| Need | Best fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Formulas, charts, cell editing | Excel / Sheets | They are spreadsheets; csvlite deliberately is not. |
| Live collaboration | Google Sheets | Sharing and co-editing are core to the web app. |
| More than 1,048,576 rows | csvlite | It keeps the CSV as a file-backed table instead of fitting it into a worksheet. |
| Sensitive local data | csvlite | No upload, account, telemetry or network code. |
The hard worksheet limit
Microsoft documents a maximum of 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns per Excel worksheet. Microsoft also explains that data beyond the grid requires alternatives such as the Data Model and will not all display in the sheet. That is a worksheet constraint, not a claim that Excel can never analyze larger data.
Sources: Excel specifications and limits and Microsoft’s large-data guidance.
What csvlite changes
Open CSV, TSV and JSONL directly from disk. Filter with text, regex, numeric and date predicates; sort values by their interpreted type; profile a column; or group and aggregate into a new tab. The source file remains read-only and displayed values stay as written.
When csvlite is the wrong choice
If you need to correct cells, write formulas, or work with teammates cursors in the same table, choose a spreadsheet. Use csvlite as the inspection step before or alongside those workflows—not a spreadsheet replacement.
Short version
Spreadsheet work: Excel or Sheets. Huge local file exploration: csvlite. It is common to use both and export a filtered result from csvlite into a smaller workbook.