replacing Microsoft Excel

Open Source Microsoft Excel Alternatives

Spreadsheet application — Microsoft Excel pricing: $6-$22/user/month via M365. Below: 3 free, self-hostable open source projects that cover the same ground, ranked by real GitHub adoption.

There are 3 open source Microsoft Excel alternatives tracked on this registry, against Microsoft Excel pricing of $6-$22/user/month via M365. The most-adopted is NocoDB with 65,408 GitHub stars, written in TypeScript. Together the set has 83,706 stars across 2 languages and 1 licence. All 3 are free to self-host with no licence fee, and 3 of 3 received a commit in the last 90 days. 3 head-to-head Microsoft Excel comparisons are available.

Excel is the reference standard but requires M365 licensing. Large files get slow. Real-time collaboration requires OneDrive. No Linux support.

Other hosted options

The open source projects below are free to self-host. If you would rather pay for a managed service, these are the hosted products in the same space — listed with the vendor's own pricing.

Airtable hosted Spreadsheet-database hybrid for no-code workflows $20-$45/user/month

Our top 3 Microsoft Excel alternatives

NocoDB ★ 65K

NocoDB is a TypeScript no-code database platform that sits on top of a database and presents the underlying tables as spreadsheets. It lives in the Infrastructure & Operations / Databases category of this registry and is described by its own GitHub listing as "A Free & Self-hostable Airtable Alternative". The project ships as a Docker image, as prebuilt binaries for macOS, Linux and Windows, and through an installer script, and its topics list covers no-code-database, no-code-platform, low-code, spreadsheet, and automatic-api.

NOASSERTION · TypeScript · Microsoft Excel vs NocoDB →

Grist ★ 12K

Grist is a modern relational spreadsheet that combines spreadsheet flexibility with database robustness. It lives in the open-source database and spreadsheet ecosystem, and the grist-core repository provides the server needed to host spreadsheets. The project is positioned as an open alternative to Airtable and Microsoft Excel. Grist Community edition is also known as grist-core.

Apache-2.0 · TypeScript · Microsoft Excel vs Grist →

baserow ★ 6.3K

Baserow is an open-source no-code platform for building databases, applications, automations, dashboards, and AI agents. It combines a spreadsheet-style interface with a relational database backend, letting teams structure data, create internal tools, and visualize results without writing code. The project is written in Python and built on Django, Vue.js, and PostgreSQL, and it lives in the low-code and no-code ecosystem as a self-hostable alternative to Airtable and Microsoft Excel. It is distributed under an open-core model, with all non-premium and non-enterprise features licensed under the MIT License for commercial and private use.

NOASSERTION · Python · Microsoft Excel vs baserow →

NocoDB ★ 65K

Transform databases into intuitive spreadsheets instantly

rank001 licenseNOASSERTION written inTypeScript

Grist ★ 12K

Flexible spreadsheets with database power

rank002 licenseApache-2.0 written inTypeScript

baserow ★ 6.3K

rank003 licenseNOASSERTION written inPython

last updated nightly · ranking method: github stars, live-tracked

Frequently asked questions

What is the best open source alternative to Microsoft Excel?

NocoDB is the most-starred open source alternative to Microsoft Excel in this registry, with 65,408 GitHub stars. 3 alternatives are compared here in total.

Are there free alternatives to Microsoft Excel?

Yes. Every project listed on this page is open source and free to self-host — there is no licence fee. Some projects also sell a managed hosted version, but the self-hosted path costs nothing.

What should I look at when replacing Microsoft Excel?

Compare licence terms, community size (stars), primary language and release activity. A fast-moving project with a compatible licence and an active maintainer base matters more than raw star count when you are committing to a migration.