I snuck onto my father’s computer when I was seven years old to use Microsoft Excel.
We had the only desktop in our neighborhood in Douala, Cameroon. I’d hang over his shoulder while he worked. Every time, he opened the same green app with a grid full of tiny cells. I didn’t know what a spreadsheet was I just knew that whatever grown-up work he was doing lived there.
One day, while he was out of the house, I opened Excel myself.
I scrolled to the right.
Then down.
Then right again.
It didn’t stop.
The spreadsheet felt infinite. A window that could go forever in every direction. That alone blew my mind. I’m sure I broke something because when he came back, he knew someone had touched his spreadsheet. That was my first lesson: don’t mess with spreadsheets you don’t own.
I Have My Own Spreadsheets Now
Fast forward a couple decades.
I have my own spreadsheets now. Budgets. Lists. Planning documents. Random ideas that feel important enough to track. Somewhere along the way, spreadsheets became part of adulting.
Until recently, all of that lived in Google Sheets.
Google Sheets is objectively great software. Best-in-class, honestly. It’s collaborative, cross-platform, integrates with everything, and now has AI baked into it. I have some security side eye for that last part, Gemini I’m looking at you. Even then, most of that power goes unused for me.
And that’s the problem.
The Tool That Does Everything Isn’t Always the Best Tool
I don’t need a spreadsheet that can do everything.
I want one that is:
- Free to use, forever
- Easy to learn
- Available as a desktop app
- Well documented
- Comes with good starter templates
That’s it. No enterprise features. No collaboration first design. No constant updates nudging me toward workflows I don’t need.
So I replaced Google Sheets with Apple Numbers for personal use.
Apple Is a Hardware Company (And That’s Okay)
Apple is a hardware company first and a software company second.
The M-series chips are the real product shipping with near 20% performance jumps year over year. Apple’s software often feels like breadcrumbs by comparison. Some apps go years without meaningful updates.
Apple Numbers fits that mold perfectly.
It doesn’t try to win. It just exists and quietly does enough.
What Numbers Gets Right (For Me)
Google Sheets is the big brother here. It can do everything Numbers can and more. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by a few design choices in Numbers that actually improved how I work.
Tables aren’t infinite.
Rows and columns aren’t endlessly visible. My seven-year-old self wouldn’t have been impressed, but adult me appreciates the focus. I can’t accidentally type something into cell AAA:641 and lose it forever.
Quick summaries just show up.
Select a column and Numbers gives you totals, averages, and counts at the bottom. No formulas. No setup. Just answers.
Multiple tables live in one sheet.
I don’t have to bounce between tabs or windows. Related data can exist side by side without ceremony.
Formulas come with guides.
Instead of memorizing syntax, I can insert formulas with built-in references right inside the app.
None of this is revolutionary. But it’s intentional.
90% Is Enough
Spreadsheets aren’t as popular as they used to be.
Most SaaS tools ship with dashboards and reports that replace them entirely. And that’s fine. But I still enjoy gathering and shaping my own data. There’s something grounding about owning it end-to-end.
Long term, I want fewer tools in my daily life not more.
Apple Numbers gives me about 90% of the value with far less mental overhead. And right now, that trade off feels worth it.
Sometimes the most powerful software isn’t the best one.