Microsoft Excel is one of the most useful programs if we often work with data to be lined up or with complex graphs, tables and mathematical calculations, to the point of being a real reference point in every office. Unfortunately Excel is a paid program of the Microsoft Office suite, so in order to take advantage of it we will have to shell out some money to purchase the single license or pay the subscription to Microsoft 365.If at the moment we cannot afford to spend these figures, we have come to the right guide! Here we will show you how to download excel for free on any home PC, so you can easily edit or create a spreadsheet xls or xslx, without having to pay anything. Obviously the best results will only be obtained by paying for the license or subscription: we can see these tips as alternatives or free trials to take advantage of before deciding whether to buy Office or not.
How to download Excel for free
In the following chapters we will find all the safe or legal methods to be able to download Excel for free on our computer or, as a valid alternative, try free apps and programs that can replace Excel in home use, so as not to necessarily purchase a license. or pay a monthly or annual subscription to Office 365.Use Office Online
Microsoft provides a completely free Excel Web App, which we can use to create and view spreadsheets quickly and easily (with some limitations).First, let's go to the Excel Online page from the Google Chrome browser for PC (essential for the purpose), log in with our Microsoft account (if we don't have one, let's create it on the fly from here) then click on the top right on menu with the three dots, we select the menu Other tools and click on Create shortcut.
In the window that appears, put the check mark on Open as window, then click Create to add the page to the Web Apps managed by Chrome.
Now simply open chrome: // apps / in the address bar, right-click on the newly created app, select Create shortcuts and finally make sure that both items are checked in the new window that will appear.
By checking the desktop of our computer we will see a new app appear with the name assigned to the Excel Web App; let's click on it to be able to use Excel for free as if it were any PC program.
The limitations of this solution are evident: we can only open and save within ours OneDrive cloud space (better to access it immediately from Windows to facilitate file management) and some advanced features are not available. If we use Excel sporadically for simple things, this is currently the best solution to download Excel for free.
NOTE: : a constant Internet connection is required to use the Web App.
Microsoft 365 free trial
If we want to use the full version of Microsoft Excel for free on our computer, we can also test the free version of Microsoft 365.
By opening the page we have reported to you and pressing the button Try free for 1 month, we will be able to get a free trial version of Office with access to the cloud features of Office 365, all we have to do is log in with a Microsoft account, indicate a valid payment method (also essential to obtain the free trial) and finally download the file Office installer, provided via email link.
Before the 30-day trial expires, we will have to cancel the trial period, under penalty of immediate payment of the 99 € per year subscription; to do this, simply go to the Office management page before the trial period expires.
Use Google Sheets
The first free Microsoft Excel alternative that we can download for free with no time limits or trial periods is Google Sheets.
We add this site as a Web App on the computer (as seen on Excel Online) then use the key + to create new spreadsheets, click on one of the templates available in the home to start a new project or load our spreadsheets on Drive to be able to open or edit them (for this purpose we recommend downloading the Google Drive Backup and Synchronization program ).
NOTE: : Google Sheets also works offline without internet connection.
Use LibreOffice
If we are looking for a complete program to replace Excel, we recommend that you also try the free LibreOffice suite, which provides the program for spreadsheets. LibreOffice Calc.
With Calc we will have a complete spreadsheet, with all the primary functions easily accessible and with the ability to quickly create graphs, tables and complex mathematical calculations both in the Office file format (XLS e XLSX) and in free document format (ODF). When saving a new file we will be able to choose some format to use, so that we can always choose whether to save documents compatible with Excel or create documents in free formats.
To learn more about LibreOffice and its free philosophy, we can continue reading our article Download LibreOffice for free in in your languagen with Word, Excel and Powerpoint on PC, Mac and Linux.
Conclusions
As we have seen it is not necessary to download cracks or pre-activated versions of Office (full of viruses or trojans) to be able to download Excel for free on our faithful computer: with a few clicks of the mouse we can transform the online version of Excel into a program "real" or download the trial version of Office 365, so that you can use all the functions of Excel for a limited period of time.If we do not want to compromise and want complete and free offline programs, we can rely on Google Sheets and especially LibreOffice, currently the best free alternatives to Excel and other programs in the Office suite.
To become an expert and practical user of Microsoft Excel or LibreOffice, we recommend that you take our free "courses" on How to create an invoice with Excel, from scratch, simple and personalized, How to do calculations in Excel and finally How to use Excel Formulas and Functions.
How to download Excel for free
