Microsoft Excel vs. Plotly Chart Studio

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
Plotly Chart Studio
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Plotly headquartered in Montreal offers Chart Studio, a data visualization tool with an open source and free cloud editions, as well as enterprise editions deployable on-cloud or on-premise. The vendor describes Chart Studio as a sophisticated editor for creating D3.js and WebGL charts.
$99
per month
Pricing
Microsoft ExcelPlotly Chart Studio
Editions & Modules
Excel with Microsoft 365
$6.99
per month
Excel for 1 PC or Mac
$139.99
perpetual license
Private Hosting
$99.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft ExcelPlotly Chart Studio
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft ExcelPlotly Chart Studio
Features
Microsoft ExcelPlotly Chart Studio
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Plotly Chart Studio
8.0
1 Ratings
1% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Plotly Chart Studio
9.0
1 Ratings
14% above category average
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Plotly Chart Studio
8.5
1 Ratings
9% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft ExcelPlotly Chart Studio
Small Businesses
Stackby
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Supermetrics
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Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Airtable
Airtable
Score 8.6 out of 10
Supermetrics
Supermetrics
Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Airtable
Airtable
Score 8.6 out of 10
IBM Analytics Engine
IBM Analytics Engine
Score 7.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft ExcelPlotly Chart Studio
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(76 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(22 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft ExcelPlotly Chart Studio
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
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Plotly
[Plotly Chart Studio is] a great tool to make visualizations on a web based portal. For python developers, it can ease of some burden of writing code again and again for the same thing and also refreshing visualizations on old scripts when data changes. All in all, a simple yet effective tool for your report generation and visualization needs[.]
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Pros
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.
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Plotly
  • Connects to almost every kind of data source like SQL, Excel, MS Access, flat files and more.
  • Charts get saved to the repository and are re-used by multiple users.
  • No need of manual intervention in order to refresh the charts every time the data gets changed.
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Cons
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.
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Plotly
  • Lack of customer support
  • Sometimes fails to visualize extremely large datasets ( probably also due to computer resource constraints)
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Likelihood to Renew
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.
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Plotly
No answers on this topic
Usability
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.
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Plotly
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
I have rarely, if ever, had issues with its availability.
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Plotly
No answers on this topic
Performance
Microsoft
Excel load and performs calculations immediately. It integrate well with all Microsoft Office applications and does not slow them down.
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Plotly
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Microsoft
I have not had to use it often, but it is good.
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Plotly
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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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Plotly
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Microsoft
N/A I was not involved in this process.
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Plotly
No answers on this topic
Scalability
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
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Plotly
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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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Plotly
  • Improvement in productivity as charts can be shared with teams and feedback can be collected, consolidated and incorporated in the design and charts.
  • Charts are aligned with the organization theme and colors and one doesn't need to put in effort every time to do that.
  • No upfront capital expenditure and minimum user criteria helps the organization to keep the costs down.
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ScreenShots