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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

    Mathematica

    Score7 out of 10
    N/AWolfram'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
    Microsoft ExcelMathematica
    Editions & Modules
    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
    Microsoft ExcelMathematica
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Discounts 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
    Microsoft ExcelMathematica
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Wolfram
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    99%
    Would buy again
    78 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    70 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    76 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    46 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    54 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Microsoft ExcelMathematica
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Microsoft Excel and Wolfram Mathematica
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Wolfram Mathematica
    9.9
    6 Ratings
    20% above category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings9.84 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings9.94 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings9.96 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Microsoft Excel and Wolfram Mathematica
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Wolfram Mathematica
    9.9
    9 Ratings
    23% above category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings9.98 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings9.98 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings9.97 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings9.99 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Microsoft Excel and Wolfram Mathematica
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Wolfram Mathematica
    9.3
    8 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings9.97 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings9.97 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.95 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.95 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Microsoft Excel and Wolfram Mathematica
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Wolfram Mathematica
    9.9
    9 Ratings
    24% above category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings9.99 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings9.98 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings9.98 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft ExcelMathematica
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    Stackby
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    Medium-sized Companies
    Google Sheets
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Jet Reports
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
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    Score8.9 out of 10
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    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft ExcelMathematica
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (78 ratings)
    9.9
    (9 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.9
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.5
    (23 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.5
    (2 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 ExcelMathematica
    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
    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.
    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
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    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.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    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.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Wolfram
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Wolfram
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    I have rarely, if ever, had issues with its availability.
    Incentivized
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    Wolfram
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Wolfram
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    I have not had to use it often, but it is good.
    Incentivized
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    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.
    Incentivized
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    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
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Microsoft
    N/A I was not involved in this process.
    Incentivized
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    Wolfram
    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
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    Wolfram
    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
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots