Today’s article is a bit different from the previous teaching. It is more biased towards my personal point of view. Let’s compare the differences between Google Spreadsheet and Excel, and try to answer two more questions:
- For starters, which should I use? Google Spreadsheets or Excel?
- When you do data analysis or business analysis, which one do you use?
I want to answer based on my own experience and facts. It is inevitable that I will not be objective. You are welcome to leave a message to discuss or correct me. For me, neither of these two tools is absolutely good and which is absolutely bad, only suitable or not suitable, for your reference!
What is the main difference between Google spreadsheets and Excel?
Price
Google Spreadsheets is basically free, while Excel is a subscription.
In fact, Google also provides a paid enterprise version, which also has some enterprise-specific features, and the development of Google Apps Script will also reduce more restrictions, but for individuals, students, Freelancer, and small-scale companies, the basic version of Google Spreadsheet It’s also good enough.
function, product function
- Google Spreadsheets has fewer analysis-related features than Excel.
- Google spreadsheets have a limit on the number of cells, and too much data will slow down the loading speed, but Excel almost does not, and has powerful computing power.
- However, Google’s unique functions such as QUERY, IMPORTRANGE, GOOGLEFINANCE, GOOGLETRANSLATE, and IMAGE are very convenient!
The number of functions in Google Spreadsheet is similar to that of Excel, and the commonly used functions are roughly the same (such as VLOOKUP, SUM, IF, etc.). However, some functions and functions of Google Spreadsheet always have the feeling of silently following the footsteps of Excel (such as XLOOKUP, named functions, VSTACK, etc. introduced before), and there is a feeling of half a year to two years. There is a gap of one year (purely personal experience), but I believe that such an interval will gradually decrease in the future.
The automatic saving function of Google Spreadsheet is also very good, and the version control is also good. You can easily go back to the previous editing records. If your Excel is connected to OneDrive, it will have the same function.
However, Excel also has a small problem, which is the “software version”. For example, some new functions of Excel 365 are not accepted by older versions of Excel, but Google spreadsheets are not likely to have such problems. Even if new functions or functions are released, they will be available within a month. Worldwide UI releases are complete (unless a bug is found to be retracted and re-released, it will take a little longer). If you happen to be using an older version of Excel, you may have to update to a newer version to receive new functions and features.
Collaboration and sharing features
The instant chat and instant collaboration features of Google Spreadsheets are a clear winner! It is also very convenient to see which user is editing which cell, and can operate intuitively. The sharing function of Google spreadsheets is also very convenient, and the control permissions are also very simple. Microsoft also seems to be working hard to improve the functionality of OneDrive, so that Excel has better collaboration features.
But if your work itself only needs to be done by one person, then this function may not be so important!
Connect automation with other products
Google Spreadsheet uses Google Apps Script (hereinafter referred to as GAS), which is highly similar to JavaScript, while Excel uses Visual Basic for Applications (hereinafter referred to as VBA).
I think that if we only look at the language itself, it may be better to learn GAS for development. Not only can we easily connect Google products, but after getting familiar with JavaScript, we can learn front-end technologies (HTML, CSS and other JavaScript web technologies) , while VBA is currently limited to applications between Office products.
hot key
While Google Spreadsheets has fewer shortcuts, Excel has cool, handy shortcuts. I guess this is because Google Spreadsheet is still built on the basis of the browser, and the browser itself already has some shortcut keys, which will conflict with Google Spreadsheet, so it may also limit the application of Google Spreadsheet shortcut keys .
chart
Both Google Spreadsheet and Excel can make charts, but Google Spreadsheet has relatively few options. Some things (such as Gantt charts) need to be made manually, while Excel is more powerful and provides more options. So, I don’t think Google Spreadsheets has quite caught up to Excel.
For starters, which should I use? Google Spreadsheets or Excel?
I think this actually goes back toyour job needs. for example:
- Do you work alone, or do you need to collaborate with many people? → Excel is more suitable for people who work independently, while Google Spreadsheet is suitable for occasions where multiple people collaborate.
- Do you or your company have concerns about Google’s security? → If available, use Excel.
- Do you or your company need massive and advanced data analysis and processing? → Use Excel if necessary.
- Do you or your company have Google products (Google Docs, Google Sheets) that need to be linked with spreadsheet software? → If available, use Google spreadsheets.
If you do not have the above concerns,Maybe it’s a good idea to start with Google Spreadsheets,because:
- Google Spreadsheets has a relatively gentle learning curve and a relatively easy-to-navigate interface.
- You can first understand the basic concepts of spreadsheet software, know what is a column, what is a column, what is a cell, and what is a function.
- Free, no need to invest money first.
- After learning a certain level, it is not difficult to switch to Excel.
Personally, I feel that while Excel is the industry standard and a very versatile tool in the job market, not everyone needs that advanced functionality. When I was doing consulting services, I found that some small-scale companies, individual users, and Freelancers prefer to use Google spreadsheets, because it can save a little operating costs, and the collaboration function of Google spreadsheets is also good. For most job needs, they think these beat Excel!
When you do data analysis, which one do you use?
I use Google Spreadsheets.
Partly because of company policy requirements, and partly because my work needs are like this:
- Need to be connected with other Google products (automatically generate Google document reports, connect Google form responses, automatically generate letters and send them in Gmail, etc.)
- To partner with other business analysts
- Occasionally, the supervisor also wants to dig out the data by himself and make simple graphs
So no matter how you think about it, it is more convenient to use Google spreadsheets in my situation!
In the early days of the team’s establishment, after all, there were not many materials, so I didn’t think there was any problem with only using the Google spreadsheet. The browser hangs up directly, or the charts you want to make cannot be made, and there are too few fine-tuning parts. Later, I took other business analyst partners to learn SQL, Looker Studio, and some even used R for self-study. Learning to make charts with Python also allowed us to successfully solve the deficiencies of Google spreadsheets.
So, in terms of results, I think that maybe it doesn’t matter which spreadsheet software you use (or even don’t) as long as you can handle the data properly, do your job well, and cooperate with your colleagues.
Spreadsheet software, or taking a step back, various software for data analysis are just tools.
Returning to your own needs and working environment is the most important thing to consider. There is no best tool, only the most suitable tool for you.
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