Seeking an alternative to Numbers app for MacBook Air

You will have to pay for Microsoft Excel. The Calc app in the free LibreOffice Suite is intended to be a clone of Excel, so compatibility should be quite good. The LibreOffice 26.2 Calc Guide PDF is written with LibreOffice Writer.

You would need to export any existing Numbers spreadsheets to Excel (or CSV) for compatibility with LibreOffice Calc.

Try using a product such as LibreOffice or Microsoft Excel.

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+1 for Libre Office.

Depending on your personal beliefs regarding Google/Alphabet, Google Sheets is also an option. It can be very useful if you need to collaborate with other people.