Top 5 Smartsheet Alternatives (Features, Pros, Cons, Pricing)

Erica Chappell
Content Manager

5 months ago

Homepage Blog

Looking for the best Smartsheet alternatives?

While Smartsheet is a capable project management platform, it has some serious drawbacks.

For starters, Smartsheet doesn’t come equipped with advanced project management features to tackle complex projects.

And if that doesn’t make you wonder why it’s considered a project management tool in the first place, this definitely will:

Smartsheet follows a spreadsheet format – just like Excel. So if you want to manage your projects with Smartsheet, you’re going to have to spend hours going over cells and columns, searching for the information you need.

But don’t worry.

You’ll never have to deal with those dreaded spreadsheets anymore (for project management, at least)!

In this article, we’ll cover the top 5 powerful project management tools that can easily overcome all of Smartsheet’s drawbacks.

This Article Contains:

(Click on the links to jump to a particular section)

A brief overview of Smartsheet
Why do you need a Smartsheet alternative?
Top 5 Smartsheet alternatives
- ClickUp
- Basecamp
- Asana
- Trello
- Jira

Let’s get started.

A Brief Overview of Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a project management tool that uses a spreadsheet-like interface to track and manage projects. Some project managers use it as they’re already familiar with the Excel and Google sheet format.

So yes, Smartsheet is a decent solution for simple, short projects that suit a small team.

But that’s it.

When you have more complex projects, you’d have to go through a ton of multi-layered sheets. And that’ll leave you dazed and confused!

However, that’s not the only problem you’ll face with Smartsheet.

Why do You Need a Smartsheet Alternative?

Smartsheet is essentially a spreadsheet software that can be used for project management.

And that’s a major drawback, as there’s a limit to what spreadsheets are capable of.

I mean, most smart project managers moved to dedicated project management software over Excel templates a decade ago for a reason!

Here are five key reasons to choose an alternative project management tool:

Want an in-depth Smartsheet review? Click here.

1. Spreadsheets are impractical for modern project management

There’s a reason why project management software exists today.

It’s so that teams don’t burn out looking at spreadsheets all day!

Not only is it stressful to look at data filled in boring rectangular rows and columns, but it’s also super inconvenient.

Here are a few reasons why using a spreadsheet for your project management in 2020 is impractical:

You can’t go through the data quickly
You’ll have to rely on manual data entry for the most part
When you’re dealing with tons of data, it’s easy to overlook things
It’s hard to identify changes and updates made to the sheet
Coordinating with team members over a spreadsheet is never easy

2. No real-time collaboration

For effective team collaboration, an ideal project management tool should be equipped with a built-in chat or comment feature.

However, Smartsheet doesn’t offer any real-time collaboration features that allow team members to discuss important project details.

So what do you have to do for project collaboration?

You’re forced to write emails, hoping that your team members will actually see the emails and understand what project you’re talking about!

3. Limited team reporting features

Smartsheet has a team reporting feature, but it’s not very user-friendly.

If you need detailed Gantt charts to track your project progress, you’ll need to input everything manually! (Keep a bottle of Aspirin handy, you might need it.)

Additionally, Gantt charts aren’t everything that project managers need in their arsenal.

For effective project tracking, you’ll also need other useful charts like Velocity charts, Burnup charts, and Burndown charts.

Sadly, Smartsheet doesn’t offer any of these.

Yikes!

4. Lack of advanced time tracking features

Every project manager needs a time tracking feature in their toolbox.

Why?

It’s critical for estimating your team’s productivity, implementing effective resource management, and it lets you know whether your team will be able to meet tight deadlines.

However, Smartsheet doesn’t come with advanced and automatic time tracking features.

So you won’t be able to determine the time you’ve spent on a particular task.

So if your stakeholders ask you for an accurate due date based on your team’s pace, you’ll find yourself tongue-tied!

5. Expensive

Smartsheet doesn’t offer a Free plan.

It only comes with a 30-day trial period, and after that, the plans get pretty expensive.

The Basic plan starts at $14/user per month while their Business plan starts at $25/user per month.

However, if you need more advanced project management features like unlimited sheets and directory integration, you would have to pay a premium to upgrade to the Enterprise plan or Premier plan.

Bottom line: Smartsheet is a pretty pricey product for both SMBs and larger organizations. Fortunately, there are free alternatives out there that offer more features than Smartsheet.

Top 5 Smartsheet Alternatives In 2020

Those were some serious deal-breakers out there, right?

Luckily, these Smartsheet competitors are here to save your day.

1. ClickUp

ClickUp is the world’s leading project management software. Used by companies from startups to giants like Google, Airbnb, and Nike, it’s one of the highest-rated tools on the market today.

With ClickUp’s powerful reporting, tracking, and collaboration features, you’ll have everything you need for managing projects effectively.

Here’s why ClickUp is best free Smartsheet alternative out there:

Key features

A. Customized Views

View your project workspace according to how you like it.

Whether you want to see a List, Box, Gantt chart, Kanban board, or Calendar, ClickUp can handle them all. You make the call!

B. Powerful and convenient Real-time Collaboration features

Every task in ClickUp has a built-in Comment section for project relevant discussions and also allows file sharing for better collaboration.

Additionally, with ClickUp’s Assigned Comments, you can tag any team member to a task and ensure that it doesn’t go unnoticed.

While these alone make ClickUp a super-effective collaboration tool, it gets even better.

Use the Chat view to view all your previous conversations with your team. Also, use the search bar to find any chat you had with your team members. It’s that easy!

C. Powerful Dashboard with advanced analytical tools

With ClickUp’s powerful charts like Gantt Chart, Velocity Charts, Burnup Charts, and Burndown Charts, tracking any complex project becomes a walk in the park.

D. Native Time Tracking

Unlike Smartsheet, ClickUp has a built-in Time Tracking feature to monitor your team’s work and improve their productivity.

Want another way to track time?

ClickUp also integrates perfectly with almost any third-party time tracking tool like Time Doctor, Timely, and Everhour. This helps you track project time with the software your team uses.

E. Workflow Automation

With 50+ pre-built workflow Automation templates, you can automate repetitive tasks in a flash. You also have the option of customizing and building your own automated workflows.

F. Drag and Drop Functionality

Drag and drop any team member’s profile from the sidebar to assign tasks to a team member with just a few clicks. Similarly, it’s easy to drag and drop tasks to the correct status columns like so:

Try doing that with a spreadsheet!

Pros

Powerful Free Forever Plan with tons of advanced features
Great for Scrum, Kanban, and other Agile software development projects
Visualize your team’s activity levels with detailed reports
Highly user-friendly UI for fun and easy project management
Customize Task Statuses for relevant and convenient task updates
Custom Permissions to keep project stakeholders in the loop
Powerful Dashboards for better work management
Can create a project plan or elaborate knowledge bases with ClickUp Docs
Tons of third-party integrations (Microsoft Office 365, Zoom, Slack, and more)
Dependencies help approach tasks in the right order
Task templates to conveniently create a task rather than starting from scratch
Powerful Android and iOS mobile apps to manage your projects on the go

Cons

Can’t export Dashboards
No white-labeling available
No tags available for Docs

ClickUp is constantly working to overcome such minor flaws. Learn more about ClickUp’s product roadmap here.

Pricing

ClickUp has three pricing options.

Free Forever Plan: unlimited projects and members + 100Mb of cloud storage space
Unlimited Plan ($5/user per month): unlimited projects and members + unlimited number of integration + advanced reporting
Business Plan ($9/user per month): unlimited projects and members + two-factor authentication + Google single sign-on

Customer ratings

G2: 4.7/5 (1100+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.7/5 (2000+ reviews)

2. Basecamp

Basecamp is a project management and collaboration tool targeted towards small to medium-sized businesses. While Basecamp aims to be a single platform catering to all project needs, it does have some drawbacks though.

Want to know all of the details? Click here for a full review of Basecamp.