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Campfire Interactive vs Smartsheet comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Campfire Interactive
Ranking in Project Management Software
17th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Opportunity Management (7th)
Smartsheet
Ranking in Project Management Software
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

Tom Beach - PeerSpot reviewer
Works very well for opportunity management and sales forecasting for the automotive industry
I've had recent discussions with the leadership team at Campfire Interactive about several issues. They're fully aware of my displeasure with certain things. Some concerns are not related to the tool itself, although there are some aspects that could be better with the tool. The issues are more related to technical service, specifically when we have an issue or problem with the tool, the communication gap, and the follow-through on issues that need improvement. They're fully aware of that concern, and they're doing things to address it. From a technical standpoint, there are some limitations within the tool that are somewhat out of Campfire Interactive's control because it's a complicated industry to try and have one solution that fits all vendors. There are times when we go to execute reports from their system, and the data does not generate as expected. When that happens, we have to inform the Campfire Interactive IT or Support group what the failure is. They have to research and come back to us. In the meantime, we have 2, 4, 6, maybe 12 hours of downtime where people around the world are trying to use the system. Though it affects less than 50 people, these instances are frustrating.
PaulDiaz - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I appreciate the flexibility of the company more than any specific software feature. I have worked with SAP and other software providers before, and since it is still a smaller company, there is a very personal exchange. If we have a simple need that does not require coding, the company is willing to make changes overnight or even within hours. They are truly flexible and customer-oriented."
"Campfire Interactive is much better in terms of the dashboard and reporting."
"I like the visibility of global opportunities. Prior to using Campfire Interactive, we would conduct Excel-based reporting and sales meetings with everyone bringing their information. Now, we can check it daily, look at the reports daily, and see what is coming into the system and what needs to be managed."
"I appreciate the dashboard features and widget features of Campfire Interactive because it has the ability to consolidate data in bar graphs or pie charts, making it very easy to visualize the situation with new opportunities."
"Campfire Interactive has saved us time because the data that we are collecting is the same."
"Campfire Interactive’s ability to manage data through business processes and workflows for your organization is good."
"Enhancing our commercial strategy has been a significant advantage, resulting in millions of dollars in additional revenue that our sales team has been able to achieve through effective planning."
"It fixed an issue where we are able to get all of our information in one spot. We have 23 different manufacturing plants whose systems do not communicate with each other. Campfire Interactive allowed us to bring all of our data into one platform."
"The tool reduces manual labour and it is user-friendly."
"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."
"I prefer Smartsheet for its flexibility."
"I like that Smartsheet integrates Excel with a cloud-based project management software."
"It's stable and simple to use."
"The most valuable feature of Smartsheet is its intuitiveness, ease of use, and overall simplicity."
"Their support is awesome. We are on an enterprise plan and there is a customer success at Smartsheet and anyone from our licensed users can just send an email to them and they respond as soon as possible."
"For doing project plans what was really valuable is the ability to do a predecessor."
 

Cons

"From a technical standpoint, there are some limitations within the tool that are somewhat out of Campfire Interactive's control because it's a complicated industry to try and have one solution that fits all vendors. There are times when we go to execute reports from their system, and the data does not generate as expected."
"One aspect that could be simplified with Campfire Interactive is the process of entering opportunities into the portal. Currently, if we receive a quotation for 20 parts, we can enter one opportunity in our homegrown system that allows us to list all 20 parts within that single opportunity, but Campfire Interactive requires creating separate opportunities for each part."
"It could be a little bit more user-friendly."
"One aspect that could be simplified with Campfire Interactive is the process of entering opportunities into the portal. Currently, if we receive a quotation for 20 parts, we can enter one opportunity in our homegrown system that allows us to list all 20 parts within that single opportunity, but Campfire Interactive requires creating separate opportunities for each part."
"Campfire Interactive lacks a built-in interface to manage shipment information, so we have to handle that outside the system."
"I can complete in Excel in an hour what might take me six hours in Campfire Interactive."
"I do not prefer the role-based access controls in Campfire Interactive. The role-based system makes sense on paper, but a company such as ours, where people wear multiple hats and different people have multiple roles in some cases, makes it very difficult at times to assign the correct people in the process. I've asked for years to give me, as an admin in the system, the ability to ignore the role and just select the person I want assigned to a task, because the role-based system makes it way more complicated than that."
"Because Campfire Interactive is seen as a standalone system, I do not think that it would be scalable at this point within my company."
"Every feature for text mining, even process mining, would be a plus. We have about two hundred contract management events daily. First, I share specific documents. I talk about the search function because we assume it has a thorough search when we read the catalog. But when you test it, you realize it doesn't search within attachments. So, it's a great search function, but you need the brand folder. It has many options and can become complex."
"Smartsheet could improve by having seamless integration with Azure Board."
"The long-term timelines could be improved, especially the visuals on the projection Gantt chart."
"I think that the mobile interface needs to be improved. If you cannot access it through your laptop, I'd prefer to have that option on the mobile, but I don't think that it's user-friendly and easy to navigate."
"It already has a really powerful Export to Excel feature, but it can have an Excel add-on. The way to set up single sign-on wasn't too easy in the beginning, and it was hard to get hold of customer service. They should make it easier to set up SSO. Smartsheet's customer service also definitely needs to be improved."
"Smartsheet needs to improve the user interface."
"Initially, there were issues like dropdowns. Those have been overcome."
"Smartsheet's export and print functions could be more seamless. Once I create the plan in Smartsheet, I need to import it into my corporate web presentations. This isn't always smooth. I have to save it in PDF format, then cut an image from the PDF version."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to everything else I have seen, it is very fair."
"I don't know the full scope of our subscriptions for all the modules, but from what I've seen before, it seems fairly expensive. The high cost may drive some potential clients to consider developing a homegrown solution internally if they have a competent finance group."
"Campfire Interactive is on the expensive side, with approximately $100,000 to $120,000 in expenses."
"We had a negotiation with them back in March of this year to extend our contract for 1 year. They were willing to work with us to negotiate different terms and a different cost of production. They were asking for a certain percentage increase, and we said that was not acceptable. They were willing to settle on a different number."
"It's fairly priced."
"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."
"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."
"I would assume there is a licensing fee. I don't think that it is free."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"I pay $ 120 or $ 128 a month for two to three users."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
21%
Outsourcing Company
20%
Computer Software Company
18%
Insurance Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Government
10%
Healthcare Company
9%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Campfire Interactive?
My company is in a unique situation because we have had the product for so long. We got grandfathered into some very good pricing. The pricing that my company has currently is very good, but I thin...
What needs improvement with Campfire Interactive?
The issue we are having with Campfire Interactive is that it is basically seen as a standalone system and our company is in the process of trying to implement a full company system, a full process ...
What is your primary use case for Campfire Interactive?
We are using the OMSF module, which is the revenue planning module.
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...
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...
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.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Sony Music, ESPN, Hilton, Unisource, Colliers, Extreme Networks, Groupon, Netflix
Find out what your peers are saying about Campfire Interactive vs. Smartsheet and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.