Smartsheet Reviews

I am using the core Smartsheet product right now and one of their premium add-ons called Resource Management. It was previously called 10,000ft, but they rebranded it. We're launching various programs at this university, and each project has a lot of steps. We need to highlight the essential metrics that executives want to monitor and talk about at their meetings when they discuss the program launch status.

We built a dashboard in Smartsheet that pulls data from 50 different projects and highlights things like program launch dates, marketing launch dates, past-due items, at-risk items, etc. I have a module for revisions to existing programs. This dashboard feature sold us on the core product, and it's where we get the most value

Smartsheet has help us scale our organization past Excel sheets. We were manually updating cells upon cells of information in Excel and no one had a clear picture of what was happening with projects in real time. Smartsheet changed that.

Information for projects was fluid and the automations and alerts were able to keep key stakeholders aware of pertinent information at the click of a button. With Smartsheet, we are able to focus on the "why" behind our project data. We are able look at our dashboards and see the big picture.

We like Smartsheet's workflows, automation, and low-code capabilities. I don't know of any other project management tool with low-code functionality designed for project managers. 

For example, you can build a workflow to alert your marketing director when assets have been approved. I can't think of another tool that has the same low-code functionality.

The capabilities of connecting your project portfolio together helps remove administrative work. That's Smartsheet's selling point, removing the manual work from your day-to-day with automation, alerts, and workflows so you can focus on managing the project itself.

I would like if Smartsheet allowed more formulas in its sheets. I don't think working with formulas is as intuitive as it is in Excel. I use Vlookups and index matches in some of my sheets, and I had to find an outside consultant to help me build out those formulas. 

I'm a pretty smart guy, but I could not figure out how to get the formulas to work in tandem across a couple of different sheets so I could pull in the necessary information. They could make the formulas more intuitive or provide more training. That's probably my biggest complaint.

I also don't like having to save when I update a sheet or a report. Autosave is standard in most solutions these days. They have autosave, but it's not as quick as I'd like it to be. When I update a sheet, I want it to save instantly, so I can go to the next one. If you make a quick update and want to move on, you have to hit Ctrl-S and remember to save. It'll give you a pop-up window that reminds you to save. Most competitors, like Asana, have a quick autosave feature. 

In the next release, I'd like to see improvements to the dashboards. The dashboards are a critical feature, and I love building them for our executives here. They look fine, but they're simple lines of text and blocks. I think they could look a bit prettier.

Smartsheet has invested time into thinking about how they display information on the dashboards, but they could do better. While I don't think there's anything wrong with their current dashboard visualizations, I would love to see a more modern look. Right now, the interface looks a bit dated.

I've used Smartsheet for three years.

I've only had to scale up Smartsheet to about 500 users. I've never been in the thousands, but I haven't had problems. Smartsheet is the most affordable project management tool because you can invite users into your system, and they don't have to have a license. That's one of the most significant benefits. 

The only people who need licenses in our Smartsheet environment are the ones building sheets, reports, and dashboards. We only need to pay for the managers of the system that I have to pay for, which is highly affordable. Everyone else has shared access. They have a link that gets them into a sheet to see what's happening.

On the other hand, if you're not saving and refreshing your sheets all the time, people with shared access might be looking at inaccurate data. At the end of the day, it gets the job done. I haven't had issues adding a bunch of people to the sheets.

I've never contacted Smartsheet technical support, but I've reached out to my customer service representative and had them walk me through how they set up a sheet to get their opinion. 

They aren't miracle workers, but they provide a frank answer whenever I have a problem. They'll also take my feedback and put it into their suggestion box. They take requests for features I want that they don't necessarily have. That's more than I can ask for.

Positive

We were using Asana, but we switched to Smartsheet because it offered more features for the price. The primary reason we switched was the functionality. Smartsheet's price was great, but we like the low-code functionality and automation. It ties our entire project management ecosystem together. 

No other tool lets me tie it together so that all the data points talk to one another. The sheets talk to the reports, which take to the dashboard. The intake is integrated into our Outlook environment. It's all connected. That was the main reason we switched. It connects in a manageable way, and I don't need a developer to help me navigate the system. It's simple enough that a project manager can figure out how to build these systems to talk to one another. 

If you're a PMP-certified project manager with a good background in project management, I think Smartsheet's setup is quite intuitive. Smartsheet took the formula that MS Project and made it more accessible. MS Project is a  nightmare to learn. They made it easier for project managers using MS Project to build a project management environment.

The setup is straightforward when you know precisely what sheets, reports, and dashboard information you need. It's intuitive to a person with project management training, but you'll probably struggle if you're a marketing coordinator. Those types of people would probably be more comfortable in Asana, ClickUp, or Teamwork, but it was easy for me because I understand project management fundamentals.

We practically couldn't run our business without it at this point. Sure, we could run the company, but it'd be a lot more cumbersome. I've built so much automation now that kicks out immediate communications in Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc. It would all be manual without that, and it would add a massive administrative burden to the way my people do their work here.

We pay for a yearly license, and the price is reasonable compared to Smartsheet's competition. It's one of the cheapest solutions compared to Asana, ClickUp, or other project management solutions. 

Smartsheet only requires licenses for project managers. When we were using Asana, we had to purchase a license for everyone who wanted to access their tasks and use the system. That gets costly fast. It was one of the main reasons we left Asana. As Asana and these other tools scale, they become way more expensive.

My advice for people thinking about implementing Smartsheet is to go ahead and set up whatever project management environment you want. There isn't a better low-cost option than Smartsheet. For around 25 bucks, you can make your own system. You get three licenses and can start playing around with it.

The initial up-front investment will be low, and you have a support community that has the answers to nearly any question about the types of sheets and reports you want to build. If you just Google any question and add the word "Smartsheet," you'll probably find an answer.

I rate Smartsheet 10 out of 10. There's no other project management tool that's even worth my time. I like its low-code functionality and how it integrates the entire project management environment in an evergreen fashion. Once I set up all the automation, I don't have to touch it again. 

It saves you all the administrative hassle you usually face when you work in Excel or Google Sheets, so you can focus on doing the work, managing your projects, and looking at the data. It saves you a lot of work that you normally do when you're working on Excel or even some of these other project management tools that don't offer the same features.

There's tons of information to help you build the environment you want. I recommend going with Smartsheet, engaging with the support community, and using Smartsheet's templates. Smartsheet already has 50 to 100 different templates that you can leverage that are pre-built with automation and alerts to get you started.

You can figure out what parts of the templates you like or don't and customize your system. They offer so many resources. If you engage with them at the start, you can figure out what you like. 

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.

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.

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.

I have been using the product for a year. 

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

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.

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

I have used the tool's trial version.

I'm working around the project management delivery. Most of the use cases center around project management - planning, action items, decisions, issues, or rate logs, plans, and sometimes forms to collect information, however, not as much.

The ability to have users without a license has helped us a lot. Meaning if I'm working on a project with a certain amount of team members, the next time I'm working on another project with other stakeholders, the ability to have them access all the resources based only on my license was pretty cool and made it easy to use, meaning even creating a template, it allows others use it. In my case, there are not as many creators, just users. It was very useful compared to anything else that we had, any other solutions that we had.

The dashboard feature is the most valuable aspect of the solution. The ability to put a lot of stuff easily into various sheets is something that I'm using particularly often. 

I'm working around project management. Anything that they can emulate from the more specialized solutions, in terms of Microsoft Project or anything else that could bring the project plans to a closer alignment with Microsoft Project, that'd be great in terms of task dependency and automatic adjustments. 

Maybe the solution could be a little bit more flexible. It's a very nice and optimal solution, however, it's not 100% in all directions. Some of the more advanced features of Excel could be there. 

You have certain fields that you conditionally format. On certain occasions, you are not able to override those. You have to go by the formula or eliminate the formula, the conditional formatting thing. That is sometimes in project management - you have to go by the rules, then you have to overrule certain times. It's a little annoying sometimes that you have to remove the conditional formatting in order to impose, for example, the red status, red, amber, or green, according to what you know, not what was calculated. 

Overall, it's something that we use and then we adapt our ways of working around the tools that we have. Altogether, it's a positive experience.

I'm not a heavy user. Once I set up the template, it's just like using it there, however, I would be interested in maybe being connected to the labs, their labs in which they've got beta or gamma versions of proposed features being tested, and I would be willing to test them out. 

I've been using the solution for three or four years.

I've never encountered anything that can qualify as a performance issue or instability. It's stable.

Here's maybe the limitation. Obviously, it's very good for smaller projects. When you try to combine and make it become more of a program or portfolio, then probably it has its limits. I understand there are extensions, however, the extensions are paid and not necessarily used in every single location. Purchasing a module just one or two times, it's probably good for that use case. For other cases, in which it's more scaled use, it's not necessarily from the standpoint of the number of users using it. However, from the features, more advanced features, and collating features from multiple sources, then it becomes a little bit more difficult to manage and/or there are no features to work in that situation.

The solution is not extremely widely used. I have been hesitant on promoting the solution as I don't want to become the point of contact and/or support for it now. Although I'm a self-learner and I created my templates and I've done everything on my own without necessarily professional services support from Smartsheet, promoting it elsewhere might put me in a situation in which I will be called for solving or implementation somewhere else, and this is not necessarily my calling.

I have not directly dealt with technical support. I used their extensive knowledge library, however, I never have actually reached out to technical support.

I was using Microsoft Project as the solution for my project planning activities, however, Microsoft Project had the project plan and the Gantt chart. I was using multiple separate tools, maybe more specialized, however, still in various places, or a few of them in the same place, like the reporting, the project plan, and the rate log in the same place, which made it simpler for the people to access it and for me to use it.

In terms of setup, there's nothing to be set up. It's a SaaS. There's nothing to be set up. It's just onboarding in terms of training yourself, or at most, integrating with your SSOs since it's an enterprise solution.

I am a user and customer.

I'm using the cloud version, therefore, I'm on the latest version of the product. It's a SaaS product.

I'd rate the solution a nine out of ten.

I use it to collect the status of various projects. Before we moved to Agile, a lot of us used it for project planning. In the PMO, I created a master list of all the projects in the company and basically just started compiling statistics on them, such as the project managers assigned to each project, what sprint they were in, and things like that. We are using its enterprise version.

The Gantt chart feature was incredibly useful. Smartsheet does a really good job of creating Gantt charts. Before moving to Agile, a lot of us used it for project planning. We basically used it to create a project plan, and we were able to add Gantt charts just like Microsoft Project.

Export to Excel feature was also very useful. I used it to export to Excel and gather project status. I also used it to customize forms and collect project status and other information from users. Basically, I used it very much like Excel, except it is way more robust.

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. You can integrate it with other major tools like Jira and Microsoft Teams, which is incredibly useful.

The downside of Smartsheet is that there are some security concerns. Security is quite good
with the enterprise version, but there are some loopholes. It should be easier to restrict the users within the organization from sharing sheets outside of the domain. 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. We have analytical groups in our company who should not be allowed to add attachments because they can attach sensitive information, which is something we don't want. The ability to prevent certain features of Smartsheet for a user group is not there. I couldn't find a way to do that. This is where there is room for improvement.

It already has a really powerful Export to Excel feature, but it can have an Excel add-on. It can have something just like an Excel integration or something that would make it easier for people who aren't really familiar with Smartsheet but are more familiar with Excel. 

The sign-in process was actually confusing. 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 definitely needs to be improved. They create a ticket, and then it disappears. It is very hard to understand to whom that ticket is assigned.

I have been using it for almost three years.

It is 100% stable. It probably went down only once or twice in the last almost three years.

I don't know about scalability, but it has the ability to integrate with a lot of tools. We have integrated it with Microsoft Teams and Jira. These are the two most powerful integrations that are helping it scale. The fact that you can integrate it with other major tools like Jira and Microsoft Teams is incredibly useful. The Microsoft Teams integration is very useful because if a certain project manager or a scrum master is required to enter a status for their project, they receive an instant message in their Microsoft Teams inbox. This is a really nice feature.

In terms of the number of users, we have 5,000 people, and only a fraction of those people use it. We have around 2,000 users. The security concern is the reason why a large portion of them aren't allowed to use it.

Smartsheet's customer service definitely needs to be improved. It has been a few months since I've talked to them. They're easy to get ahold of, but it has been the general consensus in our company that they create a ticket, and then it disappears. It is very hard to understand to whom that ticket is assigned. Their customer service definitely needs to improve, but for the most part, it has definitely improved over the past year since I've used it.

Its initial setup was extremely straightforward. It is very easy to use in terms of the learning curve.

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.

We did not really evaluate other options. We use Microsoft Project, and we tried using Jira for a project management solution. Now that we're fully Agile, we don't really have the need for project plans, but we still use Smartsheet.

It is a really robust tool, and it has really improved. They've improved its user interface a lot. Before using this tool, I would advise evaluating the size of your organization and your security needs. If you don't have too many people using Smartsheet, or if you have less than 50 licensed people, it is completely acceptable to go with the standard implementation. It isn't at all bad for a small startup in terms of pricing. Similarly, if there isn't really a huge need for security, you don't need to go with the enterprise version. It is significantly more expensive. Because we're a fairly large organization compared to startups, we went with the enterprise solution, which provides a slew of features. It is more than okay to go with the basic version of it.

I would rate Smartsheet an eight out of ten. There are some small flaws, but it is definitely a very powerful tool.

The only benefit of the solution is collaboration. When I assign tasks, my team members get an email, and they can click on it and update their tasks. Smartsheet’s reporting capabilities help us with capacity planning.

Smartsheet is a really good tool for collaboration. If I put somebody’s name into an assignment, they get an email. They know what they’re being assigned, and they can access it. I don't have to run around chasing people. The emails help in workflow efficiency. In terms of overall planning, capacity consolidation across plans is quite useful, but it takes a lot of effort to get it to work properly. It's not that intelligent, but it's better than Microsoft Project. From a workflow perspective, it's pretty powerful.

I do not like the solution. From a project management and planning point of view, it's awful. The product must adopt some of the functionalities that are already in Microsoft Project. They must adopt functionalities like auto-scheduling, linking tasks together automatically, and scheduling based on the dependencies.

We have to manually put in every dependency in Smartsheet. It is incredibly annoying. In Microsoft Project, we just highlight the two that we want to link and click the link option, and it makes them dependent.

I have been using the solution for six months.

The tool’s stability is fine.

The tool is very easy to scale. It seems unlimited. It's certainly within our requirements. Five or six people use it within one business unit in our organization. There might be more users in other teams. It is an engineering company. So, we use the product throughout the world.

Microsoft Project is way quicker for actual active planning. We have moved to Smartsheet because we've got a geographically distributed team. Now, I create the project in Microsoft Project and put it into Smartsheet for collaboration. Microsoft Project is way more functionally rich, so things are quicker. The ROI on Microsoft Project would be higher than on Smartsheet.

There is no deployment needed. We just create Smartsheet and share. It does not require maintenance.

The solution is too expensive. For what I use it for, it's too expensive. I wouldn't pay for it myself. I would prefer to buy Microsoft Project or use Zoho Projects.

I am currently evaluating Zoho Projects for my own use.

Overall, I rate the product a six out of ten.

The two critical use cases of Smartsheet are project management and task management.

To me, one of the most powerful features of Smartsheet is being able to email others.

A room for improvement I found in Smartsheet is the view, as it's currently row-wise. I should have the opportunity to view a full scale, top down list instead of just a column driven list. I shouldn't have to go just left or right. I should be able to view it top down.

I've been using Smartsheet for seven years.

Smartsheet is a stable platform.

Smartsheet is a scalable platform.

I provide technical support for Smartsheet within my company.

The initial setup for Smartsheet was easy. The platform was quick to deploy because it was plug-and-play. You put in your username and password, and your account is created for you.

We implemented Smartsheet ourselves.

I'm not tracking the ROI for Smartsheet.

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.

I'm also using Microsoft Project and Jira, together with Smartsheet, but Smartsheet is easier to use than Jira, though each solution has its own advantage.

I have some experience with Lucidchart, and I also have experience with Smartsheet.

I'm using the cloud version of Smartsheet, which is constantly updated.

Close to two thousand people use Smartsheet within my company.

One person is enough for the deployment and maintenance of the platform.

I advise anyone looking into using Smartsheet to start small and try it out first. Once you have the buy-in, you could scale it.

My rating for Smartsheet is eight out of ten.

My company is a customer of Smartsheet.

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.

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.

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.

I have been using Smartsheet for three years.

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.

Positive

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

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

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.

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.

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

Positive

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.

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

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.

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.