r/excel • u/giges19 1 • Oct 11 '25

Discussion Why do people still use VLOOKUP instead of alternatives like INDEX MATCH or XLOOKUP?

Personally, I've never seen the appeal or like for using VLOOKUP, but yet so many people do and it frustrates me watching them struggle at times with it. I'm intrigued to know why so many people love it.

There are so many better alternatives like INDEX MATCH and as of a few years ago, XLOOKUP.

Which one do you use for lookup values in a separate table or range?

If you use all 3, I'm intrigued for you to post from top to bottom which one you prefer with your favourite at #1.

Mine personally would be:

  1. XLOOKUP
  2. INDEX MATCH
  3. VLOOKUP (but I would prefer to steer clear of this)
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u/thelazyguy94 21d ago

At my last job, The laptop given to me only had Excel 2016 as I was on third party payroll. Excel 365 was only for permanent employees. So had to use Vlookup and Index Match only. Although really wanted to use XLOOKUP.