Excel in 2026 is no longer just a spreadsheet tool. It’s a core data platform used for analysis, automation, reporting, and even as the backend for business applications.
Modern teams typically use Excel in three distinct ways:
- As an analysis and modeling engine for finance, operations, and analytics teams that rely on formulas, pivots, and structured models.
- As a connected data hub that pulls data from databases, SaaS tools, APIs, and cloud systems, then pushes cleaned data back out.
- As a backend system powering workflows, dashboards, and custom apps for non-technical users.
Excel’s fundamentals haven’t changed. It’s the ecosystem around it that has. Today’s Excel users benefit from add-ins, integrations, automation platforms, and AI tools that reduce manual work, improve data quality, and extend spreadsheets far beyond rows and columns.
This guide reflects how Excel is actually used in 2026. Use it to find high-value Excel add-ins that run inside Excel, Microsoft-native integrations that turn spreadsheets into workflows, and external platforms that treat Excel as a reliable data layer.
Productivity & power-user Excel add-ins
These tools are designed for the people who spend hours every day inside Excel. They will help you improve speed and accuracy, and eliminate repetitive tasks without requiring VBA, scripting, or custom development.
1. ASAP Utilities
Best for: Excel power users, operations teams, and analysts who want to work faster
ASAP Utilities is one of the most widely adopted Excel productivity add-ins, with hundreds of small enhancements that streamline everyday spreadsheet work. Instead of building one-off macros or memorizing obscure Excel features, users get a curated set of tools that solve common problems instantly. It is especially popular with analysts and operations teams who manage large, messy workbooks.
Why it’s great: It replaces manual, error-prone steps with consistent, one-click actions that save time every day.
Key features:
- Text cleaning and normalization tools
- Cell, range, and worksheet management
- Batch operations across multiple sheets or workbooks
- Shortcut and macro utilities
How you use it with Excel: Installed as a third-party Excel add-in that runs entirely inside Excel.
2. Kutools for Excel
Best for: Users who repeat complex, multi-step Excel tasks
Kutools for Excel bundles hundreds of utilities into a single add-in designed to simplify advanced spreadsheet workflows. Tasks that normally require nested formulas, helper columns, or VBA can often be completed in one or two clicks. It is particularly useful for users managing large workbooks with many sheets, formulas, and recurring transformations.
Why it’s great: It dramatically reduces the cognitive load of working in complex spreadsheets by turning advanced operations into simple commands.
Key features:
- Advanced merge, split, and transform tools
- Batch find and replace across entire workbooks
- Formula helpers and navigation tools
- Formatting and chart utilities
How you use it with Excel: Installed as a third-party Excel add-in that extends the Excel ribbon.
3. Ablebits Ultimate Suite
Best for: Analysts and operations teams working with messy, real-world data
Ablebits Ultimate Suite focuses on data cleanup, transformation, and table-level operations that go beyond standard Excel functions. It is commonly used when working with CRM exports, financial records, or operational data pulled from multiple systems. These are scenarios where Excel formulas technically work but quickly become fragile or hard to maintain.
Why it’s great: It handles edge cases cleanly and consistently, reducing the need for complex formulas and manual fixes.
Key features:
- Duplicate detection and removal
- Table merge and join wizards
- Text, date, and number transformation tools
- Advanced lookup helpers
How you use it with Excel: Installed as a third-party Excel add-in.
4. Accelerate Excel
Best for: Financial analysts, accountants, and M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) professionals
Accelerate Excel is built specifically for large financial models where accuracy, transparency, and structure are critical. These models often contain thousands of rows, deeply nested formulas, and interdependent sheets that are difficult to audit. Accelerate Excel provides tools that make these models easier to trace, validate, and explain.
Why it’s great: It reduces the risk and maintenance burden of complex financial spreadsheets.
Key features:
- Formula tracing and auditing tools
- Structured copy-paste designed for financial models
- PivotTable conversion utilities
- Financial modeling shortcuts
How you use it with Excel: Installed as a specialized Excel add-in for finance teams.
Data import, integration & connectivity
In 2026, Excel is rarely a standalone file. These tools allow Excel to act as a front-end for databases, SaaS platforms, APIs, and cloud systems.
5. Power Query
Best for: Anyone importing and transforming data in Excel
Power Query is Microsoft’s built-in data ingestion and transformation engine and one of the most important Excel features today. It allows users to connect to multiple data sources, clean and reshape data visually, and repeat the same transformation steps every time data is refreshed. This turns Excel from a manual import tool into a reliable data pipeline.
Why it’s great: It makes data preparation repeatable, transparent, and far less error-prone.
Key features:
- Connect to files, databases, APIs, and cloud services
- Visual, step-based data transformations
- Automatic refresh
- Reusable query logic
How you use it with Excel: Built directly into Excel (Microsoft-native).
6. Devart Excel Add-ins
Best for: Teams connecting Excel to specific databases or business systems
Devart offers dedicated Excel add-ins for databases, CRMs, and accounting platforms such as SQL Server, MySQL, Salesforce, and QuickBooks. These add-ins allow Excel users to work directly with live data instead of static exports. For many teams, this turns Excel into a lightweight database client.
Why it’s great: It supports two-way data interaction, not just reporting.
Key features:
- Live connections to databases and SaaS tools
- Editable data directly inside Excel
- Scheduled synchronization and refresh
- Advanced query and filtering support
How you use it with Excel: Installed as dedicated third-party Excel add-ins per platform.
How to use no-code and Salesforce together
Read the guide7. CData Excel Add-ins
Best for: Organizations integrating Excel with modern APIs and SaaS tools
CData provides Excel add-ins that expose hundreds of cloud applications and APIs as relational-style tables. This allows Excel users to query, filter, and analyze API data using familiar spreadsheet workflows. It is especially valuable for teams that need Excel access to systems without native Excel connectors.
Why it’s great: It abstracts away API complexity and authentication.
Key features:
- Broad SaaS and API coverage
- Live and cached data access
- SQL-like querying from Excel
- Secure authentication handling
How you use it with Excel: Installed as third-party Excel add-ins.
8. Supermetrics
Best for: Marketing and analytics teams
Supermetrics automatically pulls data from advertising, analytics, and marketing platforms into Excel on a schedule. Instead of manually exporting CSVs from multiple dashboards, teams get consistent, refreshable datasets inside spreadsheets. This makes Excel viable for ongoing performance reporting.
Why it’s great: It eliminates fragile manual exports and broken reports.
Key features:
- 100+ marketing and analytics connectors
- Scheduled data refresh
- Historical data access
- Reporting templates
How you use it with Excel: External SaaS platform with an Excel connector.
Automation & workflows
Learn more about intelligent automation
Read the guideExcel in 2026 is often just one step in a larger operational process. These tools allow spreadsheets to trigger workflows, approvals, and updates across systems.
Note: Power Automate and Zapier let you automate data flow in and out of Excel and other software. If you want to automate actions within combined data, try using one of the tools in the “Interface and app builder” section below, like Glide, instead.
9. Microsoft Power Automate
Best for: Teams automating processes around Excel files
Power Automate allows Excel files to trigger actions such as sending emails, requesting approvals, updating databases, or notifying teams in Slack or Microsoft Teams. This moves Excel out of static folders and into live business workflows. It is especially powerful when combined with SharePoint and OneDrive.
Why it’s great: It turns spreadsheets into active process participants.
Key features:
- Trigger-based workflows
- Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and SQL integration
- Approval and notification flows
- Scheduled automation
How you use it with Excel: Microsoft-native automation platform connected to Excel files.
10. Zapier
Best for: Non-technical teams connecting Excel to third-party SaaS tools
Zapier enables automation between Excel and hundreds of external applications without code. Teams commonly use it to sync spreadsheet data with CRMs, forms, support tools, and marketing platforms. This is especially useful outside Microsoft-centric environments.
Why it’s great: It enables cross-tool automation without engineering resources.
Key features:
- App-to-app automation
- Triggers and actions
- Conditional logic
- Multi-step workflows
How you use it with Excel: External automation platform that connects via cloud storage.
AI & advanced analysis
Excel increasingly overlaps with data science and AI. These tools push Excel beyond traditional formulas and pivot tables.
11. Python in Excel
Best for: Analysts who need more than formulas and pivot tables
Python in Excel allows users to run Python code natively inside spreadsheets. This brings powerful libraries like pandas and NumPy into Excel without requiring local installations or complex setup. It effectively bridges the gap between Excel analysis and data science workflows.
Why it’s great: It dramatically expands Excel’s analytical ceiling.
Key features:
- Native Python execution
- Pandas and NumPy support
- Advanced analysis and visualization
- No local Python install required
How you use it with Excel: Built-in Excel feature for Microsoft 365 users.
12. Analytic Solver Data Mining
Best for: Predictive analytics and optimization inside Excel
Analytic Solver adds forecasting, simulation, and machine-learning capabilities directly to Excel. It is commonly used for scenario planning, optimization problems, and predictive modeling without writing code. This makes advanced analytics accessible to traditional Excel users.
Why it’s great: It keeps advanced analysis close to the data and models teams already use.
Key features:
- Optimization and simulation models
- Forecasting tools
- Classification and clustering
- Scenario analysis
How you use it with Excel: Installed as a third-party Excel add-in.
13. Fuzzy Lookup Add-In
Best for: Matching inconsistent or imperfect text data
Fuzzy Lookup is designed for one of the most common real-world Excel problems: joining datasets that don’t match exactly. It helps match vendor names, customer records, or product lists that contain variations, typos, or formatting differences. This is a frequent pain point in operational and financial spreadsheets.
Why it’s great: It solves joins that XLOOKUP and VLOOKUP cannot handle.
Key features:
- Approximate string matching
- Similarity scoring
- Adjustable matching thresholds
How you use it with Excel: Installed as a Microsoft Excel add-in.
Visualization & communication
As Excel data moves up the decision-making chain, clarity and presentation become critical.
14. think-cell
Best for: Executive-ready charts and presentations
think-cell connects Excel data directly to presentation-quality charts in PowerPoint. It is widely used in consulting, finance, and strategy teams that produce data-heavy slides. The tool ensures charts stay consistent and update automatically when Excel data changes.
Why it’s great: It dramatically reduces time spent formatting and updating slides.
Key features:
- Waterfall, Gantt, and Mekko charts
- Automatic data linking
- Consistent formatting
- PowerPoint integration
How you use it with Excel: Installed as an Excel and PowerPoint add-in.
15. Power BI
Best for: Sharing dashboards and reports at scale
Power BI turns Excel data into interactive dashboards and reports that can be shared securely across an organization. It addresses Excel’s limitations around collaboration, performance, and access control. Many teams use Excel for modeling and Power BI for distribution.
Why it’s great: It separates analysis from presentation while keeping data connected.
Key features:
- Interactive dashboards
- Scheduled refresh
- Secure sharing
- Large dataset handling
How you use it with Excel: Excel acts as a data source for Power BI.
Interface and app builders
Many organizations now treat Excel as a backend rather than a user interface. No-code app builders let you build more user-friendly interfaces that use Excel as a data source. Creating app interfaces for your Excel spreadsheets allows you to collaborate without exposing sensitive data, make your data more mobile-adaptive for use on smartphones and tablets, and make interacting with your data more visually appealing and intuitive. Your Excel-based work processes can be done through real software instead of in a spreadsheet.
16. Microsoft Power Apps
Best for: Large enterprises building data-intensive internal apps in the Microsoft ecosystem.
Power Apps allows teams to build secure, role-based applications that use Excel as a data source. This is commonly used when spreadsheets become operational tools shared with many users. It provides governance and structure without abandoning Excel.
Why it’s great: It extends Excel into enterprise-grade applications.
Key features:
- Canvas and model-driven apps
- Role-based access control
- Power Automate integration
- Enterprise security
How you use it with Excel: Excel serves as a connected data source.
Turn your Excel spreadsheet into an app
Learn how17. Glide
Best for: Teams that rely on Excel but need mobile-friendly, role-based, and workflow-driven internal tools.
Glide transforms Excel data into web and mobile applications without requiring code. Teams use it to replace shared spreadsheets with purpose-built interfaces. Building custom apps is especially valuable for teams working on location in the field or warehouse floors and for interacting with external collaborators such as contractors or clients without exposing your entire spreadsheet.
Glide apps can be used to handle data entry, approvals, and operational workflows. This reduces data-entry-related spreadsheet errors, reduces version-control problems, and makes Excel data usable outside the office. Because Glide syncs in real time with Excel files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint, teams can modernize workflows without disrupting existing models.
Why it’s great: It preserves Excel as the source of truth while improving usability.
Key features:
- Real-time synchronization with Excel and CSV files
- Mobile-first interfaces for phones, tablets, and desktop
- Role-based permissions and row-level access control
- Custom forms that replace direct spreadsheet editing
- Workflow automation for approvals, notifications, and updates
- AI features such as receipt scanning, text extraction, and categorization
- Integrations with tools like QuickBooks, Salesforce, Slack, and email
How you use it with Excel: Excel remains the backend data source, while Glide becomes the primary user interface.
Common use cases:
- Expense tracking with receipt uploads and approvals
- Field data collection and inspections
- Inventory and asset tracking
- Internal request and approval systems
- Partner and customer portals
Extend Excel’s capabilities to better serve your business processes
Excel in 2026 works best when treated as a platform rather than a destination. The most effective teams keep Excel as the data and modeling layer, automate workflows around it, and push insights into dashboards, apps, and systems. With the right add-ins and integrations, Excel becomes a true business infrastructure, not just a spreadsheet.
Whether you need AI-powered automation, seamless integrations with business tools, advanced statistical analysis, or the ability to turn spreadsheets into mobile apps, there's an add-in that can help.
The most successful Excel users take full advantage of the ecosystem of tools that extend Excel's capabilities far beyond its default state. Start with one or two add-ins that address your biggest challenges, master them, and gradually expand your toolkit.
Your spreadsheet doesn't have to be just a spreadsheet anymore. With AI add-ins, repetitive tasks disappear. With integration tools, your data flows seamlessly across your business. And with tools like Glide, it can become a full operational system that your team actually enjoys using.
