Microsoft Excel
What it is: The world's most popular data analysis tool. Spreadsheets, pivot tables, Power Query, formulas.
What It Does Best
Everyone knows it. Billion users worldwide. Zero training for basic analysis. Universal business language.
Ad-hoc exploration. Fastest way to look at data, try formulas, build quick reports. No code setup.
Business communication. Executives understand Excel. Easier to share findings than code or SQL.
Key Features
Pivot tables: Drag-and-drop data summarization and analysis
Power Query: ETL tool for data transformation (GUI-based)
Formulas: 400+ functions (VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, SUMIFS, etc.)
Power Pivot: In-memory data modeling with millions of rows
Charts: 50+ chart types with extensive customization
Pricing
Microsoft 365 Personal: $7/month (includes all Office apps)
Microsoft 365 Business: $12-$22/user/month
One-time purchase: $160 (Excel only) or $250 (Office Home & Student)
When to Use It
✅ Quick, one-time analysis
✅ Datasets under 100k rows
✅ Sharing with non-technical stakeholders
✅ Financial modeling and budgets
✅ Building ad-hoc reports and dashboards
When NOT to Use It
❌ Large datasets (>1M rows, use databases)
❌ Automated pipelines (Python better)
❌ Version control needed (files, not code)
❌ Reproducible analysis (hard to track changes)
❌ Real-time collaboration required (Google Sheets better)
Common Use Cases
Financial modeling: Budgets, forecasts, scenario analysis with formulas
Business reporting: Monthly reports, KPI dashboards, executive summaries
Data cleaning: Power Query for transforming messy data
Quick analysis: Ad-hoc exploration, pivot tables for patterns
What-if analysis: Goal seek, data tables, scenario manager
Excel vs Alternatives
vs Google Sheets: Excel wins on features and speed, Sheets wins on collaboration
vs Python/Pandas: Excel faster for simple tasks, Python better for automation and scale
vs Tableau: Tableau better for visualization, Excel better for calculations
Unique Strengths
Power Query: No-code ETL that rivals Python for data prep
Ubiquity: Everyone has it, everyone knows it, universal file format
Flexibility: Blank canvas—build anything from scratch
Offline work: Full functionality without internet connection
Bottom line: Don't be a snob about Excel. It's fast, universal, and perfect for 80% of business analysis. Learn Power Query and you're unstoppable.