What is Smartsheet? It’s a popular project management software that takes the familiarity of a spreadsheet and tries to super-size it. This is a smart move. Most businesses use spreadsheets but complain about their complexity and limitations when it comes to work management.
But when asking, “What is Smartsheet?” do users get the answers they want if they’re looking for project management software? That’s the question we’re posing and will explore in depth to find the answer.
What Is Smartsheet?
Smartsheet is cloud-based work and project management software designed for small and large teams. It uses the familiarity of the spreadsheet-like interface of its software to organize work. But, unlike Excel spreadsheets or Google Sheets, Smartsheet has more tools that work together so teams can track projects.
What is Smartsheet? It’s a tool that helps projects plan more effectively, making teams more productive, which delivers projects faster. It can take a project from inception to completion, assigning tasks, organizing calendars, collaborating with team members on documents and monitoring progress. That is, if users can clear the steep learning curve.
For those looking for a project management software tool that has Smartsheet’s features and more, plus doesn’t take forever to figure out how to use, there’s ProjectManager. Our award-winning software has more comprehensive project and portfolio management tools, at a better price point with integrated resource and risk management features. It’s a lot more value for the money. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.
Smartsheet Pricing Plans
When it comes down to the bottom line, most will focus on the price. What is Smartsheet pricing? It comes in several different plans, with different features. The features that are more essential for project management will end up sending users to the most expensive subscriptions. Here’s a quick overview of Smartsheet plans and pricing.
- Pro Plan: $9 per user/month, billed annually
- Business Plan: $19 per user/month, billed annually
- Enterprise: Contact sales
While those prices might seem competitive, remember that Smartsheet isn’t built for project management. It lacks the features of a robust project portfolio management system and for resource management and capacity planning, users are going to have to purchase add-ons for hundreds of dollars over the basic plan pricing. What is Smartsheet? It’s not ideal project management software for the price, but there are Smartsheet alternatives that deliver what project managers and their teams want.
ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software with all the features Smartsheet does, but better. For example, Smartsheet has dashboards, but users have to build them, which is cumbersome and time-consuming. Our real-time project and portfolio dashboards automatically collect live data and display it in easy-to-read graphs and charts that capture key performance indicators (KPIs) such as time, cost, workload and more.
There are dashboards to monitor a single project or, unlike Smartsheet, a program or portfolio of projects, which provide an instant status report. Plus, customizable reports can be filtered and shared to focus on what’s important in greater detail. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.
Smartsheet Views
Before we showed how ProjectManager beats Smartsheet at its own game, it’s only fair to give it a chance to defend itself. What is Smartsheet in terms of project views? Just like ProjectManager, Smartsheet has multiple project views, but they’re not as dynamic. Here’s a simple rundown of those project views.
- Table View: Displays information in a familiar, spreadsheet-style grid that allows users to enter, organize, and manage project data. It’s the foundation of Smartsheet where most project details, dependencies, and updates are maintained for collaboration and reporting.
- Timeline View: Provides a chronological visualization of tasks and milestones across time. It helps teams understand sequencing, deadlines, and overall project flow, giving a high-level overview similar to a roadmap for tracking progress and dependencies.
- Grid View: Shows rows and columns of structured data where users can input task details, assign owners, set dates, and track status. It’s ideal for managing projects that rely heavily on tabular data and task lists.
- Gantt View: Combines a grid on the left with a timeline on the right, allowing users to view task durations, dependencies, and milestones. This view is perfect for project scheduling, progress tracking, and critical path visualization.
- Card View: Organizes tasks into visual cards displayed in vertical lanes, making it ideal for agile or kanban-style workflows. Teams can drag and drop cards between lanes to reflect status changes and streamline process management.
- Calendar View: Displays tasks and milestones on a calendar organized by week or month. It’s designed for teams who prefer visual scheduling and date-based planning, making it easy to monitor upcoming deadlines and time-sensitive deliverables.
Smartsheet Project Features
What is Smartsheet feature-wise? Let’s look at the tools it has to help project managers and their teams do their work more efficiently. The following are the key features that Smartsheet offers.
- Task & Progress Management: Track project status with progress bars, labels, and due dates. Manage recurring tasks, set milestones, create dependencies, and visualize the critical path to ensure schedules stay on target.
- Collaboration & Communication: Add comments, share files, mention teammates, and hold discussions directly on tasks. External contributors can participate through guest access, while built-in email notifications keep everyone informed.
- Views, Grouping & Filtering: Filter tasks by priority, owner, or due date and group them for better visibility. Access “My Tasks” to see personal assignments and switch among grid, Gantt, card, and calendar views for flexible visualization.
- Integration & Automation: Connect seamlessly with Microsoft 365 apps including Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, and OneDrive. Sync deadlines to calendars, automate workflows, and integrate with external tools for smooth data flow.
- Customization & Organization: Add custom fields, attachments, color-coded labels, and templates to adapt Smartsheet to different project types. Export and copy plans easily for reuse across teams and departments.
- Reporting & Portfolio Management: Generate dashboards and detailed reports to analyze performance across multiple projects. Use portfolio features for cross-project visibility and enterprise resource management to balance workloads effectively.
- Agile & Goal Tracking: Manage agile workflows using backlog and sprint boards, and align deliverables with organizational goals. Review task history to ensure accountability and transparency throughout the project lifecycle.
What Is Smartsheet Used For?
Smartsheet is a cloud-based work management and collaboration platform designed to help teams plan, execute, and track projects of any size. It combines the familiarity of a spreadsheet with the flexibility of modern project management tools, allowing users to manage tasks, timelines, and resources in one centralized workspace.
Organizations use Smartsheet to streamline workflows, automate repetitive processes, and maintain real-time visibility across multiple projects. Its customizable sheets, templates, and dashboards support everything from simple task tracking to complex portfolio management.
Widely adopted by businesses in industries such as construction, marketing, IT, and operations, Smartsheet enhances productivity, accountability, and cross-departmental collaboration while keeping projects aligned with organizational goals.
Pros and Cons of Using Smartsheet
Let’s give Smartsheet a fair shake. It’s not perfect, but there are advantages and disadvantages to using the software. Here are some pros and cons of using Smartsheet for project management.
Pros of Smartsheet
- Spreadsheet-like interface is one that most customers are familiar with
- Collaborative work management features for sharing information with coworkers
- Highly customizable for users to create their solutions or use templates
- Multiple project views, including kanban, Gantt chart and calendar
- Supports automation, scalable for various team sizes
- Efficient task management tools set deadlines and track progress
- Automation for features, such as workflow and formulas to streamline processes
Cons of Smartsheet
- Difficult to learn with an interface that is difficult for those unfamiliar with spreadsheets, also focuses too much on spreadsheets
- No backup files and version control doesn’t work if multiple people are editing the same file at once
- Limited features, especially the advanced ones project managers and their teams need, and relying heavily on complex formulas.
- Lacks real-time time tracking
- Project views, such as the Gantt chart, spreadsheets and kanban boards, lack customizable features
- Limited integration with only a small number of third-party applications
- Resource management and capacity planning add-ons are very expensive
- Reporting tools are limited, which makes insightful analysis difficult
- Dashboard is difficult to build and doesn’t support views filtered by group
- Too simple for those seeking an enterprise solution
- Sheet views with too many rows and collaborators are too large and frustrating to use
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ProjectManager Is the Best Smartsheet Alternative
What is Smartsheet? Maybe not the project management software it claims to be. It can manage work and collaboration, but then so can a whole lot of other software products. What differentiates it from the rest? Spreadsheets. Wasn’t project management software created as a tool that can plan, manage and track projects more efficiently than Excel spreadsheets? For those who are running projects, big and small, regardless of whether they’re traditional waterfall or done in an agile environment, ProjectManager is the choice of project managers and their teams across industries as diverse as construction, manufacturing, IT, professional services and many others. Our mobile app for Android and iOS makes it simple to log hours wherever the team is working. And there’s more.
Plan and Manage Projects With Multiple Views
Smartsheet has multiple project views, but users will find them lacking. Our software has powerful tools, such as Gantt charts that can link all four types of task dependencies, filter for the critical path and then set a baseline to track the planned effort against the actual effort in real time. This avoids costly delays, identifies essential tasks and keeps projects on schedule and budget. Then those plans can be shared with teams, who can use robust task lists or kanban boards to manage their work. Stakeholders can view the calendar for an overview of progress to keep them informed and manage their expectations.
Manage Resources, Track Time and Labor Costs
Don’t pay an arm and a leg for Smartsheet’s resource management add-ons, this feature comes with the plan. First, managers can set team availability when they’re onboarded. That makes it easy to see who has PTO, vacation time or if it’s a global holiday when making assignments. Then view the team page or the color-coded workload chart to view resource allocation. From those pages, balance the team’s workload and keep everyone working at capacity, which makes them more productive without risking burnout. Unlike Smartsheet, we have time tracking with secure timesheets that show how far each team member has gone in completing their tasks. It also offers visibility into labor costs to stay on budget.
Smartsheet FAQ
For the final section, let’s look at some frequently asked questions about Smartsheet.
Is Smartsheet free?
Yes and no. There are two types of Smartsheet users: a licensed and a free one. The licensed user pays a subscription fee and can create sheets, reports and dashboards to share with teams. The free user can view and edit the items that have been shared but can’t create their own without a license.
Does Smartsheet have a free trial?
Yes, there is a free 30-day trial where users can see if the software is a good fit. The free 30-day trial gives users access to the business plan’s suite of features.
Does Smartsheet work on Mac?
Yes, Smartsheet works on Macs and PCs. Smartsheet is software as a service (SaaS) and is an online application that works on any browser for Mac or PC.
Does Smartsheet have a mobile app?
Yes, Smartsheet has a mobile app for Android and iOS, though it has less functionality than the online version.
Related Content
For those still on the fence, we’ve published other pieces on Smartsheet. We’ve compared it to ProjectManager, looked at Smartsheet alternatives and even took a look at Microsoft Project to see how it measures up. To read about that and more, follow the links below.
ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams in the office, out in the field or on the job site. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Get started with ProjecfManager today for free.
