monday.com vs. Smartsheet

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
monday.com
Score 8.6 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
monday.com Work OS is an open platform designed so that anyone can create the tools they need to run all aspects of their work. It includes ready-made templates or the ability to customize any work solution ranging from sales pipelines to marketing campaigns, CRMs, and project tracking.
$12
per month per user
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
monday.comSmartsheet
Editions & Modules
Basic
$12
per month per user
Standard
$14
per month per user
Pro
$24
per month per user
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Contact us
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
monday.comSmartsheet
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsYearly plan: Save 18% Monthly plan also availableA discount is offered for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
monday.comSmartsheet
TrustRadius Insights
monday.comSmartsheet
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Monday.com and Smartsheet are team project management applications designed to help co-workers plan projects, assign tasks, track progress, and share information. Both products offer multiple ways of viewing projects and tasks, including Gantt charts, calendar views, and kanban boards. However, Smartsheet uses spreadsheets as the fundamental building blocks of projects, while monday.com has a custom UI with only a passing resemblance to tables or spreadsheets. monday.com is used primarily by small businesses, likely because it is slightly cheaper and its feature set is aimed at smaller-scale projects and teams. Smartsheet is primarily used by mid-sized companies and has a significant enterprise-level user base, likely because its spreadsheet-based design lends itself to larger-scale teams and projects.

Features

Both monday.com and Smartsheet offer core project management functionality, but they each offer unique benefits to their users.

monday.com is designed to be quick and easy to pick up and use. The software offers a single board for each project, giving managers and team members a quick overview of the project’s status. Each project board can be customized to display the most relevant data for that project. Users appreciate the automation tools to create tasks, move tasks through workflow processes, and automatically assign tasks to specific users. Integration with calendar applications, thread-based communication, and quick sharing of notes and to-dos help make monday.com a slick, intuitive way for teams to communicate and keep their projects moving.

Although Smartsheet uses spreadsheets to drive project management, it also offers many ways to view, sort, and filter the information in each sheet, helping individual users and managers navigate and understand project information. Its customizable reminder system can send reminders and warnings directly to e-mail accounts, helping users stay on track and avoid missed deadlines. Smartsheet also offers generous sharing permissions and guest access, making it easy for teams to collaborate with freelancers and contractors within the software. And since the interface is based on spreadsheets, users familiar with Excel or other spreadsheet software can get up and running quickly.

Limitations

However, each product has unique limitations as well. Before choosing monday.com or Smartsheet, be sure to consider their drawbacks.

monday.com can lack the depth desired by some users, especially on lower pricing tiers. Features like automation, guest access, and recurring tasks are locked behind higher tiers, meaning that some businesses will have to upgrade their license for access to necessary tools. Additionally, monday.com doesn’t offer a free version, and their licensing system isn’t very granular: if your five-person team adds a sixth member, you’ll need to upgrade to the ten-user plan. Finally, the system overall is geared towards small- and medium-scale projects and teams. Enterprise-level users might have difficulty scaling the system to work well for their needs.

Smartsheet may be familiar to Excel users, but that can also be a drawback. Smartsheet doesn’t have all of the advanced features offered by a dedicated spreadsheet system like Excel, leaving some users wishing for more complicated formulas or formatting options. Importing sheets to and from Excel files can be clunky and frustrating, with conditional formatting and other customizations getting lost in the process. For some users, Smartsheet did not explain its features properly, leaving them frustrated at the apparent lack of features such as Dropbox integration or the ability to save a copy of a sheet to a new file. If you choose Smartsheet, you may need to implement a robust training program to avoid these sorts of problems.

Pricing

Both monday.com and Smartsheet offer tiered subscription plans for pricing.

monday.com starts with the Basic tier at $8.00 per user per month and includes the core product functionality with 5 GB of storage, one project board per dashboard, and a Kanban view option. The Standard tier is $10 per user per month and adds automation features, Timeline and Calendar viewing options, up to 3 project boards per dashboard, and 50 GB of storage. The Pro tier is $16 per user per month and adds more automation capabilities, a Chart view option, up to 10 boards per project dashboard, and 100 GB of storage. The Enterprise tier is priced by quote and adds more automation and integration options, up to 50 boards per dashboard, and priority customer support.

Smartsheet’s pricing is divided into Standard and Enterprise plans. Standard plans begin at the Individual tier, which is $14 per month for a single user and allows up to 10 sheets with automation and Gantt, calendar, and kanban views. The Business tier is $25 per user per month and adds reporting, progress tracking, user management, and custom branding features, with up to 100 sheets per user. Enterprise plans are priced by quote and allow unlimited sheets per user and add features such as SSO and integration with user directory systems. Finally, the Premium tier is priced by quote and adds features like dedicated calendar applications, connectors for CRM products, and high-priority customer support.

Features
monday.comSmartsheet
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
monday.com
8.9
Ratings
15% above category average
Smartsheet
9.0
Ratings
16% above category average
Task Management9.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Resource Management9.30 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Gantt Charts8.40 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Scheduling8.60 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Workflow Automation9.60 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Team Collaboration9.40 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology8.80 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology7.00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Document Management8.50 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Email integration9.40 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Mobile Access8.60 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management9.60 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management9.20 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
monday.com
9.8
Ratings
26% above category average
Smartsheet
9.1
Ratings
19% above category average
Quotes/estimates9.90 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Project & financial reporting9.80 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Integration with accounting software9.80 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Invoicing00 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Best Alternatives
monday.comSmartsheet
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
monday.comSmartsheet
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.6
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.5
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.1
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
monday.comSmartsheet
Likelihood to Recommend
Here, I will suggest that it is best to create employees, clients, or project reports. Easy to track with the dashboards. I did many integrations and developments. I can not list each of them here. I will say the best tool for management. I couldn't see criteria of unsuitable. But yes It will depend on the client's requirements. I will suggest it as very user-friendly tool for CEOs, CTOs, Managers, and company owners also for team.
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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.
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Pros
  • Set stages for each task and assign people to those stages to move projects along
  • Set up automated tasks to get assigned to people and to send out notifications to Slack as well as emails to contractors to work on a project
  • Create multiple boards for projects and the ability to review tasks by date to make sure no project slips through the cracks
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  • The easy to use dashboard has enabled us get comprehensive view of projects across the entire business.
  • It has streamlined internal communication with ease of sharing information across different teams.
  • Smartsheet automates our workflows, enhances collaboration and ensures there are no data silos.
  • I like that it saves time for us and ensures we spend less time switching between apps.
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Cons
  • Ensuring I have set up a Private board vs public board is not clear - it would be useful to have an additional alert when creating a board as I work with sensitive information. It will eventually be used in a team based environment but while I test the boards, they needs to be private.
  • Time tracking is clumsy, could be easier to record
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  • 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
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Likelihood to Renew
Teams involved in content creation, such as marketing or editorial teams, could use monday.com to manage the entire content lifecycle. Boards might track content ideas, assignments, drafts, reviews, approvals, and publication schedules, helping teams collaborate and keep content production on track.
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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.
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Usability
It's straightforward to use and simple to understand. They have tutorials on different elements of the system that you can learn. The workflow there is very intuitive, drag and drop, which doesn't require a learning curve for most people. Templates that also make things more accessible can be found.
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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
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Reliability and Availability
There have only been 2 instances in the past year where monday.com was down.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
Everything performs fairly well. Every now and then there are user errors where an employee will not click "ok" on a note they've created and simply exit out (I do wish that something was in place to prevent this, such as a pop "are you finished?")
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
monday.com only really care about accounts that have 20 seats or more. While this is great for monday.com, it pushes smaller organisations to evaluate alternatives. We rate monday.com highly in our organisation because key staff have already got good experience with the application and we know we will get to 20+ seats one day. But, till then the billing model and lack of permanent enterprise features is a dread.
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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!
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Online Training
To have someone walk you thru the features and capabilities of Monday.com is priceless. Someone also coming along later in the contract to see if you are maximizing the program to suit your company needs is beyond helpful. The staff that have provided this training are fun, creative and very patient.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
We signed up for the accounts. Created the accounts. Ran the trial version and tested it live while we were running multiple projects and found that it was fitting our needs perfectly. When the trial ended and we were asked to purchase the full version, we did. We have found other ways to use it and it's a breeze.
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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.
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Alternatives Considered
We decided to go with monday.com because they offered a free tier for nonprofits and because they are easier to use and offered additional features that we could not find on the other choices. Hands down, there was no better choice for us than monday.com.
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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.
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Scalability
For it to work across multiple departments and sites, I would like to see improvements made with integrations and automation. For this question, I am acknowledging not only the addition of internal triggers/automation, but also an expansion on external ones.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • By using monday.com as an enablement tool for templated onboarding plans, we have been able to begin calculating the number of manager hours saved through our work (not defined yet).
  • monday.com's reporting tools also allow us to more easily report on the productivity and output of our team since we keep up with all projects and subitems in monday.com.
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  • Our positive ROI has decreased the overall cost in project management as it reduced the amount of MS project licenses we needed.
  • We have also seen a positive ROI on using the cloud storage and it automatically supports proper version control.
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ScreenShots

monday.com Screenshots

Screenshot of Work OSScreenshot of Ready-Made TemplatesScreenshot of MobileScreenshot of Visual BoardsScreenshot of Real-time NotificationsScreenshot of Automations