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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
7.1
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Opportunity Management (7th)
Smartsheet
Ranking in Project Management Software
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
41
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

"Campfire Interactive has saved us time because the data that we are collecting is the same."
"I appreciate that Campfire Interactive has deep integration with SAP, which helps a lot."
"I have recommended Campfire Interactive to at least 10 companies over my career, including some of the largest Tier 1 automotive customer suppliers in the world."
"The feature I appreciate the most about Campfire Interactive is probably the forecasting module, the way it links to IHS for the IHS forecast."
"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 combination Campfire uses for the automotive sector, particularly the IHS forecast, offers unique predictive capabilities."
"Campfire Interactive’s ability to manage data through business processes and workflows for your organization is good."
"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 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."
"It is a stable and scalable solution."
"If you just need a planning tool, it's a low-cost and effective option."
"I think Smartsheet would scale fine."
"It operates as an enhanced and versatile version of Excel, offering a wide range of capabilities that allow you to accomplish various tasks and operations."
"I prefer Smartsheet for its flexibility."
"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."
"The product is easy to use."
 

Cons

"Campfire Interactive lacks a built-in interface to manage shipment information, so we have to handle that outside the system."
"The areas of improvement for Campfire Interactive are in cycle plan management, forward model and backlog planning, user interface and usability, records management, price bump chart flexibility, and creation and facilitation of reports management."
"Because we use a multitude of modules, some of the interactions from one module to the other are not as seamless or fluid. I would like to see some more fluidness from one module to the other."
"I can complete in Excel in an hour what might take me six hours in Campfire Interactive."
"I recently discussed with them the need for better KPI measurements in the automotive world. A big KPI in the automotive world is the bookings of the future years, and we measure that not in annual revenue but in the lifetime of any given vehicle."
"We just went through that last month, where we had reported data to our board of directors and then came to find out that some parts of the data were incorrect, which is really frustrating."
"They occasionally became overwhelmed, leading to slowdowns due to the busy workforce."
"There are times when we go to execute reports from their system, and the data does not generate as expected."
"It would be beneficial to enhance user-friendliness and make it less complex while maintaining its overall excellence as a product."
"A room for improvement I found in Smartsheet is the view, as it's currently row-wise. I should have the opportunity to view a full scale, top down list instead of just a column driven list. I shouldn't have to go just left or right. I should be able to view it top down."
"They provide a limited number of sheets which is not enough."
"There isn't much automation at this time."
"The long-term timelines could be improved, especially the visuals on the projection Gantt chart."
"They should improve the solution's integration with API."
"The solution should include integrations with other platforms or software."
"The system can become more challenging to use in more complex scenarios, requiring additional add-ons that can be quite costly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Campfire Interactive is on the expensive side, with approximately $100,000 to $120,000 in expenses."
"It's fairly priced."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The solution is reasonably priced."
"There's a trial version and a free version. Each license costs a decent amount, $25 per month or something."
"Smartsheet has many licensing models. You need to add the package that best suits your requirements. The license is paid per user and it is monthly. The cost was approximately $7 per PC, $15 for professional, and $33 for the enterprise plan."
"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."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
27%
Computer Software Company
25%
Insurance Company
11%
Wholesaler/Distributor
8%
Educational Organization
21%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
Healthcare Company
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?
I don't get too involved in the overall scope of the pricing. I know what it costs generally, though I'm not an IT system or cost evaluator to say that's good or bad. We had a negotiation with them...
What needs improvement with Campfire Interactive?
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 to...
What is your primary use case for Campfire Interactive?
The primary use case for Campfire Interactive is for tracking and sales forecasting for the automotive industry, specifically for all the products that our company sells to that market. When I look...
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: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.