Excel add-ins are powerful front-end tools. 
This is because they combine the advantages that spreadsheets & OLAP cubes give us.
Not all Excel add-ins have the same functionality though; there are things that some can do & others cannot.
Of course having lots of functionality doesn't mean its the easiest tool for building or looking at reports.
I hope that this does give those interested in Excel add-ins an idea as to what functionality is available.
I must also stress that whilst I have tried to be accurate & fair, I may have got some bits wrong.
If you think so, or have any comments please send me an e-mail: excel-add-ins@johnkeeley.com
I have split functionality into four areas:

  1. Dynamic
  2. Disjoint
  3. Presentation
  4. Planning

The Excel add-ins assessed are:

  1. BIXL (Version 3 Beta)
  2. IntelligentApps (Version 3.5.28)
  3. MIS Plain (Version 1.2.1)
  4. XLCubed (Version 1.07.008) & Explorer (Beta)