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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Excel

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft 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

    Slack

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ASlack is a group messaging or team collaboration app that aims to simplify communication for businesses. Features include open discussions, private groups, and direct messaging, as well as deep contextual search and message archiving, and file sharing. Slack integrates with a number of other tools, such as MailChimp, Dropbox, and Google Drive. Slack was acquired by Salesforce in December 2020. The product is free to use, and also has paid plans with more features and greater controls. The…

    $8.75

    per month per user

    Pricing
    Microsoft ExcelSlack
    Editions & Modules
    Excel with Microsoft 365
    $6.99
    per month
    Excel for 1 PC or Mac
    $139.99
    perpetual license
    Free
    $0
    Pro
    $7.25*
    per month per user
    Business+
    $12.50*
    per month per user
    Enterprise
    Contact Sales
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft ExcelSlack
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—*Per active user, per month, when paying once a year. Pro is $8.75 USD per active user when paying month to month. Business+ is $15.00 USD per active user when paying month to month.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft ExcelSlack
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Excel
    Like I've put in previous questions, Microsoft Excel seems more advanced. I'm always going to prefer using Microsoft Excel if it's just me working on a task. If I have to work with other then Google Sheets is going to be preferred. The online version of Microsoft Excel seems to …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Excel
    Google Sheets is a comparable product to Microsoft Excel and it's more flexible when it comes to sharing because it can be shared with anyone who has the link or Google Drive access to it. However, Google Sheets does not have all the functions, especially when it comes to …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Excel
    Microsoft Excel is much different than other products that I have reviewed - it is for the purpose of organizing, summing, working, and categorizing data. Meanwhile, Lucid Charts is for flow charts - a completely different product. They are both great. I have never used …
    Incentivized
    Salesforce
    Chose Slack
    Slack has had strong market penetration so I've found that staff are generally already familiar with it which is helpful in terms of quick, easy adoption. It was generally less expensive, more powerful, smoother to integrate and easier to adopt than competing options.
    Incentivized
    Chose Slack
    I used teams at my previous job and loved it. When I came to my current job, I felt very uneasy with switching to Slack. It wasn't that it was hard to learn or that it didn't do that same thing, it was just a little bit of a learning curve. Also, at my last job, Microsoft Teams …
    Incentivized
    Chose Slack
    Having used these 3 software, I believe Slack covers a much wider use case scenario, the user onboarding experience is seamless, the platform is very user friendly and intuitive, very well organized as compared to the other competing software that's out there in the market. …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    99%
    Would buy again
    78 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    503 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    70 Answers
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    426 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    76 Answers
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    510 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    46 Answers
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    295 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    54 Answers
    99%
    Implementation went as expected
    330 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft ExcelSlack
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Microsoft Excel and Slack
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Slack
    7.9
    628 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Task Management00 Ratings7.6430 Ratings
    Gantt Charts00 Ratings6.961 Ratings
    Scheduling00 Ratings7.8363 Ratings
    Workflow Automation00 Ratings8.0396 Ratings
    Mobile Access00 Ratings9.4601 Ratings
    Search00 Ratings8.2608 Ratings
    Visual planning tools00 Ratings7.3275 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Microsoft Excel and Slack
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Slack
    8.7
    636 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Chat00 Ratings9.6635 Ratings
    Notifications00 Ratings8.7632 Ratings
    Discussions00 Ratings9.2620 Ratings
    Surveys00 Ratings8.1413 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings7.8412 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting00 Ratings8.9110 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings8.7182 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings8.9120 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Microsoft Excel and Slack
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Slack
    8.4
    603 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Versioning00 Ratings8.2326 Ratings
    Video files00 Ratings8.2541 Ratings
    Audio files00 Ratings8.4527 Ratings
    Document collaboration00 Ratings7.9429 Ratings
    Access control00 Ratings8.3411 Ratings
    Advanced security features00 Ratings8.3362 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings9.0211 Ratings
    Device sync00 Ratings9.0455 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft ExcelSlack
    Small Businesses
    Stackby
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Google Sheets
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Google Sheets
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft ExcelSlack
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (78 ratings)
    9.1
    (639 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.9
    (7 ratings)
    10.0
    (25 ratings)
    Usability
    8.5
    (23 ratings)
    9.0
    (255 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (68 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.9
    (5 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.7
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft ExcelSlack
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Slack is ideal for Scrum and agile teams that need continuous communication during sprint planning, daily stand-ups, backlog refinement, testing, and retrospectives. Slack is well-suited for maintaining team knowledge through searchable conversations and dedicated channels, where experienced team members help onboard new QA analysts.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Customer issues: Threads feature allows us to group a particular issue in a single thread and discuss within that thread. I can use the thread link to embed in JIRA ticket for tracking progress in JIRA (which is our details engineering tracking system).
    • Ability to add folder to Slack channel helps keep important information, documents easily accessible. e.g., we use this to keep a "ramp up" folder that can be used by any new joiner.
    • Global search is effective when I forget which group a particular message was in.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Would love a better integration with GitHub. For example, notifications when your PR is updated, when review is requested, @-mention in comments, etc.
    • Improved "Later" tab, for example the ability to create to-do lists or making the "Later" tab into a more powerful to-do list (annotate items with notes)
    • More powerful integrations, e.g. Google Calendar could render a calendar view within Slack, rather than sending the daily schedule
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    To be more transparent, I give 10 because Slack serves our collaboration needs. It provide us a good platform for team communication relaying important update within the company, it has even mobile app where you can install in your phone to monitor any updates within that team that needs your immediate attention and intervention.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Slack has good usability. Devs that are not familiar with the platform are able to jump into conversations and start sharing code and links within just minutes. Non developers are also able to understand the layout such as the Project Managers that are keeping the projects on track. We have not seen any tickets where employees are having trouble understanding Slack.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    I have rarely, if ever, had issues with its availability.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Yes, the app works 24/7. I don't even recall having any period that we could not use since the implementation. Even the maintenance periods are barely noticeable and our work is not impacted by it when it happens.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Microsoft
    Excel load and performs calculations immediately. It integrate well with all Microsoft Office applications and does not slow them down.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Slack is a soft app, we don't have many issues with it. I recall one or two people complaining about something during our usage period, but I didn't have a bad experience. When the app is slow, usually the problem is with my computer or my internet. The app works just fine.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    I have not had to use it often, but it is good.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Whenever I've had to troubleshoot an issue with Slack (which, to be honest, has not happened very often), their online documentation has been easy to locate, easy to understand, and effective in resolving my issue. Slack's ever-growing popularity also means that there's a large community of practice out there that can be depended upon.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    I was not part of the implementation team, but I recall being 100% happy and excited to learn and use a new tool. I'm still am to be honest.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    I like Slack better than ClickUp, because I would spend 30-60 minutes a day updating my ClickUp tasks. The way ClickUp was used was very micromanaging. I billed by the hour, so I was willing to put in the time to alert the boss what tasks I was working on.
    One of my jobs used Hive - I mostly just ran it in the background in case anyone messaged me. I did not use it often.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Microsoft
    N/A I was not involved in this process.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    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.
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Slack has been incredibly helpful in connecting various tech apps and ecosystems, creating a more streamlined and responsive process.
    • Slack has made it significantly easier to communicate with our team members across multiple time zones, creating a more engaging environment for our all-remote team.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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