It varies and how you're outgrowing it. I heavily use spreadsheets, but if I start to hit some limits or need to formalize a process I'll switch to something li

It varies and how you're outgrowing it. I heavily use spreadsheets, but if I start to hit some limits or need to formalize a process I'll switch to something like Python. As a data store I may still query the spreadsheet, or use csv, sqlite, or something that scrapes the data source. I really like columnar data because I like mucking with it by piping data on the command line (which has its own, well known ways to bungle data). As for reasons you're outgrowing a spreadsheet; access and permissions, friendlier error messages or a better "wizard-like" process, formalizing input data, outgrowing data size, smarter caching for computing values, protection or clarity around modifying "constant" or "magic" numbers. Many of those you could implement in a spreadsheet, but its often more complex than using something else. That something else probably varies with which problem you're trying to solve.