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Developer June 3, 2026 8 min read

Convert JSON to Excel: Three Approaches Compared

API response in JSON, stakeholder wants Excel. Three ways to do the conversion — quick online tool, command-line scripting, or building it yourself — with concrete trade-offs.

Convert JSON to Excel: Three Approaches Compared

You hit an API endpoint, get back 500 JSON records, and your stakeholder asks for "the Excel version." Three legitimate ways to solve it, each with real trade-offs.

Approach 1: A free online converter

Open SwitchPDF's JSON Converter, paste your JSON, see a live preview, click "Convert to Excel," done in 30 seconds. The tool flattens nested objects using dot notation — address.city, address.zip — so each nested field becomes its own column.

Pros: Zero setup. Handles nested objects automatically. Works from any device.

Cons: Your data goes to a server briefly. For sensitive data, use a local approach.

When to use: Quick one-off, non-sensitive data, when you don't want to write code.

Approach 2: A command-line one-liner

Python with pandas

pip install pandas openpyxl
python -c "
import pandas as pd, json
data = json.load(open('input.json'))
pd.json_normalize(data).to_excel('output.xlsx', index=False)
"

pd.json_normalize is built specifically for flattening nested JSON.

Node.js with xlsx

npm install xlsx

const xlsx = require('xlsx')
const fs = require('fs')
const data = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('input.json'))
const flat = data.map(row => ({
  id: row.id,
  name: row.name,
  'address.city': row.address.city,
}))
const wb = xlsx.utils.book_new()
xlsx.utils.book_append_sheet(wb, xlsx.utils.json_to_sheet(flat), 'Data')
xlsx.writeFile(wb, 'output.xlsx')

Pros: Data never leaves your machine. Repeatable. Customizable.

Cons: Requires a working Python or Node environment.

When to use: Sensitive data, repeated conversions, batch jobs.

Approach 3: Building it into your own app

If JSON-to-Excel is a recurring user need in your product, ship it as a feature. A minimal Node.js + Express endpoint takes ~30 lines using xlsx. This is what SwitchPDF's JSON Converter backend does.

Pros: Fits into your product. Users don't leave your app.

Cons: Real engineering effort.

When to use: Frequent user-facing need where in-app experience matters.

Quick decision guide

  • One-off, non-sensitive: Online tool
  • Sensitive data or batches: CLI
  • In-product feature: Build it

The common thread: flatten nested objects with dot notation. Once you know that's the trick, every JSON-to-spreadsheet problem becomes a question of where to run the flattener.

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