Smartsheet vs. Tableau Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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)
Tableau Cloud
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Tableau Cloud (formerly Tableau Online) is a self-service analytics platform that is fully hosted in the cloud. Tableau Cloud enables users to publish dashboards and invite colleagues to explore hidden opportunities with interactive visualizations and accurate data, from any browser or mobile device.
$15
per month billed annually per user
Pricing
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Editions & Modules
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
Tableau Viewer
$15
per month billed annually per user
Enterprise Viewer
$35
per month billed annually per user
Tableau Explorer
$42
per month billed annually per user
Enterprise Explorer
$70
per month billed annually per user
Tableau Creator
$75
per month billed annually per user
Enterprise Creator
$115
per month billed annually per user
Tableau+
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Features
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
9.0
Ratings
16% above category average
Tableau Cloud
-
Ratings
Task Management10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
9.1
Ratings
19% above category average
Tableau Cloud
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing9.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
7.0
Ratings
15% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
6.9
Ratings
15% below category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
7.1
Ratings
16% below category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
6.8
Ratings
16% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
7.0
Ratings
19% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
6.4
Ratings
20% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
6.4
Ratings
20% below category average
REST API00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Score 9.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
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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If you're using Tableau as the primary BI tool, then Tableau Cloud is well suited to publish and share the results with a wide(r) audience. It is well suited for various degrees of self-service proficiency, from pure consumers of analytical work to more advanced users who can use web editing for smaller or larger adjustments, and even for desktop power users who will publish their work to Tableau Cloud. It has many good ways to organize the content and make it easily accessible via search, favorites, folders, collections ("playlists for your data"), or history ("recents"). It might not be ideally suited if there are many on-prem sources to be used (even though there are options to connect them) or if you have very special requirements regarding custom server setup, which is limited in a shared cloud environment like Tableau Cloud.
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Pros
  • 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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  • Tableau Online is completely cloud based and that's why the reports and dashboards are accessible even on the go. One doesn't always need to access the office laptop to access the reports.
  • The visualizations are interactive and one can quickly change the level at which they want to view the information. For example, one person might be more interested in looking at the country level performances rather than client level. This is intuitive and one doesn't need to create multiple reports for the same.
  • The feature to ask questions in plain vanilla English language is great and helpful. For quick adhoc fact checks one can simply type what they are looking for and the Natural Language Programming algorithms under the hood parse the query, interpret it and then fetch the results accordingly in a visual form.
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Cons
  • 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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  • Can be a steep learning curve for new users
  • Modeling and building algorithms aren't always intuitive and take some testing/retesting to ensure it's working as it should
  • Inability to integrate easily with our HRIS platform. Reports are pulled from HRIS at various intervals and uploaded into Tableau
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Likelihood to Renew
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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The tool's capacity to handle complex data sources.
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Usability
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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From an end user perspective Tableau Online is overall very easy to navigate once you get used to it, my only complaint is that when expanding or contracting a graph, the "plus" and "minus" on the bottom left is sometimes hidden, and should always be visible. From a builder perspective, it can take some getting used to but the sheer depth of customization makes it all worthwhile.
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Support Rating
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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I have no had a lot of experience with the support team, but I know that it’s hardly necessary for the end-user to contact. Usually, the main questions I get are on how to read a certain dashboard or how to navigate to a certain place. Overall, the simplicity of the software is what helps out with less need for support.
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Implementation Rating
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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I wasn't part of the implementation team
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Alternatives Considered
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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When weighing the pros and cons of Tableau Online vs. SAP ERP, two key considerations emerged as clear winners. SAP ERP is a powerful data purification tool, but it doesn't measure up to the competition in terms of data presentation. When it came to data visualization and analytics, Tableau was our go-to tool. The price is the second consideration. Tableau, on the other hand, was the more cost-effective option for our requirements.
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Return on Investment
  • 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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  • No need to hire a team of developers to deliver our product, a huge cost savings for a start up company.
  • The ability to work off data extracts allows us to "set in and forget it" so to speak, which allows our customers to use the system during business hours with almost no cost in terms of database usage.
  • It has been a great internal tool for dashboarding company metrics and helping us track goals and implement solutions to meet those goals through efficient data analysis.
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ScreenShots