Microsoft Excel vs WPS Spreadsheet

Microsoft Excel

• People who need a full desktop spreadsheet on Windows or Mac
• Analysts working with PivotTables, Power Query and Python
• Households: Microsoft 365 Family covers 1 to 6 people
• Occasional users who only need the free browser version

WPS Spreadsheet

• People who want a free spreadsheet app that opens and saves Excel files
• Families or small groups splitting a paid plan through the Sharing Plan
• Writing formulas and analyzing data with an AI assistant

Microsoft Excel

• The Windows and Mac apps need a Microsoft 365 subscription or a one-time Office purchase; only the web and mobile versions are free.
• Excel for the web and the mobile apps have many, but not all, desktop features; macro-enabled workbooks open in a browser but the macros do not run.
• Copilot needs a paid subscription, has usage limits, and on shared plans works for the subscription owner only.
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($7.00 per user / month paid yearly, or $5.40 without Teams) includes only the web and mobile versions of Excel.

WPS Spreadsheet

• WPS Spreadsheet is not sold on its own: it comes with the WPS Office suite, and every plan covers the whole suite.
• The free plan is limited to 1 GB of cloud space and restricted template downloads, and no advertising is listed as a Pro+ benefit.
• AI tools on Pro+ have a daily usage limit; once it is reached they pause until the next day.
• Some advanced spreadsheet AI features arrive on Windows first and may differ on Mac, and the listed prices apply to PC and Android.

Microsoft Excel

Copilot in Excel

Edits formulas, tables and formatting from a written request and suggests formulas for the data. It needs a Microsoft 365 subscription and a workbook saved to OneDrive with AutoSave on.

PivotTables and charts

PivotTables calculate, summarize and analyze data to show comparisons, patterns and trends, and work with PivotCharts, slicers and timeline controls.

Power Query

Imports or connects to external data from files, databases, the web and Azure, then reshapes it before loading. It is available in Excel for Windows, Mac and the web; support on Mac and the web is newer than on Windows.

Python in Excel

Python formulas run in the grid using Anaconda libraries such as pandas and Matplotlib. It comes with eligible Microsoft 365 plans; a $24 per user / month add-on gives faster premium compute.

Co-authoring

Several people can work in one workbook stored in OneDrive or SharePoint Online and see each other's changes within seconds. In the Windows and Mac apps this requires a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Templates

Microsoft offers free Excel templates in more than 40 categories as ready-made starting points for common spreadsheets.

WPS Spreadsheet

Excel-compatible spreadsheets

Opens and saves .xlsx, .xls and .csv files, and the vendor lists more than 500 functions, including XLOOKUP, LAMBDA and dynamic arrays.

AI formula writer

Describe a calculation in plain language and WPS AI generates a formula for the selected cell. It can also explain what a formula does before it is used.

AI data analysis

Questions about the data in a sheet return checks, patterns and trends, along with charts and written conclusions.

AI functions for batch work

AI-powered spreadsheet functions generate or classify content inside cells and can be applied to hundreds of rows at once, for example to tag feedback or write descriptions.

Real-time co-editing

Spreadsheets can be shared with view, comment or edit permissions and edited together across desktop and web, with comments, mentions and version history.

PDF to Excel conversion

Tables are extracted from PDFs into editable spreadsheets with rows and columns kept in order. Online tools also cover Excel to PDF and image to Excel.

Microsoft Excel

• Free$0

  Excel for the web for 1 person, with sharing and real-time collaboration and 5 GB of cloud storage. Works on web, iOS and Android.

• Microsoft 365 Personal$9.99

  per month, or $99.99 per year

  1 person signed in on up to 5 devices, 1 TB of cloud storage, and the Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook desktop apps with Copilot.

• Microsoft 365 Apps for business$10.00

  per user / month, paid yearly

  Desktop versions of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook for up to 300 employees, with 1 TB of cloud storage per user.

• Microsoft 365 Family$12.99

  per month, or $129.99 per year

  Everything in Personal for 1 to 6 people, with 1 TB of storage per person. AI features are for the subscription owner only.

• Microsoft 365 Premium$19.99

  per month, or $199.99 per year

  Everything in Family, plus extensive Copilot usage and agentic AI features such as advanced research and analytics.

• Office Home 2024$179.99

  one-time purchase for 1 PC or Mac

  Classic 2024 desktop versions of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and OneNote, with no upgrade path to the next major release.

WPS Spreadsheet

• WPS Standard$0

  The free WPS Office suite, including Spreadsheet, with basic PDF features, limited template downloads and 1 GB of cloud space.

• WPS Pro+$69.99

  per year ($5.83 / month); or $20.99 per 3 months

  Suite-wide plan for one user: full PDF editing and conversion, unlimited template downloads, 20 GB of cloud storage, no advertising and AI tools with daily limits.

• WPS Pro+ Sharing Plan$41.99

  per user / year, 2 users minimum; or $4.99 per user / month

  Suite-wide Pro+ benefits for each member of a family or small group, with a private 20 GB of cloud storage per member. Members can be added or removed.

Microsoft Excel

• Annual discount

  Save up to 17% by paying yearly

  Microsoft 365 Personal is $99.99 a year against $9.99 a month, Family $129.99 against $12.99 and Premium $199.99 against $19.99.

• Education

  Students save 50% on Microsoft 365 Personal

  Verified college and university students get Microsoft 365 Personal at half price. Student status has to be re-verified each year to keep the discount.

• Education

  Office 365 A1 free for eligible schools

  Educators and students with an eligible education email address get Office 365 A1 at no cost, which includes the web versions of Excel and the other core apps.

• Nonprofit

  Nonprofit staff pricing on Microsoft 365 E3

  Eligible nonprofits can buy Microsoft 365 E3, with desktop, web and mobile versions of Excel, for $9.75 per user / month paid yearly.

• Lifetime license

  Office Home 2024 one-time purchase

  $179.99 buys the classic 2024 desktop versions of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and OneNote for 1 PC or Mac, with no subscription.

WPS Spreadsheet

• Other savings

  Sharing Plan cuts the per-user price by 40%

  With at least 2 users, the WPS Pro+ Sharing Plan costs $41.99 per user a year against $69.99 for a single Pro+ subscription. The pricing page labels this as saving 40%.

• Annual discount

  Lower monthly cost on the 1-year plan

  WPS Pro+ for a year is $69.99, which the page shows as $5.83 a month, against $20.99 for the 3-month plan, shown as $6.99 a month.