# LibreOffice Calc

32 Hacker News commenters recommended LibreOffice Calc and 18 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 2 years (3 owners).

**Verdict:** Free spreadsheet many people find good enough for most work and Excel files; critics say it is slower and lacks newer Excel features.

## Why people recommend it

- Good enough for most users (7 comments): "Calc doesn't need to implement 100% of Excel's functionality when most people - even business/power users - don't use all of its features." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46184801)) "LibreOffice's Calc is a pretty damn good replacement for Excel for the majority of users." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46203321)) "it has been satisfying all my personal spreadsheet needs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49450302))
- Excel file compatibility and CSV import (4 comments): "I've never experienced any compatibility issues with XLS(X) in LibreOffice Calc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47828021)) "For importing csv files it has always been superior to Excel." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46192500)) "LibreCalc is a better old Excel file reader than Office 365" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47303729))
- Feels intuitive, like classic Excel (2 comments): "LibreOffice Calc (same parentage as Collabora Office) feels more like Excel used to feel." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46901022)) "it is intuitive and feels like the people who wrote it, use it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47498657))
- Free, cost savings and sovereignty (2 comments): "would be well served to switching to a Free Software alternative such as LibreOffice Calc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46201286)) "we get data and software sovereignty, privacy and cost savings" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46181857))

## What people warn about

- Missing newer Excel features and tables (5 comments): "LibreOffice and Google Sheets are still quite far from everything that Excel is capabale of" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46160079)) "it’s missing basically any feature added in 2019 like Lambda and filter and dynamic arrays." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848224)) "LibreOffice Sheets doesn’t compete with Excel 2024, it competes more with Excel 2003." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49844033))
- Slow with larger spreadsheets (3 comments): "Calc, for example, is just much slower than MS Excel when you build a bit larger spreadsheets" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48345564)) "The difference in processing time was profound, last time I tried it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46182379)) "when the former started seriously lagging with about 250 rows total" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46801072))
- Not aimed at Excel power users (3 comments): "Libre Office simply isn't even trying to replicate" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46200975)) "Libreoffice is made for private users, and that's not the same users that VBA powered office documents have." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47828143)) "making LibreOffice Calc as good as Excel? One can dream, but it's not cheap" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46181958))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Microsoft Excel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-excel.md): 339 recommend
- [Google Sheets](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-sheets.md): 92 recommend
- [Lotus 1-2-3](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lotus-1-2-3.md): 34 recommend
- [Numbers by Apple](https://hackerapproved.com/p/numbers.md): 27 recommend
- [cell terminal spreadsheet editor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/terminal-spreadsheet-editor-with-vim-keybindings.md): 12 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "LibreOffice Calc", https://hackerapproved.com/p/libreoffice-calc/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).