Comparison of spreadsheet software
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[edit] Online versus Desktop
Web-based spreadsheets do not in general depend on a particular operating system or similar constraints and are therefore generally more portable by their nature than desktop applications.
[edit] Collaborative spreadsheets
Generally, online spreadsheets offer spreadsheet sharing and public sharing as part of their features which enables collaboration between multiple users.
- see shared public spreadsheets
[edit] Remote data update
Some on-line spreadsheets provide "remote data update" allowing data values to be extracted from other users' spreadsheets even though they may be inactive at the time.
It should be noted that Gnumeric (listed below as a desktop spreadsheet) is also used as the "back-end" processor in at least one on-line spreadsheet application (Editgrid).
[edit] Online spreadsheets
The following tables only provide a comparison of desktop spreadsheet applications.
For a list and links to comparisons of online (web-based) spreadsheets,
[edit] Desktop Spreadsheets
[edit] General
| Creator | Development started | First public release | Latest stable version | Cost (USD) | License | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenOffice.org Calc | Sun Microsystems | 2000 | Build 638c / October 2001 | 2.4 / March 27, 2008 | Free | GPL |
| Microsoft Excel | Microsoft | 1982 | 1985 | 12.0.4 / November 2006 | $239 | Proprietary |
| Gnumeric | GNOME Office Team | 1998 | 1998 | 1.8.1 / 2008-01-24 | Free | GPL |
| KSpread | KOffice KSpread Team | 1.6.3 / 2007-06-07 | Free | LGPL | ||
| Mariner Calc | Mariner Software | 1990 | 1992 | 5.5.1 | $49.95 | Proprietary |
| Mesa | P&L Software | 1990 | 1991 | 3.1 / 2006-08 | $34 | Proprietary |
| Tables | Daniel Schwill | 2004 | First Public Beta / 2005-12 | 1.4.2 / 2008-02-06 | $44 | Proprietary |
| Numbers | Apple, Inc. | 2007-08-07 | 1.0.1 / 2007-09-27 | $79 (packaged with Pages and Keynote) | Proprietary |
[edit] Operating system support
The operating systems the software can run on natively (without emulation).
| Windows | Mac OS X | Linux | BSD | Unix | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenOffice.org Calc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft Excel | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Gnumeric | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| KSpread | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Mariner Calc | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Mesa | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Tables | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Numbers | No | Yes | No | No | No |
[edit] Import capabilities
This table gives a comparison of what file formats each spreadsheet can import.
| Calc | CSV | Excel | HTML | LaTeX | ODF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenOffice.org Calc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Microsoft Excel | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Gnumeric | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| KSpread | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Mariner Calc | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Mesa | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Tables | Partial | Yes | Yes | No | No | Partial |
| Numbers | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
[edit] Export capabilities
This table gives a comparison of what file formats each spreadsheet can export.
| Calc | CSV | Excel | HTML | LaTeX | ODF | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenOffice.org Calc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Microsoft Excel | No | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | ||
| Gnumeric | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| KSpread | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Mariner Calc | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Mesa | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Tables | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Numbers | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | |
| Calc | CSV | Excel | HTML | LaTeX | ODF |
[edit] Spreadsheet Comparison Tools
Looking for changes in spreadsheets or checking to see if two copies of a spreadsheet have identical content can be a mind-numbing exercise, especially for the larger and more complex spreadsheets. For Microsoft Excel, at least, the data file is amended each time the file is opened, even if there are no actual changes in the spreadsheet itself. For this reason; using file comparison will always show differences if the two files have different viewing (file opened) histories, even if the contents are identical. The following tools are helpful to find if there are any actual differences between different spreadsheet files.
| Creator | Development started | First public release | Latest stable version | Cost (USD) | License | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet Compare | sourceforge.net | 2004 | ? | 1.11 / 2006-09-16 | Free | GPL |
| Compare Excel files | Spreadsheet Advantage | ? | ? | ? / ? | $299 (30-day trial) | Proprietary |
| Synkronizer | Synkronizer | 2000-07 | ? | 9.5 / 2008-02 | €29 to €149 | Proprietary |
| Spreadsheet Professional | Miricle Solutions | ? | ? | ? / ? | ? (30-day trial) | Proprietary |
