Microsoft Excel Reviewed: Is the World’s Favorite Spreadsheet Still Worth Your Time in 2026?

Microsoft Excel has been the quiet engine behind budgets, side hustles, and billion?dollar companies for decades. In this review, we look at what Excel does brilliantly in 2026, where it struggles, and whether it’s still the smartest choice for your data-driven life.

You've been there: 20 browser tabs open, a half-finished budget in some free online tool, random CSV files on your desktop, and a creeping fear that one wrong move will nuke everything. You know you should be on top of your numbers — work reports, small business finances, personal goals — but every app you try feels either too basic or too chaotic.

Spreadsheets are supposed to make life easier, yet most tools either handcuff you with limitations or bury you in complexity. You don't just need cells and formulas. You need control, flexibility, and the confidence that when it really matters — end of quarter, client meeting, tax season — your data won't let you down.

That's the problem Microsoft Excel has been trying to solve for nearly four decades. And in 2026, it's not just "that old spreadsheet program" anymore.

Microsoft Excel is still the reference point for serious number work — from simple monthly budgets to enterprise-grade financial models. It's part of Microsoft 365 and available as a desktop app, web version, and mobile app, which means your spreadsheets can follow you from office to kitchen table to airport lounge.

But is Excel still the best choice in a world of slick cloud tools like Google Sheets, Airtable, and Notion? After digging through the latest features, Microsoft's own documentation, user reviews, and real conversations on Reddit and forums, the answer is nuanced — but surprisingly compelling.

Why this specific model?

When we talk about Microsoft Excel in 2026, we're really talking about two tightly connected experiences: the classic desktop powerhouse and the constantly updated Microsoft 365 cloud version. Together, they aim to do one thing for you: turn raw, messy data into something you can actually use to make decisions.

Here's what stands out and why it matters in the real world:

• Unmatched calculation engine: Excel's grid can now handle up to millions of rows, but the real magic is the formula engine. Modern functions like XLOOKUP, FILTER, UNIQUE, and dynamic arrays take tasks that used to require fragile VLOOKUP chains and make them cleaner, faster, and easier to maintain. For you, that means fewer errors and less time debugging mysterious "#N/A" messages the night before a deadline.
• Powerful data analysis tools: Features like PivotTables, Power Query (Get & Transform Data), and Power Pivot allow you to pull in data from multiple sources (CSV, databases, web, other workbooks), clean it, combine it, and analyze it — all without writing code. If you're running a small business, tracking marketing performance, or analyzing sales trends, these tools can replace an entire stack of separate apps.
• Visualization that actually tells a story: Excel's modern charts, sparklines, and new data types (such as geography and stocks in supported regions) help you turn walls of numbers into visual narratives. Add conditional formatting, and suddenly your spreadsheet isn't just a grid — it's a dashboard.
• Automation without being a programmer: Beyond classic macros and VBA, the Microsoft 365 version connects with Power Automate, letting you trigger workflows from your Excel files — like sending alert emails when thresholds are hit, or syncing data into other apps. You get automation power closer to what large enterprises use, without needing to build your own system from scratch.
• Collaboration that finally feels modern: Historically, Excel meant "v27_Final_ReallyThisTime.xlsx" clogging everyone's inbox. With the Microsoft 365 version, you can co-author in real time, comment, and track changes in a way that's far closer to what you'd expect from Google Sheets — but with Excel's raw power under the hood.

In short: if your work ever grows beyond basic lists and sums, Excel moves from "just a tool" to a kind of operating system for your data.

At a Glance: The Facts

What Users Are Saying

Look at any Excel thread on Reddit or tech forums, and a clear pattern emerges: respect, reliance, and a bit of fear.

The praise:

• Power and flexibility: Many users — from accountants to engineers to indie creators — say there's still nothing that matches Excel when your data and logic get complicated. It's the tool people fall back on when every "simple" app runs out of runway.
• New functions are a game changer: Discussions around XLOOKUP, dynamic arrays, and Power Query are overwhelmingly positive. Users who fought with nested formulas for years describe these newer tools as "life-saving" and "how it should have worked in the first place."
• Business standard: In corporate and finance settings, Excel is still the default language. People highlight that if you want an analytics, finance, or operations career, Excel fluency is essentially non-negotiable.

The frustrations:

• Learning curve: Many new users feel overwhelmed beyond the basics. Power Query, PivotTables, and advanced formulas are powerful but not immediately intuitive. Without training or tutorials, it's easy to feel lost.
• Compatibility quirks: Files with macros or complex features don't always behave perfectly when shared with users on older versions, Mac vs Windows, or in the browser. This can create friction in mixed environments.
• Overkill for simple tasks: For quick shared lists or super simple collaboration, some users admit they'd rather fire up Google Sheets and not think about versions or licensing.

The overall sentiment? Excel is beloved, occasionally cursed, but rarely ignored. It's seen as essential, especially in professional contexts — a bit like the spreadsheet equivalent of Photoshop: not always friendly, but incredibly capable once you commit.

It also helps that Excel is backed by Microsoft Corp., one of the most established players in global tech and productivity software, traded under ISIN: US5949181045 — which reassures businesses that this isn't a tool that's going to disappear overnight.

Alternatives vs. Microsoft Excel

The real question in 2026 isn't "Can Excel do it?" but "Is Excel the right fit for how you work?" Here's how it stacks up against some of the most common alternatives:

• Google Sheets: Excellent for real-time collaboration, especially if your team lives inside Google Workspace. It's simple, cloud-native, and great for light to moderate work. But when it comes to extremely large datasets, heavy modeling, or advanced analytics, users often hit performance walls or missing features and end up exporting to Excel.
• Airtable / Notion: These tools are brilliant for project tracking, lightweight databases, and visually structured information. They're fantastic when you're organizing content, tasks, or relationships — less so when you need serious number crunching, complex formulas, or traditional financial modeling.
• LibreOffice Calc and other free tools: Good enough for very budget-conscious users and basic spreadsheets, especially in open-source environments. However, compatibility with complex Excel files can be inconsistent, and you lose the tight integration with Microsoft 365, Teams, and Power BI that many businesses rely on.

Where Microsoft Excel really earns its keep is at the intersection of power, compatibility, and career value. If you're working with serious data, collaborating in a Microsoft-centric workplace, or building skills you can carry from job to job, Excel doesn't just match its rivals — it still sets the standard they're judged against.

Final Verdict

Microsoft Excel in 2026 is not the shiny new productivity app grabbing headlines on social media. It's something more important: the quiet backbone behind how the world measures, plans, and decides.

If you're just keeping a personal reading list, you can get by with almost anything. But if you're:

• Running a side hustle and want to truly understand profit vs. cash flow,
• Managing budgets or forecasts for a team or company,
• Preparing for a career in finance, analytics, operations, or engineering,
• Or simply tired of hitting "limits" in simpler tools,

then Excel isn't overkill — it's leverage.

Yes, there's a learning curve. Yes, some of the more advanced features will feel intimidating at first. But that curve is also an opportunity: the more fluent you become, the more you can bend the tool to your will. Between Microsoft's own documentation, a huge ecosystem of online courses, and an active Reddit and YouTube community sharing templates and tutorials, you're not alone.

Excel won't magically fix messy thinking or bad data. What it will do is give you a canvas big and powerful enough to model reality — your business, your projects, your finances — with clarity. And once you see your world that clearly, it's very hard to go back.

If your work, business, or ambitions are starting to outgrow basic tools, Microsoft Excel isn't just worth having. It's worth mastering.