5 ms·

Is anyone seriously working on an Excel competitor, and not just clone? Serious question.

by 1_player 5y ago

marcosdumay 5y ago
The entire low-code/no-code markets are Excel competitors.
- 1_player 5y ago
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAICT no-code is just vaporware, while Excel is being used right now practically everywhere.
  - marcosdumay 5y ago
    There are plenty of no-code tools around. People use them every day. You will probably not like them, but that doesn't make them vaporware.
    - 1_player 5y ago
      I admit my ignorance. Care to share the name of the most popular ones?
mach1ne 5y ago
The problem is that every Excel user is an Excel native. Your product would have to be magnitudes better than Excel to compensate for the cost of forcing everyone to give up their fluency in the software.
- cm2187 5y ago
  It can be better. I am no mac user but from what I have seen, Apple's excel competitor has this concept that instead of an excel tab being a single grid, it is a canvas on which you can add tables, charts, etc. As a fairly advanced excel user, this makes so much more sense than Excel's approach. VBA is kind of a wart in Office, hasn't been updated since 1998. They made an attempt of integrating a mini visual studio in Office with C#/VB.net (VSTA), then killed it. I see many no code alternative poping up (Microsoft power suite, alteryx, etc). But all have a pretty steep learning curve, and frankly the people who are willing to invest the time to learn them migh as well pick up SQL or even python for the same effort.
  - Fuzzeh 5y ago
    "Numbers" is an abysmal product.
    - cm2187 5y ago
      I don't really use it, would be curious to know why?
      - Fuzzeh 5y ago
        It's not even close to being complete. Best described as "My First Spreadsheet". Excel (even libreoffice) are better by factors of 10.
boringg 5y ago
Easy way to get some serious premiums from MSFT buying your company if you ever tried to build a viable competitor. That said though you would watch your product get deep sixed if you sold

Is anyone seriously working on an Excel competitor, and not just clone? Serious question.

marcosdumay 5y ago

The entire low-code/no-code markets are Excel competitors.

1_player 5y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAICT no-code is just vaporware, while Excel is being used right now practically everywhere.
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  There are plenty of no-code tools around. People use them every day. You will probably not like them, but that doesn't make them vaporware.
  - 1_player 5y ago
    I admit my ignorance. Care to share the name of the most popular ones?

mach1ne 5y ago

The problem is that every Excel user is an Excel native. Your product would have to be magnitudes better than Excel to compensate for the cost of forcing everyone to give up their fluency in the software.

cm2187 5y ago
It can be better. I am no mac user but from what I have seen, Apple's excel competitor has this concept that instead of an excel tab being a single grid, it is a canvas on which you can add tables, charts, etc. As a fairly advanced excel user, this makes so much more sense than Excel's approach. VBA is kind of a wart in Office, hasn't been updated since 1998. They made an attempt of integrating a mini visual studio in Office with C#/VB.net (VSTA), then killed it. I see many no code alternative poping up (Microsoft power suite, alteryx, etc). But all have a pretty steep learning curve, and frankly the people who are willing to invest the time to learn them migh as well pick up SQL or even python for the same effort.
- Fuzzeh 5y ago
  "Numbers" is an abysmal product.
  - cm2187 5y ago
    I don't really use it, would be curious to know why?
    - Fuzzeh 5y ago
      It's not even close to being complete. Best described as "My First Spreadsheet". Excel (even libreoffice) are better by factors of 10.

boringg 5y ago

Easy way to get some serious premiums from MSFT buying your company if you ever tried to build a viable competitor. That said though you would watch your product get deep sixed if you sold