Basecamp vs Smartsheet comparison

37signals and Smartsheet are both solutions in the Project Management Software category. 37signals is ranked #32, while Smartsheet is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.6. 37signals holds a 0.9% mindshare in PMS, compared to Smartsheet’s 4.5% mindshare. Additionally, 66% of 37signals users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Smartsheet users who would recommend it.

Basecamp

Read 3 Basecamp reviews

241 Views
110 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

Smartsheet

Read 41 Smartsheet reviews

2,484 Views
753 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Basecamp

Smartsheet

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Basecamp and Smartsheet compete in project management. Smartsheet has the upper hand due to its comprehensive features, which provide greater flexibility and automation for complex projects.

Features: Basecamp supports team communication with message boards, to-dos, and scheduling. Smartsheet includes project tracking, automation, data integration, and workflow customization, giving it an edge in handling diverse project needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Basecamp offers quick deployment and efficient customer service, focusing on simplicity. Smartsheet, though more complex to deploy due to its features, provides detailed support and resources, guiding users in managing intricate projects effectively.

Pricing and ROI: Basecamp's flat pricing is cost-effective and predictable. Smartsheet's tiered pricing can increase costs but matches its capabilities, offering a high ROI due to its advanced features, benefiting organizations needing sophisticated solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Basecamp vs. Smartsheet Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Basecamp vs. Smartsheet

June 2025

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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

Basecamp

Ranking in Project Management Software

32nd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Smartsheet

Ranking in Project Management Software

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Project Portfolio Management (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Project Management Software category, the mindshare of Basecamp is 0.9%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Smartsheet is 4.5%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Project Management Software

Featured Reviews

Abenazzer Tadesse

Chief Operations Officer at BeOnline ICT

An easy-to-use project management solution with good stability and scalability

The recent update on the solution has made it a little bit complex. For example, to create a team and a project, there is a separate button that you need to click. Recently they updated it with only one button making it difficult for us to create teams or supply teams other than a project. Hence the solution could be more user-friendly. Additionally, some additional features need to be integrated so it'll be easy for other companies or project managers to manage software projects.

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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 ability to network informally is great for communicating with colleagues."

"The ease of use is valuable."

"We like Smartsheet's workflows, automation, and low-code capabilities. I don't know of any other project management tool with low-code functionality designed for project managers."

"Smartsheet is easy to use."

"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 these dashboards can be shared with our clients without a license."

"Smartsheet is a really good tool for collaboration."

"If you just need a planning tool, it's a low-cost and effective option."

"It's very user friendly."

"The dashboard feature is the most valuable aspect of the solution."

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

More Smartsheet pros

Cons

"The solution could be more user-friendly."

"The product isn't easy to use. It's not very intuitive."

"The integration with Microsoft products should be improved."

"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."

"An area for improvement in Smartsheet is that if you're in the government or you're a regulated customer, you're not allowed to use APIs due to internal restrictions, so there are specific things that you cannot connect to it. Another area for improvement in the solution is that because there's a capacity of how many records you can have, and there's a capacity of how many functions you can apply, Smartsheet has set up their system where they can force people into purchasing a $20,000 additional module that is called Control Center, that will create documents for them on the fly, so they don't use so many functions and automation. Smartsheet also needs to improve on training, because the training that is out there is very little. The solution requires a steeper learning curve. You have to do your own training and you have to work on your own solution."

"There are some pain points for me. Other people use it a little differently, but I would like to be able to do a little more with it. I would like database functionality with it wherein if I bring in several Excel spreadsheets of data and load them into Smartsheets, I should be able to make a correlation between an index field and run a report against those two. I can do it, but it's a little clunky. So, I need a little more experience to feel comfortable doing that."

"There isn't much automation at this time."

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

"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 intuitive access without constant logins would be beneficial."

More Smartsheet cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The tool's monthly fee is 25 dollars, which is within the range of most cloud-based project management tools. I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten."

"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."

"There's a license for Smartsheet, and the enterprise plan comes down to about $750. My company also pays an extra $60 monthly apart from the standard licensing fee."

"I would assume there is a licensing fee. I don't think that it is free."

"The solution is too expensive."

"There's a trial version and a free version. Each license costs a decent amount, $25 per month or something."

"It is less expensive than Microsoft Project for enterprise or Oracle Primavera by an order of magnitude. If you buy a Microsoft Project license, it's probably $300 or so by itself, whereas Smartsheet is probably less than $50 per head."

"The solution is reasonably priced."

More Smartsheet pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Educational Organization

29%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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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

Comparisons

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Project Management Software

May 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Smartsheet

May 2025

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Overview

Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool developed by Basecamp and launched in 2004, with a new version being launched in 2012. Basecamp offers to-do lists, wiki-style web-based text documents, milestone management, file sharing, time tracking, and a messaging system. Basecamp Classic also offers integration with Basecamp's own Campfire product, and features APIs that are used by a host of web and mobile apps. Basecamp Classic's interface is available in different languages (e.g. Spanish, French, Italian, German, Finnish and Japanese). The newer version of Basecamp currently only supports English as the interface language.

37signals

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.

Smartsheet

Sample Customers

Ashland Addison Florist Co., Victory Auto Wreckers, Ideal Box Co., Hollymatic Corp.

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

Buyer's Guide

Basecamp vs. Smartsheet

June 2025

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