Microsoft Excel vs. Wolfram Mathematica

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Excel
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application available as part of Microsoft 365 (Office 365), or standalone, in cloud-based and on-premise editions.
$6.99
per month
Mathematica
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Wolfram's flagship product Mathematica is a modern technical computing application featuring a flexible symbolic coding language and a wide array of graphing and data visualization capabilities.
$1,520
per year
Pricing
Microsoft ExcelWolfram Mathematica
Editions & Modules
Excel with Microsoft 365
$6.99
per month
Excel for 1 PC or Mac
$139.99
perpetual license
Standard Cloud
$1,520
per year
Standard Desktop
$3,040
one-time fee
Standard Desktop & Cloud
$3,344
one-time fee
Mathematica Enterprise Edition
$8,150.00
one-time fee
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft ExcelMathematica
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDiscounts available for students and educational institutions. The Network Edition reduce per-user license costs through shared deployment across any number of machines on a local-area network.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft ExcelWolfram Mathematica
Features
Microsoft ExcelWolfram Mathematica
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Wolfram Mathematica
9.9
Ratings
16% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Wolfram Mathematica
9.9
Ratings
22% above category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Wolfram Mathematica
9.3
Ratings
10% above category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Wolfram Mathematica
9.9
Ratings
20% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
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User Ratings
Microsoft ExcelWolfram Mathematica
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft ExcelWolfram Mathematica
Likelihood to Recommend
I find it easier to use than Google Sheets , though it's easier to collaborate with other teams using Google Sheets. I also feel like Microsoft Excel is more suited to deal with complex formulas. The best way to put it, if I have a project that I'm solely working on, I'm going to use Microsoft Excel. If it's going to be shared, then I'm using Google Sheets.
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We are the judgement that Wolfram Mathematica is despite many critics based on the paradigms selected a mark in the fields of the markets for computations of all kind. Wolfram Mathematica is even a choice in fields where other bolide systems reign most of the market. Wolfram Mathematica offers rich flexibility and internally standardizes the right methodologies for his user community. Wolfram Mathematica is not cheap and in need of a hard an long learner journey. That makes it weak in comparison with of-the-shelf-solution packages or even other programming languages. But for systematization of methods Wolfram Mathematica is far in front of almost all the other. Scientist and interested people are able to develop themself further and Wolfram Matheamatica users are a human variant for themself. The reach out for modern mathematics based science is deep and a unique unified framework makes the whole field of mathematics accessable comparable to the brain of Albert Einstein. The paradigms incorporated are the most efficients and consist in assembly on the market. The mathematics is covering and fullfills not just education requirements but the demands and needs of experts.
Mathematica is incompatible with other systems for mCAx and therefore the borders between the systems are hard to overcome. Wolfram Mathematica should be consider one of the more open systems because other code can be imported and run but on the export side it is rathe incompatible by design purposes. A better standard for all that might solve the crisis but there is none in sight. Selection of knowledge of what works will be in the future even more focussed and general system might be one the lossy side. Knowledge of esthetics of what will be in the highest demand in necessary and Wolfram is not a leader in this field of science. Mathematics leves from gathering problems from application fields and less from the glory of itself and the formalization of this.
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Pros
  • Excel is the most fully featured spreadsheet software you are likely to find.
  • The software is compatible with a large number of file formats so using data from nearly any source is possible.
  • It can handle large data sets.
  • It can save your files in a variety of file formats.
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  • Doing the analysis is very good, plotting the data, getting the insight from data using this is easy and output looks pretty good
  • Solving mathematical problems, with detailed solutions step by step (mainly calculus problems)
  • You can also query this knowledge engine in simple English. It has ability to interpret that and will give you answer accordingly
  • Nowadays, it provides API to use, so you can do image processing, video/audio using this
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Cons
  • Excel offers collaboration features that allow multiple users to work on the same spreadsheet, but managing changes made by different users can be challenging. Excel could improve its features by offering more granular control, better tracking of changes, and more robust conflict resolution tools.
  • Itcan be a barrier to productivity when importing and exporting data from other applications or file formats. To improve its features, it should offer better support for standard file formats and more robust error handling and reporting tools.
  • Excel can be challenging for finance students and working professionals, but it can be improved by offering more robust tutorials, better documentation, and more user communities and support forums.
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  • Should include more libraries and functions.
  • Should include more functions that can be used in Machine Learning.
  • Should include more functions that can be used in Data Science.
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Likelihood to Renew
Excel remains the industry standard for spreadsheets and has maintained simple and straight-forward formula writing methods. Although there is a learning curve to do more complex calculations, there are countless help sites and videos on the Internet for almost any need.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
Overall I think the usuability is great and offers everything it should. I have never not be able to use it for what I wanted it for. However, it is so detailed and offers so much it can be difficult to use. Better descriptions or explanation to all the information could be helpful
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No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
I have rarely, if ever, had issues with its availability.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
Excel load and performs calculations immediately. It integrate well with all Microsoft Office applications and does not slow them down.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I have not had to use it often, but it is good.
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Wolfram Mathematica is a nice software package. It has very nice features and easy to install and use in your machine. Besides this, there is a nice support from Wolfram. They come to the university frequently to give seminars in Mathematica. I think this is the best thing they are doing. That is very helpful for graduate and undergraduate students who are using Mathematica in their research.
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Alternatives Considered
Excel is one of the tools I use for everyday work but fits alongside all the other programs I use. I keep Excel as a way of tracking projects from start to finish as well as document content strategy and audits. There are not many programs like Excel that I can think of other than Google Sheets and I find Excel is far better.
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The ability to manipulate algebraic expressions, nested lists, and data structures in Mathematica was unequalled when I first did the comparison. Since then, I've stuck with Mathematica mostly because it's "the tool I know."
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Scalability
Each user can use it to whatever level of expertise they have. It remains the same so users can contribute to another's work regardless of whether they have more or less expertise
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • It helps to me gather my thoughts, organize my research, and most importantly prioritize information in an easy to digest manner depending on what I am most interested to see at that time.
  • It helps me quite a bit to talk my clients through the financial implications of various office leasing transactions under consideration and coach them in a way that is very unbiased and fact-driven which I like.
  • It helps me to be more thoughtful as well when thinking about the various different situations in which I use Excel. And because it ultimately results in my clients getting comfortable ultimately pulling the trigger on a given deal, it directly leads to more commission in my pocket which I love!
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  • Mathematica is our "go to" environment for developing solutions for our clients, so I suppose you could say that it is solely responsible for our revenues. On occasion we do use other platforms but Mathematica is a core component of our offer to clients.
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