Microsoft Excel Review: Why This 40-Year-Old App Still Runs the Modern World

Microsoft Excel is the quiet engine behind budgets, side hustles, viral dashboards, and billion?dollar decisions. If you've outgrown messy spreadsheets and fragile formulas, it might be time to see what modern Excel can really do—and why it still dominates in 2026.

You open yet another spreadsheet someone emailed you. Columns everywhere. Broken formulas. A chart that makes no sense. One wrong sort and—boom—data chaos. You spend more time fixing the file than actually learning anything from it. Sound familiar?

In a world drowning in data—side hustles, crypto portfolios, small businesses, personal finances, school projects—most people are still stuck in spreadsheet survival mode. Manual edits. Copy-paste nightmares. Hours of work lost to a misplaced bracket in a formula.

This isn't just annoying. It's expensive. It costs you focus, momentum, and sometimes real money when a decision is made on bad numbers.

That's exactly the pain Microsoft Excel is designed to solve—only the version you think you know is probably years out of date.

Microsoft Excel: The Old Name That Got Shockingly Modern

Microsoft Excel isn't just that green icon you learned in school. In its latest incarnation as part of Microsoft 365, it's turned into a surprisingly modern, cloud-connected, AI-assisted powerhouse for anyone who works with numbers—even if you're not a "numbers person."

Whether you grab it via Microsoft 365 Excel or through the broader Microsoft 365 subscription, you're getting a tool that now thinks in terms of collaboration, automation, and insights, not just rows and columns.

And while there are plenty of alternatives—Google Sheets, Airtable, Notion databases—Excel still owns the serious end of the market. Financial modeling, data analysis, operations, engineering, inventory, research—this is where Excel quietly runs the world.

Why This Specific Model?

If you haven't touched Excel in a few years, you might assume not a lot has changed. But the modern Microsoft Excel you get with Microsoft 365 is fundamentally different from the old offline copy sitting on a dusty laptop. Here's what matters in real life, not just in spec sheets.

• Cloud-first, not file-first: Excel now works seamlessly with OneDrive and SharePoint, so your files live in the cloud. No more emailing "Final_v7_REAL_FINAL.xlsx" back and forth. You can see who's editing in real time, just like Google Sheets.
• Co-authoring & comments: Multiple people can work in the same workbook at once. Tag coworkers in comments, track changes, and actually use Excel as a living, shared workspace—not a static attachment.
• Powerful data tools, no PhD required: Features like PivotTables, Power Query (Get & Transform Data), and Power Pivot sound intimidating, but they unlock real magic: cleaning messy data, combining multiple sources, and building reports that update automatically.
• AI and automation baked in: Excel now offers ideas and suggestions with features like "Analyze Data" (formerly Ideas) to automatically generate charts and summaries from your data. Paired with Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 (in supported plans), you can even ask natural language questions about your spreadsheet.
• Massive data handling: Excel can work with up to 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns per sheet—far more than typical browser-based tools—making it a serious option for analysts and power users.
• Cross-platform: Excel runs on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and the web. You can tweak a budget on your phone, review a forecast on your Mac, and build a model on a Windows laptop.

According to user discussions on Reddit and tech forums we reviewed, this combination—legacy power plus modern cloud features—is what keeps Excel at the top of the market, from finance pros to small-business owners to students.

At a Glance: The Facts

Feature	User Benefit
Cloud-connected Excel in Microsoft 365	Access your spreadsheets anywhere, on any device, without juggling file versions or email attachments.
Real-time co-authoring & comments	Collaborate with teammates live, see their cursors, add comments, and avoid version-control nightmares.
Power Query & Power Pivot	Import, clean, and shape large data sets and build data models without writing complex code or using separate tools.
PivotTables, charts, and data visualization	Turn raw data into interactive summaries and visuals you can actually present to clients, bosses, or stakeholders.
AI-powered Analyze Data & Copilot (in supported plans)	Let Excel surface insights and suggested charts automatically, or ask natural-language questions about your data.
Advanced formulas & functions (including XLOOKUP, dynamic arrays)	Build faster, cleaner spreadsheets that are easier to maintain, with fewer fragile formulas.
Cross-platform apps (Windows, Mac, web, mobile)	Edit and review spreadsheets from your desktop, tablet, or phone without breaking formatting or formulas.

What Users Are Saying

Dive into Reddit threads like "Excel vs Google Sheets" or "Is Excel still worth it in 2025?" and you'll find something interesting: people may complain about Excel, but they also respect it—deeply.

Common praise from real users:

• Unmatched power: Financial analysts, engineers, and operations managers consistently say Excel can handle complexity that browser-based tools struggle with. Large models, nested formulas, and complex macros still feel more reliable here.
• Industry standard: For careers in finance, consulting, accounting, and data-heavy roles, Excel proficiency is non-negotiable. Many Redditors mention job postings that explicitly require advanced Excel skills.
• Deep ecosystem: From templates and YouTube tutorials to entire subreddits (/r/excel) and paid courses, users love that you can always find help, examples, and tricks.
• Improved collaboration: People who switched from standalone Excel to the Microsoft 365 version appreciate real-time co-authoring and auto-save via OneDrive.

Common complaints and downsides:

• Learning curve: New users often feel overwhelmed. PivotTables, Power Query, and advanced formulas are incredibly powerful but not instantly intuitive.
• Subscription model: Some users dislike the move to Microsoft 365 subscriptions versus a one-time perpetual license, especially for personal use.
• Performance with huge files: While Excel can handle big data sets, very large, macro-heavy workbooks can still feel sluggish on older hardware.
• Inconsistent features across platforms: Power users on Reddit frequently note that Excel for web and Mac still lag behind the Windows version in advanced features and add-ins.

Overall sentiment, though, is clear: if your work seriously involves numbers, Excel is still the default recommendation—especially the Microsoft 365 version, which keeps getting updates rather than stagnating like old perpetual editions.

It's also worth noting that Excel comes from Microsoft Corp., a company traded under the ISIN: US5949181045, which signals the scale and stability behind ongoing development, security updates, and long-term support.

Alternatives vs. Microsoft Excel

The question isn't just "Is Microsoft Excel good?" anymore. It's "Is Excel still the best choice in a crowded market of web-based and no-code tools?" Here's how it stacks up in practical terms.

• Excel vs Google Sheets: Google Sheets wins on simplicity and "it just works in the browser" collaboration. But when it comes to heavy-duty analysis, large files, advanced formulas, complex charting, and integration with Power BI or enterprise workflows, Excel usually wins. Many Redditors use Sheets for quick, lightweight sharing and Excel for serious work.
• Excel vs Airtable/Notion databases: Airtable and Notion are great for structured, relational data and simple workflows. They look prettier out of the box. But they lack the raw calculation engine and deep formula language of Excel. If your work is less about calculations and more about lightweight CRM or project tracking, those might fit—otherwise, Excel is still the go-to.
• Excel vs specialized BI tools (Power BI, Tableau): Business intelligence tools are better for enterprise-level dashboards and data visualization. But most organizations still use Excel as the staging ground and sandbox. For many power users, the workflow is: Excel to prepare and model data, BI tool to present.
• Excel vs "no-code" automation tools: Tools like Zapier or Make can automate workflows across apps, but Excel now integrates with Microsoft Power Automate, letting you trigger approvals, notifications, and data flows straight from workbooks.

The takeaway: alternatives have gotten better—and in many cases, friendlier—but Excel's combination of deep calculation power, data tools, and wide adoption is still unmatched.

Who Is Microsoft Excel Really For in 2026?

Modern Microsoft Excel isn't just for corporate finance teams anymore. Based on current user trends and discussions, here's where it shines:

• Professionals: Finance, consulting, accounting, supply chain, operations, engineering, research. If your job description includes the phrase "build a model"—Excel is likely your core tool.
• Small-business owners & freelancers: Invoices, revenue trackers, inventory, content calendars, scheduling—Excel scales from a one-person shop to a growing company without forcing you into a full ERP or CRM prematurely.
• Students & career switchers: Learning Excel remains one of the highest-ROI skills you can pick up. Many data and business roles expect you to be proficient on day one.
• Serious hobbyists: From personal finance and investing to gaming statistics or fitness tracking, Excel is the playground for anyone who loves turning chaos into clean, visual data.

Final Verdict

For all the talk about "the death of the spreadsheet," nothing has replaced what Microsoft Excel actually does: give you a flexible, insanely powerful canvas for thinking in data.

If you're stuck in the past with an old, offline version, you're missing what modern Excel offers—real-time collaboration, cloud syncing, AI assistance, and deep integrations with the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Is it perfect? No. The learning curve is real, and power users still grumble about platform differences and the subscription requirement. But if you care about making better decisions with your data—whether that's a side hustle, a startup, or a Fortune 500 P&L—Excel remains the tool everyone else is judged against.

So if you're tired of fragile spreadsheets, "almost right" numbers, and tools that tap out as your ideas grow, Microsoft Excel is still the smart, future-proof choice. Not just because it's the standard—but because, in 2026, it's finally caught up with the way you actually work.

You can explore plans and downloads directly via Microsoft on the official Microsoft Excel page or the broader Microsoft website.