What should be used for your reporting needs: Excel VBA or Google Sheets or Web based Development

The world has seen a large scale development in the field of software in terms of availability of

1. New development languages &
2. Custom tools for development

Everyday we see a new tool popping up on internet which tries to solve a niche requirement. Still spreadsheets are some of the most generically acceptable tools for recording and analyzing data. We can also use web based tools like Power BI or alternatively look for custom web based development for more concrete bespoke solutions.

With the advent of web based alternatives to excel, we also have Google sheets / Microsoft sheets acting as an 3rd alternative to list of tools we can use for reporting purpose.

So what should be the ideal tool to use for your use case? I think its important to understand the characteristics of each of the 3 tools to pick the best tool for any use case:

  • 1. Ease of usage :

    Excel & Google sheets are generic tools, hence for the end user its not as easy to use as web based tool (Tailor made for your need). A custom built tool using VBA or app script reduces this gap and increases usability by few points.

  • 2. Development Timelines :

    Depending on the complexity of the tool, development timelines are generally lower for excel/VBA when the use cases is not so complex. But as the complexity increases, the development timelines increases exponentially and comes close to a custom web development. For example : Excel can be used for creating complex tools like ERP but VBA language is not mature enough to handle the complexity of process and in turn the increase in development timelines.

  • 3. Number of users :

    Its important to understand if the tool will be simultaneously used by a group of people or single individual. Accordingly we need to choose either to go for excel or google sheets / web tools. Excel with data within the sheet is not ideally suited for use by multiple users and needs a different architecture to support such a use case.

  • 4. Online Access :

    In extension to the last point, Google Sheets/Custom website development are the obvious choice when it comes to online accessibility.. but we can also use excel along with an online database to achieve the same impact (Everyone with a copy of tool will be able to access the data).

  • 5. Protecting/segregating sensitive data :

    For handling sensitive data, its always good to have a separation layer b/w the raw data and data views. This can be easily achieved in web world as compared to excel/Google where we are highly dependent on data sheet for picking the data.

  • 6. UI/UX :

    custom websites are the best option here when it comes to User interface and user experience. Excel will be able to partly achieve the experience using user forms. Google sheets will be placed last as it lacks inbuilt forms and we need to rely on google forms to partly achieve similar user experience.

  • 7. Life of Report :

    How likely is it that there will be changes to report output and/or how long is the life of report? Reports with longer life span and the ones which do not change frequently are ideal to be moved to a mature web based development environment. For constantly changing reports, its easier to opt for excel/google sheet based development.

  • 8. Cost of development :

    There are two parts to the cost equation – Infrastructure cost + development cost. Development cost is dependent on the complexity of tool. For low complexity tools, the cost for excel/google sheets will be far lower than web based tool but as the complexity increases the dev time and cost increases for excel/google sheets at a faster pace. Infra cost on the other hand is zero for excel (Assuming you already own a licensed version) and google sheets whereas for web based development, we need a dedicated server to host the application.

  • 9. Data Security :

    Web tools will have a higher level of security as compared to excel/google sheets.

As we can observe, web based tools have a definite advantage when we are sure of the report output and when reports will have a utility for a long period of time vis-a-vis excel/google sheets which are more suitable for simpler, less complex and small scale development projects. Google Sheet is specifically more suitable for applications needing basic level of data collaboration within team with minimal efforts.

There are very few companies which work on all the 3 technologies and hence are equipped with the experience and knowledge to clearly guide you with the development plan. Logieagle with its years of development experience in Excel-VBA/Google Sheets/Web Technologies can easily help you make the right decision. Pls reach out to us at contact@logieagle.com for a more in depth discussion for your personal use case.