Planview AdaptiveWork vs Smartsheet comparison

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Planview AdaptiveWork

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Planview AdaptiveWork and Smartsheet are both contenders in the project management software category. Planview AdaptiveWork takes the lead for organizations needing detailed customization, whereas Smartsheet appeals with its familiar spreadsheet-like interface ideal for users looking for ease of use and integration capabilities.

Features: Planview AdaptiveWork offers features such as customizable project tracking, resource management tools, and advanced reporting capabilities, aligning with the needs of complex projects. Smartsheet includes features focused on collaboration and automation, with an intuitive interface, integration with other major tools, and ability to design workflows that enhance team tasks. Its easy integration and collaborative nature make it ideal for dynamic team environments.

Room for Improvement: Planview AdaptiveWork could enhance user support for its extensive customization options and streamline its initial configuration process to reduce deployment time. There is room to expand its integration capabilities with more platforms. Smartsheet could improve its batch processing capabilities and enhance data visualization tools. Adding more robust offline capabilities would also be beneficial, allowing users to work seamlessly without internet connectivity.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Smartsheet's deployment is notably user-friendly due to its familiar layout, requiring minimal setup time. Its customer support offers a wide range of self-help resources, aiding in quick problem resolution. Planview AdaptiveWork, while straightforward, may demand more time for configuration but offers a highly responsive customer service team with comprehensive support resources to assist users.

Pricing and ROI: Planview AdaptiveWork generally involves higher costs upfront due to its customization needs, but it offers substantial ROI for organizations that can leverage its full capabilities. Smartsheet provides predictable pricing plans with flexibility, which supports its scalable collaboration approach. Its cost-effectiveness for team-oriented tasks can be a significant advantage, especially for those prioritizing quick, collaborative, solution deployment.

To learn more, read our detailed Planview AdaptiveWork vs. Smartsheet Report (Updated: September 2025).

Planview AdaptiveWork vs. Smartsheet

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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

Planview AdaptiveWork

Ranking in Project Management Software

19th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

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

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Project Portfolio Management (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Project Management Software category, the mindshare of Planview AdaptiveWork is 1.6%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Smartsheet is 4.3%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Project Management Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Smartsheet	4.3%
Planview AdaptiveWork	1.6%
Other	94.1%

Project Management Software

Featured Reviews

VishalSingh11

Director BPM at a marketing services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Has resources management and timesheets but could be more flexible

Compared to Broadcom Clarity, there was some flexibility with blueprints, etc. You can create a blueprint for different business groups or different customers. Planview AdaptiveWork doesn't have something like that. If they can build up something like a view price. It's still a traditional way where you have to create different instances for different customers. The PPM solution uses queries if I'm rolling out for different divisions. In that case, I have to create different instances for each region because each division may have a different look and feel. But if I have a blueprint, then it's very convenient. I can create multiple interfaces for different processes. Broadcom Clarity has some access control on those viewpoints.

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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

"Clarizen's strength is reporting. Aside from reporting, I also like the ability to create customized workflow and custom actions. The workflow rules are handy. For example, you can create custom fields and dependent picklists."

"Clarizen Slide Publisher has helped increase transparency and communication with project stakeholders for us."

"I like the project management solution. It's really nice."

"The feature that has improved our project planning the most is the ability to create custom workflows, which allows us to automate manual tasks that project managers need to perform. The collaboration feature enhances our team's productivity by allowing individuals to see the impact of their decisions on projects owned and managed by other teams."

"The most valuable feature of Smartsheet is it can be highly customized."

"Smartsheet is stable."

"The dashboard and the layouts are quite good."

"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."

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

"Smartsheet is easy to use."

"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."

"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."

More Smartsheet pros

Cons

"If I start customizing too many things, Clarizen tends to get really slow in our environment and especially if I'm tunneled in an environment, like if I'm connected to my VPN."

"One specific area for improvement could be implementing a development environment to test workflows with live production data."

"It could be more user-friendly. I think it is too overwhelming, initially, in terms of possibilities and so on."

"I felt like the slide publisher isn't that user-friendly. I think it wasn't that easy to use or to figure out because of formatting constraints, or maybe we need to get better at understanding some of its limitations."

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

"The downside of Smartsheet is that there are some security concerns. We were able to restrict people from sharing sheets with anyone who was not in our domain, but it could be easier. We also found it hard to restrict certain user groups from adding attachments to sheets."

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

"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."

"With a large quantity of data, the solution lags a bit."

"The system can become more challenging to use in more complex scenarios, requiring additional add-ons that can be quite costly."

"Smartsheet should continue to expand the spreadsheet-type functionality because it's limited currently. Most business users are familiar with Excel and Office, so Smartsheet should adopt a similar way of navigating the program."

"They provide a limited number of sheets which is not enough."

More Smartsheet cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"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."

"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."

"The solution is expensive."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"The solution is too expensive."

More Smartsheet pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

14%

Government

10%

Healthcare Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

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

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Planview AdaptiveWork?

The feature that has improved our project planning the most is the ability to create custom workflows, which allows us to automate manual tasks that project managers need to perform. The collaborat...

What needs improvement with Planview AdaptiveWork?

One specific area for improvement could be implementing a development environment to test workflows with live production data.

What advice do you have for others considering Planview AdaptiveWork?

Integration with other tools can sometimes be a hiccup, but this isn't necessarily a limitation of Planview AdaptiveWork. It's more often a result of company policies regarding integration with oth...

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.

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Product Reports

Planview AdaptiveWork

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Also Known As

Planview Clarizen

No data available

Overview

AdaptiveWork services the project management software needs of more than 2,500 companies in 76 countries worldwide. They boast a robust client list, including companies such as: Chanel, Cisco, The Walt Disney Company, EA, FedEx, HP, UPS, and VMWare. Founded in 2006, their goal is to change the way collaboration happens within companies of all sizes. AdaptiveWork focuses strongly on the fact that transparency, communication, and idea sharing are key in effective business models.

AdaptiveWork uses the cloud and social communications in their software. This helps AdaptiveWork project management software provide real time updates, maximize efficiency of collaboration, and keep all team members productive and on the same page. AdaptiveWork is fully configurable, and is designed to scale and adapt to different organizational needs. Their task management software is easy to implement, meaning start up will not cost clients time away from their work.

AdaptiveWork offers an enterprise-class project management software solution that fits all businesses' project management needs. With a name created from the words "Clarity" and "Zen", AdaptiveWork's software is designed to help businesses collaborate effectively and create true peace of mind. Project management software doesn't just help get work done; it helps create stronger and more efficient teams. By keeping everyone on the same page, AdaptiveWork task management software helps your team stay focused on the goal of your project.

Planview

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

Cisco Capital, JLL, Conagra Brands, Cargill, JLL, IBM, IIROC, Siemens Energy

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

Planview AdaptiveWork vs. Smartsheet