Alternatives

TabularJS vs ExcelJS

ExcelJS is a full-featured Excel toolkit — read, write, style, stream — with a workbook-centric object model. If all you need is the data out of a file, that model becomes boilerplate: open the workbook, pick the sheet, iterate rows, trim off the 1-indexed padding. TabularJS collapses that into one async call, with the same output shape across 16+ formats.

At a glance

Feature	TabularJS	ExcelJS
Dependencies	Zero	Several runtime dependencies
License	MIT	MIT
Formats read	16+ (XLSX, XLS, ODS, CSV, HTML, DBF, SYLK, DIF, Lotus)	XLSX, CSV (primarily)
API surface	Single `await tabularjs(file)` call	Workbook → worksheets → rows → cells
Output shape	Array-of-arrays, drop-in for Jspreadsheet	Row objects (1-indexed)
Write / mutate workbooks	Read-only	Yes — rich styling & streaming writers
Streaming reader	No	Yes

Stick with ExcelJS if you are generating Excel files, styling them on the server, or streaming rows through gigabyte-scale workbooks. Switch to TabularJS when the goal is simply to read a file into JSON.

Migration: Node.js

A typical ExcelJS read pulls data out row by row, mindful of the 1-indexed row.values:

exceljs.jsjs

import ExcelJS from 'exceljs';

const workbook = new ExcelJS.Workbook();
await workbook.xlsx.readFile('./sales.xlsx');

const worksheet = workbook.getWorksheet(1);
const rows = [];

worksheet.eachRow({ includeEmpty: true }, (row) => {
    // row.values is 1-indexed; drop the first slot
    rows.push(row.values.slice(1));
});

console.log(rows);

The TabularJS version is a single call:

tabularjs.jsjs

import tabularjs from 'tabularjs';

const result = await tabularjs('./sales.xlsx');

console.log(result.worksheets[0].data);

Migration: every worksheet

before.jsjs

// ExcelJS — iterate every worksheet
await workbook.xlsx.readFile('./book.xlsx');

const sheets = workbook.worksheets.map((ws) => {
    const data = [];
    ws.eachRow({ includeEmpty: true }, (row) => data.push(row.values.slice(1)));
    return { name: ws.name, data };
});

after.jsjs

// TabularJS — same thing, already shaped
const { worksheets } = await tabularjs('./book.xlsx');
// worksheets: [{ name, data, mergeCells, styles }, ...]

TabularJS already returns an array of worksheets in the order they appear, each with name, data, mergeCells and styles.

Migration: browser upload

before.jsjs

// ExcelJS browser upload
input.addEventListener('change', async (e) => {
    const buffer = await e.target.files[0].arrayBuffer();
    const workbook = new ExcelJS.Workbook();
    await workbook.xlsx.load(buffer);

    const ws = workbook.worksheets[0];
    const rows = [];
    ws.eachRow({ includeEmpty: true }, (row) => rows.push(row.values.slice(1)));

    render(rows);
});

after.jsjs

// TabularJS browser upload
input.addEventListener('change', async (e) => {
    const result = await tabularjs(e.target.files[0]);
    render(result.worksheets[0].data);
});

No ArrayBuffer conversion. No row padding to trim. And the same code now handles CSV, ODS, HTML tables and older formats without any branches.

When to stay with ExcelJS

You need to write XLSX files with formatting, images or charts.
You need a streaming reader for very large workbooks.
You rely on cell-level styling APIs for export.

In many codebases the practical choice is to use TabularJS on the read path (uploads, imports, ETL) and keep ExcelJS for the write path — they coexist cleanly.

Start migrating

Replace your ExcelJS read calls with a single await tabularjs(file).

Get started Compare with SheetJS