Smartsheet Review - 2018 | Top 5 Project Management Tools

Smartsheet Review

flag Trusted by customers in 190+ countries
  • Custom solutions fit your work at any scale

  • Easy to use, no-code platform

  • Enterprise-wide expertise

  • Free trial available

Pros & Cons

  • Utility and custom apps
  • Custom reporting
  • iOS and Android mobile apps
  • No monthly billing
  • The individual plan may not be enough for small businesses

Plans & Pricing

Smartsheet has three different pricing plans for you to choose from, and a trial version that allows you to test it for 30 days. The brand accepts payments in over 10 currencies.

It’s important to note that many basic (and even advanced) features like notifications, iOS, and Android mobile apps, templates, filters, column types, alerts, and reminders are included in all plans. Regarding the competition, Smartsheet is incredibly affordable, especially when you take into account the amount of baseline functionality that you get with each plan.

Individual

The individual package costs $14 per user/month (billed annually) and grants you access to a maximum of 10 sheets, 5 reports, and a single dashboard. In terms of features, you receive automated workflows, Gantt charts, card view, calendar view, and forms.

Business

The business plan is $25 per user/month (billed annually). With this plan, you get access to all Individual plan features plus 100 sheets per license, unlimited dashboards, reports, and collaborators, proofing, custom branding, and managed groups.

Enterprise

The Enterprise plan has custom pricing, depending on the amount of functionality that you require. With this plan, you get access to all Business plan features plus Single Sign-On (SSO), directory integration, custom email domains, priority support, financially backed SLA, and the ability to build custom apps.

Individual
$14/user/y
Business
$25/user/y
Enterprise
Custom Quote

Overview

Headquartered in Washington, Smartsheet is a renowned, award-winning, web-based project and portfolio management tool. Founded in 2005, the brand boasts over 2100 employees, customers in 190 countries, and additional offices in Boston, London, Edinburgh, and Sydney. The software is suitable for both small teams and large enterprises. Some of Smartsheet’s customers include LEGO, Netflix, CISCO, PayPal, and Alaska Airlines.

Rating

  • "Price"
    10 /10
  • "Features"
    10 /10
  • "Ease of Use"
    9 /10
  • "Help and Support"
    9 /10

Features and Functionality

Smartsheet is heavily equipped with strong, robust features that cover many aspects of project management. The tool easily handles all basic tasks like task management, contact management, alerts, notifications, reminders, etc. with exceptional ease. For brand-specific content purposes, I will refer to “projects” as “sheets” from now on. Here are the details of some of the most exciting features:

Control Center

The control center is a portfolio and project management tool that allows consistent visibility across all projects, tasks, and business processes at scale. With this feature, you can set up new sheets and processes automatically with standard components, implement approval workflows, make on-the-fly changes across the entire portfolio, improve program management, and standardize project provisioning.

Workflow Automation

Workflow automation allows you to automate repetitive tasks and processes by sending alerts, requesting approvals and updates, assigning tasks to team members, recording the current date when a milestone is reached, combining multiple scenarios to meet your needs, and locking rows based on sheet changes.

Bridge

The Bridge is an advanced, no-code interface feature that allows you to connect data across multiple systems, eliminating all manual steps and reducing human errors. For example, you can configure the system to automatically add leads and their related information into your CRM platform or find your most recent comment across all sheets.

Content Collaboration

Content collaboration allows users to plan, manage, and review all content production inside Smartsheet to finalize more tasks more efficiently, and eliminate duplicate reviews and content version confusion. This feature allows collaborators outside your team (colleagues, vendors, clients, etc.) to proofread the content without sheet access. They can also provide feedback via comments, pins, and approvals.

10,000 feet

10,000 feet is a tool designed to help enterprise-level organizations easily build the best team for each project in no time. The tool combines a healthy mix of resource allocation, project planning, time tracking, and reporting features.

Ease of Use

Both the web and desktop applications are easy to use and look very clean. Creating a sheet and using most of the features is not difficult at all. Straight from the dashboard, you can create timelines or task lists, or boards. Familiarizing a team with Smartsheet shouldn’t be a problem, and there isn’t really any learning curve involved.

Applications and Integrations

Reporting and Integrations

Smartsheet reports allow you to work with real-time data from multiple sheets in a single view. There are two types of reports – row reports and sheet summary reports. You can configure each report to include data from as many sheets as you need and filter the information. All reports can be sent, shared, and published. You can also group, edit, summarize, and sort data in reports.

With row reports, you can compile row information from multiple sheets and drill into details. For example, you can generate a report to show all incomplete tasks across all sheets that are assigned to you and marked as “high priority.”

With sheet summary reports, you can view summary data from multiple sheets. These reports are excellent for a high-level, strategic overview on multiple projects, and highlighting portfolio-level metrics in a dashboard.

In terms of integrations, you can be absolutely sure that Smartsheet has you covered. In fact, the brand not only supports the most popular integrations but also, it has a couple of self-developed tools (10,000 feet, data uploader, bridge, Brandfolder) designed to save time and improve process efficiency. Furthermore, there is also the WorkApps platform, which is a no-code platform to build custom web and mobile apps. Thanks to vast customization options, these apps can be tailored to each individual project on a highly detailed level. There is also the option to use the WorkApps apps created by other users.

As for the actual integrations, Smartsheet is easily integrated with most common apps. These include Slack, G-Suite, Microsoft, Microsoft Teams, Adobe Creative Cloud, Dropbox, workspace, Skype, SalesForce, Servicenow, Jira, etc.

Customer support

Smartsheet’s support staff can be reached via email, phone, or ticketing service, and is highly professional and responsive. The brand also provides training and live support to all of its customers. Premium support is available only to enterprise-level customers.

  • 24/7 Help & Support
    There is 24/5 customer support, and it’s available to all users
  • Phone Support
    Available to all users.
  • Email
    Send an email with your inquiry to customer support.
  • Video Tutorials
    They can be found on their website under “Services and Support”
  • FAQ
    It covers most of the product and feature-related topics.

Final Word

Overall, Smartsheet is a highly affordable, feature-packed, and easy-to-use project and portfolio management tool. It combines mind-blowing functionality, tight security, and both small and large organizational utility. In addition, the amount of customization in the form of custom reports and apps allows teams to tailor any specific functionality without any coding knowledge. Furthermore, some of the most notable brands in the world trust Smartsheet with their day-to-day operations, which speaks for itself. The only downside is that the individual plan may not be enough for some small businesses, depending on their activities and the number of projects handled simultaneously.

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jerry
Jerry Wilson
author

Jerry is a skilled developer and has managed a team of programmers for over 8 years. He has led his team to many successes with the help of project management software and processes. He is a big proponent of the agile method of working, and has involved the Scrum and Lean methodologies in many of his team's projects.

We make the best effort to present up-to-date information; however, the terms of each offer can be revised according to the service provider’s discretion. The above shall not be considered as an expert or professional advice for any matter.

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