List of CSV Viewers

Do you have a CSV viewer app in "Open with..." context menu in your file manager for csv files? If not, why? I needed one, tried several, was not satisfied, was switching between them, started forgetting which was which, and made this list with pros and cons for each. And a screenshot. Some of these are quite good, FOSS, but aren't getting any attention. Maybe give them a try? Worth noting there are several popular TUI CSV viewers exist, but I'm not considering using terminal-based viewers, so they're out of a scope of this list.

Installation

Usually, installation process is quite straightforward: 1. Put binaries of an app into new directory in ~/.local/opt/; 2. Create a .desktop file, e.g. ~/.local/share/applications/tablecruncher.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Tablecruncher
Comment=A lightweight, powerful CSV viewer and editor.
MimeType=text/csv;text/x-csv;application/csv;text/tab-separated-values;
Terminal=false
Icon=x-office-spreadsheet
Categories=Utility;
Exec=/home/user/.local/opt/tablecruncher/Tablecruncher %f

3. Done. Now this app is in your Application Launcher and in "Open with..." RMB menu for files with given mime type. Probably that's how it works in any DE which complies with FreeDesktop specification.

List of GUI CSV viewers

TableCruncher

https://tablecruncher.com/ https://github.com/Tablecruncher/tablecruncher UI screenshot • Takes 7 seconds to open 850mb TSV, 21s for 1.7gb. • Responsive scrolling for 1.7gb file. • Search is very slow for 1.7gb file. • Very snappy and responsive. • Can edit files. • Does display import dialog for some files. • Instantly opens files of moderate size. • Manual resizing of columns available. • Ctrl+F search available. • Both light and dark themes available. • Written in C++.

SmoothCSV

https://github.com/kohii/smoothcsv3 https://smoothcsv.com/ UI screenshot • Modern, minimalistic UI. • 65s to open 850mb file. • Quite responsive even with 850mb file. • Free version is not limited in any way. • Closed-source. • Doesn't display any distracting "Buy me" messages. • ⛔ Takes 3-4 seconds to open even tiniest 20kb files. • Ctrl+F search available. • Can edit files.

Less Sheet

https://github.com/te-x/less-sheet UI screenshot • Immediately displays 1.7gb file. • Snappy scrolling for 1.7gb file. • Currently maintained. • Modern Gnome-style UI. • Fast Ctrl+F search. • No manual resizing for columns.

Clear Rows

https://github.com/edwynmoss/clear-rows UI screenshot • Immediately displays 1.7gb file. • Responsive scrolling for 1.7gb file. • Modern UI. • Fast Ctrl+F search. • Manual resizing of columns. • Sluggish look and feel of JavaScript application. • Takes 1 second to close, for some reason. • Written in TypeScript, Rust.

Buckwheat CSV

https://github.com/gennadiy1g/BuckwheatCsv2 UI screenshot • Immediately displays 1.7gb file. • Snappy scrolling for 1.7gb file. • No Ctrl+F search. • No manually resizable columns. • Can open several files at once in tabs. • No editing. • Bad touchpad scrolling (scrollbar works fine though). • Last activity 4 years ago. • Written in C++.

CSV Viewer by Shikou Core

https://github.com/shikoucore/CSV-Viewer https://gitlab.com/vremyavnikuda1/csv_viewer UI screenshot • Instant start for 1.7gb files. • Flawless scrolling for 1.7gb files. • ⛔ Wrong parsing of TSV files. • No Ctrl+F search. • Manual resizing of columns available. • Editing supported. • Is maintained. • Proprietary license (but app is free).

ModernCSV

https://www.moderncsv.com/ UI screenshot • Proprietary commercial freemium closed-source tool. • ⛔ "Upgrade to Premium" popup. • Small - 27mb. • 9s to open 1.7gb file. • No immediately visible paywalls. • Free tier doesn't seem to be limited for "simple CSV viewer" usecase. • Ctrl+F search available.

Comma Chameleon

https://comma-chameleon.io/ https://github.com/theodi/comma-chameleon • ⛔ Failed to launch, because of how old it is. • Last commit 8 years ago. • Superseded by Data Curator (which doesn't support Linux).

/home/user/.local/opt/comma-chameleon-linux-x64/Comma Chameleon: error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

sudo apt install libgtk2.0-0

& '/home/user/.local/opt/comma-chameleon-linux-x64/Comma Chameleon' '/home/user/Downloads/instances.csv'
/home/user/.local/opt/comma-chameleon-linux-x64/Comma Chameleon: error while loading shared libraries: libgconf-2.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

sudo apt install libgconf-2-4
Error: Unable to locate package libgconf-2-4

Rocket Table

https://xantorohara.github.io/rocket-table/ https://github.com/xantorohara/rocket-table UI screenshot • Latest activity 5 years ago. • Distributed as .jar file. • Requires JavaFX, but doesn't provide it. • Very tiny - 0.8mb. • ⛔ Can't open TSV files (no auto-sniff). • Looks nice.

CSView 1.x

https://github.com/csview-app/csview https://kothar.net/csview UI screenshot • Immediately opens 1.7gb file. • Fast scrolling for 1.7gb file. • Ctrl+F search is slow for 1.7gb file. • Manual resizing of columns available. • Latest activity 1 week ago. • Not maintained, as stated by developer. • No sorting by column. • Blurry text in table, seems like scaling hiDPI issue. • Superseded by 2.x version, which is Mac-only. java -jar /home/user/Downloads/csview-1.3.3-linux.jar '/home/user/dev/fediverse/lemmy_intra_instances.csv' If you're using dark mode in your OS, CSView probably will look awful and not readable. Force this app to light mode with env var:

GTK_THEME=Adwaita:light

Tabela

https://snapcraft.io/tabela https://codeberg.org/cichy1173/Tabela UI screenshot • Available in Snap store. • Someone's university project, not designed to be useful. • Huge size - 300mb. • ⛔ Can open files only through GUI "Open" dialog. • Cannot be used in "Open with..." on OS-level. sudo snap install tabela

PolarsView

https://docs.rs/polars-view/latest/polars_view/ https://crates.io/crates/polars-view https://github.com/claudiofsr/polars-view UI screenshot • Has both light and dark modes. • ⛔ Can't open files with .tsv extension (unless you will rename them to .csv). • Binary available only for old version (43mb on github). • New version requires Rust Cargo for building (+300mb). • Should handle huge files. • No way to submit an issue.

 bash

# Maybe newer version can open .tsv files?
sudo apt install cargo build-essential
# 300mb goes bye-bye

cargo install polars-view

#    Updating crates.io index
# error: cannot install package `polars-view 0.55.3`, it requires rustc 1.97 or newer, while the currently active rustc version is 1.93.1
# `polars-view 0.53.5` supports rustc 1.92

cargo install polars-view --version 0.53.5
# Will compile 650 packages...
# superjet noise for 10min followed by a crash:
# has been terminated by the Linux kernel because the system is low on memory
# Let's close all apps and try again.
# 15min more
/home/user/.cargo/bin/polars-view file.tsv
# ERROR polars_view::layout: Async data operation failed: File type error: Unsupported extension: `tsv` for file

# Fail, new version can't open tsv either. Too bad, otherwise app is promising.

Nanocell CSV

https://github.com/CedricBonjour/nanocell-csv https://nanocell-csv.com/ • ⛔ Failed to launch. • "Progressive web app", should work in chrome-based web browser (I don't have any). • Is maintained. • Released in 2025.

Tad

https://github.com/antonycourtney/tad https://www.tadviewer.com/ • Failed to launch. • Electron-based app. • 170mb installation package. • Will be 750mb after installation. • Distributed as .deb package, which should be installed with apt, but apt already has a different package named "tad". • ⛔ I don't want any conflicts in my apt, I skip this tool.

apt show tad  
Package: tad
Version: 3.1.1+~cs11.23.43-1
Priority: optional
Section: universe/javascript
Source: node-tad
Origin: Ubuntu
Description: Javascript test suite with minimal hassle

Open Data Editor

https://okfn.org/en/projects/open-data-editor/ UI screenshot • ⛔ Cannot be used in "Open with..." menu. • Tool for preparing and cleaning datasets, finding and fixing errors. • 130mb installer. • Huge "AI" button. • Kinda looks like a vibe-coded AI wrapper. • Creates ~/.opendataeditor/ directory.

OpenRefine

https://openrefine.org/ • Local web application, works in your web browser. • ⛔ Cannot be used in "Open with..." menu. • Powerhouse for data cleaning.

VisiLens

https://github.com/PStarH/VisiLens UI screenshot • ⛔ Local web application, works in your web browser.

sudo apt install pipx
pipx install vdweb
visilens file.tsv

Gnumeric

https://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/gnumeric-web/ UI screenshot • Preinstalled on many distros. • Not readable UI by default, if you're using dark mode in OS. • Too many controls visible at once. • ⛔ Takes 25s to open a 55mb file (170k rows). Use this env var to force light mode: GTK_THEME=Adwaita

Libreoffice Calc

https://www.libreoffice.org/ UI screenshot • Preinstalled on many distros. • Not readable UI by default, if you're using dark mode in OS. • Too many controls visible at once. • ⛔ Scrolling lags even on 180kb file. • Light mode doesn't work. • You will have to disable Import and Tips dialogs on startup. To make UI readable with dark mode: Tools -> Options -> Appearance -> check Enable application theming

TableViewerFX

https://github.com/Podbrushkin/tableview-javafx UI screenshot • Failed to open 850mb file in 1min. • 3 seconds to open 55mb file. • Can open .json files as well. • Manual resizing of columns available. • Ctrl+F search available. • Light and dark modes. • Requires Java 21 or newer.

CSV Viewer by otsaloma

https://github.com/otsaloma/csv-viewer • Python executable. • GTK GUI library. • 3 seconds to open 1.7gb file. • No Ctrl+F search. • Manually resizable columns. • Fast.

Out-GridView in Powershell

UI screenshot • Commandlet available in non-headless Powershell on Mac and Windows. • No lo…