As I promised earlier, here is the result of my comparison of various online spreadsheet services. I compared the services based on the following criteria.
- Basic Requirements
- Interpretability
- Usability
- Functionality
- Sharing and collaboration
Do let me know if I have overlooked something and also your comments and suggestions and I will try to keep this list updated. Also let me know if want me to add some more services to the list.
| Features | Zoho | iRows | NumSum | EditGrid | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | |||||
| Browser Support | IE 6, FireFox 1.07 | IE 6, FireFox 1.0, Mozilla 1.4 | IE 6, Firefox 1.5, Opera 9 | IE 6, Firefox 1.5 | IE 6.0, Firefox 1.0, Epiphany, 1.8.5, Galeon 2.0 |
| Stable or beta | Private beta | public beta | Out of beta | Public beta | Public beta |
| Regsitration | Needed | Not needed | Needed | Needed | Needed |
| Interoperability | |||||
| Import Excel (*.xls) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Import CSV (*.csv) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Import OpenDocument spreadsheet (.ods) | No | No | Yes | No | Experimental |
| Import OpenOffice.org Calc (.sxc) | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Import Lotus 1-2-3 (.123) | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Import TeX (.tex) | No | No | No | No | No |
| Export Excel (*.xls) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Export CSV (*.csv) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Export OpenDocument spreadsheet (.ods) | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Export OpenOffice.org Calc (.sxc) | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Export Lotus 1-2-3 (.123) | No | No | No | No | No |
| Export TeX (.tex) | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Export HTML | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Export to PDF | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Print Preview | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Max size of imported file | 400 KB | No particular limit | 500 KB | 500 KB | Not available on site |
| Usability | |||||
| Key board navigation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Right Click menu | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| No of sheets open (by default) | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Undo/Redo | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Cut, copy and paste | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Line Wrap | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Resize Row | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Resize Column | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bold, italic, underline, colors etc., | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Align Horizontal and vertical | Yes | Only Horizontal | Yes | Yes | No |
| Insert rows and cols | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Delete rows and cols | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Delete Selection | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Functionality | |||||
| Search | No | Search Files based on tag | Yes | No | No |
| Add Images | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Fill Series | No | To be impemented soon | Yes (but Only copy) | No | No |
| Functions | around 200 | Yes | around 50 | Yes | around 500 |
| Format Numbers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Format Currencies | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Header rows and cols | Only Rows | No | Yes | No | No |
| Hide rows and cols | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Merge Sells | Only horizontal | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Sort | Only entire sheet, by one column | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Charts | Not yet | Bar, Column, Pie, Line | Pie, Bar, Line | Line, Area, Bar | No |
| Automatic Save | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Build-it Templates | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Publish on other sites | No | Yes | No | No | |
| Sharing and Collaboration | |||||
| Tagging | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Chat | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Share read access with another user | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Share write access with another user | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Share read access with public | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Share write access with public | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Password-protected read access | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Password-protected write access | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Real time collaboration | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Conflict resolution | Last save wins | Last save wins | Not applicable | Last save Wins | Last save wins |
Links to the above sevices
PS: I composed this list in Excel and then imported it to ZohoSheet and then generated the HTML page and then hand coded and cleaned it.
Thanks for the simple & neat comparison, Sudar! Gives a clear perspective of the +es & -es of the various offerings out there
You forgot numbler.
Hi Arvind,
Nice to know it was useful to you.
I was not able to get some details about ZohoSheet and so I just mentioned as ‘Not available in site’. Can you give me those values?
Cheers
Sudar
Hi Carl
This is the first time I am hearing about Numbler. Will try to review it once I get some time
Cheers
Sudar
Hello, this is David from EditGrid. Thanks for your mentioning and comparison!
Hi David,
Not a problem
Cheers
Sudar
Believe you got the email from Ramesh of Zoho Sheet with the details, Sudar.
Thanks.
Yes Arvind,
I did get a mail from him and I updated the comparison chart based on that.
Actually I tried to reply to that mail saying that I have updated the list but it got caught by your spam filters and was returned
Cheers
Sudar
Here is the interview I had with Hyther Nizam who is the Director of Product management for Zoho Services at AdventNet, and Product Manager of Zoho Sheet and Zoho Creator.
URL :: http://vadivel.blogspot.com/2006/06/interview-with-product-manager-of-zoho.html
Hope this would be an interesting read for you!
Hi Vadivel,
Thanks for the link. Nice interview.
Cheers,
Sudar
Hi, Sudar,
EditGrid has just launched a new release – public beta 6, which have new features such as: advanced formating, click to drag , remote data, etc. We also have an API to allow developers to build mini-apps around EditGrid. EditGrid also has made available the post-to-blog features in its beta 5 release. You are invited to take a look. Thanks!
David
Hi David,
Will have a look at the new version of EditGrid when I get some time.
Cheers,
Sudar
Hi Muthu,
Thanks for the review! I think you have missed the sweetness of “right click menu” in Zoho Sheet. Hope you would update the comparious chart sooon.
Regards,
Rajesh Segu
Hi Segu,
I will try to update the chart once I get some free time.
Cheers,
Sudar
I think this list has been a bit outdated.
In particular, EditGrid has now provided Undo/Redo, horizontal alignment, fill series, format currencies, sort, publish to other sites and tagging. Registration is not needed to use the service.