Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Apple Numbers
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Numbers is a spreadsheet application developed by Apple Inc. as part of the iWork productivity suite. It is available for Mac and iOS, or for Windows in a browser via its cloud edition.N/A
Microsoft Excel
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application available as part of Microsoft 365 (Office 365), or standalone, in cloud-based and on-premise editions.
$6.99
per month
Mathematica
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Wolfram's flagship product Mathematica is a modern technical computing application featuring a flexible symbolic coding language and a wide array of graphing and data visualization capabilities.
$1,520
per year
Pricing
Apple NumbersMicrosoft ExcelWolfram Mathematica
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Excel with Microsoft 365
$6.99
per month
Excel for 1 PC or Mac
$139.99
perpetual license
Standard Cloud
$1,520
per year
Standard Desktop
$3,040
one-time fee
Standard Desktop & Cloud
$3,344
one-time fee
Mathematica Enterprise Edition
$8,150.00
one-time fee
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Apple NumbersMicrosoft ExcelMathematica
Free Trial
NoYesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDiscounts available for students and educational institutions. The Network Edition reduce per-user license costs through shared deployment across any number of machines on a local-area network.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Apple NumbersMicrosoft ExcelWolfram Mathematica
Considered Multiple Products
Apple Numbers
Chose Apple Numbers
has a more refined interface, allows for making good looking spreadsheets with little effort. though these other softwares each have their own positives and negatives. But Excel and Odoo are top in features and managing large amounts of data. Apple Numbers is good until you …
Chose Apple Numbers
Apple Numbers lags behind Google Sheets when it comes to real-time collaboration and editing between multiple users (especially when you consider that Numbers is iOS based and anyone can use Google Sheets, regardless of the kind of device and operating system they have). …
Chose Apple Numbers
Sheets is better for collaborative sharing, and Excel is better for complex formulas and functions.
Chose Apple Numbers
I would say excel is top tier, but you are going to pay a premium price for it. A small step down is a price savings and two tools that are really similar: Google Sheets and Apple Numbers. If I had to pick one I would pick sheets as it is easier to collaborate with. For …
Chose Apple Numbers
If you're an Apple user, Apple Numbers is for you. If you primarily operate on PC and Android, you will find more compatibility with Excel. Both platforms perform similar functions -- you can create charts, graphs, and figures. Excel was the pioneer spreadsheet software but …
Chose Apple Numbers
Numbers is every bit as good and functional as Excel.
Chose Apple Numbers
We all work with Apple devices in this organization. So we mostly use this software. It is very well synced in Apple ecosystem and provide very attractive data representation by its graphics and charts. In few scenarios we use MS Excel also but we always try to stick on Apple …
Microsoft Excel
Chose Microsoft Excel
Microsoft is more user friendly in my opinion. More applications and systems are compatible with excel versus Apple Numbers. More companies we do business with use Excel for invoicing and warehouse management which makes Excel stand out from other software like it. It is …
Chose Microsoft Excel
I've used a few of the mobile spreadsheet programs that you can find on the app store and found them to be inferior to Excel, even the mobile version. Access is better than Excel for certain situations but it is largely overkill much of the time and requires a time investment …
Chose Microsoft Excel
Excel will always be selected because it's part of the Office Suite. We started to use Smartsheet, but the onboarding and training process took too long when compounded with licensing setup & costs. Apple Numbers works well, but without the maturity of Excel. Since Apple …
Chose Microsoft Excel
Excel stands out from Google Sheets and Apple Numbers with its extensive range of advanced functions, including financial, statistical, and data analysis tools, surpassing the capabilities of its competitors. As the universally recognized industry standard, Excel offers better …
Chose Microsoft Excel
PowerPoint is excellent for displaying information in a far more visually engaging, relatable manner. However, where it is lacking is the ability to get to that point in analyzing competing deal information, building formulas around it, things of that nature.

Apple has its own …
Chose Microsoft Excel
Excel is a far superior product compared to Numbers as far as it's usability, simplicity, and functions. I do like the ease of sharing that Google Sheets offers and that's an advantage, but otherwise, very similar. Often I use Excel over Google because of how user friendly it …
Mathematica

No answer on this topic

Features
Apple NumbersMicrosoft ExcelWolfram Mathematica
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Apple Numbers
-
Ratings
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Wolfram Mathematica
9.9
6 Ratings
20% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings00 Ratings9.84 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings00 Ratings9.94 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings00 Ratings9.96 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Apple Numbers
-
Ratings
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Wolfram Mathematica
9.9
9 Ratings
24% above category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings00 Ratings9.98 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings00 Ratings9.98 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings00 Ratings9.97 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings00 Ratings9.99 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Apple Numbers
-
Ratings
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Wolfram Mathematica
9.3
8 Ratings
13% above category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings00 Ratings9.97 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings00 Ratings9.97 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings00 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings00 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Apple Numbers
-
Ratings
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Wolfram Mathematica
9.9
9 Ratings
24% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings00 Ratings9.99 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings00 Ratings9.98 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings00 Ratings9.98 Ratings
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Score 8.9 out of 10
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Score 8.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
Apple NumbersMicrosoft ExcelWolfram Mathematica
Likelihood to Recommend
7.9
(6 ratings)
9.3
(76 ratings)
9.9
(9 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.9
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(6 ratings)
8.4
(22 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Apple NumbersMicrosoft ExcelWolfram Mathematica
Likelihood to Recommend
Apple
Apple Numbers is the PERFECT tool if you are looking to plan a conference at your church. Furthermore, if you are a youth pastor, Apple Numbers is incredibly useful in keeping track of how much each of your high school students has accumulated funds towards their summer camp bill. Lastly, Apple Numbers is perfect if you are trying to keep track of all your upcoming preaching opportunities.
Read full review
Microsoft
I don't really know another program as powerful as Excel. I've used Google Doc programs but do not feel they come close. So far, anytime I've needed a table of some sort for data, whether it's budget oriented or information off a survey, the best system has been Excel. We do web audits on occasion and we create an Excel worksheet featuring every URL of the pages we're auditing, notes, data about the content, information about files attached to the page and other information to help us determine what pages need updating, deleting or otherwise. We also use Excel primarily to export our Google Analytics to in order for us to create reports for clients that need to see specific information about their traffic.
Read full review
Wolfram
We are the judgement that Wolfram Mathematica is despite many critics based on the paradigms selected a mark in the fields of the markets for computations of all kind. Wolfram Mathematica is even a choice in fields where other bolide systems reign most of the market. Wolfram Mathematica offers rich flexibility and internally standardizes the right methodologies for his user community. Wolfram Mathematica is not cheap and in need of a hard an long learner journey. That makes it weak in comparison with of-the-shelf-solution packages or even other programming languages. But for systematization of methods Wolfram Mathematica is far in front of almost all the other. Scientist and interested people are able to develop themself further and Wolfram Matheamatica users are a human variant for themself. The reach out for modern mathematics based science is deep and a unique unified framework makes the whole field of mathematics accessable comparable to the brain of Albert Einstein. The paradigms incorporated are the most efficients and consist in assembly on the market. The mathematics is covering and fullfills not just education requirements but the demands and needs of experts.
Mathematica is incompatible with other systems for mCAx and therefore the borders between the systems are hard to overcome. Wolfram Mathematica should be consider one of the more open systems because other code can be imported and run but on the export side it is rathe incompatible by design purposes. A better standard for all that might solve the crisis but there is none in sight. Selection of knowledge of what works will be in the future even more focussed and general system might be one the lossy side. Knowledge of esthetics of what will be in the highest demand in necessary and Wolfram is not a leader in this field of science. Mathematics leves from gathering problems from application fields and less from the glory of itself and the formalization of this.
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Pros
Apple
  • Data security provided by Apple on its all the software.
  • Very well integration within the Apple ecosystem.
  • It is very well compatible with MS Excel also.
  • It is available on iOS also. We can use it on our Apple mobile phones and on our iPads also.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • It is very good at embedded formulas and tying cells to one another
  • It allows me to compare deals terms on a side-by-side basis and talk my clients through it easily.
  • It is very helpful as well in terms of allowing me to filter/sort results in many different ways depending on what specific information I am most interested in prioritizing.
Read full review
Wolfram
  • It allows straightforward integration of analytic analysis of algebraic expressions and their numerical implemented.
  • Supports varying programmatic paradigms, so one can choose what best fits the problem or task: pure functions, procedural programming, list processing, and even (with a bit of setup) object-oriented programming.
  • The extensive and rich tools for graphical rendering make it very easy to not just get 2D and 3D renderings of final output, but also to do quick-and-dirty 2D and 3D rendering of intermediate results and/or debugging results.
Read full review
Cons
Apple
  • Doesn’t have all the bells and whistles as excel.
  • Sometimes you have to save it in a different format for others to view
  • Could include more options on the menu bar rather than clicking on some of the drop downs.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Excel offers collaboration features that allow multiple users to work on the same spreadsheet, but managing changes made by different users can be challenging. Excel could improve its features by offering more granular control, better tracking of changes, and more robust conflict resolution tools.
  • Itcan be a barrier to productivity when importing and exporting data from other applications or file formats. To improve its features, it should offer better support for standard file formats and more robust error handling and reporting tools.
  • Excel can be challenging for finance students and working professionals, but it can be improved by offering more robust tutorials, better documentation, and more user communities and support forums.
Read full review
Wolfram
  • Should include more libraries and functions.
  • Should include more functions that can be used in Machine Learning.
  • Should include more functions that can be used in Data Science.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Apple
I just really like it
Read full review
Microsoft
Excel remains the industry standard for spreadsheets and has maintained simple and straight-forward formula writing methods. Although there is a learning curve to do more complex calculations, there are countless help sites and videos on the Internet for almost any need.
Read full review
Wolfram
No answers on this topic
Usability
Apple
The interface once familiar allows for quick work, and easy to use. very intuitive. Its easy to create beautiful spreadsheets, ones that capture interest and can communicate data in a easy to understand with Apple Numbers ability to organize, and make good looking with styles. Collaboration is great for our teams to all contribute the to document at the same time.
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Microsoft
I'm giving it a 7 because it is my go to. But the fact other prefer Google Sheets when working with a team does get irritating. I've used the online version of Microsoft Excel that other teams can get into and it still seems behind Google Sheets. It's a little clanky and slow? If that's even a term.
Read full review
Wolfram
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Apple
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
I have rarely, if ever, had issues with its availability.
Read full review
Wolfram
No answers on this topic
Performance
Apple
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Excel load and performs calculations immediately. It integrate well with all Microsoft Office applications and does not slow them down.
Read full review
Wolfram
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Apple
It is visually appealing and easy to use
Read full review
Microsoft
I have not had to use it often, but it is good.
Read full review
Wolfram
Wolfram Mathematica is a nice software package. It has very nice features and easy to install and use in your machine. Besides this, there is a nice support from Wolfram. They come to the university frequently to give seminars in Mathematica. I think this is the best thing they are doing. That is very helpful for graduate and undergraduate students who are using Mathematica in their research.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Apple
Implementing Numbers effectively, whether for personal use or within an organization, requires understanding its strengths and limitations to maximize productivity
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Wolfram
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Apple
Apple Numbers lags behind Google Sheets when it comes to real-time collaboration and editing between multiple users (especially when you consider that Numbers is iOS based and anyone can use Google Sheets, regardless of the kind of device and operating system they have). However, Numbers is easier to navigate, which can be a benefit for some users.
Read full review
Microsoft
Out of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, IBM SPSS, and Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel is by far the most common tool used for anything data-related across organizations. Accordingly, our organization has also implemented Microsoft Excel as a first-step tool. We recently adopted Microsoft Power BI (the free version), and use it occasionally (mostly for creating dashboards), but it is less commonly understood by stakeholders across our organization and by our clients. Accordingly, Microsoft Excel is more user-friendly and because of its popularity, we can easily look up how to do things in the program online. Google Sheets is a comparable alternative to Microsoft Excel, but because it's cloud-based and we have sensitive data that needs to be protected, we chose against using this software. Finally, a few users (including myself) have access to and utilize IBM's SPSS. For my role, it's a helpful tool to do more rigorous analyses. However, because of its cost and limited functionality as a simple spreadsheet, we only use it for more complex analyses.
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Wolfram
We have evaluated and are using in some cases the Python language in concert with the Jupyter notebook interface. For UI, we using libraries like React to create visually stunning visualizations of such models. Mathematica compares favorably to this alternative in terms of speed of development. Mathematica compares unfavorably to this alternative in terms of license costs.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Apple
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
N/A I was not involved in this process.
Read full review
Wolfram
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Apple
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Each user can use it to whatever level of expertise they have. It remains the same so users can contribute to another's work regardless of whether they have more or less expertise
Read full review
Wolfram
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Apple
  • Apple Numbers is a free software ...huge ROI!
  • Apple Numbers is upgraded frequently and automatically without charge
  • Enormous time saver when integrating Apple Numbers spreadsheet into word processor and presentation software
  • easily exporter in pdf format. Ideal to share information
  • On the negative side , it misses some advances macro and programmable functions features present in Excel
  • Exportation as an Excel document sometimes defective
  • Importation from Excel sometimes missions some features
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Excel has positively impacted the business as it has increased our efficiency.
  • It also saves us the time that we would have spent on making the calculations that it does for us.
  • Since it works on all devices and is compatible with both Windows and Mac, we do not have to invest in any other alternative.
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Wolfram
  • Easy to solve huge mathematical equations, so it saved time there
  • Doing analysis and plotting graphs is also another plus point
  • Learning is very slow, and it took lot of time to learn its scripting language
Read full review
ScreenShots