Worried about making the switch from Windows to an alternative operating system? People will try to scare you. They'll tell you it won't be the same. They'll say your carefully worked Excel spreadsheets will never function anywhere else.

Those people are wrong. Excel is an amazing piece of software, but we live in a prosperous, software laden world where you can choose from many Office alternatives. We'll explore some cross-platform Excel alternatives, as well as some of the online applications you can use to "bridge" your documents between software now available to us.

LibreOffice - Calc & OpenOffice - Calc

Topping the list for cross-platform Excel alternatives are LibreOffice - Calc and OpenOffice  - Calc. These open source software suites have long featured at the top of alternative Office software lists because they are worthy Office contenders. Despite a split by developers, both branches of this software suite have consistently proven that their software stands up to robust testing, is feature-full, compact, and free.

LibreOffice - Calc

LibreOffice is the default office suite for many Linux distros, illustrating its esteem and development quality, and is slowly making its way onto mobile operating systems to further enhance its credentials.

Operating Systems: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS (in browser), LibreOffice Viewer for Android

Bonus: AndrOpen Office for Android – first OpenOffice Android port. LibreOffice for Android expected sometime in 2015.

Office Online

Whilst this is still strictly using Excel, it is in the Office Online version. Not much has changed. Still the same powerful spreadsheet, only you can access it from whichever operating system you're running, expanding your choices substantially. You can visit the Office Online website and within minutes be editing a spreadsheet.

Excel Online

A Microsoft account is required to access the service, but these are free and only take a few minutes to set up and, for the return, it is worth it. Your documents are saved to a OneDrive account. You can then use Office Online as a bridge for your existing Excel documents by uploading them, where they will be handily accessible via the familiar File > Open menu, or export them for desktop use.

Operating Systems: Pretty much any with a reasonable Internet connection.

Bonus: Office Online also grants access to several additional Office desktop applications, namely Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote.

Office Online Apps

Google Sheets

Google offers its own rendition of spreadsheet software in its handy Google Docs web application. It ticks all the boxes: standard and advanced formulas, importing Excel documents, formatting, and a decent range of graphing tools, whilst its online integration within the Google ecosystem is pretty handy, too.

Google Docs

As with all other Google Docs applications, multiple users can update a single document allowing for rapid editing across a single workforce. As well as this, Google makes sharing each document ridiculously easy, allowing you to generate share-URLs and edit share settings dynamically. Use it as a straight up Excel replacement, as a home for your spreadsheets whilst travelling around, or as a bridge whilst migrating your operating system.

Google Docs Apps

As with Office Online, signing up to Google delivers benefits to the user, but the entire Google Docs application is free and is absolutely worth a shout.

Operating Systems: Pretty much any with a reasonable Internet connection.

Bonus: Offline versions now available for desktops, Android, and iOS.

Numbers

Numbers is easily the best Excel alterative for Mac users. The native Mac spreadsheet software is powerful, feature-full and integrates well with other Mac devices, via Numbers for iOS. You can export into Excel using .xlsx, .xls or .csv, and likewise import into Numbers using the same formats, making transferring your vital spreadsheets that much easier.

Numbers

Numbers also handily works with iCloud, so working between your Mac and iPad is infinitely easy, whilst you can use iCloud to bridge important files between operating systems.

Operating Systems: Mac OS X ($19.99) and iOS ($9.99)

PlanMaker

PlanMaker is part of the SoftMaker FreeOffice suite, aimed very squarely at knocking Excel and MS Office from its perch. It can be used across Windows, Linux, Windows Mobile and Android, granting you a massive amount of potential in your working ecosystem. Unfortunately, it doesn't yet support any Mac devices.

PlanMaker Free

It is a pretty solid replacement for Excel, offering wide range of functions and formulas, whilst faithfully opening existing .xls documents for editing with a competent range of graphs, charts and visual-data tools, but doesn't appear to have the same powerful backend as Excel.

The Android version of FreeOffice PlanMaker is relatively useful – but then again negating spreadsheets via a smartphone isn't my idea of fun at the best of times, even with a 5.5" screen. That said, it is fast to load, easy to navigate and the formatting tools are quite handy. If you are in need of a useful, offline office suite then PlanMaker Mobile is worth evaluating.

PlanMakerMobile

Operating Systems: Windows, Linux, Windows Mobile, and Android

Digital Bridges

Remember during your transition, or indeed at any other time you move between workspaces you can digitally bridge your documents using cloud storage solutions. Two of our alternatives come with their own cloud storage – Google Docs and Office Online – but you can also use Dropbox, Box, iCloud, SpiderOak or any other cloud solution to keep your spreadsheets handily organised and easily accessible.

The Best Solution Is…

As you can see from our cross-platform spreadsheet software run-down, there are multiple options available for those looking to depart from the safety of Excel. Each operating system is relatively well catered for, each ecosystem homing at least one solid, powerful Excel replacement.

LibreOfficeLogo

For those switching desktops between the three major operating systems, LibreOffice – Calc offers your best, and perhaps easiest spreadsheet solution. It's free, easy to install, has a very familiar user interface and can handle a massive range of functions, formulas, file-types, and formatting. The addition of an official Android port later in the year will expand its functionality, giving you spreadsheet access wherever you want.

OfficeOnlineLogo

We are also lucky to have two excellent online solutions in Google Docs and Office Online. Both of these applications are available to any computer with an Internet connection, across almost every single operating system. Both have excellent key features. Integration with their respective ecosystems via Google Drive and OneDrive, easily sharable files and for Google Docs, the massively important collaborative function, means that switching to an online spreadsheet service is just the same, if not better than the traditional desktop affair.

NumbersiOSLogo

Many Mac users will default to Numbers, and rightly so. It is a powerful Excel competitor that is fully integrated with the Mac OS ecosystem. Those users with additional Apple products will benefit from its iCloud integration, whilst Windows users should have nothing to fear if making the switch to a Mac as all files are easily imported.

What is your alternative spreadsheet software of choice? Or do you just plain love Excel? Let us know in the comments below!

Image Credits: LibreOffice Logo, Office Logo, and Numbers for iOS Logo all via Wikimedia Commons