Adobe Workfront vs Smartsheet comparison

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Adobe Workfront

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Adobe Workfront and Smartsheet are competing products in project management and collaboration. Smartsheet has the upper hand in intuitive design and user adaptability, while Adobe Workfront offers comprehensive features suitable for complex projects.

Features: Adobe Workfront provides extensive workflow automation, customizable templates, and integration capabilities, making it ideal for specific project needs. Smartsheet offers flexibility with integration options, robust reporting, and user-friendly dashboards, appealing to businesses looking for adaptable solutions.

Room for Improvement: Adobe Workfront could enhance user interfaces, simplify deployment processes, and reduce initial costs. Smartsheet can improve by expanding its feature set, enhancing reporting options, and increasing its customization capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Adobe Workfront requires an involved setup process and benefits from dedicated support. In contrast, Smartsheet offers a simpler deployment experience due to its cloud-based nature and accessible customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Adobe Workfront has a higher initial setup cost and detailed pricing based on features and users. Smartsheet typically offers lower entry pricing, scalable options, and can lead to a faster ROI for cost-effective project management.

To learn more, read our detailed Adobe Workfront vs. Smartsheet Report (Updated: March 2025).

Adobe Workfront vs. Smartsheet

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Adobe Workfront

Ranking in Project Management Software

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Digital Asset Management (1st)

Smartsheet

Ranking in Project Management Software

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Project Portfolio Management (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Project Management Software category, the mindshare of Adobe Workfront is 3.4%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Smartsheet is 4.5%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Project Management Software

Featured Reviews

Graham Sprague

Sr. Manager/Adobe Workfront Fusion Developer at Staples, Inc.

Centralized task management and simplified creative collaboration but interface is inconsistent

Adobe Workfront could improve its interface, which may benefit from an overhaul for better consistency between the web interface and the API. The current setup was not originally designed API-first, leading to some confusion and differences in available functions. Additionally, the low-code environment in Workfront Fusion is beneficial yet sometimes limiting, and it might be more powerful with enhancements.

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PaulDiaz

Project Manager at Amgen

Needs to improve baselines and changing dates can be frustrating

I like the dashboarding feature best, as it lets me assemble a workspace with source sheets, dashboards, and reports simultaneously. The standard reports and worksheets are most useful for team collaboration. People look at dashboards during presentations, but they go to the sheets to update projects, add comments, or make notifications. It's automated, so changes come to me or whoever needs to see them. I can send notifications from specific line items. The worksheet is key for tracking project progress, though we track it at a higher level rather than detailed work breakdown structures. Subject matter experts say when they'll deliver things, and that's what we track.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Monitoring the progress of projects and tasks is very effective."

"Workfront is innovative and these were plenty of features that I found valuable while working at Logitech. Workfront had this feature of Project Schedule Templatization. This saves time and effort and even leads to the standardization of processes that are well-assorted. The Intelligent Graphical Interfaces of Workfront allow one to look at a specific type of resource and a specific phase for a specific family of products. You can get quite granular with the data and even zoom in or out of the timeline. It also categorizes projects according to classes and portfolios so that over time, you can more easily understand what are the various metrics involved in producing a specific portfolio Another important feature is Workfront allowing you to validate milestones and investigate the project. This also helped me to understand which projects are performing well and whether it was beneficial to invest in the same. The IT and the app configuration is quite secure and it is one of the benefits. One more valuable feature is the integration of communication systems inside Workfront. This helps you differentiate between normal business emails and project-specific conversations. This is also known as ‘queues’ and I absolutely find this feature extremely powerful."

"I also like Workfront's integration. The solution integrates natively with other systems. It's easy to connect Workfront to any product that has a customer service database, such as a CRM or service ticket management solution."

"The solution is stable."

"I can say it is a powerful tool. We have everything in-house in that tool, like, creating reports, dashboards, creating various workflows, and everything we have inside one application."

"Workfront centralizes the tasks, the assignment of tasks, and documents required to do the work, streamlining communication and information availability, thus improving organization and reducing dependency on decentralized methods like email or servers."

"Feature-wise, I would say that its overall ability to be infinitely customizable is valuable...My experience with the support team has been amazing."

"The intake feature is the most valuable in Workfront."

More Adobe Workfront pros

"The management aspect is the most valuable. You can also prioritize tasks and then view tasks by priorities as passports."

"Smartsheet is a really good tool for collaboration."

"The tool reduces manual labour and it is user-friendly."

"Smartsheet is easy to use."

"The dashboard feature is the most valuable aspect of the solution."

"Smartsheet does a really good job of creating Gantt charts. Export to Excel feature was also very useful."

"The solution is scalable."

"It's very user friendly."

More Smartsheet pros

Cons

"Sometimes there are glitches when we are reviewing an interactive proof."

"The solution's visualization feature could be user-friendly."

"Workfront's reporting capabilities must be improved."

"I would say that the stability, honestly, has gone down since the Adobe acquisition, and the quality when they roll out their updates."

"I have used the product and instantiated it, almost seven years back. The process was fairly complex, however, I don't know if they have changed the same now. But this is something I think, if not addressed can be improved. Another area that needs a little attention, is the change of implementation lead. Back when we had Workfront instantiated, we often had our timeline delayed due to the change in the implementation lead. Now Workfront is under Adobe and, in case, this issue, isn't fixed it should be given due attention. Also, Workfront is a universal tool, which can pose a difficulty for small businesses and companies, who don't have the required time, effort, and knowledge to configure it periodically."

"Our product and graphic designers are working with various Adobe products, but Workfront has a no-frills interface. It's a useful tool with everything we need, but it could be a little more attractive and present information in a polished way. It's a web interface, so it's accessible, but the appearance could be a little slicker."

"The interface can also be customized to fit and accept many tools for better performance and customer service improvement."

"We were having some difficulties creating different kinds of reports and dashboards."

More Adobe Workfront cons

"The long-term timelines could be improved, especially the visuals on the projection Gantt chart."

"Initially, there were issues like dropdowns. Those have been overcome."

"With a large quantity of data, the solution lags a bit."

"Smartsheet's export and print functions could be more seamless. Once I create the plan in Smartsheet, I need to import it into my corporate web presentations. This isn't always smooth. I have to save it in PDF format, then cut an image from the PDF version."

"The product must include more modules for project management."

"It would be beneficial to enhance user-friendliness and make it less complex while maintaining its overall excellence as a product."

"The main challenge with Smartsheet is that when you start putting components on the Smartsheet dashboard, they don't know about each other. So, if I filter something in one widget, or if I click on a region or a project ID, the other widget or component and the visualization that's on that dashboard don't change. It doesn't know about the other component."

"The downside of Smartsheet is that there are some security concerns. 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."

More Smartsheet cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Adobe Workfront is an expensive solution."

"The pricing of Workfront is completely license based."

"The pricing is a barrier to implementation. It is expensive compared to other competitors. Speaking about licensing, they have a private manager license for $1000, which you can use for administration as well. Then they offer a worker license for $500, and then a reviewer or contributor license which is free."

"We are partners with Adobe, so we get the licensing at a cheaper rate."

"Adobe purchased Workfront in the past year, and they're putting work into developing the platform, so I expect the price to rise. It isn't cheap, but it's reasonable for the value it provides. It isn't Monday.com where you pick a license with a set price, and you've got a project manager."

"Speaking about pricing, I wouldn't recommend it to a smaller company because I do think the price point is higher than other solutions that can work."

"There would be more extensive usage if the solution were cheaper. It's really expensive right now, and that's why we provide a few licenses for admins. The rest of them are just users without admin privileges."

"The solution is reasonably priced."

"I would assume there is a licensing fee. I don't think that it is free."

"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."

"If I'm not mistaken, it was pretty manageable. It was about 200 bucks a seed. The business really felt a strong need for it. So, it was viewed as a safer and more straightforward cost that we were willing to pay as compared to Domo, which took some convincing."

"The solution is too expensive."

"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."

"This licensing is straightforward and they charge per user."

More Smartsheet pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

65%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Educational Organization

44%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Workfront?

I can say it is a powerful tool. We have everything in-house in that tool, like, creating reports, dashboards, creating various workflows, and everything we have inside one application.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Workfront?

Workfront incurs around a hundred thousand plus dollars per year. Licensing is strict, particularly with free accounts, however, it offers flexibility in project access, which could be enhanced fur...

What needs improvement with Workfront?

Has anyone moved from Microsoft Project to Smartsheet? How has your experience been with Smartsheet?

Hi @Eire Zimmermann, I helped an organization evaluate both MS-Project and Smartsheet when they were conducting their PM tool RFP. The short of it is this, MS Project is not caught up with the mo...

What do you like most about Smartsheet?

The tool creates shareable dashboards. These dashboards allow us to display project deliverables' status, their position in the queue, expected delivery timelines, and more. The best part is that t...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Smartsheet?

The pricing is great and reasonable enough that I maintained my copy and bought it for my team independently.

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Product Reports

Adobe Workfront

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Download Smartsheet product report

Also Known As

AtTask, Workfront DAM

No data available

Overview

AtTask is a cloud-based Enterprise Work Management solution that helps marketing, IT, and other enterprise teams conquer the chaos of excessive email, redundant status meetings, and disconnected tools. Unlike other tools, AtTask Enterprise Work Cloud is a centralized, easy-to-adopt solution for managing and collaborating on all types of work through the entire work lifecycle, which improves team productivity and executive visibility. AtTask is trusted by thousands of global enterprises, like Adobe, Cisco, HBO, House of Blues, REI, Trek, Schneider Electric, and ATB Financial. To learn more, visit www.AtTask.com or follow us on Twitter @AtTask.

Adobe

Smartsheet is a dynamic platform with features like real-time data sharing, Gantt charts, and integration with Jira and Microsoft Teams, offering valuable tools for efficient task management.

Smartsheet combines Excel-like functionality with cloud accessibility, making it efficient for tracking, reporting, and workflow management. Users benefit from its scalability and robust security, making it ideal for enterprise-level projects. However, improvements in data visibility, real-time collaboration, and user-friendliness can enhance its utility. Customizable dashboards, project management features, and seamless integrations offer great flexibility, though there is a demand for better automation, API enhancements, and new templates.

What are Smartsheet's most important features?

Real-time Data Sharing: Facilitates seamless collaboration between users.
Project Management Tools: Includes Gantt charts and task prioritization for efficient project tracking.
Integration: Works with major platforms like Jira and Microsoft Teams for comprehensive data flow.
Automation Capabilities: Reduces manual work with robust automation functionalities.
Customizable Dashboards: Allows users to tailor dashboards to meet specific needs.

What benefits or ROI should users look for in reviews?

Efficiency: Streamlines workflows with tools that enhance project tracking and collaboration.
Scalability: Supports growing enterprise demands with its scalable architecture.
Security: Provides robust, secure environments for data management.
Adaptability: Offers flexibility to customize workflows for improved resource management.

Smartsheet is utilized by organizations in industries like engineering, education, and IT for project management, task tracking, and data integration. It enables planning, scheduling, and team collaboration, facilitating dashboard creation and automation of processes. Its flexibility in customizing workflows is appealing to those managing projects and programs.

Sample Customers

Advance Autoparts, Emerson, Covario, Cisco, Caroma, TREK, Sapient Nitro, ATB, LexisNexis, CarPhone Warehouse

Sony Music, ESPN, Hilton, Unisource, Colliers, Extreme Networks, Groupon, Netflix

Adobe Workfront vs. Smartsheet