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Let’s talk about CSV files! And more importantly options to view CSVs in the browser. CSV stands for a "comma separated values", which basically means that within the file is a collection of data with a comma between each data value. CSV files are an essential part of data analysis and research. Historically CSVs have been viewed on the desktop. But because provide arguably the easiest way to store and share data, it's becoming more important to view CSV files online. Especially since not everyone can view these files on their computer because of the lack of software, hardware support, or because they are not able to (or choose not to) download them. So it's no surprise that online CSV viewers have become more popular.
While CSV files are great at moving data between systems, often times used for upload and download of information. They are not so great at at being readable by humans in their native format. Here is what a CSV file view looks like in Notepad:
You can gather from the file name, and some of the names in the file that this data is about Olympic medalists. However, it's not easy to read because the data isn't organized into columns. Thus, we want to use software online to view CSV files!
Online CSV Viewers: Open CSV Files In Your Browser
We reached out to a few data experts to discover the top online CSV viewers they use – after which we ourselves tried every single one of them and came up with our top four online CSV viewer ranking:
- Gigasheet
Pros: Up to 1B rows. 1 GB free. Filter, sort, and big data analysis tools. Sharing. Published data security.
Cons: Sign up required. Pay to export large data sets.
- ConvertCSV Editor & Viewer
Pros: No sign up required. Free (ad supported). Simple to use.
Cons: Limited file size support. Only able to sort; no filtering. No sharing. Unknown data privacy.
- Google Spreadsheets
Pros: Free. Full featured spreadsheet. Collaboration. Google data security.
Cons: Sign up required. Limited file size support (10M cells).
- Zoho Sheet
Pros: Free. Basic spreadsheet features. Collaboration. Published data security.
Cons: Sign up required. Limited file size support (2M cells).
Here we go!
Gigasheet
Seeing Gigasheet at the top of your list - you may feel that we’re biased.
But are we? Yes, and we have thousands of satisfied user to tap into our platform’s wide range of features every week.
Why? That’s because our platform is more powerful than we claim it to be – we can’t even put it into words. Gigasheet is the ultimate online CSV viewer for big data. It can be accessed from any browser without downloading any software.
All you need to do is upload your CSV file and the sky is the limit. You can also connect data sources or add your CSV file’s URL to import it directly.
SPOILER ALERT – you can import CSV files from all of the top cloud services: Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box or any public URL.
To view a CSV file online, first, simply upload your CSV file by clicking +New > File Upload > Browse to select a file from your machine. You can zip your file to save time uploading.
Don't want to download your CSV file? No problem.
Click the Link option in the lower part of the upload box and provide a publicly accessible URL to your CSV file or to a zip of a CSV.
Next, your CSV file will automatically upload (and unzip if necessary). For exceptionally large files you'll see a loading bar while the file parses.
Once complete, click on the file name in your Library to view the CSV file online. The viewer will open a spreadsheet in a new browser tab for viewing. Here you can filter, search, or create pivot tables with your CSV.
As we mentioned before, sky’s the limit.
Wondering why should you use Gigasheet over other platforms for viewing your CSV files?
Here are the top three reasons:
● It’s Free – You Don’t Need to Spend Even a Dime to View CSV Files Using Gigasheet
● Analyze Large CSV Files: Filter, Group, Sort, Pivot & More
● We Take Security & Data Privacy Seriously!
It’s Free – You Don’t Need to Spend Even a Dime to View CSV Files Using Gigasheet
Gigasheet's Online CSV Viewer offers a free and convenient way to view CSV files right in your browser. There's nothing to download or install and there's no cost to use the service. Our free Community tier plan supports files up to 3 gigabytes.
Worth noting, you can share your files online for free, but you will need to upgrade to our Premium plan to export your file as a zipped CSV.
Analyze Large CSV Files Online: Filter, Group, Sort, Pivot & More
Most CSV files can be opened in a spreadsheet program, but sometimes it is not possible to open them because the file is too big. When you attempt to open these files you'll probably find that Excel keeps crashing especially when you start approaching Excel's max row limit (or the Google sheets row limit).
Gigasheet is perhaps the best free tool that you can use to view CSV files online without facing any technical difficulties.
How?
That’s because it operates at cloud scale. In other words, you're not limited by the speed and power of your computer. You leverage our cloud-based servers to do the heavy lifting.
We Take Security & Data Privacy Seriously
We take security and data privacy seriously. Gigasheet uses a combination of encryption and technical safeguards to protect our customers’ data.
We don't share or sell any data you load into Gigasheet. We have a dedicated operations team that works to make sure our clients' information is safe and secure.
And to top it off we've adopted best-in-class industry standards to ensure that all of your data is safe and secure. We encrypt all of your data at rest, we have an in-house SOC 2 compliance program.
Excited? Want to see what the buzz is all about?
Click here to sign up.
ConvertCSV Editor & Viewer
Looking for an online CSV viewer for the sole purpose of viewing CSVs? Don’t want to tap into additional functionalities like performing calculations, filtering, data enrichment, and more? You can try out a free online CSV viewer - ConvertCSV Editor & Viewer.
We uploaded a CSV with over 100,000 rows to ConvertCSV Editor & Viewer - and the platform was easily able to load it.
CSV with million rows
However, when we uploaded a CSV with more than two million rows - we got the message “Page Unresponsive.”
ConvertCSV Editor & Viewer is a great option if you aren’t working with large datasets. You can not just view CSVs but also edit them
Apart from this, we tried out a few other online CSV viewers that don’t require you to sign up.
They are all very basic, but do allow you to view your CSV online. You may also view an ad or too!
Google Sheets
The third online CSV viewer in our list is the probably most well know online spreadsheets – Google Sheets. All you need to access Google Sheets is a Google account. Once you’ve signed up or logged in, click here to access the online CSV viewer.
Want to share spreadsheets with your team members and collaborate in real time? Or perform calculations? Maybe, you want to keep things organized by uploading all your spreadsheets in the cloud?
Google Sheets is one of the best online CSV viewers. It is really more of a CSV editor!
But there are a few problems that we’d like to address.
First, Google Sheets can process CSV files with no more than 10 million cells. Previously, it was even less.
The second problem, as reported by thousands of people globally - if you upload a large CSV file to Google Sheets, then your browser is highly likely to crash.
Just see how many people are complaining about it on Reddit:
Google Sheets consuming too much memory
Google Sheets consuming too much memory
Google Sheets consuming too much memory
Also, if you want to narrow down your search by applying filters or want to perform calculations, then while you can do it using Google Sheets, it’s requires turning on filters.
But overall, if you’re looking for an online CSV viewer that can help you analyze small CSV files, Google Sheets is a great platform.
Zoho Sheet
Zoho Sheet is our fourth-favorite online CSV viewer. Whether you want to create a new spreadsheet or import an already-existing one, you can do it all using Zoho. It’s the perfect alternative to Google Sheets.
We used Zoho Sheet for a week and while it’s an all-in-one powerful spreadsheet software, there are a few limitations we observed:
● Zoho Sheet supports only up to two million cells in a single spreadsheet – which is way less than Google Sheets.
● Maximum rows – 65,536
● Maximum columns – 256
Also, we observed that Zoho Sheet has an uncomfortable interface and operates slowly. You can use Zoho Sheet to work on simple CSVs; however, Zoho Sheet doesn’t work well with complicated documents.
We checked out Zoho Sheet reviews on G2 and here are a few comments left by reviewers:
Zoho Sheets G2 Review
Zoho Sheets G2 Review
Zoho Sheets G2 Review
Overall, Zoho Sheet is a powerful spreadsheet software. And it’s great for beginners – however, if you’re someone who analyses large CSV files – all day, Zoho Sheet may not be the right fit for you.
Alternatives: Install Software to View CSV Files
Above we saw that Notepad in Windows, and similarly TextEdit on Macs, will technically open a CSV file, but it isn't exactly usable. However, you may already have software on your computer that can view CSV files.
Microsoft Excel, one of the most popular spreadsheet software and is included in a Microsoft 365 subscription, can be used for opening and viewing CSV files. And the same can be said for LibreOffice Calc or Numbers if you own a Mac.
Don’t get me wrong - these platforms are loved by millions of people globally. But, when it comes to using them – there are a few problems left unaddressed.
First, as we said, they are not lightweight require purchase if you don't already have them. Who wants to install software when there are free options available right now online?
Second, if a huge chunk of your day is spent analyzing large CSV files with millions or billions of rows, then using platforms like Microsoft Excel or LibreOffice Calc is pointless. Opening a CSV of this size could result in your PC slowing down or crashing (especially if you own a low-end PC). Reason? Microsoft Excel’s maximum rows and columns limit stands at 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns. What if your CSV’s row count exceeds the limit?
Using a reliable online CSV viewer can help you avoid these problems – which is why we created this post. Throughout this post, we’ll look at the four best online CSV viewers that you can use to instantly load and view your CSV files.
Enough with the hype-building. Let us share with you our top four list 😄.
Try Gigasheet to View Large CSV Files Online! It’s Free! It's Fun!
Well, as much fun as it can be viewing a CSV online. While you can use other online platforms like Google Sheets and Zoho Sheets to view your CSV, if you want to perform any additional operations like filtering, grouping, data enrichment, then you’ll find it complicated.
Worth noting, Gigasheet is more than a CSV viewer. It's built for data exploration and you will be set up for analysis as soon as you upload your files. You filter, sort, calculate aggregations. There are even tools to merge CSV files online.
Gigasheet operates at cloud scale - which means our platform can load and process just about any spreadsheet file - irrespective of its format, size, and content inside it.
And the best part is your first GB is free.
We’d love to see you on the platform. Sign up today!
The ease of a spreadsheet with the power of a data warehouse.
