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.
Here’s an alternative site to convert word to pdf. See this link http://converterwordtopdf.com
Would be great to see an update on this chart and hear what you are using currently and for what. My company has actually moved some business functions from Excel to Google Apps/Google Spreadsheet due to portability and I have had success asking current vendors (well, only one, OneClick Commissions – see here for their marketplace app http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?productListingId=8904+11372811770063118806) to integrate with Google Apps. One more reason to go to the cloud.