Skip to main content

Excel vs Google Sheets vs Airtable for Journalists

Choosing the right tool for your workflow, your team, and the size of your dataset — and knowing when to graduate to a real database.

Last reviewed: Next review due:

The short answer

For most data journalism analysis: Excel or Google Sheets. For source and story management: Airtable. For datasets over 500,000 rows: SQL (SQLite or PostgreSQL). The tool choice rarely matters as much as the quality of your analysis.

Tool comparison

Microsoft Excel

Cost
Microsoft 365: ~£6/month (personal) or included in newsroom licence
Row limit
~1 million rows (1,048,576)
Collaboration
Real-time via OneDrive/SharePoint (requires Microsoft 365)
Offline use
Yes — fully offline capable

Strengths

  • +Most powerful formula engine
  • +Power Query for data import/transform
  • +Wide compatibility with government CSV exports
  • +Works offline with local files

Weaknesses

  • -Cost if no Microsoft 365 licence
  • -Real-time collaboration can be clunky
  • -Saving to local files only — no cloud-native version control

Google Sheets

Cost
Free (Google account); Workspace from £5.20/month for teams
Row limit
10 million cells (roughly 500k rows for a 20-column sheet)
Collaboration
Excellent — real-time, simultaneous editing with comment threads
Offline use
Limited — Chrome extension for offline mode

Strengths

  • +Free and browser-based
  • +Best-in-class collaboration
  • +Easy sharing with a link
  • +Importrange() for pulling data between sheets
  • +Built-in Google Translate and Maps functions

Weaknesses

  • -Cell limit is binding for large datasets
  • -Slower than Excel on complex formulas
  • -Sensitive data goes to Google servers

Airtable

Cost
Free tier (1,200 rows/base); Pro ~£18/user/month
Row limit
Free: 1,200 rows. Pro: 50,000 rows per base
Collaboration
Excellent — designed for team workflow management
Offline use
No meaningful offline capability

Strengths

  • +Intuitive database-spreadsheet hybrid
  • +Linked records between tables
  • +Kanban, calendar, and gallery views
  • +Good for tracking FOI requests or source databases

Weaknesses

  • -Not a data analysis tool — limited formulas
  • -Row limits hit quickly on free tier
  • -Expensive for what journalists typically need

Importing CSV from data.gov.uk

Both Excel and Google Sheets handle CSV imports. Watch out for date and number formatting.

Excel: Data > From Text/CSV > set delimiter to comma
       > check date column format (use DMY for UK dates)
       > Load to sheet

Google Sheets: File > Import > Upload CSV
       > Separator: Comma
       > Convert text to numbers, dates: Yes

When to graduate to a real database

  • 1Dataset is over 500,000 rows — Excel slows significantly; Google Sheets hits cell limits.
  • 2You need to join multiple large tables regularly (SQL JOINs are faster and more reliable than XLOOKUP at scale).
  • 3The analysis needs to be repeatable and automated (e.g. refreshing data monthly).
  • 4You need to share data securely without giving collaborators editing access to the raw data.
  • 5You are building a searchable public database as part of the story.

Red flags

  • Uploading leaked documents or personal data to Google Sheets — check your organisation's data security policy first.
  • Sharing a Google Sheet with edit access to anyone with the link — use viewer-only links for published data.
  • Hitting Google Sheets' cell limit mid-analysis without a fallback plan.
  • Using Airtable for numerical analysis — it is a database tool, not a statistics tool.

Tool selection checklist

  • I know the approximate row count of my dataset before choosing a tool.
  • If using Google Sheets with sensitive data, I have checked my organisation's cloud data policy.
  • I have considered whether collaboration requires real-time access (favours Google Sheets).
  • I have a plan for what to do if the dataset exceeds spreadsheet row limits.
  • I am using Airtable only for tracking/management, not for statistical analysis.

When spreadsheets are not enough

When your dataset outgrows a spreadsheet, SQL is the natural next step. DB Browser for SQLite is free and requires no server setup.

SQL for JournalistsSpreadsheet Essentials

Common mistakes

  • Choosing a tool because it is familiar, rather than because it fits the dataset size.
  • Assuming Google Sheets is free for teams — Workspace licences are required for organisational accounts.
  • Forgetting that Airtable row limits apply per base, not per table.
  • Using Excel without OneDrive and then losing track of which version of a file is current.

Related guides

Spreadsheet Essentials
Core functions for data journalism in Excel and Google Sheets.
SQL for Journalists
Move from spreadsheets to databases for large datasets.
Data Cleaning Techniques
Clean messy government CSV data before analysis.
Publishing Workflow
Reproducible analysis and source citation for published stories.

Primary sources

Frequently asked questions

Is Google Sheets secure enough for sensitive journalistic data?
Google Sheets stores data on Google's servers. For data that is already publicly available (e.g. a downloaded ONS CSV), this is fine. For sensitive data — leaked documents, source-identifying information, personal data about individuals — you should use an offline tool (Excel with local storage, or a local SQLite database) and ensure your device is encrypted. Check your organisation's data security policy before uploading sensitive material to any cloud service.
Can Google Sheets handle a full Land Registry price-paid dataset?
No. The full Land Registry price-paid dataset has over 28 million rows — far beyond Google Sheets' 10-million cell limit (roughly 1 million rows for a 10-column dataset). Use DB Browser for SQLite or PostgreSQL for large datasets. You can use Google Sheets for a filtered extract — e.g. a single local authority's transactions.
What is Airtable best used for in journalism?
Airtable excels as a source management and story-tracking database rather than a data analysis tool. Journalists use it to track FOI requests, manage contact databases, organise research notes, and build editorial calendars. Its spreadsheet-database hybrid interface is intuitive, but it is not designed for numerical analysis and lacks the formula depth of Excel or Google Sheets.

Related guides

Data JournalismSpreadsheet Essentials for JournalistsRead →Data JournalismSQL for Journalists — When to GraduateRead →Media LawData Protection Law for JournalistsRead →FOIFiling FOI Requests for DataRead →InvestigativeSource and Document Management for InvestigationsRead →

Primary sources