Python In Excel - Claude Vs. xlwings Lite? Who Wins?

Published: February 7, 2026

Both can do Python in Excel so which is better?

It's like asking - Virat Kohli (Top Batsman) vs Lionel Messi (Top Footballer) - who's better with a ball? Just because both run around fields hitting a ball does not mean both are playing the same game

xlwings, Claude in Excel, Jupyter/Colab (with AI) , Claude Code (VS Code) - all can do Python, Excel and ML Models. Each plays a different game - each a master of its game

Would you put a Kohli to face Messi's penalty kick or Messi to bowl to Kohli. Imagine that ...right?

The question is - do you know which game you are playing?

Claude in Excel

= AI Assistant for Excel. Min $20 Pro subscription (includes Claude Code) Full Excel capabilities + Python sandbox + web search + local file upload

But can it do an API call? No. Can it do a web scrape? No. Can it connect to external databases? No. Automation? No. Process file directly on a local drive? No. Can you be sure it will give same result each time? No.

Its job is different. Solid for Excel heavy lifting. Released recently, Used only for a few hours. It's powerful. And is going to change the way I work with Excel forever. More posts coming ...

xlwings Lite

= Pure python in Excel. Free API Calls, web scrapes, remote databases, local folders, PDF reports, HTML reports, Image processing ...

Is it an Excel Assistant. No? Can it work autonomously in Excel? No (yet)

It's job is different - advanced automation, tools, full stack Excel apps. See in action here: https://www.tigzig.com/xlwings-starter. 7 live apps, 3 hands-on guides and 17 reports. Battle scarred. Shared over the past one year

What about ML Models

First choice - Jupyter or Colab (AI Assisted). If model is nail then these are the hammers xlwings Lite - can do it all - from an xgboost to a neural net - but I find it a tad inconvenient for this Claude in Excel - fully autonomous - great choice with smaller / cleaner data. But there are trade-off. See here - https://www.tigzig.com/post/claude-in-excel

What about FastAPI python backend?

Claude Code (earlier Cursor) The backends for all 30+ open source apps on tigzig.com are built this way. All Python scripts

Data processing pipelines?

Claude Code My IMDb Movies app has 230M rows sitting on a 16GB DuckDB database with a dual backend - one on Hetzner and another on an Oracle VPS. All Python scripts Live app: https://www.tigzig.com/movie-explorer

React /PHP / Windows desktop apps?

Claude Code All Tigzig apps built this way

Data Privacy?

Claude in Excel - data goes to Anthropic servers. Colab - data goes to Google servers Claude Code / Jupyter / xlwings Lite - all local But...but...but ... there are important nuances - see here: https://www.tigzig.com/post/claude-in-excel

Code Control

Claude in Excel - no direct control - it runs on its own sandbox based on instructions. Though you can ask it to print the code it used. Full code control with all the rest

Figure out the game you are playing - and then pick the tool