A Brief Comparison of Online Spreadsheets (and the winner is…Zoho!)
The Background
I recently conducted a test to see how several online spreadsheets handled advanced Microsoft Excel functions and features. One of the key problems that I see in the use of online spreadsheets is their compatibility with advanced Microsoft Excel features (like Visual Basic for Applications macros, PivotTables, and Lookup Tables.)
Many people are so-called “power users” of Excel, myself being one of them. If online spreadsheets are not able to 1) import existing Excel files or 2) recreate advanced Excel functionality, I believe there will be a long and potentially delayed adoption process.
For this test, I took a standard Excel 2003 spreadsheet that included a lookup table, PivotTable, and a simple Excel VBA macro. You can download the file here.
I then imported the file into the following four online spreadsheet programs; Google Docs, ThinkFree, Zoho, and Sheetster. I would have also tried the new Microsoft Web Apps, but it is not fully functional at this time.
The Results
Google Docs Spreadsheet
Google Docs
I imported into Google Docs first. In order to open the document, it had to be converted to Google’s format. Once it was converted, all of the data imported fine and Google’s interface is nice and clean.
Of the three advanced features I imported, only of them worked properly – the Lookup Table. The PivotTable imported only as text and the VBA Macros were non-existent. This was pretty disappointing to me considering all the hype that has been present around Google Docs. If Google Docs is not even able to import or support PivotTables or Macros, I don’t see myself switching to Google Docs anytime soon.
In Google’s defense, they do have several add-ons that could probably replicate PivotTables (I didn’t look into them) and you can create new customized macros using Java scripts. The problem is – I don’t have time nor want to learn a new programming language to make all of my old Excel spreadsheets compatible with Google, it’s just too much work.
ThinkFree Spreadsheet
ThinkFree
ThinkFree has the most “Office-like” Excel feel of the four programs tested. The drop down menus and file menu items are very similar in naming and appearance to that of Excel 2003. This is very nice if you are migrating from Excel and are looking for something familiar.
Even though the user interface was probably the best of the four online spreadsheets, the functionality was really not much better than Google Docs. The only advanced feature that worked was the Lookup Table. Both the PivotTable and the VBA macros did not work – just like Google Docs. In addition, ThinkFree was a little slow in loading.
Zoho Spreadsheet
Zoho
Of the four online programs, I liked Zoho the best. It offered a feel that was intuitive and similar to Microsoft Excel 2003. It wasn’t as similar as ThinkFree, but I don’t think anyone would have a problem figuring out how to use the program.
When I imported the Excel test file, I was pleasantly surprised to see a macro feature that was compatible with Excel VBA macros. It was also nice to see that Zoho had functionality for PivotTable, which both ThinkFree and Google Docs did not.
Although Zoho had the most functions, it still was not a seamless import. Although Zoho supports PivotTable functionality, it still did not bring them in automatically. You basically had to create a new PivotTable and store it in a different worksheet. It was not able to support PivotTables on the same worksheet as the data. The VBA macros also worked well, but only for simple macros. I noticed that it did not work well for VBA functions.
Sheetster Spreadsheet
Sheetster
Sheetster was by far the least sophisticated of all of the online spreadsheets I evaluated as part of this test. The user interface was really nothing special and it did not import any of the features well or even at all. I think that Sheetster will be relinquished to a niche market that will only be used by a small population.
In Summary
Google Docs has a nice, clean user interface and a plethora of options, but lacked functionality. ThinkFree offered the best user interface, but was not able to incorporate the advanced features. Sheetster lacks the sophistication of the other three and is probably more for niche applications. Microsoft Web Apps was not tested at this point because it has not been officially released.
Based on my experiences, the clear winner of the online spreadsheets is Zoho. Although it did not have the best user interface, it still is easy to use, intuitive, and offers superior functionality for advanced applications over all of the other programs. In addition, it was fast and has a growing user base.
Let me be clear though, I still think that all online spreadsheets have some catching up to do before they can truly compete with a desktop version of Excel…at least for now.
If anyone has other experiences with these programs, please leave a comment. It would be great to have a discussion on this!
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Online Alternatives to Microsoft Office
Thank you for testing these apps. Online apps have some way to go in supporting some of these advanced features. They are evolving fast and will get better than offline apps as we move forward.
At Zoho, we are constantly improving our apps. We are still in early days and things will only get better.
Thanks again.
Thanks Raju for the comment. Online spreadsheets still have a ways to go, but I’m glad that you are allocating resources to making the advanced features better.
I was impressed with Zoho’s ability to handle Pivot Tables and small VBA macros. I’m looking forward to seeing more features like this. Keep up the good work!
-Tony
Nice review, first time I hear of Sheetster but I don’t think I’ll be giving them much of a test-drive: they don’t seem to work at all in Google Chrome!!! And their parent company’s website renders like it’s the 1990′s in Chrome!!!
I do have one issue though: who made VBA the language of macros?! I realise you might have some macros in your Excel sheet already written in VBA but I think Google is doing the right thing by adopting JavaScript as their macro language, it’s the language of the browser so you get native support and it’s a standard (in so-far as they go on the Internet).
I use both Zoho and Google (currently more Google) and I think the competition online is between the two of them. There’s currently only one spreadsheet I haven’t been able to move online because of a dependency on Excel.
Thanks for the comment – Definitely agree that the competition is between Google and Zoho at this point. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft Web Apps works also.
I wrote this mainly from the perspective of converting over from Excel, hence the comparison to VBA macros. Its good to note that there are several other macro languages out there than can be used, and that Google has included javascript within Google Docs.
The problem I see is for heavy Microsoft Excel users and occasional hobbyist VBA programmers such as myself – I probably won’t take the time to learn a new macro language and will look for the tool that best integrates my existing VBA macros.
I have actually found several of my Excel spreadsheet with VBA in them unable to open in any of the online spreadsheets (including Zoho). The ones that cannot open are mainly associated with VBA programs that access external files and/or VBA scripts that include functions.
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You did not mention editgrid.com – it’s much better than all this 4 services.
Thanks for the comment. I’ll take a look at EditGrid.
I agree. EditGrid is faster, more powerful, and more stable than any of these offerings. Unfortunately, support for the app disappeared a year ago, so I wouldn’t recommend investing all your online spreadsheets in it.
I agree. I was just about to “move” to EditGrid when I realised their last blog post was about a year old and pretty much said “bye-bye.”
Does anyone know what the original author meant by “Lookup Tables” ?
Is he/she using an alternative term for a built-in Excel feature or what? I’m not aware of “Lookup Tables”.
Isaac – lookup table are excel function that allow users to combine data from one table into another table through a common data “key”. The most common lookup table used in excel is the VLOOKUP table (vertical lookup table). The also have and HLOOKUP (horizontal lookup). Both VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP have replaced the older LOOKUP function.
Some addtional resources on Lookup tables can be found here:
Excel Lookup from Microsoft Website
Tech Management Solutions Lookup Exercise
Thanks for clarifying.
“Lookup tables” is not actually a term in any version of Excel >= 2003, but at least now I know whatcha mean. yes – vlookups are pretty popular. They are formulas (also can be called functions).
Excel doesn’t actually give you anything called a Table, like Access does, but when you use the vlookup or hlookup formula, you are treating a specific range of data as a table (in a conceptual way).
I figured that vlookup / hlookup formulas is what you meant by Lookup Tables but wasn’t sure
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Your expectations are unrealistic. It’s silly to think that any clone will ever offer even 50% of Excel’s functionality. Microsoft has had giant teams of the world’s best programmers working 70 hour weeks for 2 decades cramming features into Excel. By now a lot of them even work. Name a single VBA compatible product of any sort. There are none because it’s too big. Any Excel that is complex enough to use macros will use lots of features of VBA. Supporting “simple” macros is useless, it’s like expecting a talking parrot to deliver the weather report.
Thanks for the comment. Just to clarify, I don’t necessarily have expectations that any web-based spreadsheet will match all the features of Excel – only that they will have enough features to make them useful. Based on my comparisons, Zoho is the closest thing out there (but still lacking in the amount of features.). I think there is still a good chance that web-based spreadsheets will be able to handle advanced functionality (such as VBA) in the future. Google is already doing something similar in Google Docs with their scripting.
I need a cloud spreadsheet that will allow me to lock some cells(with formulas ) while leaving others open for employees to enter data. That seems like a simple request — is it available in Google’s or Microsoft’s spreadsheets and I’m simply not looking for the correct terminology?
Thanks
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