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GridCraft: a free, open-source Microsoft Excel alternative

What GridCraft 0.5.0 is, what it already does, and where it still falls short of Microsoft Excel. Based only on the official GridCraft README and docs.

Updated 2026-10-11 · GridCraft 0.5.0

Looking for a free alternative to Microsoft Excel? GridCraft is one option. Its README describes it like this:

Spreadsheets and data; an open-source, clean-room reimplementation of Microsoft Excel, rebuilt in pure Rust.

It's made by the ArtCraft team, licensed MIT OR Apache-2.0, and published for macOS, Windows, Linux and FreeBSD, plus a web build. The latest version is v0.5.0.

What it does well

According to the README:

  • Familiar: Excel's ribbon, formula bar, Name Box, sheet tabs, keyboard shortcuts, fill handle, Format Cells, Paste Special, conditional formatting, tables and charts.
  • XLSX native: styles, themes, formulas (including dynamic arrays), tables, conditional formats, validation, comments, charts, sparklines, PivotTables and print settings round-trip. CSV and TSV too; XLSB and ODS worksheet data can be imported.
  • Capable engine: dynamic arrays and spilling, 500+ worksheet functions plus LET, LAMBDA, MAP, REDUCE, SCAN, BYROW, BYCOL and MAKEARRAY, sort and AutoFilter, Flash Fill, outlining and subtotals.
  • Fast: copy-on-write workbooks, incremental recalculation and a virtualised grid.
  • Agent-native: every ribbon button, menu item and dialog is a command available over a JSON control channel, an MCP server or the CLI.

How far along it is

The README calls GridCraft alpha: it covers 89% of the Excel ribbon commands in the project's catalog and 501 of Excel's 523 worksheet functions, and the team estimates it is about 50% ready for real work.

What's still missing

The README lists these as next up:

  • XLSX fidelity on real-world files
  • very large workbooks and multi-threaded recalculation
  • chart depth
  • text in every script
  • .xls import

The full, ranked list is in the project's docs/gaps.md.

Should you switch?

Try GridCraft if you want a free, open-source spreadsheet app that feels familiar to Microsoft Excel users, runs on Linux or in a browser, or can be scripted. For client work, test your own files first. The project describes itself as early-stage software.

Microsoft Excel is a trademark of Microsoft. It is named here only to describe what GridCraft is modeled on.

Sources

Every factual claim in this article is taken from these upstream files. If something here disagrees with them, the upstream source wins.

PhotoCraft Hub is an unofficial community site. PhotoCraft is made by the ArtCraft team; screenshots are from the PhotoCraft repository (MIT OR Apache-2.0) and show public-domain artwork.