Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Freshservice vs Smartsheet comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Freshservice boosts efficiency and resource use, though costs and user management challenges affect its reception across various markets.
Sentiment score
6.9
Smartsheet enhances productivity and collaboration, automates processes, manages timelines, and is cost-effective compared to Microsoft Project alternatives.
Faster resolution means the average ticket resolution time decreased by roughly twenty-five to thirty percent since alerts are automatically converted into tickets and routed to the right team.
Security Engineer (SOC) at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Automation has contributed significantly, resulting in reduced resource counts, which equates to savings in money and time.
Technical support manager at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Compared to Microsoft Project, which is more expensive, we save costs using Smartsheet.
Project Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Freshservice support is generally responsive and helpful, but communication and complexity cause issues for some users.
Sentiment score
6.8
Smartsheet's customer service feedback is mixed, with praise for responsiveness and resources but concerns over response delays and ticket management.
Ultimately, we saw a 77% reduction in average resolution times with a return on investment realized within 6 months.
IT Service Delivery Manager at Symposiam
However, they have improved over the period of two years.
IT & Operations Manager at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Their documentation is also good, making setup easy without needing frequent support requests.
Security Engineer (SOC) at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Freshservice scales well with flexible licensing and strong integrations, though customization limits and rising costs concern some users.
Sentiment score
7.4
Smartsheet is praised for scalability, integration features, and cost-effectiveness, with some concerns over task tracking in larger projects.
As our organization has grown and ticket volume related to AWS resources increased, Freshservice handled the extra load without any performance issues.
Security Engineer (SOC) at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
It offers global performance with multi-region data centers to ensure faster responses while adhering to strong security and compliance standards such as GDPR and SOC 2.
IT Service Delivery Manager at Symposiam
Freshservice is easy to use for scalability.
IT manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Smartsheet is pretty flexible and scalable.
Project Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Freshservice is reliable, with minimal outages, occasional integration issues, and is highly rated for stable performance and updates.
Sentiment score
7.9
Users find Smartsheet stable, with minor issues, high reliability ratings, and minimal disruptions enhancing overall satisfaction.
The service runs smoothly most of the time, and performance has been consistent even when ticket volumes and AWS alerts are high.
Security Engineer (SOC) at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Freshservice is quite stable as they host it on AWS.
IT & Operations Manager at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Freshservice provides a stable environment for our needs.
IT manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Freshservice requires enhanced reporting, customization, integrations, automation, and improved asset management, pricing, performance, and support materials.
Users want better data management, UI, integration, security, support, and Excel-like features in Smartsheet.
There's limited experience with the CMDB or asset management features.
IT Technician at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Asset management can definitely be improved because it doesn't pick up every single device on the network or every single piece of information.
IT & Operations Manager at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Reporting is useful, but the customization is still restricted, and it would be great to build more detailed reports that combine multiple data sources, especially for cloud-related operations.
Security Engineer (SOC) at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
I have a novice understanding of Smartsheet, so I sought a solution more suited to repeatable projects and process-oriented governance.
Strategic Programs Vice President, Project Management Office at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

Freshservice pricing is flexible and competitive, offering value with different plans, aligning with market expectations and regional perceptions.
Smartsheet pricing is user-based, varies by plan, and advanced features can increase costs compared to competitors like Microsoft Project.
Switching from previous ITSM tools has led to a 50% reduction in licensing costs.
IT Service Delivery Manager at Symposiam
The solution offers flat licensing and appears to be cost-effective.
IT Technician at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
The price was very comfortable for our organization to proceed with the migration from Freshdesk to Freshservice.
Technical support manager at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Licensing might be cheaper per user.
Project Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Freshservice streamlines IT management with automation, AI tools, integration options, and a user-friendly interface to enhance productivity.
Smartsheet offers real-time collaboration, customizable dashboards, automation, and integration, making it ideal for efficient project management.
The most valuable features include ticket routing, automation in triage, data control, and flat licensing.
IT Technician at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Incident management is very helpful, and the system is straightforward, making it easy to use for our enterprise-level company.
IT manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Overall, Freshservice provides cutting-edge AI automation for agents and end-users, effortless no-code workflows and ITIL-aligned operations, robust asset, incident, change, problem, and major incident management backed by the live CMDB, unified service desk with self-service and multi-channel support, and strong analytics reporting features, making it a powerful tool for any IT function.
IT Service Delivery Manager at Symposiam
Automation helps by simplifying some manual work, saving time and facilitating communication.
Project Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
We were looking for a tool that allowed for repeatable projects and process-oriented governance.
Strategic Programs Vice President, Project Management Office at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
What I appreciate best about Smartsheet is the straight Gantt chart and its flexibility.
Solution Architect at Think People
 

Categories and Ranking

Freshservice
Ranking in Project Management Software
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (4th), Cloud Management (12th), IT Asset Management (5th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (5th), AI IT Support (4th)
Smartsheet
Ranking in Project Management Software
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Project Management Software category, the mindshare of Freshservice is 1.0%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Smartsheet is 2.8%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Project Management Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Smartsheet2.8%
Freshservice1.0%
Other96.2%
Project Management Software
 

Featured Reviews

RF
IT Service Delivery Manager at Symposiam
Automation and AI have transformed our service delivery and have made IT support faster and more efficient
I always keep up with Freshservice's roadmaps and new features. Freshservice has been very good at listening to feedback and adding those feature requests into their next iterations. I wish they would offer more granular data export options for utilizing in Power BI, along with predictive analytics for capacity planning and SLA breaches to enable more proactive support management and reduce firefighting. While the dashboards are effective, some users find custom reporting limited compared to ServiceNow or Jira. I would also appreciate deeper integrations, especially for niche apps requiring development coding work to enable advanced orchestration. Native integrations for DevOps pipelines such as GitHub Actions and Jenkins, along with stronger API flexibility for complex workflows, would enhance functionality. Although the CMDB and asset management are solid, they do lack advanced dependency mapping compared to other enterprise tools. My wishlist includes automated impact analysis for changes and improved visualization of asset relationships, enabling quicker resolutions from an agent's perspective when alerts come in. I acknowledge that Device42 may enhance this, but it is an extra cost beyond what we already pay. While Freddy AI is excellent for triage and suggestions, some users desire more proactive automation, such as predictive ticket routing based on historical patterns and AI-driven capacity forecasting. Lastly, the pricing tiers might seem rigid for mid-sized teams, so a more granular add-on option for features such as Device42 or pay-per-use for orchestration workflows could be beneficial.
DS
Project Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Automation simplifies manual tasks and facilitates team communication
There are many useful features in Smartsheet. One can easily share plans with the entire team, and it functions similarly to Microsoft Project. Creating dependencies across all tasks is smooth, and team members can make adjustments if necessary. Automation helps by simplifying some manual work, saving time and facilitating communication.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Project Management Software solutions are best for your needs.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
9%
Educational Organization
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Government
10%
Healthcare Company
10%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise22
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Freshservice?
The solution has been very helpful engineering insights into the client's environment. We have been able to manage calls and incidence very efficiently which provides us with a clear understanding...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Freshservice?
Regarding cost savings, switching from previous ITSM tools has led to a 50% reduction in licensing costs, flexibility to scale for different business areas, which included service catalog items, ag...
What needs improvement with Freshservice?
I always keep up with Freshservice's roadmaps and new features. Freshservice has been very good at listening to feedback and adding those feature requests into their next iterations. I wish they wo...
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?
Licensing might be cheaper per user. I rate it as seven or eight due to its demanding nature. For personal use, I have a monthly subscription, while the company uses an annual basis.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Flint
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Western Carriers, Judson University, Golf Canada, Travix, Proxama, Paymentez, Ready Auto Transport
Sony Music, ESPN, Hilton, Unisource, Colliers, Extreme Networks, Groupon, Netflix
Find out what your peers are saying about Freshservice vs. Smartsheet and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.