Alfabet IT Planning &amp; Portfolio Management vs Smartsheet comparison

Alfabet IT Planning & Portf...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Alfabet IT Planning & Portfolio Management and Smartsheet both compete in project management and IT planning. Smartsheet appears more favored for its flexible collaboration whereas Alfabet is preferred for strategic planning and IT governance.

Features: Alfabet is known for IT portfolio management, strategic alignment, and application lifecycle management. Smartsheet is valued for intuitive project management tools, collaboration, and customizable workflows.

Room for Improvement: Alfabet can improve in deployment complexity, user interface simplicity, and cost-effectiveness for smaller businesses. Smartsheet could enhance its reporting capabilities, expand integrations, and provide more robust Gantt chart features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Alfabet requires extensive deployment and specialized support, making it less accessible for some users. Smartsheet offers a more straightforward deployment process with user-friendly service and minimal technical needs.

Pricing and ROI: Alfabet involves a higher setup cost but promises substantial ROI for IT-driven organizations. Smartsheet is more affordable, offering quick ROI suitable for businesses seeking prompt solutions without significant financial investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Alfabet IT Planning & Portfolio Management vs. Smartsheet Report (Updated: September 2025).

Alfabet IT Planning & Portfolio Management vs. Smartsheet

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Helped 869,566 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Alfabet IT Planning & Portf...

Ranking in Project Portfolio Management

15th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Smartsheet

Ranking in Project Portfolio Management

3rd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Project Management Software (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Project Portfolio Management category, the mindshare of Alfabet IT Planning & Portfolio Management is 1.7%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Smartsheet is 8.8%, up from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Project Portfolio Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Smartsheet	8.8%
Alfabet IT Planning & Portfolio Management	1.7%
Other	89.5%

Project Portfolio Management

Featured Reviews

Mohammad Shalan

Head of Business Agility and Development at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company

Helps us to implement and understand the status of our projects

The initial setup is straightforward. The solution's deployment takes around two months time. We have to set up the solution. We have to put in the data to ensure that the solution is working. We need to fill out our process, our tools, and our data. Two developers were involved in the deployment process. It is a self-maintained solution that requires updates from time to time. I rate the setup an eight out of ten.

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PaulDiaz

Project Manager at Amgen

Needs to improve baselines and changing dates can be frustrating

I like the dashboarding feature best, as it lets me assemble a workspace with source sheets, dashboards, and reports simultaneously. The standard reports and worksheets are most useful for team collaboration. People look at dashboards during presentations, but they go to the sheets to update projects, add comments, or make notifications. It's automated, so changes come to me or whoever needs to see them. I can send notifications from specific line items. The worksheet is key for tracking project progress, though we track it at a higher level rather than detailed work breakdown structures. Subject matter experts say when they'll deliver things, and that's what we track.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The dashboard is the most valuable feature."

"I like the dashboarding feature best, as it lets me assemble a workspace with source sheets, dashboards, and reports simultaneously. The standard reports and worksheets are most useful for team collaboration. People look at dashboards during presentations, but they go to the sheets to update projects, add comments, or make notifications. It's automated, so changes come to me or whoever needs to see them. I can send notifications from specific line items."

"Enables coordination and sharing of information that is relatively inexpensive."

"I like that Smartsheet integrates Excel with a cloud-based project management software."

"Smartsheet offers more than Project because it's similar to a table-based, database-type system. It's like a hybrid between Excel and project software. We were able to enter the formulas and do much of the automation. We added budgets to it and linked them to a vendor page. Smartsheet let us integrate the budget into the project seamlessly. With Project, we needed to open up Excel."

"This solution provides easy collaboration and allows non-building users to use the system without requiring a license."

"It's stable and simple to use."

"Granting access to Smartsheet is much simpler. Anyone can access it with just a link and password. Smartsheet also offers intelligent forms, allowing us to collect project proposals easily. Before our first meeting, I can review initial project ideas submitted through these forms. Additionally, attaching files is straightforward - no need to navigate through menus. The search function is also nice."

"The solution has subtasks and a rollup."

More Smartsheet pros

Cons

"The user-experience, enhanced performance, and in-hand governance can be improved."

"More intuitive access without constant logins would be beneficial."

"Initially, there were issues like dropdowns. Those have been overcome."

"The solution should include integrations with other platforms or software."

"They should improve the solution's integration with API."

"The only reason we migrated to another application was the full integration available in other solutions. We never used the integration capabilities of Smartsheet."

"I want to improve baselines, predecessor-successor relationships, and the ability to use manual starts and stops while keeping relationships intact. Changing dates and durations can be convoluted, unlike in Microsoft Project. There are many things I'm used to in other software that don't happen in Smartsheet. It's offset by how easy it is to link sheets and pull data at higher levels, but figuring out why I can't change data sometimes can be frustrating."

"Smartsheet needs to improve the user interface."

"If there was some way to store more complex files in the system, or if there was a back-end structure where you could store files, that would be ideal."

More Smartsheet cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive. There is a yearly licensing cost. There are no additional costs, only the standard license, and the cloud license."

"There would be more extensive usage if the solution were cheaper. It's really expensive right now, and that's why we provide a few licenses for admins. The rest of them are just users without admin privileges."

"For a normal license, like the one I had: I had my own Smartsheet because I wanted to play with it and I didn't want to mess with what I was doing in Verizon, so I paid $200 monthly, and it gave me all the same functionalities, so I could do whatever I wanted for $200. The problem is if you have anyone else working on it or deploying on it, it's $200 a month for every single person who's deployed on it, that's working on it as an owner or an administrator, so owners and administrators are the only ones who can change, edit, and add data to worksheets and columns. Depending on the size of your organization, Smartsheet can be costly. As for implementing its Control Center, Smartsheet forces you to have three people come in: it's a minimum of three people from Smartsheet for three months who will provide you the solutions for the Control Center side, and that's $150 an hour, so it can become very expensive. For my company, not having the Control Center would save on the setup fees and then the $20,000 a year, because the Control Center of Smartsheet is a yearly subscription of $20,000."

"Smartsheet only requires licenses for project managers. When we were using Asana, we had to purchase a license for everyone who wanted to access their tasks and use the system. That gets costly fast. It was one of the main reasons we left Asana. As Asana and these other tools scale, they become way more expensive."

"Smartsheet can be low-priced, with personal subscriptions around eight dollars a month, but I imagine it gets pricier for enterprise systems. Microsoft Project can be more expensive."

"The solution is reasonably priced."

"I believe a licensed user costs between 300 to 400 euros."

"Its licensing is on a yearly basis. I was responsible for negotiating the price with the Smartsheet team, but I don't remember what the price was. Its standard license probably was around 5,000 to 6,000 a year. The enterprise version is significantly more expensive."

"If I'm not mistaken, it was pretty manageable. It was about 200 bucks a seed. The business really felt a strong need for it. So, it was viewed as a safer and more straightforward cost that we were willing to pay as compared to Domo, which took some convincing."

More Smartsheet pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Government

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

15%

Government

10%

Healthcare Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	22

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Has anyone moved from Microsoft Project to Smartsheet? How has your experience been with Smartsheet?

Hi @Eire Zimmermann, I helped an organization evaluate both MS-Project and Smartsheet when they were conducting their PM tool RFP. The short of it is this, MS Project is not caught up with the mo...

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What do you like most about Smartsheet?

The tool creates shareable dashboards. These dashboards allow us to display project deliverables' status, their position in the queue, expected delivery timelines, and more. The best part is that t...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Smartsheet?

The pricing is great and reasonable enough that I maintained my copy and bought it for my team independently.

See all answers

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Product Reports

Project Portfolio Management

Download Alfabet IT Planning & Portfolio Management product report

Alfabet IT Planning & Portfolio Management report

Download Smartsheet product report

Also Known As

planningIT, alfabet planningIT, Alfabet IT Planning and Portfolio Management

No data available

Overview

Software AG's Alfabet IT Planning & Portfolio Management Platform provides decision-makers with insight into the IT portfolio to make the right IT investment decisions and to plan how IT will support the business in the future.

Software AG

Smartsheet is a dynamic platform with features like real-time data sharing, Gantt charts, and integration with Jira and Microsoft Teams, offering valuable tools for efficient task management.

Smartsheet combines Excel-like functionality with cloud accessibility, making it efficient for tracking, reporting, and workflow management. Users benefit from its scalability and robust security, making it ideal for enterprise-level projects. However, improvements in data visibility, real-time collaboration, and user-friendliness can enhance its utility. Customizable dashboards, project management features, and seamless integrations offer great flexibility, though there is a demand for better automation, API enhancements, and new templates.

What are Smartsheet's most important features?

Real-time Data Sharing: Facilitates seamless collaboration between users.
Project Management Tools: Includes Gantt charts and task prioritization for efficient project tracking.
Integration: Works with major platforms like Jira and Microsoft Teams for comprehensive data flow.
Automation Capabilities: Reduces manual work with robust automation functionalities.
Customizable Dashboards: Allows users to tailor dashboards to meet specific needs.

What benefits or ROI should users look for in reviews?

Efficiency: Streamlines workflows with tools that enhance project tracking and collaboration.
Scalability: Supports growing enterprise demands with its scalable architecture.
Security: Provides robust, secure environments for data management.
Adaptability: Offers flexibility to customize workflows for improved resource management.

Smartsheet is utilized by organizations in industries like engineering, education, and IT for project management, task tracking, and data integration. It enables planning, scheduling, and team collaboration, facilitating dashboard creation and automation of processes. Its flexibility in customizing workflows is appealing to those managing projects and programs.

Sample Customers

FUJITSU, Coca Cola, ING, CreditSuisse, CosmosDirekt, GTA, Echo Entertainment Group, Electrolux, Cern

Sony Music, ESPN, Hilton, Unisource, Colliers, Extreme Networks, Groupon, Netflix

Alfabet IT Planning & Portfolio Management vs. Smartsheet