Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application available as part of Microsoft 365 (Office 365), or standalone, in cloud-based and on-premise editions.
$6.99
per month
Smartsheet
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Smartsheet is an online project management and collaboration tool. It includes automated alerts, instantaneous updating and sharing across team members, resource management, nested tasks organized in a hierarchy, a Gantt chart view, exportable and automated reports, and integration with email.
$12
per month per user (up to 10 users)
Pricing
Microsoft Excel
Smartsheet
Editions & Modules
Excel with Microsoft 365
$6.99
per month
Excel for 1 PC or Mac
$139.99
perpetual license
Pro
$12
per month per user (up to 10 users)
Business
$24
per month per user (3 user minimum)
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Advanced Work Management
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Excel
Smartsheet
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
A discount is offered for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Excel
Smartsheet
TrustRadius Insights
Microsoft Excel
Smartsheet
Highlights
Research Team Insight
Published
Microsoft Excel users have appreciated its flexibility for a variety of applications. As highlighted by reviewers, Excel has been widely used for data analysis, budgeting, creating charts, project management, among other tasks in both professional and academic settings. Users have found its functionalities, such as formulas, pivot tables, and macros, to be very powerful for dealing with large data sets and complex computations.
On the other hand, customers have cited Smartsheet as an ideal tool for project management, team collaboration and work tracking. According to user reviews, Smartsheet has been extensively used for scheduling, planning, tracking project timelines, resource allocation and more. It has been noted by users for its real-time collaboration, workflow automation, and integrations with other tools, which have especially benefited teams working remotely.
In comparison, Excel and Smartsheet serve somewhat similar use cases, but with different focuses. One striking difference from user feedback is the collaborative nature of Smartsheet, which seems to be more suited for real-time teamwork as compared to Excel. Yet, Excel’s powerful capabilities for handling large data sets and complex calculations have been brought to light, making it more suitable for in-depth data analysis tasks. Thus, user preference seems to heavily depend upon the specific needs and use-cases.
Features
Microsoft Excel
Smartsheet
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Smartsheet
9.0
Ratings
16% above category average
Task Management
00 Ratings
10.00 Ratings
Resource Management
00 Ratings
9.00 Ratings
Gantt Charts
00 Ratings
9.00 Ratings
Scheduling
00 Ratings
10.00 Ratings
Workflow Automation
00 Ratings
8.10 Ratings
Team Collaboration
00 Ratings
10.00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology
00 Ratings
7.00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology
00 Ratings
8.90 Ratings
Document Management
00 Ratings
8.90 Ratings
Email integration
00 Ratings
9.90 Ratings
Mobile Access
00 Ratings
8.00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking
00 Ratings
10.00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management
00 Ratings
9.00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management
00 Ratings
9.00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
I find it easier to use than Google Sheets , though it's easier to collaborate with other teams using Google Sheets. I also feel like Microsoft Excel is more suited to deal with complex formulas. The best way to put it, if I have a project that I'm solely working on, I'm going to use Microsoft Excel. If it's going to be shared, then I'm using Google Sheets.
The Smartsheet platform is extremely similar to Microsoft Excel, so if you are familiar with Excel, you will pick Smartsheet up quickly. Even if you aren't Smartsheet has a relatively simple user interface, meaning just about anyone can learn it. One thing to note is that the interface is that some may consider the interface so simple that they feel the need to look for more robust platforms. If you have a small to medium project that needs to be manages in a central hub, Smartsheet would be a great fit. If you have a very large project, I might consider looking into more advanced platforms.
Excel offers collaboration features that allow multiple users to work on the same spreadsheet, but managing changes made by different users can be challenging. Excel could improve its features by offering more granular control, better tracking of changes, and more robust conflict resolution tools.
Itcan be a barrier to productivity when importing and exporting data from other applications or file formats. To improve its features, it should offer better support for standard file formats and more robust error handling and reporting tools.
Excel can be challenging for finance students and working professionals, but it can be improved by offering more robust tutorials, better documentation, and more user communities and support forums.
Smartsheet set up is similar to Excel, yet when you upload an Excel file, things like conditional formatting are lost. Smartsheet has its own conditional formatting, and you have to reinstate the rules. It would be great if those would apply automatically once a file is uploaded
Some Smartsheet management and access rules can take some tweaking to work properly. This may be a case of offering more info to admins so they can apply these better and with more efficiency
Excel remains the industry standard for spreadsheets and has maintained simple and straight-forward formula writing methods. Although there is a learning curve to do more complex calculations, there are countless help sites and videos on the Internet for almost any need.
Smartsheet has made my work life easier. Reduced my email significantly. Smartsheet and SaneBox have got me leaving the office with 0... Yes 0 emails in my inbox. My inbox would reach 150-250 email per day. Smartsheet brought that number down significantly and SaneBox took it the rest of the way. Do yourself a favor and check out SaneBox, too.
Overall I think the usuability is great and offers everything it should. I have never not be able to use it for what I wanted it for. However, it is so detailed and offers so much it can be difficult to use. Better descriptions or explanation to all the information could be helpful
Smartsheet is very easy to learn. However, while I have been able to pick it easily, Microsoft Excel and Project super users that I have trained on Smartsheet get bogged down in the differences and can find it frustrating. Explaining the differences ahead of time and why Smartsheet is being chosen instead of a different software seems to counteract those reactions
They're a smaller company but they've always given great service when we rarely need to reach out. Pretty good online content but a bigger user base would help to produce more content in a self-sufficient community much as we see with Salesforce. To be fair we haven't needed their direct customer support very often. The sales guys are nice and not too pushy!
Work with the Smartsheet support team to get the best overall. If no one in your organization has used Smartsheet before, the support team will get things started. We had a couple of people who had used this product before and it was a great help in getting our framework together how we wanted to use it.
Excel is one of the tools I use for everyday work but fits alongside all the other programs I use. I keep Excel as a way of tracking projects from start to finish as well as document content strategy and audits. There are not many programs like Excel that I can think of other than Google Sheets and I find Excel is far better.
Smartsheet is a dedicated project management tool that is built on spread sheet principles. When compared to Microsoft's own offering, Smartsheet came out on top in some areas like dedicated project management features vs having to build custom features to Microsoft 365. However when you compare them on price, Microsoft 365 definitely has more value than Smartsheet.
Each user can use it to whatever level of expertise they have. It remains the same so users can contribute to another's work regardless of whether they have more or less expertise
It helps to me gather my thoughts, organize my research, and most importantly prioritize information in an easy to digest manner depending on what I am most interested to see at that time.
It helps me quite a bit to talk my clients through the financial implications of various office leasing transactions under consideration and coach them in a way that is very unbiased and fact-driven which I like.
It helps me to be more thoughtful as well when thinking about the various different situations in which I use Excel. And because it ultimately results in my clients getting comfortable ultimately pulling the trigger on a given deal, it directly leads to more commission in my pocket which I love!
