I don't know why nobody mentions this, but if you DO unbundle a feature from excel, it is exceptionally hard to compete on ubiquity. Excel is cheap, and even if you replace part of the functionality, nobody will ever actually beat the price.
Personally, I wish I had an excel-like interface for Python/Pandas. Instead of sheets, give me modular data frames, and give me a nice GUI for data import/export/connection.
But, the best feature of excel is that the interpreter is built in. No version control, no wondering which version of whatever library is installed. If it is excel, it (mostly) works when I send a file to someone.
Most of the time, I use excel because the SaaS tools that I have that do a better job have a per/seat cost that is MUCH too high for me to bring casual, one time people into the projects. If companies were more sensible about licenses for casual users, maybe excel would be less relevant.
> Most of the time, I use excel because the SaaS tools that I have that do a better job have a per/seat cost that is MUCH too high for me to bring casual, one time people into the projects. If companies were more sensible about licenses for casual users, maybe excel would be less relevant.
This is the main reason why I don't use products like Airtable or Notion, even though they are otherwise very compelling. Charging $10-40 for every user, even people who may log in once every few months (and maybe don't even change data) makes no sense. At that price, even excel files on a network drive is better.
FWIW, Airtable has sensible defaults for this. you can share a table for free (password protected) with non-airtable users. (I do use that for specific team projects)
Personally, I wish I had an excel-like interface for Python/Pandas. Instead of sheets, give me modular data frames, and give me a nice GUI for data import/export/connection.
But, the best feature of excel is that the interpreter is built in. No version control, no wondering which version of whatever library is installed. If it is excel, it (mostly) works when I send a file to someone.
Most of the time, I use excel because the SaaS tools that I have that do a better job have a per/seat cost that is MUCH too high for me to bring casual, one time people into the projects. If companies were more sensible about licenses for casual users, maybe excel would be less relevant.