Excel vs Google Sheets: Which Is Better for Team Collaboration?

Collaboration is where the two tools diverge most

Excel and Google Sheets are closer than they've ever been on raw features. Both have dynamic arrays. Both have LET and LAMBDA. Both run on phones. But collaboration is the one area where the gap is still wide, and it's the area most teams underestimate when picking a tool. The wrong choice doesn't break anything immediately — it just slowly grinds your team down.

This comparison breaks team collaboration into five concrete dimensions: real-time editing, version history, comments and mentions, sharing permissions, and mobile. For each, we'll say which tool wins and why — then give you a clear rule for which to pick based on what kind of team you're on.

Real-time editing

Google Sheets wins this cleanly. Multiple people editing the same cell range is genuinely simultaneous — you see other cursors move in real time, no conflict resolution dialogs, no 'let me save first' friction. The technology was built for this from day one, and it shows in every interaction.

Excel's co-authoring works through OneDrive or SharePoint and has gotten much better in the last three years, but it still feels heavier. Edits take a beat to propagate. Conflicts happen more often, especially when someone's on a slow connection. For two people editing occasionally, it's fine. For five people in the same sheet for an hour, it's noticeably worse than Sheets.

Version history

Google Sheets wins again, and by a wider margin. Every edit is versioned automatically, with a timestamped timeline you can scroll through. You can name versions, restore any prior state with one click, and see exactly who changed what when. It's the kind of feature you don't appreciate until you need it.

Excel has version history on files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint, but it's coarser — fewer saved versions, less granular restore, and no easy way to see a cell-level change history. For audit-sensitive work, this matters.

Comments, sharing, and mobile

On comments, Sheets lets you comment on any cell, resolve threads, and @mention teammates — and the comment stays attached to the cell as data moves. Excel's threaded comments in the desktop app feel more like a real conversation tool, but Sheets' browser experience is more reliable. On sharing, Sheets wins for simplicity (three roles — Viewer, Commenter, Editor — instant, free with any Google account), while Excel's permission model is more powerful but requires a paid Microsoft 365 plan to use fully. On mobile, Sheets is faster, lighter, and renders complex sheets without lag on mid-range phones. Excel's mobile app works, but it's heavier and complex sheets stutter on older hardware.

• Google Sheets: Three roles (Viewer, Commenter, Editor), instant, free with any Google account.
• Excel: Richer role system, integration with Microsoft 365 groups, expiring links — but requires a paid Microsoft 365 plan to use fully.
• Tie-breaker: If your team already lives in Google Workspace, Sheets is the default. If you're on Microsoft 365 business, Excel's permission model is genuinely powerful.

Recommendations by team type

Pick Google Sheets if your team is remote-first, mixed-device (some Macs, some Windows, some phones), under 25 people, and not already standardized on Microsoft 365. The collaboration experience is just better, and the cost is zero beyond your existing Google accounts.

Pick Excel if your team is Microsoft 365-native, you have strict compliance or audit requirements, your work involves large datasets (above 50,000 rows regularly), or you depend on Power Query and Power Pivot for reporting. Excel's collaboration is good enough now, and you get the rest of the Office stack with it.

The tool your team already opens daily is the right tool. Switching costs are real, and they almost always outweigh the marginal benefit of the other option.

The bottom line

For most small teams in 2025, Google Sheets is the better collaboration tool — it was built for it, and it shows. Excel closes the gap if you're already on Microsoft 365 and need its specific strengths. Don't switch stacks to chase collaboration features; pick the one your team already lives in, then invest in a template that uses it well.