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Notion 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Notion
Ranking in Project Management Software
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Knowledge Management Software (2nd), Document Automation Software (3rd)
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)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Project Management Software category, the mindshare of Notion is 2.1%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Smartsheet is 4.6%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Project Management Software
 

Featured Reviews

Iván Fanego - PeerSpot reviewer
Creates customizable systems and improve team collaboration
Notion is a very flexible and customizable platform, allowing users to create whatever they need. The most impactful feature for project management is the ability to invite multiple client stakeholders without complication. Once I understand the basics, it's easy to use despite an initial learning curve. It also significantly improves team collaboration through customized views and visualizations of data.
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

"The initial setup is easy."
"Customer support is great, effective, and easy to reach."
"The ability to create and organize notes, plans, and technical content in a single platform is the product's most valuable feature."
"Notion is heavily used in my workflow."
"It is easy to use, and I love its UI."
"Notion is a great tool for note-keeping and note-sharing."
"The ability to structure data is one of the most essential functions of Notion."
"Notion has very strong integration capabilities."
"It is my favorite project management tool. The reason for that is that it is very flexible. It is much easier to use than Microsoft Project in terms of creating custom fields. It is very similar to Excel. So, people understand it, which makes it a little bit easier to use for most users."
"The fact that you can have different access groups is definitely a pro for Smartsheet. It also has the ability to integrate with a lot of tools."
"The ability to build a quick dashboard and give management insight into the progress of the project itself is probably one of the most beneficial pieces."
"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."
"As I am in the corporate legal department, I have to deal with a number of contracts and sometimes it's hard to keep up with email transactions. Having the tracker sheet and being able to build dashboards and workflow has been quite valuable."
"The management aspect is the most valuable. You can also prioritize tasks and then view tasks by priorities as passports."
"This solution provides easy collaboration and allows non-building users to use the system without requiring a license."
"If you just need a planning tool, it's a low-cost and effective option."
 

Cons

"The linked view of database, along with the sharing and permission settings, are areas with shortcomings in the solution that need improvement."
"The main problem with Notion is that it's not flexible enough for all of the use cases we intend to address. For instance, it is challenging to focus on a single KPI as it's mandatory to have a chart for this purpose, complicating some of our use cases."
"One area for improvement in the solution is the absence of integrated charts."
"It can be difficult to contact the people at Notion."
"User management needs improvement."
"Notion's UI could be better."
"The product could be integrated with external platforms."
"Notion has one big downside: the lack of an offline mode. If the internet or Notion's servers are down, I cannot access information. This is a big disadvantage."
"I want to improve baselines, predecessor-successor relationships, and the ability to use manual starts and stops while keeping relationships intact. Changing dates and durations can be convoluted, unlike in Microsoft Project. There are many things I'm used to in other software that don't happen in Smartsheet. It's offset by how easy it is to link sheets and pull data at higher levels, but figuring out why I can't change data sometimes can be frustrating."
"It already has a really powerful Export to Excel feature, but it can have an Excel add-on. The way to set up single sign-on wasn't too easy in the beginning, and it was hard to get hold of customer service. They should make it easier to set up SSO. Smartsheet's customer service also definitely needs to be improved."
"They should improve the solution's integration with API."
"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."
"The system can become more challenging to use in more complex scenarios, requiring additional add-ons that can be quite costly."
"Areas for improvement in Smartsheet include better integration capabilities with other technologies through APIs and addressing limitations in reporting functionalities."
"Lacks the ability to edit attachments within the solution."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is affordable compared to other platforms."
"The product's pricing depends on the usage plans."
"The product has good pricing."
"Notion offers a free plan that covers most functionalities. Clients are only prompted to upgrade if they require AI capabilities, priced at $10 for unlimited usage, or if they need to add team members, typically around $10 per member."
"The solution's pricing can seem steep, especially when you work with a lot of people. If you are working on your own or for another business, the solution's price won't affect you much."
"It's pretty affordable."
"I pay around $100 per year."
"Notion is free to use."
"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."
"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."
"The solution is 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."
"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."
"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."
"The solution is too expensive."
"I would assume there is a licensing fee. I don't think that it is free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
University
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Media Company
7%
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 do you like most about Notion?
I like the high level of customization in Notion.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Notion?
The licensing and setup cost for Notion is affordable for us as a small company.
What needs improvement with Notion?
The main problem with Notion is that it's not flexible enough for all of the use cases we intend to address. For instance, it is challenging to focus on a single KPI as it's mandatory to have a cha...
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.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Startups like Loom, Mixpanel, Blinkist, Adobe, Deel and Education facilities such as USC, Dartmouth and The University of Chicago.
Sony Music, ESPN, Hilton, Unisource, Colliers, Extreme Networks, Groupon, Netflix
Find out what your peers are saying about Notion vs. Smartsheet and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.