Add ins for excel

Most Excel users don’t realize there’s a whole world of spreadsheet add-ins just itching to make their jobs — and lives — so much easier.

There are add-ins to boost your productivity, and even add snazzy visualizations to make your spreadsheets stand out from the snoozefests you’re used to. Others can help you run your business more effectively, study smarter, and save time analyzing your data.


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To help you navigate all these awesome options, today we’ll be exploring the top 50 (mostly free) Excel add-ins together, broken down into 8 categories:

  • Productivity
  • Visuals
  • Charts
  • Study
  • Finances
  • Marketing
  • Data Analysis
  • Miscellaneous

You can quickly jump around to the add-ins you specifically need, but we highly encourage you to read our guide in its entirety so you can discover all the add-ins you’ve been missing out on.

Boost productivity

To start, let’s jump right in with the top 5 Excel add-ins to make you more productive.

  1. If you’re looking to up your productivity game, become more organized, and crush all your business goals this year, the Power User Excel add-in has your name on it.
  2. Keep in mind, Power User is better suited for freelancers in the marketing and consulting spaces. For those in finance, Macabacus has features designed with your specific business needs in mind.
  3. Duplicate Finder and Deleter can help you save a ton of time by finding all your duplicate spreadsheets and automatically deleting them for you. This frees up both time for you and space on your drive.
  4. With this mail add-in, you can choose to send bits and pieces of your spreadsheets or the entire shebang via email.
  5. ASAP Utilities helps you accomplish more with Excel by giving you time-saving shortcuts. According to their site, the average user saves an average of 30 hours per year!

best-excel-add-ins

ASAP Utilities add-in

Visually jazz up your spreadsheets

Keeping your charts organized and easy to understand will also help you shave time off your busy day. Here are the best Excel add-ins to up your spreadsheet game.

  1. Labeling your charts is one of the best ways to make your data easy to understand. Use this chart labeler Excel add-in and your charts will be way less confusing.
  2. Insert a map right into your spreadsheets to plot locations and visualize data with this Bing Maps add-in.
  3. And if you’re looking to add images instead, this Pickit Free Images add-in can help you. This add-in came in second place at the 2017 Office App awards in the Best Overall App category.  
  4. For readers needing to add videos to their spreadsheets, reach for this Web Video Player add-in.
  5. This Geographic Heat Map add-in helps you organize parts of the world using different colors so you’ll have a better understanding of where everything is spatially. This guide walks you through creating your first map.
  6. If you need to merge a few of your tables, use this add-in.
  7. Adding a pop of color here and there can also help keep your spreadsheets organized. This Colorizer add-in was designed to give you the flexibility to do just that.

best-excel-add-ins

Excel Colorizer add-in

Create unique charts not found in Excel

Ever want to take your Excel charts to the next level? Say hello to the add-ins that make those boring standard charts a relic of the past.

  1. Radial charts help present data in a visually interesting way. If you’re already using a pie chart style, consider switching to this add-in to create a radial bar chart instead.
  2. Bubble-style charts can also break up the monotony of traditionally styled charts.
  3. Organizational charts are great for letting everyone on the team know who’s responsible for what. If you need one for your company, use this HierView add-in instead of wasting time creating your own.
  4. Gauge charts can also help you visualize data like a speedometer and usually only measure certain levels of one data point. If this sounds like a chart you need, reach for this add-in.

gauge chart add in

Ultimate Dashboard Tools

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Study more efficiently and give better presentations

The next set of add-ins will help you study more efficiently and give your presentations the boost they need.

  1. If staring at a blank page makes you zone out and off the screen, consider the Quick Notes add-in. This nifty tool uses a mosaic template to nudge you towards getting started.
  2. For students who prefer creating flashcards to study, why not switch to a digital form that you can easily access, edit, and share? This Flash Card Assistant add-in will give your writing hand a much needed break while still giving your brain the exercise it needs to retain important information.
  3. Brush up on your Excel skills with the Excel Training and Tips add-in. Get free access to the «how-to» cheat sheets from the popular GoSkills Excel course. Learn formulas, functions and more right within your spreadsheet.
  4. If you struggle with organizing huge amounts of data, let this Mind Map add-in make things easier to understand and stop beating yourself up.
  5. When it comes time to give your next presentation, consider using a Lucid chart to make all your data visually appealing, easier to read, and grab your audience’s attention.
  6. Putting your data into visuals can also help you comprehend large, complex topics.

best-excel-add-ins

GIGRAPH Network Visualization add-in

Manage and simplify finances

The next bunch of Excel add-ins makes the chore of managing your finances less overwhelming.

  1. If simplifying finance spreadsheets is what you’re after, this financial reporting add-in wants to help. It even lets you keep track of your spending thanks to real-time updates.
  2. For readers who need to manage their checkbooks, skip the old fashioned method and use Checkbook assistant instead.
  3. You can also build and test your trading strategies before spending a dime on actual trades with this Excel add-in.
  4. And if you’re looking to create trade systems or conduct a technical analysis, this Analyzer XL add-in promises to help you do just that.
  5. The Analystix financial analysis add-in simplifies calculations such as weighted average cost of capital (WACC) and compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
  6. To optimize your portfolio without the help of a professional, grab this add-in.
  7. You can also use this one to download price data on different securities.
  8. Applying for and understanding how a loan works can be tricky. Luckily, this Loan Assistant add-in should simplify the process for you.
  9. The same confusion can happen any time you try to convert different currencies. But with the help of this currency conversion add-in, all the hard work is done for you so you can enjoy your trip.

best-excel-add-ins

Professor Excel Currency Converter add-in

Optimize marketing and branding

Hoping to improve your marketing and branding efforts? You don’t want to miss this next group of Excel add-ins.

  1. It’s a pain to keep setting up your branding colors every time you need to create or use a spreadsheet. This add-in saves your company’s colors so you don’t have to waste time doing this task repeatedly.
  2. SEO Gadget is an Excel add-in that helps you organize all your SEO data in one central location so you can instantly see how your site is performing. If you’re looking to up your SEO game, check out these actionable SEO tips for startups.
  3. And if you need SEO tools to actually get the job done, this add-in is for you.
  4. Use the Excellent Analytics add-in to import your Google Analytics marketing data into a spreadsheet.
  5. You can even create QR Barcodes in Excel thanks to this add-in.

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SEO Tools for Excel add-in

Analyze data more efficiently

If you’re also looking to analyze your business as a whole (and not just your marketing efforts), the next set of add-ins has you covered.

  1. The Analysis ToolPak was designed with engineers in mind. It will help you develop statistical analyses that go well beyond the basics.
  2. This Solver add-in helps you uncover solutions that fall within the constraints of the problem at hand.
  3. If you’re simply trying to analyze your data, enable the PowerPivot add-in built into Excel 2016 and 2013. Or install this version if you’re using Excel 2010.
  4. The OAK (Operis Analysis Kit) add-in has a set of tools that allow you to better analyze the structure and formulas in your workbooks.
  5. Forecasting is also made simple with the help of the data mining Forecast Wizard add-in.
  6. PowerApps helps you connect the dots between data points and gives you the ability to share these findings with your team.
  7. Another similar tool lets your team datamine more efficiently. It helps everyone recognize patterns within tasks so the job takes less time.
  8. This risk analysis add-in uses Monte Carlo simulation to help you assess your risks.

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@Risk add-in

Miscellaneous Excel add-ins

Curious about all the other add-ins we haven’t categorized yet? The next add-ins will help you in a variety of different ways.

  1. If your chess club needs help ranking its members, use this free Excel add-in to do just that.
  2. And if you’re looking to create a place to keep all of your favorite directories and workbooks, use this Bookmarks add-in.
  3. Looking for a way to hunt down economic information quickly and efficiently? Use the FRED Excel add-in to significantly cut down your research time.
  4. Work with multiple documents within a single window with the Office Tabs add-in.
  5. If you need to break down units of time into easier-to-understand smaller ones, reach for the Time Dimension add-in.
  6. And if you’re ever struggling to come up with a bunch of random numbers, this tool can help you waste less time.

best-excel-add-ins

Random Generator add-in

Start using Excel add-ins today

By taking advantage of one (or more) of these Excel add-ins, you’ll not only save a ton of time in your super hectic day, you and your spreadsheets will become ultra-effective, mega efficient all stars.

Whether you’re looking to create a better presentation or study smarter for finals, this list has every add-in you could possibly need. To up the ante further, check out our compilation of the best Excel templates.

So feel free to share this resource with everyone you know struggling with their spreadsheets and they’ll thank you for improving their productivity as well!

Wanna take your spreadsheet game to the next level? Try our Excel in an Hour course to learn fundamentals skills that will save you time and boost your productivity.

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Learn Excel essentials fast with this FREE course. Get your certificate today!

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Devan Ciccarelli

Devan Ciccarelli

Crafting fluff-free content is Devan’s jam. When she’s not writing for GoSkills, you’ll find her outside reading, soaking up the sun, or hiking her next adventure.

Welcome to our Excel add-ins section. You can find here commercial and free charting and productivity tools for Microsoft Excel.

Excel Chart Add-ins

We love Excel data visualization tools and dashboards! We strongly recommend our chart add-in to build custom charts and graphs and improve your presentation.

Ultimate Dashboard Tools (Chart Add-in for Windows and Mac)

Dashboard Tools for Excel

UDT is our flagship! The add-in enables you to create stunning charts and live widgets for Windows and Mac.

Category: Commercial

Learn more about the tool.

This page is dedicated to extending Excel application functionality.

DataFX Function Library

The add-in contains almost 200 high-performance user-defined functions. Create easy-to-read formulas and speed up your work! We are investing even more developer hours and energy to improve the add-in continuously. The add-in uses the Intellisense Excel-DNA framework that provides native tooltips for user-defined functions. If you want to look at the categories, you can use the function browser.

datafx advanced user defined function library - excel add-in

The current version of the add-in core functions, for example, DXLOOKUP, ensures XLOOKUP compatibility for all Microsoft Excel versions. Take a closer look at how useful the tool is. We update the library weekly and will implement even more functions in the next few months.

Category: FREE

If you want to learn more about the integrated functions, don’t hesitate to look at the PDF files containing useful examples.

Learn more on how to install an Excel add-in!

DataXL Productivity Suite

DataXL dramatically increases your productivity. You can use various time-saving tools, like data cleansing tools.

dataxl add-in

List of the most important features:

  • Text manipulation tools
  • Range functions
  • Workbook and Worksheet functions
  • Sheet manager
  • Live calendar
  • Layout manager
  • Precedents and Dependents checker

Category: FREE

Org Chart Add-in

Organizational Chart Builder creates great org charts using raw data. If you are in HR, it is a must-have plugin! Place your raw data and create a structure with a single click.

Category: FREE

Download the add-in

Excel is by far the most used application for data analysis, and mastering it is a must-have skill in many companies. It can also be a huge time-saver: an Excel master can be tens or hundreds of times more productive than a beginner. And add-ins can play a significant role in improving your efficiency with Excel, bring you the tools you need to perform well.

What is an Excel add-in?

Excel add-ins are small programs that can be installed to enhance the capabilities of Microsoft Excel by adding new custom features.

There are hundreds of Excel add-ins on the market, covering a wide range of functions.

In this post, we list and describe over 75 add-ins, plugins and apps that complement Microsoft Excel with additional features and options to be even more productive and impress with your abilities with Excel. Some of them are free and some are not, but each of them perform tasks that can greatly help you becoming an Excel rock star.

What are the best Excel add-ins?

Here are 75 of the best add-ins for Microsoft Excel (free or not):

  1. Power-user

  2. Tableau desktop

  3. F9

  4. Excel Stock Market Functions

  5. Kutools

  6. Advanced Formula Environment

  7. PowerPivot

  8. XLGL

  9. ASAP Utilities

  10. MonteCarlito

  11. Intis Telecom

  12. Analystix Tools

  13. People Graph

  14. Analysis ToolPack

  15. Solver

  16. Power Query

  17. StatPlus:mac

  18. FRED

  19. Simtools

  20. Formlist

  21. NXPowerLite Desktop 8

  22. Jensen

  23. Anomaly Server

  24. XLSTAT

  25. Operis Analysis Toolkit (OAK)

  26. Table Analysis Tools and Data Mining Client

  27. Dose

  28. Supply Chain add-in

  29. Office Tabs

  30. ParallelDots

  31. vIcons

  32. Random Number Generator

  33. Random Sorter

  34. Audit Tickmark Toolbar

  35. QR4Office

  36. Geographic Heat Map

  37. Password Recovery

  38. Ultimate Suite

  39. Lucidchart

  40. Supermetrics

  41. GIGRAPH Network Visualization

  42. Selection Diff Tool

  43. XY Chart Labeler

  44. Hoadley Finance

  45. ModernCharts

  46. Microsoft Dynamics

  47. Risk Analyzer

  48. Panel Chart

  49. BulkQuotesXL Pro

  50. Vertex42 Templates Gallery

  51. Model Analyzer

  52. Weather by Visual Crossing

  53. Spreadsheet123

  54. Capital Budgeting

  55. Inventory

  56. Bubbles

  57. Excellent Analytics

  58. SEOTools

  59. SEOGadget

  60. Checkbook Assistant

  61. Loan Assistant

  62. Flash Card Assistant

  63. ActiveData

  64. Mekko Chart Creator

  65. Conditional Row Delete

  66. Power Utility Pack

  67. Exchange rates

  68. Mini Calendar and Date Picker

  69. Favorite Bookmarks

  70. Functions Translator

  71. RDBmail

  72. Intrinio

  73. Excel training and tips

  74. Power Reconcile

  75. Microsoft Flow for Excel

1. Power-user

Power-user is an add-in for Excel, PowerPoint and Word. It has dozens of impressive features designed for anyone who use the Office Suite on a frequent basis:

  • Ability to create new charts like Mekko and Sankey charts,

  • Robust Excel-PowerPoint links,

  • Powerful new functions like SumColor, CountColor, CountVisible, IsFormula, IsMerged, LastCell, LastRowNumber, LastColumnNumber, SumFromAllSheets, VlookupMax, SlicerItems, CAGR, etc.

  • Copy and paste visible cells only,

  • UnPivot a crosstab table, changing it into a database,

  • Quickly format numbers, currencies and dates in Excel,

  • Tools to clean your data from merged cells, remove empty cells or simplify formulas

  • Swap the position of cells or charts,

  • Easily format your tables with horizontal or vertical borders,

  • …and more!

​But Power-user also brings amazing new features for PowerPoint and Word:

  • A rich library of 600 beautiful PowerPoint templates,

  • 350 editable maps,

  • 7,000 vector icons and flags,

  • 1+ million high-quality pictures,

  • Dashboard tools such as Gauges, traffic lights, Harvey balls, etc.

  • Value chains, circular, relationship or pyramid diagrams,

  • An automatic Agenda builder,

  • A robust link to easily connect PowerPoint charts and tables to Excel data

  • Waterfall, Mekko, Sankey, Tornado or Gantt charts,

  • … powerful formatting tools to align titles, harmonize fonts or colors, clean a presentation, edit multiple charts, align or move shapes, change languages, etc.!  

Click to watch the demo video of Power-user:

2. Tableau Desktop — $999 to $1,999

Tableau is a data visualization add-in. You have to start by connecting it to your data. It can come from an Excel spreadsheet, but also from one of the data sources provided with the add-on. Then you start creating reports or dashboards by using drag and drop on the Tableau work space. Tableau claims its software is one of the fastest on the market; a well-created Tableau report should allow to quickly filter or zoom on part of the data to answer a specific question. Tableau is available on both Windows and iOS.

Excel add-in - Tableau

3. F9 — On quotes only

F9 allows you to work on your accounting data, preparing and distributing financial reports to a group of contacts throughout your organization. Some of your data can be linked between Excel and your accounting system. F9 is available on working on PC only, for versions 2003 to 2019, but not on Mac iOS.

4. Excel Stock Market Functions — Free

This add-in provides new user-defined functions that can be used to retrieve stock markets data from the web directly into Excel. Using these functions, you can for instance download the market capitalization of a company by entering its market symbol, the dates of the period and the frequency of the quotes (ex: daily). This add-in is ideal to build a dashboard of your personal portfolio, and then just refresh it on a regular basis. Excel Stock Market Functions is available on Windows only.

5. Kutools — $39

Kutools provides a very large number of little tools and Excel functions that can turn out useful time-savers in several situations. The cons of this add-in is that is has a lot of features, but a large numbers of them you will probably never use. The pros is that several tools can be really useful, such as the possibility to paste data only to visible cells, to count cells by colors or to combine sheets. Kutools works with Excel 2007 to 2019 on PC.

Excel add-in - Kutools

6. Advanced Formula Environment — Free

This Excel add-in is provided by Microsoft itself. It offers a new, modernized environment for writing named formulas and Lambda functions. Compared to the usual formula bar, it allows syntax highlighting, inline errors, comments and formatting. It’s also perfect for importing Lambda functions. The app works with Microsoft Excel 2013 and later on PC, Mac or the web.

Excel add-in - Advanced Formula Environment

7. PowerPivot — Free

PowerPivot is a Microsoft add-in designed to turn Excel into a business intelligence software. Basically, PowerPivot could be described as «Microsoft Access for dummies». You can build tables with relationships that will be much faster than the time-consuming classical VLOOKUP function in Excel. However our personal experience with PowerPivot is that it still lacks stability and it often causes Excel files to be corrupt… Since Excel 2013, PowerPivot is built-in and doesn’t need to be downloaded. You can activate it like any add-in. For prior versions of Excel, you need to download it from the Microsoft website.

8. XLGL — $299

XLGL is an accounting and reporting tool that fetches data from accounting software Sage to update Excel spreadsheets. GL stands for the accounting term General Ledger. Using XLGL, you can use formulas to work with updated data on customer orders, employee hours, inventories, etc. It is also provided with report layouts. XLGL works on PC with Excel version 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019.

9. ASAP Utilities — $49

ASAP Utilities is an Excel add-in focusing on saving time. Although many features are not rocket-science, some are interesting like the possibility to sort tabs alphabetically or by color, or the tool to insert cells before or after each cell in the selection. ASAP is one of the only add-ins available starting with Excel version 2000 and works with every version on PC up to Excel 2019.

10. MonteCarlito — Free

As the name suggests, MonteCarlito is designed to run Monte-Carlo simulations in Excel, as well as other statistical analysis to compute mean, median, standard error, variance, skewness, kurtosis, etc. It is quite an old and simple add-in, but MonteCarlito works with both Windows and Mac iOS versions of Excel.

Excel add-in - MonteCarlito

11. Intis Telecom — FREE

The Intis Telecom plugin allows you to send SMS directly from Excel. Select a range with phone numbers in your spreadsheet and the plugin will send them the SMS of your choice. The plugin is free but requires to purchase credits to send SMS. Intis Telecom is compatible with Excel 2003 to 2019 on PC. It is not available on Mac.

12. Analystix Tools — Free

Analystix provides a free Excel add-in meant for financial analysis. It includes tools to calculate CAGR, WACC (weighted average cost of capital), Black & Scholes formula, as well as an histogram builder to visualize distribution and a date arranger. Analystix Tools works on Excel 2010 and later on PC.

13. People Graph — Free

This plugin lets your create and update people graphs, a typical tool for infographics. This add-in works on PC with Excel 2013 to 2019, on Excel 2016 for Mac, Excel Online and Excel for iPad.

Excel add-in - People Graph

14. Analysis ToolPack — Free

The Analysis ToolPack is a Microsoft add-in that allows statistical analysis such as correlation analysis, descriptive statistics or histograms. It is provided on every computer using Excel 2007 and later, Mac or PC. You just need to load the add-in.

15. Solver — Free

The Solver is a tool that is also provided by Microsoft with Excel 2007 and later. It can be used for what-if analysis, to find optimal value for a formula in a cell under constraints limiting other formula cells. Basically, the Solver will determine the maximum or minimum value that a formula can take while changing several other cells.

16. Power Query — Free

This Microsoft add-in is made to help access and explore data in Excel like with Business Intelligence tools, by allowing to import, transform or combine multiple data sources. Power Query requires Excel 2010 or 2013 on Windows.

Excel add-in - Power Query

17. StatPlus:mac — €189

StatPlus:mac is one of the very few Excel add-ins for statistics that works on Mac. It is a statistical analysis package allowing to analyze correlations, run regressions, time series or data processing analysis, to create statistical charts, etc. StatPlus is actually available on both PC (2007 to 2019) and Mac (2004 to 2016).

Excel add-in - StatPlus:mac

18. FRED — Free

Provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, this free add-in provides access to macroeconomic data from multiple sources such as the BEA, OECD, BLS or Census. Time series can be inserted into Excel with a few clicks, and you can then automatically calculate growth rate or change the data frequency. You can even refresh your spreadsheet with the most up to date data and see your entire dashboard adapt to it. The FRED add-in works with Excel 2010 and 2013.

19. Simtools — Free

Simtools adds 32 statistical functions to perform Monte Carlo simulations and risk analysis in Excel spreadsheets. Functions cover cumulative probability, correlations among random variables, decision analysis, analyzing discrete probability distributions, regression analysis, or random generation of discrete distributions. Simtools works on PC with Excel 2003 and later.

20. Formlist — Free

Formlist is an auditing tool that provides procedure for displaying the formulas of any selected range of cells in Excel. It is a very simple add-in with limited possibilities, but it’s free, and it works on Excel 2003 and later for PC.

21. NXPowerLite Desktop 8 — $50

Not exclusively for Excel but working with PowerPoint, Excel, and Word, as well as JPEG or PDF files, NXPowerLite compresses files and optimize them for screen, print or mobile devices. It can also automatically compresses your email attachment files, a feature that you can also temporarily disable if you don’t want it. NXPowerPointLite does not work on Mac iOS.

​​ 

22. Jensen — Free

Jensen has actually created multiple Excel add-ins performing various tasks, mainly for statistics analysis purposes. One is for Markov analysis, one for random variables, one for decision analysis, one for simulation, etc. These add-ins are quite old and were designed for Excel 2003 on Windows.

23. Anomaly Server — Free

This tool helps you identify anomalies and outliers in a data set. the US directly into Excel from data.gov. This Excel tool works with Excel 2016 and  up for PC and Mac, as well as with Excel Online.

24. XLSTAT — $235 to $940

XLSTAT works as an add-on with about 100 features for advanced statistical analysis: linear or non-linear regressions, k-means, principal component analysis, etc. XLSTAT is highly compatible, working on PC for version 97 up to 2019 and on Mac with Excel 2011 and 2016.

Excel add-in - XLstat

25. Operis Analysis Toolkit (OAK) — £311.66

This Excel add-in aims at helping you understand complex spreadsheets and reduce the risk of errors. The main features are a workbook summary, a spreadsheet structure map, a formula walker and other solutions to compare, audit and search Excel workbooks. OAK is compatible with Excel on Windows, but not with Mac iOS. 

Excel add-in - Dashboard Tools for Excel

26. Table Analysis Tools and Data Mining Client — Free

These 2 add-ins for Excel are provided by Microsoft for data mining. Table Analysis Tools for Excel leverages SQL Server 2012 data mining models from an Excel spreadsheet, while Data Mining Client lets you explore data mining models. These tools require Excel 2010 or 2013 on Windows.

27. Dose — €33.84

Dose is a great collection of tools for Excel. It contains many, many features such as a date picker, an auto back-up solution, powerful functions, tools to find duplicated, list files, manage rows, clean data, count words and more. The add-in is compatible with Excel 2007 to 2019 on PC. 

Excel add-in - Dose

28. Supply Chain add-in — Free but requires subscription

This Excel plugin helps you build powerful geographical visualizations. Not only can you create data-driven maps, but also geocoding, distance calculations, warehouse locations optimizations and more. It works with Excel 2016 and later on Windows, Mac and web.

Excel add-in - Supply Chain

29. Office Tabs — Free

The Office Tabs add-in creates an easy interface allowing to switch between the windows opened on any Microsoft Office application. It creates a tab bar on your standard PowerPoint, Excel or Word window, displaying a tab for each currently open document of the same application. Just like on your Internet browser, you can click on a document’s title to switch to it. You can also save all open documents in one click, instead of saving them separately. Office Tabs works on Office 365 and all Office version above 2003, but non on Mac iOS.

Excel add-in - OfficeTabs

Nota Bene: this tool is comparable to the Tab Explorer feature included in the Power-user add-in

30. ParallelDots — Free for limited use

This powerful gives you access to an AI for text analysis. Among the great tools it provide, you can use the AI API for sentiment analysis, keywords generation, text classification (taxonomy), to find abusive content and more. The add-in requires Excel 2010, 2013, 2016 or 2019 (64 bit only) on Windows 7, 8 or 10.  

Excel add-in - ParallelDots

31. vIcons — $99

vIcons is a library of 600 icons that can be inserted in Excel, Word or PowerPoint. Search icons using keywords or just pick them up in the library. vIcons works on Office 2007, 2010 and 2013 for Windows, but the add-in does not run on Mac.

Nota Bene: this is an equivalent to the Icons Library included in the Power-user add-in that contains over 4,000 vector icons.

32. Random Number Generator — $29.95

As the name suggest, this Excel add-in generates numbers randomly. It could be seen as an improvement of the RAND() Excel function, since you can choose the format of the data you want to generate: dates, boolean, integers, real numbers etc. It can also be used to generate strings of characters in order to create random passwords. Random Number Generator works on Windows computers with Excel version 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019. It does not work on Mac.

Excel add-in - Random Number Generator

33. Random Sorter — $29.95

Random Sorter can be really useful if you need sometimes to extract randomly 25% of your population, to make a poll for instance. The add-in will shuffle your data. Random Sorter works on Windows computers with Excel version 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 or 2019. It does not work on Mac.

Excel add-in - Random Sorter

34. Audit Tickmark Toolbar — $25

This small toolbar can be useful for audit, accounting or finance, allowing to add tickmarks to show GL (for General Ledger account), PBC (Prepared By Client), PY (agrees to Prior Year), TB (agrees to Trial Balance), etc. The toolbar works with Excel 96 to 2019 on PC but is not available for Mac.

35. QR4Office — Free

The QR4Office plugin creates QR codes that will allow to open your document with a pre-defined url of your choice. You can use it to make your Excel file or PowerPoint presentations more interactive, so that people can check it with their smartphone or vote for a poll, for instance. QR4Office is available for versions of PowerPoint, Word and Excel later than 2013 on Windows, as well as version 2016 on Mac.

Excel add-in - QR4Office

36. Geographic Heat Map — Free

The Heat Map Excel app lets you display data-based colors on the map of the USA or the World map. You can move your mouse on each state as well to display its name. This app works with Excel 2013 and later on PC, and with version 2016 on Mac.

NB: for a broader choice of 200 map of continents, regions, countries or counties, you can use instead the Power-user add-in and insert one of the many Data maps from this tool. See how it works here in video.

Excel add-in - Geographic Heatmap

37. Password Recovery — $29

If you protect Excel files with passwords and you tend to forget them, this plugin can be of use to you. Success is not guaranteed though, and recovering a password can take up to 36 hours so don’t rely on this if you are in an emergency situation. Password Recovery works with Excel versions 2003 to 2010 on Windows. It is not available on Mac.

Excel add-in - Password Recovery

38. Ultimate Suite — $99

This suite regroups all add-ins from the office-addins website (a company that is independent from Microsoft). Those tools include Password Recovery, the Random Number Generator and Random Sorter, as well as tools to find and remove duplicates, to split columns, to clean data from multiple sources, find broken links or cells similar to your selection, etc. This package is available on Excel versions 2003 to 2010 on Windows but is not available for Mac.

Excel add-in - Ultimate Suite

39. Lucidchart — Subscription required

This app for Excel lets you create flowcharts, UML, wireframes, mockups, org charts and more in your workbook. The app works for Excel 2013 or later on Windows, and for Excel 2016 on Mac.

Excel add-in - Lucidchart

40. Supermetrics — $99/mo

Supermetrics is a great tool for people in digital marketing, looking for a solution to analyze data in Excel. It can connect to a great number of sources like Google Analytics, Google Ads, Social networks and more, allowing you to crunch the numbers for traffic and conversions directly in Excel. You can also use it to create dashboards, refreshing them and emailing them automatically. It is available for Excel 2016 and 365, online and offline.

Excel add-in - Databurst

41. GIGRAPH Network Visualization — Free

GIGRAPH creates network diagrams that can be used to visualize relationships between multiple persons or entities. Your data would need to be organized for one-way or two-way relationships, for instance with a ‘from’ and a ‘to’ columns. GIGRAPH is available on Windows computers with Excel 2013 Service Pack 1 or later, as well as Excel Online.

Excel add-in - GIGRAPH Network Visualization

42. Selection Diff Tool — €3.99

If you need to compare two strings of text and identify the differences between them, this tool is made for you. This app works on Excel as well as on Word, where it can be of great help if you are reviewing a different version of a document that was not made using Track Change. The app does not work on Mac and is supported by Excel and Word 2013 and later.

Excel add-in - Selection Diff Tool

43. XY Chart Labeler — Free

This plugin lets you take back control of the chart labels in Excel. Working with labels can be very annoying, and you have limited options. So this plugin lets you add labels to data points on your XY chart data series or move XY labels. The XY Chart Labeler actually works not only for XY charts. It is available on Windows and on Mac 2011, but not on Mac with Excel 2016. 

44. Hoadley Finance — $AU176

For people working a lot on Excel in finance, this add-in can be a useful addition. It allows you to perform portfolio analysis, calculate option prices, volatility, value at risk, asset allocation, company valuation, and even more. Formulas can also be used to stream quotes values in real-time from Internet sources. The Hoadley Finance add-ins works with Excel 2003 to 2019, on Windows but not on Mac.

45. ModernCharts — $4.99/mo

This Excel app allows you to reveal what your data contains with a number of charting tools and options. It can be helpful to create infographic charts in Excel or PowerPoint, relying on a comprehensive chart library. The app is available on all versions above 2013, including on Mac. 

Excel add-in - SmartCharts

46. Microsoft Dynamics — Free

Connect your Excel spreadsheet to your Microsoft Dynamics data, read it, analyze it or feed your dashboard, and publish data changes back into Microsoft Dynamics. On Word, you can manage templates that will be fed by data from Microsoft Dynamics. If your company is using this CRM, then you will need this app. It is available on Excel and Word 2016 versions and later.

Excel add-in - Microsoft Dynamics

47. Risk Analyzer — $49.95

This add-in lets your perform Monte Carlo risk analysis, histograms and tornado charts, what-if analysis, etc. It does not work on Mac iOS, but is compatible with Excel 2007 and above on Windows.

Excel add-in - Risk Analyzer

48. Panel Chart  — $29.95

When you create Excel line charts with many series, it can easily become impossible to read as lines cross one another or as the size of the legend increases. with the Panel Chart add-in, you can separate lines by categories in different panels, so that you chart is much easier to read and understand. Panel Chart works on Excel 2007 and above on Windows, but is not available on Mac.

Excel add-in - Panel Chart

49. BulkQuotesXL Pro — $74.95

This Excel add-in allows you to download free quotes from multiple data sources directly into spreadsheets. The tool can access data from Yahoo! Finance historical prices and dividends, to Google Finance historical prices, to PiFin historical prices and to CBOE. BulkQuotesXL is available on Windows computer with Excel 2010 and later, but not on Mac.

50. Vertex42 Templates Gallery — Free

Vertex42 provides a gallery of over 150 professionally designed templates for Excel and Word. Templates include calendar, planners, budgeting, inventory, invoices or financial statements. The app works on Excel and Word 2013 and later for Windows. 

Excel add-in - Vertex42 Templates Gallery

51. Model Analyzer — €354

This Excel add-in brings multiple solutions for Excel modelling. You can centralize input and output variables in your spreadsheets, but also perform statistical analysis, such as what-if analysis (with tornado charts, spider charts and sensitivity tables), scenario analysis, multiple goal seek, break-even analysis or Monte-Carlo simulations. Model Analyzer is made for financial analysts, economists and researchers. It is only available on the 32 bit version of Excel 2007 and 2010. It is not compatible with Mac either.

Excel add-in - Model Analyzer

52. Weather by Visual Crossing — $5/mo

This small add-in for Office lets you get weather and climate records and forecasts directly into Excel. The data is available down to the hour. It also includes geocoding allowing to get the weather for a specific address.

53. Spreadsheet123 — Free

Before starting to build spreadsheets from scratch, you might sometimes want to pick up a nice template and work on it. That’s exactly what you can do with Spreadsheet123, a library of templates with financial statements, budgeting, payroll, invoicing, time sheets, checklists or inventory management templates. Spreadsheet123 works with Excel and Word 2013 Service Pack 1 or later as well as Excel and Word online, but is not available on Mac.

Excel add-in - Spreadsheet123

54. Capital Budgeting — Free

This Jensen add-in is made to identify optimized portfolios. Define a potential portfolio by providing its initial investment, annual return, salvage value and life. The model will use the standard deviation to estimate risk and will identify the optimized portfolio.

55. Inventory — Free

This Jensen add-in computes inventories, with the possibility to integrate backorders, lost sales, finite or infinite replenishment rates. The model identifies the optimum lot size with cost breaks. 

56. Bubbles — Free

This app lets you create nice and colorful bubble charts, to display 3 or 4 dimensions of information. Use the horizontal and vertical axes, bubble size and colors to display complex information in a simple way. Bubbles works on Excel 2013 and later on Windows, as well as Excel 2016 for Mac.

Excel add-in - Bubbles

57. Excellent Analytics — Free

Excellent Analytics is the must-have add-in to dig into your Google Analytics data directly from Excel. Use it to crunch your Analytics data and identify how you can bring more traffic to your website.

58. SEOTools — €79

This add-in lets you integrate data from Google Analytics, Google Adwords, the Google Search Console, SEMrush, Youtube, Ahrefs, Moz and other platforms directly into Excel so you can work your SEO data and identify key trends on your website.

59. SEOGadget — Free

SEOGadget lets you analyze your analytics data into Excel. It can access data from Majestic SEO, Moz and Grepwords and bring it to Excel for you to work on it and identify how you can boost your website’s ranking. The tool works on Windows with Excel versions 2010 and above, but does not work on Mac iOS.

60. Checkbook Assistant — Free

This add-in can help you manage your personal finance, letting you do you checkbooks and bank statements with Excel. You can move rows up or down in a single click, so you can align your Excel records with your bank statements. The tool detects and highlights the first unprocessed row. The Checkbook Assistant works with Excel 2007 and later on Windows, but is not available for Mac.

Excel add-in - Checkbook Assistant

61. Loan Assistant — $19.95

This plugin lets you easily compute loans, playing with the annual flat interest rate, load amount and balloon payment at the end of the load to calculate the actual payment per period and total interests to pay. The plugin can also create a load detail year by year with the due capital and interest payments, as well as the remaining capital. The Loan Assistant works with Excel 2007 and later on Windows, but is not available for Mac.

Excel add-in - Loan Assistant

62. Flash Card Assistant — Free

Turn Excel into a Q&A software with this simple plugin. Define a list of questions and their answers, choose the order or make it random and run it to get questions asked like flash cards and make it a game in a private or professional situation. The plugin is free and works with Excel 2007 and later. It is not supported on Mac.

Excel add-in - Flash Card Assistant

63. ActiveData — $249

ActiveData adds data analytics and time-saving worksheet and workbook management features into Excel. Features include join, merge, query, summarize, find duplicates, split data, etc. The tool works with Excel versions 2007 and later on Windows, but is not available for Mac.

64. Mekko Chart Creator — $29.95

Create Marimekko charts with this tool, so you can display 3 dimensions of data in an appealing way. This plugin works with Excel 2007 and later on Windows only.

Excel add-in - Mekko Chart Creator

Nota Bene: for more advanced Mekkos that are editable, you can use instead the Mekko feature of the Power-user add-in for PowerPoint, Excel and Word. 

65. Conditional Row Delete — Free

This small add-in simplifies the process of deleting rows selectively, based for instance on the value in a specific column.

66. Power Utility Pack — Free

For Mac users, this add-in is one of the best available options. Created by Ron de Bruin, it contains a collection of utility tools that can be relevant time-savers in several situations. 

67. Exchange rates — $35.94

This plugin helps you by converting currencies with with real-time rates from the Internet. Rates are accessed from the MSN Money Central Investor website. The tool works on Windows only, for any version of Excel above 2000.

68. Mini Calendar and Date Picker — Free

When working with dates in Excel, it can be a pain — and a possible source of errors — to type manually multiple dates. With this app you can now just pick a date in a calendar and it will be automatically formatted as date. The app works with Excel 2013 or later on Windows, on Excel 2016 on Mac and on Excel Online.

Excel add-in - XLTools Calendar

69. Favorite Bookmarks — Free

Use this add-in to bookmark your favorite workbooks, sheets or range, so you can find and open them anytime from other Excel spreadsheets. The tools is available on Windows only, for Excel versions 2007 and later.

Excel add-in - Favorite Bookmarks

70. Functions Translator — Free

This add-in from Microsoft helps you translate functions and formulas between languages supported by Excel. It works with Excel 2013 and later on Windows, Mac and Excel Online.

Excel add-in - BrushTools

71. RDBmail — Free

This mail add-in for Excel from Ron de Bruin lets you automate the process of sending sheets, data or workbook. When you have a workbook open, you can just click on the buttons on the ribbon to send it in an Outlook email, with options to send the entire workbook, just the active worksheet, or to send is with values instead of formulas. RDBmail works with Excel 2007 to 2019 on Windows.

Excel add-in - RDBmail

72. Intrinio — Free

Intrinio lets you screen all equities in the United States, using filters on 500 parameters to identify the equities that meet your requirements, such as current stock price, return on equity, dividend yield, price to earnings ratio, sector, employee count, etc. Intrinio only works on Windows with Excel 2013 or later.

Excel add-in - Intrinio

73. Excel training and tips — Free

This app helps you learn some Excel with a list of formulas to learn, for beginners, intermediates or Excel experts, Q&A on formulas and other information you need to know if you are to use Excel frequently. The app works with Excel 2013 and later on Windows as well as with Excel 2016 for Mac.

Excel add-in - Excel training and tips

74. Power Reconcile — Free but $9.99/mo subscription required

This add-on is very relevant for people in finance who need to reconcile reports between vendor and accounts payable. The report will be created automatically, highlighting perfect matches or partial matches, saving you potentially a lot of time compared to a manual reconciliation. It is compatible with Excel 2013 and later on PC or Mac as well as the web version.

75. Microsoft Flow for Excel — Free

This add-in by Microsoft helps you create workflows between different applications like Excel, Outlook, Planner, Twitter, Trello, MailChimp and others. These workflows can include approval process, mobile push notifications, email sending etc. It is compatible with Excel 2013 and later on PC, Mac or the web.

Excel add-in - Microsoft Flow

Conclusion:

Excel is among the most used software in the world, and a key tool for business in most companies. However immensely rich and complex, the standard version of Excel is still just a fraction of what can be done on it by using the variety of add-ins that have been created around it.

If you are interested in PowerPoint add-ins as well, check our list of 40+ add-ins, plugins and apps for Microsoft PowerPoint.

If you are interested in PowerPoint add-ins as well, check our list of 60+ add-ins, plugins and apps for Microsoft Word.

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The 7 Best Excel Add-Ins in 2023: Full Excel Plugin Guide

The 7 Best Excel Add-Ins in 2023: Full Excel Plugin Guide

Microsoft Excel has a wide range of features and functionalities.

But, there are situations when you need more powerful capabilities than Excel provides 💪🏻

Particularly when performing data analysis, regression analysis, and financial analysis.

To increase the efficiency of Excel spreadsheets, there are a ton of add-on features available online 🧑🏻‍💻

While some of them are paid versions, others are free Excel add-ins.

In this article, we will look at the 7 Best Excel Add-Ins in 2023.

How to add Office add-ins for Excel?

Before we look at the greatest add-ins, let’s go over how to install and run them.

  1. Click Insert tab > Get Add-ins.
Click Insert tab > Get Add-ins
  1. Browse the Office Add-ins box for the add-in you want, or use the Search box to search.
Search for an add-in by using the Search box
  1. To learn more about an add-in, simply click it. Then, for the desired add-in, select Add, Try, or Buy.

Ablebits Duplicate Remover

Excel is not used only for calculations. Sometimes, Excel is used as a database as well.

Duplicate records are a very common problem when maintaining databases.

Inbuilt Excel Remove Duplicate feature only find duplicates and removes duplicate entries.

If you want a Swiss Army knife for that, Ablebits Duplicate Remover is the perfect match.

Ablebits Duplicate Remover is one of the best Excel add-ins

It will identify, select, highlight, delete, copy and move.

You can do this for;

  • Unique values
  • Duplicate values
  • Absolute duplicate rows
  • Partially matching rows

It can be done in 1 table or by comparing 2 tables, with or without first occurrences.

If you want to clean your data in your Excel spreadsheet faster download Ablebits’ free Duplicate Remove Toolkit.

Bing Maps

Do you want to create a data visualization using a map like the one below?

Bing Maps Excel add-in for data visualization

There is no need to create a custom add-in in Excel for that.

Bing Maps, an Excel application, may be used for such with ease 🥳

Select the Bing Maps App from the Add-ins group by clicking the Insert tab.

Microsoft Excel Add in - Bing Maps

Using pie charts or circles, you can display several location-specific data points.

Additionally, the map type can be switched between road and bird’s eye.

You can filter locations to display only specific data points.

FRED data

Is collecting macroeconomic data on your list of complex tasks? 📃

Now that you have FRED data—a Microsoft Excel Add-in for that—you can cross that out of the list of complex tasks.

FRED Data is the abbreviation for Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Data.

FRED is a free Excel add-in that allows users to easily access over 810,000 data series from various data sources.

You may search multiple sources and download data for better presentations with just a few clicks.

You can search for this free Excel add-in by typing FRED in the add-ins tab.

Microsoft Excel add ins - FRED Data for done-for-you data mining

Excel users can save time to analyze data by eliminating the time spent collecting data.

To find out more about the FRED Add-In for Microsoft Excel, go here.

Lucidchart

Excel offers a number of charting tools for making charts 📊📉

But it’s not that simple to make Gantt charts and flowcharts with Excel.

It will no longer be difficult if you use Lucidchart, a free add-in for Microsoft Excel.

This add-on provides a simple user interface with drag-and-drop functionality.

You can choose from a variety of templates and are not required to have any specialized skills to make your charts.

From the Excel Office Add-ins store, you can search for Lucidchart.

Excel add ins - Lucidchart

Analysis ToolPak

Analysis ToolPak is one of the best Excel add-ins for performing complex statistical analyses.

It will save time analyzing Excel data – especially if you’re a power user.

Analysis ToolPak can be used for many data analyses including;

  • Descriptive statistics
  • Regression analysis
  • Correlation analysis

To access these tools, go to the Data tab and select Data Analysis from the Analysis group.

If the Data Analysis command is not available, the Analysis ToolPak add-in program must be loaded.

  1. Go to the File tab, click Options, and then click Add-Ins.
Go to the File tab.
Click options
Click the Add-ins
  1. In the Manage box, select Excel Add-ins and then click Go.
In the Manage box, select Excel Add-ins and then click Go
  1. You can see the all add-ins in the add-ins dialog box.

Check the Analysis ToolPak check box, and then click OK.

Check the Analysis ToolPak check box

Professor Excel Tools

Professor Excel tools provide an extra edge to the default functionality of Microsoft Excel.

It will add 125 great functions in a whole new Excel ribbon.

Excel Add-Ins - Professor Excel Tools

This add-in has several tools that you need for your day-to-day Excel work.

  • Copy & Paste Tools
  • Formula Editing Tools
  • Insert Elements Tools
  • Quick Cell Tools
  • Workbook Tools
  • Display and Layout Tools
  • Finalize Features

All the tools are structured in one ribbon and save time as you don’t need to navigate to sub-menus.

You can click here to read more about this best tool.

Wikipedia

Do you want to search for some data from Wikipedia?

You can search data on Wikipedia without leaving Excel if you have installed Wikipedia app from Excel add-ins.

Excel Add ins - Wikipedia

You can easily insert images and texts from Wikipedia into your Excel spreadsheet.

If you want to add a table to your Excel file from Wikipedia, use power query.

Then you can easily clean and import your data.

That’s it – Now what?

These are just the top 7 Excel add-ins.

There are tons of premium and free add-ons available online that will increase your productivity. Not just for Excel but for the entire Office suite.

But what will boost your productivity too?

Learning the right tools and features in Excel.

Stuff like IF, SUMIF, VLOOKUP, and cleaning data.

You learn all that in my 30-minute free online course. Click here to enroll 🚀

Kasper Langmann2023-02-23T11:01:39+00:00

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Microsoft Excel is one of the best spreadsheet software available which can do many things like calculations, tables, graphs, macro programming, etc. Out of the box, the Excel is pretty powerful, but if you want to extend the functionality or want to make your life a tad bit easier, installing add-ins is the best way to go. Here are some of the best Microsoft Excel add-ins that you should definitely try.

1. Quandl for Excel

Quandl is one of the best data analyst tools that helps you save a lot of time and effort gathering and formatting all the data you want. The good thing about Quandl Add-in for Excel is that it allows you to search through massive datasets for free and without any restrictions whatsoever. Moreover, you can also download the datasets you need in any format you want.

2. Radial Bar Chart

Rather than reading through the tons of data, you can make your life easier by visualizing the data using charts and diagrams to quickly understand the big picture. Though Excel can create some good data visualization charts, you can also use free add-ins like Radial Bar Chart for something unique and special.

excel-addins-radial-bar-chart

3. Geographic Heat Map

If you are working with datasets that make use of geographical locations, then visualizing that data in the form of maps is a good way to analyze and present the information. Using the Geographic Heat Map add-in, you can do just that. The add-in takes the selected data in your excel sheet and creates a geographic map out of it.

excel-addins-geographic-heat-map

4. Percentage Calculator

Not every one of us is good at Math, especially when calculating percentages. So, if you find yourself needing to quickly calculate percentages, you can do that using the Percentage Calculator add-in. Other than calculating percentages, you can also calculate percent change and increase and decrease percentage value. The add-in also supports percentage markups.

excel-addins-percentage-calculator

5. Range Calculations

If you have worked with Excel sheets long enough, you will often find yourself in a situation where you need to change or recalculate numbers in multiple cells. Though you can do this manually, it is time consuming. In those situations you can use the Range Calculations add-in. This free add-in lets you easily recalculate the numbers in the selected range.

excel-addins-range-calculations

6. Favorite Bookmarks

If you regularly work on certain workbooks or Excel sheets in certain directories, then bookmarking them helps you launch those workbooks without fiddling around. To bookmark your favorite Excel sheets and directories, you can use the free add-in called Favorite Bookmarks.

excel-addins-favorite-bookmarks

7. RDBMail

If you want to quickly email your Excel sheets or parts of your Excel sheet without leaving your workbook, then you can use the free add-in called RDBMail to do that. The good thing about this add-in is that it allows a significant amount of customization of what you send and how you send.

8. Databurst for Excel

Databurst is a simple add-in that lets you create smart and interactive data visualizations. Databurst has several features and customizations like automatic data categorization, support for filters and Excel formulas, etc.

excel-addins-databurst

9. New Workbook Assistant

The default workbooks created in Excel are always the same; you cannot choose the default font for the workbook, number of sheets in the workbook, etc. Using the New Workbook Assistant add-in, you can create the Excel workbooks the way you want with just a few -clicks.

excel-addins-workbook-assistant

Do comment below sharing your favorite Excel add-in that you use in your daily workflow.

Vamsi Krishna

Vamsi is a tech and WordPress geek who enjoys writing how-to guides and messing with his computer and software in general. When not writing for MTE, he writes for he shares tips, tricks, and lifehacks on his own blog Stugon.

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