LibreOffice Calc is the default spreadsheet on most Linux desktops and has been for two decades. It does a great deal that VisiGrid does not, and this page says where, because a comparison that only lists wins is an advertisement.
The short version
| VisiGrid | LibreOffice Calc | |
|---|---|---|
| Install size | under 30 MB | 421 MB (v26.2.5, measured) |
| Startup | ~300 ms | seconds |
| Functions | 181 | several hundred |
| Charts | none | yes |
| Pivot tables | basic (one column field) | yes, full |
| Tables with structured references | yes, with calculated columns (0.42) | yes, on database ranges; not stored in ODS |
| CSV import | safe by default, settings per column if you want them | asks every time, settings per column |
| Macros | Lua | Basic, Python |
| Writes ODS | no (reads it) | yes, it is the native format |
| Same engine in a CLI | yes | headless conversion only |
| Licence | AGPLv3 | MPL 2.0 |
Where LibreOffice Calc wins
Charts. VisiGrid has none. Not “a simpler version” — they do not exist. A quarterly report that ends in a chart is a LibreOffice job.
Pivot table depth. VisiGrid has had pivot tables since 0.39: group by row
fields and one column field, summarise with Sum, Count, Distinct Count,
Average, Min or Max, with grand totals, and refresh with Alt+F5. Calc’s
pivot tables do more — several column fields, filter fields, grouping dates
into months and quarters. And a VisiGrid pivot is only live in its own .sheet
files and cloud sheets: exported to xlsx, it arrives as plain values.
Function coverage. VisiGrid ships 181 functions and Calc ships several
hundred. The gaps are not exotic. The entire database family is missing —
DSUM, DCOUNT, DGET — and so is regression: TREND, LINEST,
FORECAST, SLOPE (CORREL arrived in 0.53). The everyday financial
functions are there — PMT, PV, FV, NPV, IRR, XNPV, XIRR, RATE,
NPER — but depreciation (SLN, DB, DDB) and the bond functions are not.
LET and LAMBDA arrived in 0.46, and the array helpers built on them — MAP,
REDUCE, SCAN, BYROW, BYCOL — in 0.53.
If your model uses any of those, VisiGrid cannot open it correctly today, and that is the honest answer rather than a roadmap.
Its CSV import dialog. Calc shows a preview with a type for every column (Standard, Text, Date in three orders, Hide), a character set, a locale and an “Evaluate formulas” switch every time you open a CSV, and people rightly prefer it to Excel’s. VisiGrid now has the same per-column control; Calc had it first.
It is a suite. Writer, Impress, Draw and Base come with it. VisiGrid is a spreadsheet and nothing else.
Twenty years of edge cases. Calc has met more malformed files, more regional number formats and more legacy macros than a project this young has. That is not a feature list, but it is why it rarely surprises you.
ODS. OpenDocument is Calc’s native format. VisiGrid reads .ods and writes
xlsx, csv, tsv or json — so a round trip changes the format.
Where VisiGrid wins
Startup and size. 421 MB installed against under 30 MB downloaded, and roughly 300 ms to a usable grid. If you open a spreadsheet to check one number several times a day, that difference is most of the experience.
CSV files open safely without a dialog. Calc’s default column type,
Standard, still drops leading zeros and rounds long numbers unless you change
it in the dialog. VisiGrid keeps 007, ZIP codes and 16-digit IDs exactly as
written, never turns text into a date, and leaves = cells as text until you
review them. A banner says what it kept and why; per-column types, a live
preview and “remember for files with these columns” are one click away, and the
same options exist as vgrid flags.
Tables that grow. Both apps have Excel-style structured references such as
=SUM(Sales[Amount]). VisiGrid’s Tables also add rows as you type below them,
fill a formula down a whole column as a calculated column, and keep their
structured references in VisiGrid’s own .sheet files; Calc turns them into
plain cell references when it saves .ods. VisiGrid’s Tables are new, though:
sorting and AutoFilter are off on a sheet with a Table, and a workbook with
Tables cannot be exported to Excel until they are converted to ranges.
The keyboard. A command palette for every action, vim mode, and shortcuts that do not move. Conditional formatting is typed as a rule and previewed live rather than assembled through a dialog.
One engine, three ways to run it. The desktop app, the vgrid CLI and
headless mode share the same Rust engine, so a formula computes identically in
all three. LibreOffice has --headless conversion, but it is the whole office
suite running invisibly, not a calculation engine you can call.
That difference shows up in CI:
vgrid calc --from csv '=SUMIF(A:A,">100",B:B)' < data.csv
vgrid sheet fingerprint model.sheet --json
vgrid sheet verify model.sheet --fingerprint v1:42:abc123...A sheet built by hand can be recalculated and verified on every commit, with no spreadsheet application in the pipeline and no display server.
Determinism you can assert on. Recomputation is deterministic and the fingerprint proves a file’s calculated state has not drifted. Calc gives you no equivalent handle.
How to choose
Use LibreOffice Calc if you need charts, pivot tables beyond the basics, the statistical or database functions listed above, existing Basic macros, or OpenDocument as your working format.
Use VisiGrid if you live in a terminal, want a spreadsheet that opens before you finish thinking about it, and want the same calculation to run in CI as on your desk.
Keeping both is a reasonable answer, and on Linux it costs you 450 MB.
Try it against your own file
The comparison that matters is your file, not this table:
# Arch
yay -S visigrid-bin
# Anywhere
curl -fsSL https://get.visigrid.app/install.sh | shOpen something real. If it needs a chart, you have your answer in a few seconds, and it was not this page that told you.