By Microsoft
Report updated May 19, 2026
Microsoft Excel
For individuals and professionals needing mobile-accessible data analysis, financial tracking, and spreadsheet management.
Microsoft Excel is an established productivity app that is available. With a 4.8/5 rating from 10.3M reviews, it shows polarized user reception. Users particularly appreciate core spreadsheet functionality provides reliable utility for personal finance and medication tracking, though cumbersome authentication and security protocols block access for legitimate paying subscribers remains a common concern.
What is Microsoft Excel?
Microsoft Excel is a mobile spreadsheet application for data analysis, financial modeling, and collaborative task tracking on iOS and Android.
Users hire Excel for professional-grade data manipulation and formula support that requires deep integration with the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Current Momentum
v2.109 · 1d ago
Active- Ships general quality and performance enhancements.
- Maintains top-20 Grossing rank globally.
Active Nemesis
Google Sheets
By Google
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
ProductivityRating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User MoodAI-powered deep analysis surfacing high-signal insights. Still in beta, accuracy improves daily. For informational purposes only.
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
How Is The App's Momentum Right Now?
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What Are The Key Features?
Generates charts, tables, and summaries from raw input using natural language.
Allows writing equations and drawing shapes on touch-enabled devices.
Enables real-time file sharing and co-authoring via OneDrive.
How much does it cost?
- Free tier
- Personal $9.99/mo
- Family $12.99/mo
- Premium $19.99/mo
Subscription-based model with tiered AI access, where advanced Copilot features are locked behind higher-priced plans.
Who Built It?
Microsoft
Empowering professionals and students with a unified, AI-enhanced ecosystem for seamless productivity and collaboration across all devices.
Portfolio
13
Apps
Who is Microsoft?
Microsoft has carved out a dominant mobile position by treating its apps as essential nodes within the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem rather than standalone utilities. Their primary moat is the rapid, cross-portfolio integration of Copilot AI, which creates a high-switching-cost environment for enterprise and education users. A key strategic inflection point is currently visible as they redesign flagship interfaces to prioritize AI-chat workflows, a move that is testing the loyalty of their massive legacy user base.
Who is Microsoft for?
- Enterprise professionals
- Students
- Knowledge workers requiring cross-platform document management
- Real-time collaboration tools
Portfolio momentum
Released 284 updates across 45 apps in the last 6 months with 43 active titles — maintaining an exceptionally high development cadence.
What other apps does Microsoft make?
Microsoft SharePoint
Microsoft Defender: Security
Microsoft Bing Search
Microsoft Edge
Microsoft OneDrive
Xbox
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 92 of 149 total reviews analyzed · Based on 149 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a mixed sentiment. Users appreciate core spreadsheet functionality provides reliable utility for personal finance and medication tracking, but report cumbersome authentication and security protocols block access for legitimate paying subscribers.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
What is the competitive landscape for Microsoft Excel?
How's The Productivity Market?
How does it evolve in the Productivity market?
Excel holds top-20 Grossing positions in major markets like the US and Japan, but the gap between Free and Grossing ranks signals monetization friction. The app's consistent chart presence confirms that the Microsoft 365 ecosystem value outweighs the high subscription barrier for most professional users.
| Country | Category | Chart | Rank | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇯🇴 Jordan | Productivity | AndroidGrossing | #15 | ▲7 |
| 🇱🇧 Lebanon | Overall | AndroidFree | #179 | ▼16 |
The rivals identified
The Nemesis
Head to Head
Excel must prioritize mobile-first collaboration features to prevent further erosion of the casual and SMB user base to Google's cloud-native platform.
What sets Microsoft Excel apart
Deep integration with Microsoft 365 and Copilot provides superior AI-assisted data analysis and complex formula support.
Industry-standard formatting tools and robust desktop-grade features offer a more professional output for complex financial modeling.
What's Google Sheets's Edge
Superior real-time collaboration engine allows multiple users to edit cells simultaneously without sync conflicts or latency.
Web-native design philosophy ensures a consistent, lightweight experience across all mobile devices regardless of hardware constraints.
Contenders
Built-in Zia AI assistant provides automated data insights and natural language query capabilities for non-technical users.
Deep integration with Zoho's enterprise CRM suite allows for direct data syncing between sales pipelines and spreadsheets.
Numbers: Make Spreadsheets
★4.6 (201.1K)Apple
⚡Numbers serves as the primary alternative for the Apple ecosystem, focusing on design-centric spreadsheet creation rather than pure data analysis.
Canvas-based layout allows users to place tables, charts, and images anywhere on the page, unlike Excel's rigid grid.
Optimized for Apple Pencil and touch gestures, providing a more intuitive interface for tablet-based spreadsheet design.
Peers
Unified document and database experience allows embedding spreadsheets directly into project documentation and wikis.
Block-based editing system provides a more modern, flexible interface for organizing data alongside text and media.
Smartsheet: Projects & Teams
★4.8 (113K)Smartsheet Inc.
⚡While technically a project management tool, its grid-based interface directly competes with Excel for task tracking and project planning.
Grid-based project management interface bridges the gap between traditional spreadsheets and complex task tracking workflows.
Automated workflow triggers and status updates reduce the manual overhead required to maintain project data in Excel.
Airtable
★4.8 (24.4K)Formagrid
⚡Airtable redefines the spreadsheet as a relational database, attracting users who find Excel's traditional grid too restrictive.
Relational database architecture allows linking records across different tables, which is significantly more powerful than Excel's VLOOKUP.
Flexible view switching (Kanban, Gallery, Calendar) transforms raw data into actionable project management dashboards instantly.
New Kids on the Block
Structured: Daily Planner Todo
★4.8 (157.5K)unorderly GmbH
⚡Emerging as a high-velocity productivity tool that captures the 'personal organization' segment often managed in simple spreadsheets.
Visual timeline-based planning interface replaces the need for manual spreadsheet-based daily task tracking.
High-frequency update cycle (10 releases in 6 months) indicates rapid iteration on user-requested productivity features.
The outtake for Microsoft Excel
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Ecosystem network effects driven by Microsoft 365 integration
- Industry-standard formatting tools for professional financial modeling
Critical Frictions
- Premium-tier pricing above category median
- Persistent configuration loops and crash reports post-update
Growth Levers
- Education partnerships for B2B distribution
- Integration of wearable-based data entry for quick tracking
Market Threats
- Google Workspace's web-native performance advantage
- Airtable's relational database architecture for non-expert users
What are the next best moves?
Rebuild pivot table data-handling logic because crashes cause significant work loss → reduce churn among power users
Pivot table crashes are the #1 reported stability complaint in recent reviews.
Trade-off: Push the wearable companion app sprint to Q3 — wearables waitlist is 3K vs 142 cloud-save requests.
Audit authentication flow to remove redundant security checks because users report being blocked from files → increase daily active usage
Authentication barriers are the top-cited complaint among paying subscribers.
Trade-off: Same-quarter capacity available — no major lever displaced.
A counter-intuitive read
The 'AI race' framing misses that Excel's moat is OS-level integration with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, not model quality; Google can subsidize pricing, but they cannot replicate the enterprise lock-in.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Real-time multi-user collaboration (available in Google Sheets but less fluid in Excel)
Key Takeaways
Excel remains the professional standard for data analysis, but technical instability is eroding the user base, so the PM must prioritize stability fixes over new feature development to prevent further churn to Google Sheets.
Where Is It Heading?
Mixed Signals
The mobile productivity market is consolidating around cloud-native collaboration, leaving Excel's legacy architecture exposed to more fluid competitors. Unless the team addresses the current stability regressions, the app will continue to lose the casual and SMB segment to Google Sheets.
Persistent configuration errors and crashes in the latest release are driving churn among power users who rely on pivot tables.
Strong chart performance in major markets indicates that the Microsoft 365 ecosystem value continues to drive high-intent acquisition.