A Numbers alternative that works with Excel files as they are

Why Excel users find Numbers awkward

None of these are bugs; they are design choices. They just happen to get in the way when you work with Excel files.

• Import and export instead of open and save. An .xlsx opened in Numbers becomes a Numbers document. Saving creates a .numbers file; you must use File ▸ Export To ▸ Excel to send it back, and some things change on the way.
• Tables on a canvas, not one big grid. A Numbers sheet holds several separate tables, so large Excel sheets can be split or reshaped on import.
• Different shortcuts and menus. Many Excel for Mac shortcuts do nothing or something else in Numbers.
• Newer system requirement. The current Numbers on the App Store requires macOS 26; Foglio runs on macOS 14 and later.

What Foglio does differently

• It edits `.xlsx` in place. Open an Excel file, change it, press ⌘S, and it is still an Excel file. No export step.
• One grid per sheet, like Excel. Row and column headers, freeze panes, the Name Box (type B12 or Sheet2!A1:C9 to jump), sheet tabs you can rename, color, hide and reorder.
• Excel's formulas and Excel's names. About 500 functions, including XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, FILTER, LET and LAMBDA, typed in your Mac's language: =SOMMA(A1:A10) on an Italian Mac, =SUMME(…) on a German one (Italian–English list).
• Excel for Mac shortcuts. ⌘1, ⌘D, F4, ⇧⌘T, ⌥⇧⌘V and dozens more behave as in Excel.
• Files Numbers struggles with. Foglio opens old .xls, binary .xlsb and LibreOffice .ods files, and CSV files in any common encoding with automatic delimiter detection. It even draws old EMF/WMF clip art inside Office files.

What Numbers does better

Be honest with yourself about what you use Numbers for. If it is any of the following, Numbers may still be the better tool:

• Presentation. Templates, styled tables, interactive charts and free layout make Numbers documents look great without effort.
• iPhone and iPad. Numbers runs on all your Apple devices and syncs through iCloud. Foglio is Mac-only.
• Collaboration. Numbers supports real-time collaboration through iCloud. Foglio is a single-user desktop app.
• Pivot tables. Numbers has them; Foglio offers only Summarize by, a simpler live summary.
• Apple Intelligence. Numbers integrates Writing Tools and, with an Apple Creator Studio subscription, an assistant that can suggest formulas and tables. Foglio has no AI features.

Size and speed

The Numbers App Store listing shows 661 MB (a single listing for Mac, iPhone and iPad). Foglio is a 7.5 MB download and about 19 MB installed. It opens to a usable window in 0.24 s, idles at 0 % CPU and uses about 58 MB of memory with an empty sheet. A 100,000-row workbook with 300,000 formulas opens in 1.1 s on our test Mac.

Numbers is pre-installed on many Macs, so size may not matter to you. Startup time and how it handles very large Excel sheets might.

When you should stay with Numbers

If your spreadsheets are personal, rarely leave your Apple devices, and you value how they look more than Excel compatibility, stay with Numbers. It is free, polished and well integrated. If you share a household budget with family members on iPhones, Numbers' iCloud collaboration is hard to beat.

If instead you regularly open Excel attachments, send .xlsx files back to colleagues or clients, or simply think in Excel, Foglio removes the conversion step. Plenty of people keep both: Numbers for pretty personal documents, Foglio as the default app for .xlsx and .csv.

Make Foglio the default for Excel files

After you download Foglio, select any .xlsx file in Finder, press ⌘I (Get Info), choose Foglio under Open with and click Change All…. Double-clicking Excel files will now open them in Foglio, and Numbers stays available for its own documents. Repeat for .csv if you like.

For a broader look at every option, see the comparison of Mac spreadsheet apps or the guide on opening xlsx files without Excel.