OpenRefine
Free, open source desktop tool for cleaning, transforming and reconciling messy tabular data.
- Verified facts
- 5 of 5
- Alternatives ranked
- 2
- Approved reviews
- 0
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About OpenRefine
OpenRefine, formerly Google Refine, is a desktop app for tidying up messy spreadsheets and data exports. It runs locally and opens in your browser, so your data never leaves your computer. Facets let you filter large datasets and fix whole groups of rows at once, and clustering finds near-duplicate values like different spellings of the same company and merges them. Every change is recorded, so you can undo back to any point or replay the same steps on a new version of the file. Reconciliation matches your rows against external databases, and it can upload edits to Wikidata and other Wikibase sites, which makes it popular with librarians, journalists and researchers. It's free under the BSD licence and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. It isn't built for very large datasets or scheduled pipelines, and its expression language (GREL) takes some learning.
Best for: Researchers, librarians and journalists cleaning messy spreadsheets without writing code.
Pros and cons
What works
- Clustering merges inconsistent spellings in a few clicks
- Full undo history that can be replayed on new data
- Data stays on your own machine
- Reconciliation against Wikidata and other services
Why people leave
- Struggles with very large datasets that don't fit in memory
- No built-in scheduling or automated pipelines
- Advanced transforms need its own GREL expression language
Top OpenRefine alternatives
See all 2- 1
Alteryx Designer62.6Commercial drag-and-drop data prep with scheduling and hundreds of connectors for business teams.
- 2
Microsoft Excel50.3Power Query in Excel covers routine cleaning and reshaping for people already in spreadsheets.
Why people left OpenRefine
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OpenRefine: common questions
Is OpenRefine free?
Yes. OpenRefine is free, open-source software.
Is OpenRefine open source?
Yes. The source code is on GitHub at OpenRefine/OpenRefine.
What platforms does OpenRefine run on?
OpenRefine is available for Windows, macOS and Linux.
What are the best alternatives to OpenRefine?
The highest-ranked OpenRefine alternatives right now are Alteryx Designer and Microsoft Excel. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.