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Notion vs Smartsheet comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

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

Notion
Ranking in Project Management Software
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Knowledge Management Software (4th), Document Automation Software (3rd)
Smartsheet
Ranking in Project Management Software
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Project Management Software category, the mindshare of Notion is 2.4%, up from 0.6% 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

Iván Fanego - PeerSpot reviewer
Creates customizable systems and improve team collaboration
Notion is a very flexible and customizable platform, allowing users to create whatever they need. The most impactful feature for project management is the ability to invite multiple client stakeholders without complication. Once I understand the basics, it's easy to use despite an initial learning curve. It also significantly improves team collaboration through customized views and visualizations of data.
PaulDiaz - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup is easy."
"Customer support is great, effective, and easy to reach."
"Notion has very strong integration capabilities."
"Notion is heavily used in my workflow."
"The ability to structure data is one of the most essential functions of Notion."
"The product is easy to use and has good responsiveness."
"We can install it on mobile phones, making it feasible to manage productivity."
"The ability to create and organize notes, plans, and technical content in a single platform is the product's most valuable feature."
"This solution provides easy collaboration and allows non-building users to use the system without requiring a license."
"We like Smartsheet's workflows, automation, and low-code capabilities. I don't know of any other project management tool with low-code functionality designed for project managers."
"Granting access to Smartsheet is much simpler. Anyone can access it with just a link and password. Smartsheet also offers intelligent forms, allowing us to collect project proposals easily. Before our first meeting, I can review initial project ideas submitted through these forms. Additionally, attaching files is straightforward - no need to navigate through menus. The search function is also nice."
"Smartsheet does a really good job of creating Gantt charts. Export to Excel feature was also very useful."
"The tool reduces manual labour and it is user-friendly."
"The ability to update in real-time before meetings is great."
"The most valuable feature of Smartsheet is its intuitiveness, ease of use, and overall simplicity."
"As I am in the corporate legal department, I have to deal with a number of contracts and sometimes it's hard to keep up with email transactions. Having the tracker sheet and being able to build dashboards and workflow has been quite valuable."
 

Cons

"The platform's documentation feature needs improvement."
"There could be an automation feature included in the product."
"If the internet or Notion's servers are down, I cannot access information. This is a big disadvantage."
"It can be difficult to contact the people at Notion."
"Adding more color options to the application would enhance its usability and flexibility, allowing users to better customize their content"
"The only problem I experience is that it often hangs. I might find myself trying to load a new page, but I am unable to move from one page to another due to frequent hanging."
"One area for improvement in the solution is the absence of integrated charts."
"Notion's UI could be better."
"The system can become more challenging to use in more complex scenarios, requiring additional add-ons that can be quite costly."
"With a large quantity of data, the solution lags a bit."
"It already has a really powerful Export to Excel feature, but it can have an Excel add-on. The way to set up single sign-on wasn't too easy in the beginning, and it was hard to get hold of customer service. They should make it easier to set up SSO. Smartsheet's customer service also definitely needs to be improved."
"Smartsheet is a cloud-based tool similar to Google Sheets in that multiple stakeholders can work on a document simultaneously. However, unlike Google Sheets, which saves changes in real time, Smartsheet requires users to manually save their changes."
"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."
"If there was some way to store more complex files in the system, or if there was a back-end structure where you could store files, that would be ideal."
"I want to improve baselines, predecessor-successor relationships, and the ability to use manual starts and stops while keeping relationships intact. Changing dates and durations can be convoluted, unlike in Microsoft Project. There are many things I'm used to in other software that don't happen in Smartsheet. It's offset by how easy it is to link sheets and pull data at higher levels, but figuring out why I can't change data sometimes can be frustrating."
"We have to manually put in every dependency in Smartsheet."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Notion is free to use."
"The product has good pricing."
"Notion offers a free plan that covers most functionalities. Clients are only prompted to upgrade if they require AI capabilities, priced at $10 for unlimited usage, or if they need to add team members, typically around $10 per member."
"The pricing structure is quite reasonable, and the basic plan covers the most essential features."
"It's pretty affordable."
"The product has good pricing."
"The product is affordable compared to other platforms."
"The solution's pricing can seem steep, especially when you work with a lot of people. If you are working on your own or for another business, the solution's price won't affect you much."
"The solution is 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."
"There's a license for Smartsheet, and the enterprise plan comes down to about $750. My company also pays an extra $60 monthly apart from the standard licensing fee."
"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."
"I believe a licensed user costs between 300 to 400 euros."
"The solution is reasonably priced."
"Smartsheet can be low-priced, with personal subscriptions around eight dollars a month, but I imagine it gets pricier for enterprise systems. Microsoft Project can be more expensive."
"I pay $ 120 or $ 128 a month for two to three users."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Media Company
8%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
44%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Notion?
I like the high level of customization in Notion.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Notion?
It's affordable and offers community support if I get stuck. I can find help through community forums like Google, where people share insights on navigating problems. Many people understand it, off...
What needs improvement with Notion?
It is easy to use, and I love its UI. The only problem I experience is that it often hangs. I might find myself trying to load a new page, but I am unable to move from one page to another due to fr...
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.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Startups like Loom, Mixpanel, Blinkist, Adobe, Deel and Education facilities such as USC, Dartmouth and The University of Chicago.
Sony Music, ESPN, Hilton, Unisource, Colliers, Extreme Networks, Groupon, Netflix
Find out what your peers are saying about Notion vs. Smartsheet and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.