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Business Analyst
Real User
Has customization, data pulling, and cross-functional global communication features; it's a secure solution
Pros and Cons
  • "What I found most valuable in Smartsheet is its project customization feature. It's a great solution because you can add in your own WBS. You can see it in Jira style, Kanban, and you can even do Agile and Waterfall. Another feature that's valuable in the solution is when you have those connections, you have that API, you have a sandbox, and you can make a solution, it's a tremendous product because you can pull data."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

Smartsheet is used for secure team collaboration, whether with global or with cross-functional teams. It's a good solution for a PMO, even for marketing strategies, IT tech dashboards for ticketing, etc.

My scope was mostly learning Smartsheet for the first few months, which was the hardest part because it's a huge learning curve. There's not a lot of documentation, and their training was extremely general because it's your solution you're building. It was not like Excel where if somebody runs into a problem or has hit an error or has had an issue, they could quickly look it up and find some community support. The Smartsheet community is very good, but they're also still new, so trying to find advanced solutions to have to work around within Smartsheet was the hardest part. It became, instead of an eight-hour job, more like between sixteen to twenty hours of work to get the full solution done. 

The thing about the emerging technology team that I worked with at Verizon using Smartsheet was that the team thought it was like Excel on steroids. That's the idea that everybody keeps thinking, that it's an out-of-the-box experience and that it's going to be the solution that they need. You have to apply full rules and functionality the way that you need to from the very beginning, you need to know what you want, have everything set up the way that you want it to be set up, and designed the way you want it to be designed, and customized before you ever produce. Because once you get started in Smartsheet, people just don't stop, so making sure you add that baseline of everything that you want it to be and understand its capacity, scalability, and true functionality, it's an extreme sport, I can tell you that for sure.

What is most valuable?

What I found most valuable in Smartsheet is its project customization feature. It's a great solution because you can add in your own WBS. You can see it in Jira style, Kanban, and you can even do Agile and Waterfall. 

Another feature that's valuable in the solution is when you have those connections, you have that API, you have a sandbox, and you can make a solution, it's a tremendous product because you can pull data.

Smartsheet tries to enforce people to use their Control Center which costs $20,000, but what's good about that module is that it allows you to also create some cool solutions that even the Smartsheet team didn't know. In the end, I had a check done by Smartsheet on our system and they said, "You recreated Control Center, and we don't know how you did this, but it's insane." They were extremely shocked. They could only offer a dynamic view, which I think is what they wanted to try and push, but that would entail sleepless nights.

Smartsheet pushes out weekly updates because it's still new, and its team is trying to make it a nice product even for people that want to use it out-of-the-box for their enterprise solution, and this could be another pro in the solution.

I haven't seen anything like Smartsheet before. It is great and it is an amazing solution. It allows cross-functional global communications with offshore teams, and this means those teams can do the work, put in all that's needed and what's been done, have scrum meetings, and have all the data and documentation attached to row-level. If the teams do use AI, the data can be corrected, updated, and sent back. You can pull the data out, put it into a Data Lake or Hadoop, or any kind of SQL, or Oracle, or whatever data system that you have, and you can streamline it out of the system just like you can with Excel.

Smartsheet is a great product if you know how to use it right. The free version allows you to use the basic Smartsheet abilities, then for the enterprise edition, there's a lot more you can work on and do with it.

Smartsheet is very secure. It's really impressive if you can use it right and you can train your team.

What needs improvement?

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. I created about a hundred training videos for Verizon, particularly on how to use Smartsheet, and I was told that Verizon's still using the videos and that Verizon still loves them.

Smartsheet also puts a lot of updates out quite often, so there was a time when I had a form that was capturing ten to fifteen entries every hour, and one of the things is that new addition or an enhancement was put into the form, and it skewed the form. In this case, Smartsheet doing a lot of implementations and enhancements quickly became a con.

What also needs to be improved in Smartsheet is allowing columns to be changed, not to have to roll over, and one thing about it is row-level. There's a reason for that: it's how you can send out secure update requests. I have to pull in data from another sheet, which includes all of the data from the columns, and used a formula that was such an advanced formula, which I had to check using Smartsheet's restrictions: at thirty characters, a space, and a colon, and add all that to a column onto the other sheet, then pull that data in using a function. Smartsheet should have a functionality that would automatically pull in all the data for you and update your dropdown menu via a summary sheet, so that was what my team couldn't do without using the Control Center, and in the end, I was able to do without using the Control Center. I don't think the Smartsheet team even knew that the solution had that ability.

You should not have to pull in columns that you don't need if you need to move data, because you may not want somebody seeing the baseline column, you may just want the person to be able to look at specific columns and it brings the whole row in, so it can become really slow if you're hiding columns. You'd like to avoid that at all costs.

Another thing I would change in Smartsheet is its backup ability: it's terrible. I've heard other people lose data, and that some formulas don't work as they were supposed to, particularly some Excel-type formulas, though I never really had any struggle with that because I always found some workaround.

In the next release of Smartsheet, I'd also like the forms to be improved. If you wanted to ask a person a question, you had to create a field. Smartsheet created an environment where you can ask a question, but you can't add any conditions to it. There are conditional rules, for example, you don't want to show somebody a form that has a hundred questions if you don't need to ask them a hundred questions, but you would need to create a hundred fields to ask those questions if you wanted them to conditionally show up or not, so I'd like that changed and have Smartsheet create a better environment for asking questions via the forms.

How are customer service and support?

I contacted the technical support for Smartsheet just once, because of an issue with the drop sheet. There was an update that was done and a sheet that was put into deleted sheets was moved, and that sheet was the central source of connection for all projects. Projects were connected through it as it was the project consolidation sheet, so all projects that were in work pulled data from this project consolidator. It would implement who the managers are, who the team is, and what the project is about, then it would pull in from those projects, how the project's doing based on functions, how you look at it, and what kind of value you place on the work that's being done, and how you can show it off in your PMO, in your executive boards, etc. If that dropped even one more time, there's no way you could have remade it. It had everything, and it had all of the most complex parts of everything. It was the connector to everything and it was deleted. Thank goodness I made sure that there was a backup after that constantly, so every time something was added or changed, it would delete it: delete the table where it was, and then re-copy itself. It came to you in an Excel file and you had to restructure everything, so I just would copy it. Everything was copied to another file, and it was just like having an additional copy of itself somewhere else, so there was an error.

Buyer's Guide
Smartsheet
May 2025
Learn what your peers think about Smartsheet. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I feel like Smartsheet tries to get people to spend a lot of money, particularly because of that $20,000 Control Center where you still have to develop all of your solutions. All it does is control how it's automated, so you won't have to worry about setting up workspaces or security because it can do it for you, but you still have to customize everything. When you have to do these helper sheets, then it adds a lot of functions, and looking at other sheets and trying to drive data without having to move those columns, that's when you'll end up buying the Smartsheet Control Center, so it feels like, at some point, when I wanted to have a nice talk with the makers of Smartsheet, but at the same time, it's a good mechanism to get money and they do a good job of it.

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 $200 monthly I paid is a fair price for what the solution does. It's like having a project such as MS project, but you're just paying for what you want from the MS project, because MS project is just such a needle in the haystack that if you want to change, it won't be as easy, and you can't build your solution within projects. You only can use what the solution has and manipulate it the way that you want to, as far as some parts of it. In Smartsheet, projects are fully manipulatable. so they'd be fully customizable and they have a Jira personality to them. This means you can have a dashboard that only purposely changes depending on whoever's looking at it, so your whole team that is free to use it can work within it, and those are your resources. The team doesn't need a license because you can add on as unlicensed users. Anyone can access the sheet, but they just can't edit it or add to it. In this sense, Smartsheet is free for people to play with, but it's not free for you to automate and customize unless you have a license.

In the team, there was a need for three people with a license and that was me. I created the whole system: all four levels of it, then I needed to transfer it all over, and that was a nightmare, but it was okay. It was not that bad, but then the team only needed to have two Smartsheet licenses after I left, so it was whoever took over the ownership and then one administrator as backup, just in case.

What other advice do I have?

Smartsheet itself hasn't been around for that long. They started engaging in bigger firms and contracts in 2018, but before that, they were very much just a startup in Seattle. Basically, what they built was a great solution for collaborating with cross-functional teams and global teams, securely. They're still a little bit behind on some stuff that they could do, but they've brought in just about all of the functionality that you can do in Excel as far as major functions and automation.

My advice to anyone looking into using Smartsheet is if you want to jump into Smartsheet, you need to have a background in Excel, have project management skills, and try to understand rules, processes, and how you want the system to be started, and set up. When you start connecting things and start sending records from one person to another through email or through whatever source you do, if you're not going to use APIs and you're not going to use anything extra, and you're just using an out-of-the-box solution, then you really need Smartsheet to be set up and understand it truly. A lot of Smartsheet training needs to be put into place.

My rating for Smartsheet, even with all its setbacks, is a nine or a ten. I would probably rate it a nine just because of the money scheming part of it. I'm not happy with that, because it doesn't feel so ethical if you're a small business and you're wanting to expand. Otherwise, I don't even like looking at Excel as much as I used to because Smartsheet has so many additional automation features. For example, you can connect it to power BI just like you can Excel, but it does it differently. You can connect it through an API, or you can connect it to Jira.

There are so many connections that you can make to Smartsheet, and you can target the data and move the data out so that you don't get that cap. Otherwise, it's a great solution for opening up communication channels, for helping cross-functional teams work, for example, when one's gone, the other one's there, and the work is accelerated to market. You're saving your company millions of dollars by being able to have this open communication channel that's different from other systems. You won't be needing email or anything else, because you'll just need your team, so I think Smartsheet is a great solution.

It's very robust if you know how to use it, but that's the kicker: you have to learn how to use it. The best training that they offer is the advanced university training, and that requires a license, and then you have to pay an additional $199 for that, but you do get your PUs, and you get additional ones you can use for your PMI certification, particularly for the next certification and to keep your certification valid.

There are a lot of good things about Smartsheet, but the idea of it is amazing. If they get it together, it can be the best solution. They really wouldn't need the $20,000 control center if they just made it a robust solution and provided it, and then just charged everybody the nominal fee to use it, for example, to Microsoft as a different model of charging people. I think that would be better because then they could focus their efforts more on those enhancements that are needed. Otherwise, Smartsheet is a really good concept. It's a really good idea.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Eire Zimmermann - PeerSpot reviewer
Judicial Technician (Strategic Management / Project Management) at TJPR
Real User
Top 10
Helps to track strategic cycles, projects, and portfolios
Pros and Cons
  • "Granting access to Smartsheet is much simpler. Anyone can access it with just a link and password. Smartsheet also offers intelligent forms, allowing us to collect project proposals easily. Before our first meeting, I can review initial project ideas submitted through these forms. Additionally, attaching files is straightforward - no need to navigate through menus. The search function is also nice."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

Leadership changes occur every two years in my company, which is a public organization. This includes changes in CEOs, directors, leaders, coordinators, and other positions. We need to track strategic cycles, projects, and portfolios with each change. Each project involves a large team collaborating to understand needs and find solutions.

What is most valuable?

Granting access to Smartsheet is much simpler. Anyone can access it with just a link and password. Smartsheet also offers intelligent forms, allowing us to collect project proposals easily. Before our first meeting, I can review initial project ideas submitted through these forms. Additionally, attaching files is straightforward - no need to navigate through menus. The search function is also nice. 

The Gantt chart is a valuable tool for public organizations. There is a significant emphasis on external control compliance. Therefore, with this feature, you change the content in every cell in the sheet and in the timeline, and you can track and see the day, time, and the person changing the value. Furthermore, you can choose whether to display a PDF or an HTML page. It helps to update documents quickly. The tool is easy to use.

What needs improvement?

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.


For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for a year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate Smartsheet's stability a ten out of ten.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I worked for Siemens in Brazil, the United States, and Germany. They used to have about half a million employees recorded in Primavera. It was nice, very rich, safe, and secure. I have also used Microsoft Project which was great for rigid timelines but not suitable for cost management. I never used Excel.

How was the initial setup?

The tool's deployment is easy since it's online. It takes only ten minutes to complete.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I have used the tool's trial version.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Smartsheet
May 2025
Learn what your peers think about Smartsheet. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
President at Oti
Real User
Top 20
Used to create project schedules, automate approval flows, and create dashboards
Pros and Cons
  • "I like that Smartsheet integrates Excel with a cloud-based project management software."
  • "The solution should include integrations with other platforms or software."

What is our primary use case?

Smartsheet is a cloud storage service where I store all the project files. I also use the tool to create project schedules, automate approval flows, and create dashboards.

What is most valuable?

I like that Smartsheet integrates Excel with a cloud-based project management software. Since everybody's really familiar with Excel, you can use Excel-type formulas in the Smartsheet to calculate certain things.

What needs improvement?

The solution should include integrations with other platforms or software. Smartsheet can look to integrate with financial software like QuickBooks, project management software, construction software, IT software, and SAP to pull data from different databases.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Smartsheet for three years.

How are customer service and support?

I've onboarded Smartsheet for a company that creates databases and dashboards. It was like a meeting a week for six weeks to eight weeks, and it was really good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The solution's initial setup is not too difficult. To set up the tool, you go to its website, get a free membership for a little bit, and then pay subscriptions for users.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution's pricing is not bad. I think it's a fair price for the amount of work you can do with it. I pay $ 120 or $ 128 a month for two to three users.

What other advice do I have?

I share Smartsheet with my team, all the stakeholders, owners, and project managers. They have access to it, and they can look at a to-do sheet or a project sheet. They can also download certain files that they need at certain times. If the files are updated, they're updated in the system. It's similar to Google Sheets or Google Docs, where you can go in and modify files. The solution's format is pretty good.

Smartsheet's real-time data tracking allows me to tell my clients that they can go to the tool and see real-time updates on what's going on with their projects.

The learning curve for Smartsheet is pretty quick because most people already know how to use Excel. Smartsheet looks exactly like Excel, where you just have to input data, but it has more capability. I would recommend the solution to other users because it simplifies running a project, storing data, and creating useful sheets for projects.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1916505 - PeerSpot reviewer
National Sales Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Streamlines collaboration, offers stability, and saves time and energy
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Smartsheet are its collaboration tools, the ability to centralize and prioritize projects, and robust reporting capabilities."
  • "Areas for improvement in Smartsheet include better integration capabilities with other technologies through APIs and addressing limitations in reporting functionalities."

What is our primary use case?

I use Smartsheet to streamline our intercompany support process. Instead of sifting through emails, requests go directly into Smartsheet, where we manage and prioritize them. It helps us efficiently estimate projects for sales reps, keeping everything organized in one place and ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

How has it helped my organization?

The feature that has most improved my workflow efficiency is the collaboration aspect of Smartsheet. It reduces reliance on emails and facilitates teamwork, which serves as the foundation for utilizing other features like storage and reporting.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Smartsheet are its collaboration tools, the ability to centralize and prioritize projects, and robust reporting capabilities. 

What needs improvement?

Areas for improvement in Smartsheet include better integration capabilities with other technologies through APIs and addressing limitations in reporting functionalities. Specifically, the ability to automate and customize reports more efficiently, as well as ensuring that exported reports display properly, especially when printing to PDF, would enhance user experience.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Smartsheet for a year and a half.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Smartsheet is excellent. While there have been occasional short connection issues or downtime, they have been minimal, totaling only a few hours over a year or more.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability of Smartsheet around an eight out of ten. It is highly scalable with the right personnel and computer literacy in place, but adoption and implementation are key factors. Smartsheet's scalability benefits our organization by accommodating multiple teams with similar functions but different operating styles. It enhances collaboration and organization while providing visibility and reporting features that help gauge productivity and track progress transparently.

Overall, there are over 100 users in our organization, including both licensed users and those with limited access to submitting requests.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is quite good. I would rate it as an eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

I would rate the initial setup experience with Smartsheet around a five or six out of ten. It is not the most intuitive process, and the use of unfamiliar terminology can be confusing. While it is not overly difficult, there is room for improvement in making the setup smoother and more user-friendly.

The deployment of Smartsheet took several months, with a team of around eight to ten department managers involved in the rollout process.  Maintaining the Smartsheet solution mainly involves updating reporting and other features annually, typically requiring the assistance of the Smartsheet team.

What was our ROI?

We haven't quantified the ROI percentage-wise yet, but based on the time saved, I would say Smartsheet more than doubles productivity.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I would say the pricing for Smartsheet is not cheap, but it is a good value considering what you get. Basic licenses start around $500 per person, and costs increase for additional premium features.

What other advice do I have?

Smartsheet streamlines collaboration by reducing email clutter and providing a centralized platform for managing requests. It saves time and energy by storing data efficiently and facilitating communication with sales reps. Additionally, it enables tracking and reporting, allowing us to gauge productivity and have a clear snapshot of progress over time.

My experience with the Smartsheet mobile app is generally positive. While it is not as robust as the web-based version, it is convenient for quick checks and accessing essential information on the go.

Overall, I would rate Smartsheet as an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
PeerSpot user
Natalija Prodanovic - PeerSpot reviewer
Global IT PMO at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Customizable, easy to use and cheap; needs more integrations
Pros and Cons
  • "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."
  • "I think it is all going to be about APIs in the future and I don't think Smartsheet is doing a lot in that regard. They have some integrations with Jira, but you have to pay for them."

What is our primary use case?

The most common use case for Smartsheet is collecting approvals because of the documented repository that can be shown to the auditors. Smartsheet has automated attachments. Users can easily and quickly make sure that certain mandatory approvals are collected efficiently. In addition, they will have an entire traceable archive of who did what and when.

With Smartsheet, you can export that as well. It also enables you to do analysis and develop dashboards. For example, you can track the average order processing time. It has all the capabilities of Excel but it enables you easy workflows. It's very intuitive in that regard and very customizable.

How has it helped my organization?

Smartsheet has helped me improve my organization by helping me further optimize. For example, if I had a legal department of 50 people, I can have just one license. Each of those people do not need a license for their work, but we just need to build and own all of their sheets with workflows. To build, all you need is one license, but many people can take advantage of it. 

What is most valuable?

The feature I found most valuable is Smartsheet's collaboration capabilities. You can easily share your sheet with someone and communicate with them. Everyone can have their own milestones. Smartsheet can also be used for project management since it's really customizable, much like an Excel sheet. To create workflows, you can use a template or build your own from scratch.

What needs improvement?

Smartsheet could be improved with an integration with Outlook and Notion. I would also like to see other general integrations. I would most like to see an integration with my Outlook calendar so I can see the tasks that I have and action workflows from my inbox and those notification emails I get.

I think it is all going to be about APIs in the future and I don't think Smartsheet is doing a lot in that regard. They have some integrations with Jira, but you have to pay for them. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Smartsheet for a year and a half.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not run into issues with Smartsheet's stability. For example, we had an internal issue and I could not use any company systems to communicate things that I need to, but then Smartsheet was there because it is cloud-based and independent and always working. It's always there. No hiccups; no bugs; no sorry, we got confused. Everything works nonstop.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Smartsheet's scalability has a high cost-benefit ration. We have 90 licenses and because they have the option to share with a lot of free users, we have about 2,000 users on top of the licenses that we are not paying for, but they are our employees, clients, and vendors even. They can have access to everything even with a free license.

How are customer service and support?

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. They reply within 24 hours. They look at their knowledge base for you and send you back all the links that will be helpful in explaining and resolving the issue. They are really exceptional and stable.

How was the initial setup?

Smartsheet's initial setup is straightforward. There is not much to it. It's very simple from the user's perspective. We already have accounts, licenses, and users, and I assign license ownerships. They set everything up up for you. They give you the template page where you set up your landing page. Before assigning licenses, I send a form where they have to justify why they need a license because there is also a free version user account that they can use. I can have an unlimited number of people as users of Smartsheet, but I don't have to give them a license, which I think is a great advantage.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Smartsheet has free user options with limited capabilities and the option to request a license or business plan. They have all the details available on their website.

I would say that Smartsheet's price is good. It is not cheap but it comes with good value, especially considering their free user options. We have 90 licenses and 2,000 users. Anybody from our organization can ask for a license and use the tool for their own purposes. If you're smart you can go a long way with just five licenses. We have an enterprise plan, and it costs us about $500 per year.

What other advice do I have?

It is really easy to use and understand. It makes it simple to collaborate with other people. Smartsheet is very similar to WordPress in that it is very easy to work in when you are creating blogs and web pages. It's very intuitive. 

Smartsheet is a cloud-based SaaS tool. The tool itself is sheet-based and really customizable, so it can look like Excel on steroids. It has a tailored set of templates that you can use for project management and keeping inventory. It has a workflow to collect approval and send notifications, so you don't have to manually write 50 emails, instead, it's automatized. They also have enterprise plans.

It's a very cute, convenient, and user-friendly online Excel with workflows. Everyone wants to use Excel, SharePoint lists, or Power Automate, but it's really hard to set everything up with Microsoft tools, so I think that Smartsheet has its own advantages for a certain types of task management needs and collaboration.

In corporate, we should all be using the same tool. This is a great tool and as long as you give everyone the freedom of choosing, it still works. But, it is not really for corporate.

You can organize all of your business processes in Smartsheet, which is also an advantage. I can include any email account in the workflow, whether it's from my company or not. That's great because sometimes we cannot collect approvals from people who are outside of our organization and that is a problem. It is hard to work with clients when you are only dealing with Microsoft in that regard.

Using Smartsheet does not require any coding skills. I can do everything in it myself and I do not need additional IT experts to help me out.

I would rate Smartsheet a strong seven.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Blake Clifford - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at USCCG
Real User
Top 10
It's cloud-based, so it's more accessible, so we don't need to worry about saving versions of the file when someone makes changes.
Pros and Cons
  • "Smartsheet offers more than Project because it's similar to a table-based, database-type system. It's like a hybrid between Excel and project software. We were able to enter the formulas and do much of the automation. We added budgets to it and linked them to a vendor page. Smartsheet let us integrate the budget into the project seamlessly. With Project, we needed to open up Excel."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

We're using Smartsheet at the enterprise level throughout the organization. We did a test at the corporate office before moving forward. In the beginning, we were only using Smartsheet to help our corporate users open new facilities and convert warehouse management systems. Also, we used it in implementation at sites with new customers. Eventually, we began using Smartsheet for entire projects. We transitioned from Microsoft Project to Smartsheet for all of our projects.

What is most valuable?

I'm consulting with a company that uses Microsoft Project, which isn't cloud-based. Smartsheet is cloud-based, so it's more accessible. We need not worry about saving versions of the file when someone makes changes. For example, Microsoft Project locked up while someone was saving a file, and we couldn't access the original file properly. 

Smartsheet offers more than Project because it's similar to a table-based, database-type system. It's like a hybrid between Excel and project software. We were able to enter the formulas and do much of the automation. We added budgets to it and linked them to a vendor page. Smartsheet let us integrate the budget into the project seamlessly. With Project, we needed to open up Excel. 

What needs improvement?

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. 

When you're moving through cells or fields, you can't move with your arrows flipping back between things. If you hit enter, it doesn't do the same thing it does in Excel.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Smartsheet for about three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is excellent. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Smartsheet is scalable. We deployed it in 47 large distribution centers across the United States, and we had six projects running on it. The corporate office could view all of the projects at once because the program management option is terrific.

How are customer service and support?

Smartsheet support is fantastic. It's better than any I've ever dealt with before. They could answer any question I had about the functionality in a given use case. They were serious superusers. It wasn't just like, "Well, let me check." They actually knew the answer. We'd have a resolution in minutes because of how they had it set up for our organization.

How was the initial setup?

Overall, setting up Smartsheet is pretty straightforward, but sometimes the project settings and the Office-style functionality limit people from getting the information as quickly as possible.

I don't know that that's a Smartsheet issue as much as it is a user issue. They have to understand that when somebody requests to open a project, they need to accept it, activate it, and move forward quickly. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost varies based on the number of users and the commitment that we gave them. I think it was reasonable. I can't remember the exact cost, but it's less than Microsoft Project.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Smartsheet nine out of 10. Smartsheet has room for improvement, but they're moving in the right direction. If you're planning to implement Smartsheet, you need to take the time to prepare upfront. Depending on the organization's size, you need to gain experience and train some superusers. 

You need a few people to learn the ins and outs and get in-depth training in the specific features they will utilize. Learn as much as possible about the system and do a lot of hands-on training right out of the gate.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Gordon EBraun-Woodbury - PeerSpot reviewer
Marketing Operations practice leader at Calibrate Legal, inc.
Real User
Top 10
Helps to create project plans and reporting dashboards
Pros and Cons
  • "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."
  • "Asana has a modern look and feel, particularly its agile project management interface featuring movable cards between columns."

What is our primary use case?

We use the tool as the default software for managing all client projects. Our team of six uses it to create project plans and reporting dashboards for our clients.

What is most valuable?

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.

What needs improvement?

Asana has a modern look and feel, particularly its agile project management interface featuring movable cards between columns.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with the product for six years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I haven't had issues with the tool's stability. I rate it an eight out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

My company has eight users for the solution. 

How are customer service and support?

The tool's support is responsive. They are easy to work. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

I rate the tool's ease of deployment a ten out of ten. It was instant, and there was no real deployment. The solution doesn't require any maintenance. 

What about the implementation team?

I did the deployment myself. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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.

What other advice do I have?

The tool is a good product; I am glad we have it. The main pros of Smartsheet include its familiar interface, especially for those accustomed to Excel, making the transition smoother for teams used to managing projects in spreadsheets. I recommend the tool to others since it is scalable and easy to set up. I rate it a ten out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Alexander Saravia - PeerSpot reviewer
Gerente at 1-800SAP
Real User
Top 20
Simplified project management and financial tracking without deep knowledge requirements
Pros and Cons
  • "It's stable and simple to use."
  • "The only reason we migrated to another application was the full integration available in other solutions. We never used the integration capabilities of Smartsheet."

What is our primary use case?

We used it for two scenarios. The first one was in project management. We made up the collaboration with our customer using Smartsheet. The second scenario was a financial application to control the cash flow.

How has it helped my organization?

It helped simplify project management and financial tracking, making it very friendly and powerful without the need for deep knowledge of forms or code. It's stable and simple to use.

What is most valuable?

Its mechanics align themselves very well, making it very powerful and simple. Its interface is almost like you are using it yourself, making it very friendly. You don't need to develop deep knowledge of forms or something like that.

What needs improvement?

I think it is a very good program. However, the only reason we migrated to another application was the full integration available in other solutions. We never used the integration capabilities of Smartsheet.

For how long have I used the solution?

We used the solution for four or five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It was stable. We never had a problem with this program.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's good to work with, and you have a lot of choices. In other words, it is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

I cannot rate customer service since we never used it. Smartsheet never failed, so we didn't need to reach out to customer service.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We migrated all of our applications to Odoo due to the full integration that we have in other solutions.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was pretty easy. It is just like opening boxes.

What about the implementation team?

I did the deployment myself.

What was our ROI?

It's really hard to quantify since you don't have to invest much time in learning it. It is simple to use and stable, so it is worth the money invested.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We used the monthly subscription, which is really cheap. It is not expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Odoo. We migrated to Odoo because it is a fully integrated ERP. We have all the projects, accountability, and services in one place without needing any interfaces or integrations.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend it to others. It is a good program and provides the features they promise.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Smartsheet Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Smartsheet Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.