizations with established macro-enabled workbooks should test them on a Mac before assuming complete cross-platform parity.

Collaboration works through OneDrive or SharePoint. Several people can edit a supported workbook, leave comments, inspect version history, and access the file through desktop, mobile, or web versions. This is the most practical option when coworkers already use Microsoft 365.

The disadvantages are cost and complexity. Excel exposes far more controls than a casual user needs, and Microsoft's subscription combines it with Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive, and other services rather than selling the current desktop app as a low-cost standalone utility.

The free plan provides Excel for the web, sharing, real-time collaboration, and 5 GB of cloud storage. Microsoft 365 Personal currently costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year and includes the desktop Excel app for Mac, the wider Microsoft 365 suite, Copilot features, and 1 TB of OneDrive storage.

Choose Excel if spreadsheet fidelity, advanced analysis, workplace compatibility, or existing automation is more important than avoiding a subscription.

Apple Numbers

Apple Numbers treats a spreadsheet as a flexible canvas rather than one endless grid. A sheet can hold several independent tables alongside charts, shapes, images, text, and interactive controls. That approach is excellent for dashboards, budgets, schedules, invoices, classroom material, and reports intended to be read as well as calculated.

Numbers includes hundreds of functions, pivot tables, categories, filters, conditional highlighting, charts, image galleries, templates, and forms. It also integrates naturally with Apple technologies such as iCloud, Apple Pencil on iPad, Shortcuts, and Continuity.

Real-time collaboration is available through iCloud. People can work from Numbers on Mac, iPhone, or iPad, while participants without an Apple device can use a supported browser through iCloud.com. For a household, classroom, or small Apple-centered team, this is a capable free collaboration system.

The main concern is compatibility. Numbers can import Excel and delimited text files and export to XLSX, CSV, TSV, and PDF. Straightforward workbooks usually transfer well, but complex formatting, advanced formulas, macros, external data connections, and Excel-specific features may not survive unchanged. Numbers does not run VBA macros.

Its free-form design can also feel unfamiliar to experienced Excel users. A workbook built for data entry or financial modeling may be quicker to maintain in a conventional full-sheet grid, while Numbers is often better when layout and presentation are central.

Numbers is free from the Mac App Store and is also available on iPhone, iPad, and the web. There is no subscription or paid feature tier.

Choose Numbers if you want a friendly Mac-native spreadsheet, value polished visual layouts, and control the formats used by the people you collaborate with.

LibreOffice Calc

LibreOffice Calc is the traditional free alternative. It is part of the open-source LibreOffice suite and provides a dense desktop environment for formulas, charts, pivot tables, filters, scenarios, statistical analysis, data imports, and macros without requiring an account or subscription.

Calc uses the OpenDocument Spreadsheet format, ODS, by default. It can also open and save XLSX, XLS, CSV, and many older or specialized formats. That range is valuable when recovering archived files or working in organizations that standardize on open document formats.

Power users can automate Calc through LibreOffice Basic and supported scripting languages. The suite can run some VBA code, but VBA compatibility is not complete. A macro-heavy Excel workbook should be treated as an application that requires migration and testing, not merely as a document to open in another editor.

Calc's biggest strengths are ownership and offline independence. Files can remain local, the source code is available, and there is no vendor account or recurring fee. The Document Foundation currently provides separate Mac downloads for Apple silicon and Intel processors, with macOS 11 or later listed as the supported baseline.

The tradeoffs are interface polish, cloud collaboration, and XLSX fidelity. Calc's desktop interface is functional but less cohesive with macOS than Numbers, and the standard app does not provide the seamless real-time collaboration of Excel or Numbers. Complex Office files can also display or calculate differently after conversion.

LibreOffice is free and open source. The complete suite includes Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, and Math.

Choose Calc if you need a serious free desktop spreadsheet, prefer open formats, work offline, or want tools that are not tied to a cloud account.

ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors

ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors bundles spreadsheet, document, presentation, form, and PDF tools in one free Mac app. Multiple files open as tabs in a single window, and the ribbon-style interface makes the transition relatively easy for Microsoft Office users.

The spreadsheet editor uses XLSX as its central format and also handles XLS, ODS, CSV, and Apple Numbers files. Its current toolkit includes more than 450 functions and formulas, pivot tables, slicers, Solver, conditional formatting, charts, sparklines, named ranges, table templates, and password protection.

ONLYOFFICE macros use JavaScript rather than VBA. That is useful for building new automation inside the suite, but it does not make existing Excel VBA projects portable. Users replacing Excel should audit formulas, macros, add-ins, and connections rather than judging compatibility from visual appearance alone.

The desktop app works offline for local files. It can also connect to ONLYOFFICE DocSpace and supported services including Nextcloud, ownCloud, Seafile, Moodle, Liferay, and kDrive. Once connected, teams can co-edit in real time, comment, chat, review changes, and use version history.

This flexible collaboration model is appealing to teams that want more control over storage, but it requires more setup than signing into iCloud or OneDrive. The product family also includes paid server and business offerings, so buyers should distinguish the free desktop editor from commercial deployment products.

ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors are free for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Free mobile document apps are available for iOS and Android, while hosted or self-managed collaboration services have separate plans and requirements.

Choose ONLYOFFICE if Microsoft-format familiarity is your priority but you do not need Excel's complete analytical ecosystem or VBA compatibility.

Which Spreadsheet App Should You Use?

Use Microsoft Excel if a client, employer, accountant, or school expects an XLSX file that must preserve every detail. It is also the right starting point for advanced financial models, repeatable data imports, complex PivotTable reports, and VBA-based workflows.

Use Apple Numbers if you are making a household budget, project planner, travel itinerary, invoice, classroom tracker, or visually polished report. It is especially attractive when everyone involved uses Apple devices.

Use LibreOffice Calc if you want an independent offline spreadsheet, rely on ODS files, need broad legacy-format support, or prefer established open-source desktop software.

Use ONLYOFFICE if you frequently exchange normal Microsoft Office files, prefer a ribbon interface, want several office editors inside one tabbed app, or plan to collaborate through Nextcloud or another supported platform.

For an important migration, test with real files. Open several representative workbooks, recalculate formulas, inspect charts and print layouts, run macros, refresh data, save copies, and compare the results in Excel before changing the team's default app.

Final Verdict

Microsoft Excel is the best spreadsheet app for most professional Mac users. It offers the strongest XLSX compatibility, the broadest ecosystem, advanced analysis, mature automation, and collaboration that fits existing Microsoft 365 organizations. Its subscription is easier to justify when those capabilities or the wider Office suite are required.

Apple Numbers is the best free choice for personal and presentation-focused spreadsheets. It is elegant, approachable, deeply integrated with Apple devices, and better than a conventional grid when a document needs several tables and visual elements on one canvas.

LibreOffice Calc is the best open-source alternative. It delivers a substantial desktop feature set, open formats, local control, and broad file support at no cost.

ONLYOFFICE is the best free option for a Microsoft-like interface and connected self-hosted collaboration. Its XLSX-first approach and tabbed suite are practical, but JavaScript macros and optional platform connections are not direct replacements for Excel's VBA and Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

My practical recommendation: use Excel when compatibility has consequences, Numbers for attractive personal work, Calc for open-source offline depth, and ONLYOFFICE for familiar free editing with flexible collaboration connections.

Note: Features and US prices are current as of June 2026. Subscription prices, system requirements, collaboration services, format support, and app features can change. Verify current details on each developer's official product, pricing, support, or Mac App Store page before choosing.