Why teams choose Sigma vs Excel
Sigma is enterprise BI with a spreadsheet UI.
The spreadsheet you know, on live data
The grid, formulas and pivots your team already uses, running directly on the warehouse.
Billions of rows, with no row limits
Queries run in the warehouse, so large data stays responsive instead of crashing a file.
One governed source, not emailed versions
Warehouse permissions, version history and lineage replace copies passed around by email.
Trusted by teams across industries
How Sigma and Excel compare
As of May 16, 2025.
Straight from the source
“A lot of our users are Excel power users, and spreadsheets are deeply embedded in how our company operates. Giving people an interface that looks and feels familiar has made it much easier to bring them onto the platform. It lowers the barrier to adoption while also helping us move away from manual, spreadsheet-driven processes.”
Simon IdrisVP Engineering · Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) · G2 (opens in a new tab)“A spreadsheet-style interface on live warehouse data. People who think in Excel become builders quickly, and ad hoc questions get answered against current data without extracts.”
VP, Data and AnalyticsConstruction · Gartner Peer Insights (opens in a new tab)“It feels like excel with the backend power of SQL. I can sift through billions of records with a UI that feels and acts like an excel file would.”
Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) · G2 (opens in a new tab)“My team manages some very large databases, with inputs spanning thousands of sources. Not having to export data to Excel to do financial analysis saves us so much time and so many headaches.”
Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) · G2 (opens in a new tab)“Excel like interface is super easy for non-technical users to interact with the data to avoid the 'export to excel' that plagues all other BI tools and the org's that use them.”
CDOHealthcare and Biotech · Gartner Peer Insights (opens in a new tab)“A particularly powerful differentiator is the input tables feature, which allows users to bring structured inputs directly into their analysis. This allows us to move away from Excel-based workflows and toward a more modern, scalable environment.”
Director of Data and AnalyticsBanking · Gartner Peer Insights (opens in a new tab)“The UI is very familiar for power users accustomed to Excel, but its tight integration with Snowflake means that operations are lightning fast. The combination makes user adoption a much easier sell…”
Shawn MoleSenior Vice President of Product Development · Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) · G2 (opens in a new tab)“The tool itself is very approachable for a wide range of personas and has been very helpful in bringing users out of their spreadsheet silos into a modern and managed environment.”
Sr. Manager, Data Engineering & PlatformsEnergy and Utilities · Gartner Peer Insights (opens in a new tab)
AI, Apps, and Agents with all the BI that you expect
Familiar formulas
We excel in the cloud
Analyze billions of rows of live warehouse data using spreadsheet formulas you already know. No stale extracts, row limits, or proprietary coding languages. Ask Sigma Assistant if you have a question.
Captured decisions
Write directly back to your warehouse
If you know how to use a spreadsheet, you can safely capture data, run live scenarios, and trigger downstream workflows. Deploy Sigma Agents to fully automate those actions with a complete audit trail.
Inherited controls
The security your warehouse already enforces
Sigma applies your warehouse roles and row- and column-level policies at query time. Version tags and workbook history show what changed, and who changed it, before it reaches everyone.
Live data
Live on your warehouse, with no extracts
Every query runs in your warehouse, so analysis reads current data at full detail. There are no extracts to schedule or reload, and drilling from a total to the rows behind it takes a click.
Self-serve answers
Dashboards built the way you’ve always wanted
Use Sigma Assistant to help you build dynamic, interactive dashboards without writing SQL or waiting on data engineering. Drill down to the underlying row level instantly on live, governed data.
More reasons teams choose Sigma
AI that works on the data you trust
Sigma Assistant answers questions and builds workbooks, and Sigma Agents take action on live warehouse data, with each person’s permissions applied to every step.
Analytics and apps inside your product
Embed live dashboards and apps in your own product, with each customer’s data kept apart by the same warehouse security.
Pixel-perfect reports on live data
Rebuild paginated, print-ready reports on live warehouse data with Pixel Perfect Reporting, then schedule them out as PDF or Excel.
Ready to move
Moving from Excel
A coding agent maps a rolling forecast workbook, rebuilds it as a Sigma data model and workbook on live data, and checks every total against the original file.
- Audit and map the workbook
- Draft a plan bound to warehouse sources
- Build the Sigma data model and workbook
- Check revenue, gross profit and EBITDA against Excel, to the cent
- Turn on writeback for the published workbook
What teams build on Sigma
Live data, apps that write back, and agents, on the warehouse they already run
How Talroo ditched a risky Excel-based process with instant access to Sigma
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500+ business users empowered with real-time insights. 15-16 terabytes of compressed data in dashboards. $20 billion assets under management.AB CarVal Harnesses AI in Sigma to Unlock Secure, Real-Time Investment InsightsRelated resources
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Sigma and Excel FAQ
What teams ask when they compare Sigma with Excel.
How is Sigma different from Excel?
Excel works on data you bring into a file, which caps out near a million rows and lives apart from the source. Sigma keeps the spreadsheet experience but runs it on live warehouse data at billion-row scale, so the analysis stays connected to the source and current without a manual export.
Can Sigma do things Excel cannot, like apps and agents?
Yes. Beyond spreadsheet analysis on live data, Sigma turns a workbook into an AI app with writeback and can trigger workflows or agents on the warehouse, which a local spreadsheet cannot do. The familiar grid stays, but the analysis can now act rather than only calculate.
Will my team have to learn a new tool?
Less than you might expect. Sigma's formulas track Excel functions like SUM, IF, and AVG, so the muscle memory carries over. The main change is that Sigma references columns by name and pulls from the warehouse rather than from cells in a file.
How does Sigma handle large datasets that break Excel?
Excel slows and then stops as files grow toward a million rows. Sigma pushes the work down to the warehouse, so billions of rows stay responsive, and users still interact through a spreadsheet rather than a query tool.
Does Sigma keep data governed, unlike spreadsheets?
Yes. Spreadsheets scatter copies across inboxes and drives with no shared control. Sigma inherits the warehouse's row- and column-level security, tracks versions, and keeps one governed source, so the familiar interface no longer means ungoverned data.
Can users still write back and edit data like in Excel?
Yes. Sigma lets users type, edit, or upload values directly in a workbook and write them back to the warehouse, so planning and forecasting keep the hands-on feel of a spreadsheet while staying governed and shared.
How do we move from Excel-based reporting to Sigma?
Most teams start with the report that gets rebuilt most often from exports, recreate it once in Sigma on live data, and let it refresh on its own from then on. The pattern repeats report by report until the export cycle fades.