Smartsheet vs. Trello

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)
Trello
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Trello from Atlassian is a project management tool based on a Kanban framework. Trello is ideal for task-management in a to-do list format. It supports sharing boards and cards across users or teams. The product offers a free version, and paid versions add greater automation, collaboration, and administrative control.
$6
per month per user
Pricing
SmartsheetTrello
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
Standard
$6
per month per user
Premium
$12.50
per month per user
Enterprise
$17.50
per month per user
Free
Forever Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SmartsheetTrello
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing.A discount is offered for annual billing and for larger numbers of users.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SmartsheetTrello
Features
SmartsheetTrello
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
9.0
Ratings
16% above category average
Trello
9.5
Ratings
22% above category average
Task Management10.00 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Resource Management9.00 Ratings9.60 Ratings
Gantt Charts9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Scheduling10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Workflow Automation8.10 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Team Collaboration10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology7.00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology8.90 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Document Management8.90 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Email integration9.90 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Mobile Access8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management9.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
9.1
Ratings
19% above category average
Trello
5.0
Ratings
41% below category average
Quotes/estimates8.80 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Invoicing9.80 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting8.90 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software8.90 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SmartsheetTrello
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
SmartsheetTrello
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SmartsheetTrello
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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Trello is great for cross-team communication and intra-team organization. It's simple to get setup, with flexible tools that give businesses control over how to make Trello work the best for them. It is an amazing platform for operations tracking, project management, and even organizing customer service requests for a smaller business.
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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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  • Helps track employees "to do before hire", "to do after hired," and "to do when employee leaves"
  • Provides important information on each employee like personal information along with data collected during the time of hire and during employment time
  • Allows more than one person to be assigned to a task per employee and will remain open until everyone involved has completed their task
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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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  • I use colour coding a lot so I would like a wider range of colour options.
  • Also as a visual thinker I would like to be able to easily add images to cards.
  • I would like to be able to attach a wider range of file formats to cards.
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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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I am very likely to renew Trello, because it doesn't cost anything to do so. I am also very likely to use Trello's upgraded features in the future because a lot of my team's data is stored on there and they have already gotten used to the platform. Trello is very easy for new team members to pick up, making the onboarding and usability very streamlined.
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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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I am technology illiterate, it's my Achilles heel and this program is so easy to use. I have been utilizing it for a decade now. It makes organizing and prioritizing my life, my work, my business, my kids life, etc so much more manageable and without having to hold on to a bunch of into in my head. I can find it and locate it quickly and easily in Trello.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
yes always support available when I need it!
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Performance
No answers on this topic
Never experienced issues with the above!
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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 haven't had much need to contact their support because the product is easy to use and pretty bug-free. I did reach out to them about swimlanes and I was able to find the information I needed very quickly and it was thorough and accurate information about current functionality. I love that they use their own product. That's always a good sign.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
It was helpful and informative! It was back before the pandemic in 2019 so I'm not sure if they still do it but I really enjoyed the experience
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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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For our small business, getting a few of us started well on Trello was the key, I think. As long as a couple of us were really comfortable with the interface, we could lead others and help them with any questions. From now on, anyone who works with us just naturally uses Trello for information sharing - it's just part of what we do.
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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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Our business ended up using Monday due to the holistic nature of the tool. It allows us to collaborate amongst teams and see the project as a whole easier. Trello is for personal usage and task management. I use Monday to organize my overarching needs, and then put specific tasks into Trello to stay organized.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
Feels like anyone across the org (no matter their location) can use the tool easily!
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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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  • It's been an essential tool for our onboarding team. We wouldn't be able to operate without it.
  • It's been a very affordable investment for our team as well since we still use the free version.
  • We have had a negative return in the fact that there aren't any reporting tools within the app. We have to spend time tracking certain elements manually.
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ScreenShots