Business & Productivity · Tools
Excel vs Google Sheets: which should you learn?
Learn the one your workplace uses. If nobody is deciding for you: Sheets for collaboration and cost, Excel for depth, large data and job listings. The skills transfer either way.
The Nextversity teamBusiness & Productivity schoolUpdated August 10, 20266 min read
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The short answer
Learn the one your workplace already uses. That is not a dodge, it is the answer for most people, because the fastest skill growth comes from practicing on real work.
If nobody is deciding for you: Google Sheets if you collaborate constantly, want it free, and work with modest amounts of data. Excel if you handle large datasets, need Power Query or serious modeling, or you are job hunting in finance, operations or analysis.
The good news is that the choice matters less than it looks. Around 90% of what you learn transfers.
Where Google Sheets wins
Collaboration. Real-time editing was built in from day one, and it still feels more natural than Excel's version. Comments, suggestions and version history are excellent, and there is no "who has the file open" problem.
Cost. Free with a Google account. That matters for students, freelancers and anyone not covered by a work licence. The Google Sheets product page lays out what the paid tiers add.
Sharing. A link with view or edit access, no attachment. This sounds small and changes how teams work.
Functions that pull data in. IMPORTRANGE, IMPORTHTML and GOOGLEFINANCE have no direct Excel equivalent, and they are genuinely handy for quick data gathering.
No install. Works on any machine with a browser, including a Chromebook.
Where Excel wins
Large datasets. Sheets slows down noticeably in the tens of thousands of rows with heavy formulas. Excel handles a million rows on the sheet and far more through the data model.
Power Query. Repeatable imports and cleaning, recorded once and refreshed with a click. Sheets has nothing that matches it, and for anyone handling monthly reports this is the single biggest gap.
Depth. More functions, more chart control, better pivot table options, proper what-if analysis, Solver, and a real add-in ecosystem. The Microsoft 365 Excel page lists the current feature set.
Offline. Works on a plane, in a basement, on a bad connection, without configuring anything.
Job listings. Excel appears in far more of them. That is inertia rather than superiority, but inertia is real when you are applying for jobs.
Both are spreadsheets. Arguing about which is better is like arguing about which hammer is better while the shelf stays on the floor.
What transfers when you switch
Almost everything that matters:
- Cell references, including absolute references with dollar signs
- SUM, AVERAGE, IF, COUNTIF, SUMIF, and the logic behind them
- Lookups (VLOOKUP works in both, XLOOKUP is Excel-only, and Sheets has its own equivalents)
- Sorting, filtering, conditional formatting
- Pivot tables, with a different layout but the same four-box idea
- Charts, with different menus and the same choices about type and honesty
What does not transfer: macros and VBA (Sheets uses Apps Script, which is JavaScript), Power Query, and the more advanced Excel-only tools.
So learn the concepts once. Whichever app you learn them in, you are competent in both inside a day of poking around the other.
How to actually decide
- Your job uses one of them: learn that one. This overrides everything else.
- You are studying or job hunting: learn Excel, and mention Sheets as well.
- You run a small business or work in a small team: Sheets, for the sharing alone.
- You handle monthly reporting or big exports: Excel, for Power Query.
- You cannot decide: start in Sheets because it is free, and move to Excel when you hit a limit. You will know when.
The mistake worth avoiding
Do not learn both at once. Split attention is the most reliable way to end up mediocre at two tools instead of good at one. Learn one properly, get comfortable, then spend an afternoon in the other when you need it.
That afternoon really is all it takes, which is exactly why the choice does not deserve the agonizing it usually gets.
Where to start
The introduction to Excel starts from a blank sheet, the Excel certificate covers lookups, pivot tables and reporting, and Excel data analysis goes further into working with real datasets. The concepts in all three apply directly to Sheets.
One subscription opens every course in the Business & Productivity school, so if your next job runs on the other tool, nothing you learned is wasted.
Questions people ask
Is Google Sheets as good as Excel?
For everyday work, yes. Sheets handles formulas, charts, pivot tables and filtering perfectly well. Excel pulls ahead on large datasets, Power Query, advanced modeling and add-ins.
Which is better for beginners?
Google Sheets is slightly gentler: it is free, browser-based, saves automatically and has fewer menus. The core ideas are identical though, so neither choice is a mistake.
Do Excel skills transfer to Google Sheets?
Almost entirely. Cell references, SUM, IF, lookups, filtering and pivot tables all work the same way with slightly different names and menus. Moving across takes an afternoon, not a course.
Can Google Sheets open Excel files?
Yes, and it can export back to xlsx. Complex workbooks with macros, advanced formatting or Power Query steps do not survive the round trip cleanly, so check anything important.
Which do employers ask for?
Excel appears in more job listings, especially in finance, operations and anywhere with large datasets. Sheets is common in startups and marketing teams. Listing both is normal and honest.