Smartsheet — Independent Software Review

AI-powered intelligence for smarter work management.

Compliance Transparency Index

Grade: A — Score: 95/100

Best For

Not Ideal For

Operational Overview

Core Tech: Smartsheet integrates AI capabilities to provide users with personalized insights and deeper analysis, enabling teams to manage their work more effectively without requiring extensive expertise.
Workflow: The platform facilitates connected workflows across various tools, allowing for real-time visibility into projects and portfolios, resource planning, and operational excellence.
Risks: While Smartsheet offers advanced AI features, organizations must consider potential risks associated with data security and the reliance on automated insights for decision-making.

Pricing Structure

Pro: $12/member/month or $9/member/month billed yearly

Business: $24/member/month or $19/member/month billed yearly; 3-member minimum

Enterprise: Custom pricing; 10+ Members

Advanced Work Management: Custom pricing

Alternative Consideration

Consider switching to Asana: Asana offers a more user-friendly interface for smaller teams.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Smartsheet compare with Asana?

As listed in July 2026, Smartsheet Pro costs $9 per member per month billed annually and uses a sheet-and-report model for projects, intake forms, dashboards, formulas, and configurable processes. Asana Starter costs $10.99 per user per month billed annually and is more task-first, with unlimited automations and unlimited free guests, while its Personal plan supports two users for free. Smartsheet is usually the stronger fit for spreadsheet-like solution building and governed portfolio workflows, while Asana is simpler for teams that prefer task, goal, and project navigation.

How does Smartsheet compare with monday work management?

As listed in July 2026, Smartsheet Pro and monday work management Basic both start at $9 per seat or member per month billed annually. Smartsheet Business costs $19 per member per month annually and adds unlimited automation, workload tracking, free external Guests, and MCP connections, while monday Standard costs $12 and provides Gantt views, guest access, 250 automation actions, 250 integration actions, and credit-metered AI. Smartsheet favors sheet, report, dashboard, and PMO-style solution building, while monday work management favors visual boards, Workdocs, and packaged AI workflows.

Can Smartsheet replace Excel for project management?

Smartsheet can replace many Excel-based project trackers when the team needs shared Gantt plans, dependencies, critical paths, forms, reports, dashboards, permissions, and automated workflows. It can import Excel, CSV, Microsoft Project, Google Sheets, and Trello data into new sheets, but an Excel import processes the leftmost workbook tab and does not preserve Excel formulas reliably. It is not a drop-in replacement when a workflow depends on Excel-specific formulas, multiple workbook tabs imported together, or full offline editing.

Can external users collaborate in Smartsheet without paid seats?

Smartsheet supports unpaid external collaboration, but the result depends on the plan, permission level, email domain, and activity. On Business and Enterprise, external users with Commenter or Editor access can be free Guests, while Pro does not support the Guest seat type and a collaborator who takes qualifying actions can become a Provisional Member for later billing review. For limited updates, Smartsheet can send an update request to any email address without sharing the underlying sheet.

Can Smartsheet forms update existing rows?

Standard Smartsheet form submissions create new rows in the connected sheet rather than locating and editing an existing row. To collect changes for a specific existing row, Smartsheet provides update requests that can show selected fields in a form-like link and can be sent to people without a Smartsheet account or sheet access. Dynamic View is another option when external users need controlled access to edit only selected rows or fields.

Can Smartsheet automate approvals, reminders, and update requests?

Smartsheet workflows can send alerts, reminders, update requests, and approval requests, assign people, record dates, change cell values, and move or copy rows when specified triggers and conditions are met. Pro includes 250 automated triggers per month, while Business, Enterprise, and Advanced Work Management list unlimited automation. Approval workflows can pause a process until a stakeholder approves or declines and then follow different conditional paths.

Which Smartsheet AI features are available on Pro and Business?

Smartsheet lists Smart Assist, Smart Columns, the AI dashboard builder, and intelligent form fill on Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Advanced Work Management. Smart Assist can summarize work, identify project risks, recommend actions, and modify rows, columns, comments, sheets, folders, and workspaces, while Smart Columns process changing row data and the dashboard builder creates views from selected sheets. AI formula generation, text and summaries, and the established analyze-data tool remain limited to Enterprise and Advanced Work Management.

Can Smartsheet connect to ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini?

Business, Enterprise, and Advanced Work Management can connect Smartsheet data to OpenAI ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini Enterprise, and other MCP-compatible assistants. These integrations can answer questions from live project data, surface risks and workloads, update statuses, generate reports, create plans, and build dashboards through conversation. Pro includes Smartsheet's in-product conversational AI features but does not include the external MCP integrations in the current pricing matrix.

Can Smartsheet manage dependencies and critical paths?

Smartsheet supports task predecessors, automatic date adjustments, baselines, Gantt views, and critical, driving, and summary paths. When dependencies are enabled, changes to a predecessor can automatically shift dependent dates and the current critical path updates with the schedule. The dependency columns become calculated project fields, so formulas cannot be used in the Start Date, End Date, Duration, Percent Complete, or Predecessors columns.

Does Smartsheet work offline?

Smartsheet is an internet-based service, so full sheets, reports, dashboards, and ordinary editing require a connection. The iOS and Android apps can submit forms offline after the user makes each form available offline while connected and remains authenticated. Smartsheet states that forms are the only interactive feature available offline and that other mobile items still require internet access.

AI Visibility Report

How AI agents (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, others) read this review page in the past 7 days. Updated weekly. View Smartsheet AI Visibility Report.