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Nextcloud Spreadsheet: a self-hosted alternative to Excel and Google Sheets

Nextcloud is promoting Spreadsheet, the collaborative editor inside Nextcloud Office, as a way to keep your numbers on infrastructure you choose. Here is what it offers, and what Nextcloud does not say.

By OwnYourStack Admin · Published

Nextcloud Spreadsheet, the collaborative spreadsheet editor in Nextcloud Office
Nextcloud Spreadsheet featured image © Nextcloud

On 26 October 2026, Nextcloud published a post presenting Nextcloud Spreadsheet as an open source alternative to Excel and Google Sheets. It is part of Nextcloud Office, alongside Nextcloud Write for documents and Nextcloud Present for slides, and the pitch is simple: your spreadsheets live on a server you choose, not in a Microsoft or Google cloud.

Everything below comes from Nextcloud’s own description, so treat it as the vendor’s account of the product rather than an independent test.

What Nextcloud says it does

  • Formulas and data. “Thousands of functions and formulas”, sorting and filtering of large datasets, macros to automate repetitive steps, and charts.
  • File formats. It opens and saves XLSX and ODS, and opens the older XLS format.
  • Real-time collaboration. Several people can edit at once, with visible cursors, cell comments, automatic saving and version history.
  • Sharing. View, comment and edit permissions for users and groups; public links for people without an account, with separate read-only or edit links and optional one-time passwords.
  • Federation. Teams on separate Nextcloud servers can edit the same spreadsheet.
  • Platforms. Browser, a mobile view for iOS and Android, and desktop clients for Windows, macOS and Linux, with offline editing in the desktop app.
  • Integration. It works with Files, Talk, Groupware and Assistant inside Nextcloud Hub, so a sheet can be attached to a task or calendar invitation or posted in a chat.

Why the location of your data matters

Nextcloud’s argument is about jurisdiction: it points out that under laws such as the US CLOUD Act, American authorities can demand access to data held by US providers wherever it is stored. Hosting your own spreadsheets, or using a provider you trust, is its answer. It also says the software can run in air-gapped deployments.

Keep a sense of proportion, though. Self-hosting moves the responsibility to you: updates, backups and access control are now your job. Our guide to the October Nextcloud updates covers the routine, and our look at Nextcloud Hub 26 Summer explains what Nextcloud does and does not change for privacy. In particular, a spreadsheet opened in a browser editor is processed by the office server, so it is not end-to-end encrypted.

What the post does not tell you

  • No version number. The page does not say which Nextcloud release the spreadsheet app belongs to.
  • No named licence. It is described as open source, but the page does not name the licence.
  • No limits. It says nothing about formula gaps, performance with very large files, or how it compares feature for feature with Excel. Test your own workbooks, especially those with macros, before you move.
  • Enterprise extras. Long-term support, guaranteed response times and rapid security updates are part of Nextcloud Enterprise; self-hosting itself is listed as free.

Should you try it?

If you already run Nextcloud at home or for a small team, it costs you nothing to open a few XLSX files and see how they behave. If you would be installing Nextcloud only for this, weigh the maintenance first. Either way, keep a copy of anything important in an open format such as ODS.

Source: Nextcloud blog, 26 October 2026.

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