XLSTAT vs Q Research Software Comparison: Everything You Need to Know Before Choosing

XLSTAT is a statistical analysis and data analysis software add-in for Microsoft Excel, developed by Addinsoft, a French company, and now part of Lumivero. Since its launch in the 1990s, XLSTAT has become one of the most widely used statistical tools for Excel, offering a large number of analytical functions within the spreadsheet environment that many professionals already know. The problem it addresses is that Excel’s built-in statistical functions are limited, while dedicated statistical packages can be expensive, require specialist training or necessitate moving data between applications. XLSTAT extends Excel with advanced methods while keeping data, analysis and results in familiar workbooks, making sophisticated statistics accessible to researchers, analysts and students without programming skills. Its approach combines breadth of methods with an intuitive dialogue-based interface and clearly formatted outputs that can be customised and shared with colleagues. The software covers descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, regression and ANOVA, multivariate analysis such as principal component analysis and cluster analysis, time series forecasting, survival analysis, machine learning methods and data visualisation. Specialised solutions address particular disciplines, including sensory and consumer research, marketing analytics, quality control and design of experiments, life sciences, ecology and forensics, with dedicated editions bundling relevant functions. Results are generated directly in Excel sheets, with charts and tables that can be modified and reused, and the software integrates with R for users who wish to extend its capabilities. XLSTAT is available for Windows and macOS versions of Excel, and cloud-based options support analysis in Excel for the web. It is used by academic researchers, universities, pharmaceutical and food companies, market researchers, engineers and government agencies worldwide. Student and academic licences are also offered. Pricing starts from around USD 295 with a free trial, and a free version with basic functionality is also available.