Smartsheet Reviews

The two critical use cases of Smartsheet are project management and task management.

To me, one of the most powerful features of Smartsheet is being able to email others.

A room for improvement I found in Smartsheet is the view, as it's currently row-wise. I should have the opportunity to view a full scale, top down list instead of just a column driven list. I shouldn't have to go just left or right. I should be able to view it top down.

I've been using Smartsheet for seven years.

Smartsheet is a stable platform.

Smartsheet is a scalable platform.

I provide technical support for Smartsheet within my company.

The initial setup for Smartsheet was easy. The platform was quick to deploy because it was plug-and-play. You put in your username and password, and your account is created for you.

We implemented Smartsheet ourselves.

I'm not tracking the ROI for Smartsheet.

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.

I'm also using Microsoft Project and Jira, together with Smartsheet, but Smartsheet is easier to use than Jira, though each solution has its own advantage.

I have some experience with Lucidchart, and I also have experience with Smartsheet.

I'm using the cloud version of Smartsheet, which is constantly updated.

Close to two thousand people use Smartsheet within my company.

One person is enough for the deployment and maintenance of the platform.

I advise anyone looking into using Smartsheet to start small and try it out first. Once you have the buy-in, you could scale it.

My rating for Smartsheet is eight out of ten.

My company is a customer of Smartsheet.

We use the tool as the default software for managing all client projects. Our team of six uses it to create project plans and reporting dashboards for our clients.

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 these dashboards can be shared with our clients without a license.

Asana has a modern look and feel, particularly its agile project management interface featuring movable cards between columns.

I have been working with the product for six years. 

I haven't had issues with the tool's stability. I rate it an eight out of ten. 

My company has eight users for the solution. 

The tool's support is responsive. They are easy to work. 

Positive

I rate the tool's ease of deployment a ten out of ten. It was instant, and there was no real deployment. The solution doesn't require any maintenance. 

I did the deployment myself. 

The tool's monthly fee is 25 dollars, which is within the range of most cloud-based project management tools. I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten.

The tool is a good product; I am glad we have it. The main pros of Smartsheet include its familiar interface, especially for those accustomed to Excel, making the transition smoother for teams used to managing projects in spreadsheets. I recommend the tool to others since it is scalable and easy to set up. I rate it a ten out of ten. 

The only benefit of the solution is collaboration. When I assign tasks, my team members get an email, and they can click on it and update their tasks. Smartsheet’s reporting capabilities help us with capacity planning.

Smartsheet is a really good tool for collaboration. If I put somebody’s name into an assignment, they get an email. They know what they’re being assigned, and they can access it. I don't have to run around chasing people. The emails help in workflow efficiency. In terms of overall planning, capacity consolidation across plans is quite useful, but it takes a lot of effort to get it to work properly. It's not that intelligent, but it's better than Microsoft Project. From a workflow perspective, it's pretty powerful.

I do not like the solution. From a project management and planning point of view, it's awful. The product must adopt some of the functionalities that are already in Microsoft Project. They must adopt functionalities like auto-scheduling, linking tasks together automatically, and scheduling based on the dependencies.

We have to manually put in every dependency in Smartsheet. It is incredibly annoying. In Microsoft Project, we just highlight the two that we want to link and click the link option, and it makes them dependent.

I have been using the solution for six months.

The tool’s stability is fine.

The tool is very easy to scale. It seems unlimited. It's certainly within our requirements. Five or six people use it within one business unit in our organization. There might be more users in other teams. It is an engineering company. So, we use the product throughout the world.

Microsoft Project is way quicker for actual active planning. We have moved to Smartsheet because we've got a geographically distributed team. Now, I create the project in Microsoft Project and put it into Smartsheet for collaboration. Microsoft Project is way more functionally rich, so things are quicker. The ROI on Microsoft Project would be higher than on Smartsheet.

There is no deployment needed. We just create Smartsheet and share. It does not require maintenance.

The solution is too expensive. For what I use it for, it's too expensive. I wouldn't pay for it myself. I would prefer to buy Microsoft Project or use Zoho Projects.

I am currently evaluating Zoho Projects for my own use.

Overall, I rate the product a six out of ten.

It is my favorite project management tool. The reason for that is that it is very flexible. It is much easier to use than Microsoft Project in terms of creating custom fields. It is very similar to Excel. So, people understand it, which makes it a little bit easier to use for most users. From my experience, most people don't like using Microsoft Project if they need to create any kind of custom column. I was never unable to create the functionality I needed.

It has got a really nice workflow engine. It is helpful if you want to let people know based on a date or criteria. Anytime a new project was submitted to the project intake table, I would get an email. You can also send the email to Slack or a whole host of different types of targets. If a task was due next week, I could have the system send an email that says, "Hey, you've got a task coming up next week," and then, if it was late, I could have it send an email or a Slack message to somebody. That was very helpful.

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.

It probably also doesn’t allow you to level resources in a project plan. So, if I assign five tasks to you and they all occur on the same day, in Microsoft Project, I can level them. Because you can only do one thing in a day, it would spread those out over five days, instead of all piled up on a single day, but I don't think Smartsheet had that.

I started with it back in 2019. In less than a year, I was a power user. I was doing presentations to the broader user group about all the different solutions we were building in our division. So, I'm considered fairly proficient at this tool.

It is stable. I've never had any issues.

It is scalable. I never reached any data limits. I used to know what the data limits were. My suspicion is that if you're looking to have a massive data warehouse, you're probably not going to use Smartsheet, but if you're building some processes and supporting some processes that are fairly light with basic notification and things like that, it can handle enough data. It can handle a corporate PMO and all the tasks in a fairly easy manner. So, it seems scalable,  but I don't know the upper limits. We never ran into any data constraints.

It is good. I did have some issues from time to time. They weren't so significant, but they managed those in a professional and timely manner.

I also work with Domo. Achilles heel for me is that Smartsheet's dashboards are missing a key piece of functionality, which is the whole reason I have to use Domo. When you put components on the Smartsheet dashboard, they are not aware of each other. That's the beauty of Domo where every component that you have on your dashboard is listening, and if it knows how to, it'll change the data it is displaying based on how you interact with the other components on the dashboard on that page, whereas Smartsheet doesn't do that. For example, in Domo, you can pick a project ID and go filter down the entire dashboard just to show data about a given project. In Smartsheet, I'd have to create a whole separate dashboard. If you want to show a report for a bunch of different regions or a bunch of different departments, you might have to create 5 to 10 separate different dashboards to support the company. If you are asked to add a new pie chart there that shows the number of tasks, or the tasks broken down by red, yellow, or green status, you would have to add that in 5 to 10 different places. Instead of just adding it once on one dashboard and having it work and filter for every single project, like in Domo, you'd have to go and update 5 to 10 different dashboards.

They do have a piece of software called Control Center that helps manage that. It is an automation engine. If you have built your solution using their Control Center automation tool, and you change a dashboard there, it can automatically go and update the existing dashboards that are out there, but I haven't used that. It is an expensive component. In one of my companies where we had this, I was the very first person outside of the company trained in the Smartsheet Control Center. It is quite nice. It is relatively new. It has been around only for less than four or five years, but it is a little more complicated to work with. Generally, you hire a Smartsheet consultant to configure your Control Center and create solutions using that automation tool, but I was able to do it for my company. They had bought all of the components. So, I was able to use that along with a bunch of other components. They had some upsell components, such as DataMesh, Data Uploader, and Control Center, but in my last company, they hadn't paid for those things. So, using its dashboards to support the entire business required a lot of maintenance. Typically, I don't have a lot of people in my department. So, I wasn't willing to try and use that because it would've taken a lot more maintenance. I was able to convince the organization to pay for Domo because I could finish the solution by myself and be able to maintain it because I only needed a single dashboard and not a whole bunch of different dashboards.

Power BI, in my opinion, is very competitive as a tool. Microsoft is pretty good at making things reasonably usable. It works well with Excel, and it has an Excel-type metaphor. It has similar functionality to Domo where components on the page know about each other, as long as your data model is set up properly. My instinct is that if they're not careful, Smartsheet could lose a lot of business to Power BI without a stronger dashboard solution.

I didn't set it up. There was a whole separate group for that. Both companies that I came to already had people using it. In both cases, I managed and administered the licenses just because it was really pretty straightforward. Buying new licenses, getting those into the system, managing the deployment of those licenses, and other things like that were pretty straightforward and pretty light work. I wasn't really a true administrator, but we did the single sign-on setup. That was all fairly straightforward. When you buy a software-as-a-service tool, generally, you can start using things pretty quickly. So, we were able to get started right away while we continued to configure and manage the licenses and configure the system.

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.

My advice would be to not be intimidated by this tool. If you know Excel, you know 80% of how to work with Smartsheet. It is quite flexible. The main difference is you can more strongly type the columns, which is a good thing because you're ensuring that the data records that you are producing and managing contain the data that they should. It is good data validation. You end up with cleaner and stronger data that's easier to work with. So, you shouldn't be intimidated by that. It is so similar to Excel, but you get the additional workflow.

From a project perspective, the only thing you couldn't do is be able to level resources in a project plan, but it has got all the other project features. It has got a really simple workflow engine to notify people and communicate. So, it has a lot of power, and people should not be intimidated by it. It is pretty straightforward, and they should feel like they can get up to speed quickly in it. If you're used to working with Excel and other tools like that, you can get into Smartsheet and be productive very quickly.

I'd give it a 9 out of 10. It is a great tool for the things that I use it for. It would be a 10 or an 11 if the dashboard components were more aware of each other. If it had the same capabilities as Domo, it would be a top-tier tool.

Leadership changes occur every two years in my company, which is a public organization. This includes changes in CEOs, directors, leaders, coordinators, and other positions. We need to track strategic cycles, projects, and portfolios with each change. Each project involves a large team collaborating to understand needs and find solutions.

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. 

The Gantt chart is a valuable tool for public organizations. There is a significant emphasis on external control compliance. Therefore, with this feature, you change the content in every cell in the sheet and in the timeline, and you can track and see the day, time, and the person changing the value. Furthermore, you can choose whether to display a PDF or an HTML page. It helps to update documents quickly. The tool is easy to use.

Every feature for text mining, even process mining, would be a plus. We have about two hundred contract management events daily. First, I share specific documents. I talk about the search function because we assume it has a thorough search when we read the catalog. But when you test it, you realize it doesn't search within attachments. So, it's a great search function, but you need the brand folder. It has many options and can become complex.

I have been using the product for a year. 

I rate Smartsheet's stability a ten out of ten.

I worked for Siemens in Brazil, the United States, and Germany. They used to have about half a million employees recorded in Primavera. It was nice, very rich, safe, and secure. I have also used Microsoft Project which was great for rigid timelines but not suitable for cost management. I never used Excel.

The tool's deployment is easy since it's online. It takes only ten minutes to complete.

I have used the tool's trial version.

Smartsheet is a cloud storage service where I store all the project files. I also use the tool to create project schedules, automate approval flows, and create dashboards.

I like that Smartsheet integrates Excel with a cloud-based project management software. Since everybody's really familiar with Excel, you can use Excel-type formulas in the Smartsheet to calculate certain things.

The solution should include integrations with other platforms or software. Smartsheet can look to integrate with financial software like QuickBooks, project management software, construction software, IT software, and SAP to pull data from different databases.

I have been using Smartsheet for three years.

I've onboarded Smartsheet for a company that creates databases and dashboards. It was like a meeting a week for six weeks to eight weeks, and it was really good.

Positive

The solution's initial setup is not too difficult. To set up the tool, you go to its website, get a free membership for a little bit, and then pay subscriptions for users.

The solution's pricing is not bad. I think it's a fair price for the amount of work you can do with it. I pay $ 120 or $ 128 a month for two to three users.

I share Smartsheet with my team, all the stakeholders, owners, and project managers. They have access to it, and they can look at a to-do sheet or a project sheet. They can also download certain files that they need at certain times. If the files are updated, they're updated in the system. It's similar to Google Sheets or Google Docs, where you can go in and modify files. The solution's format is pretty good.

Smartsheet's real-time data tracking allows me to tell my clients that they can go to the tool and see real-time updates on what's going on with their projects.

The learning curve for Smartsheet is pretty quick because most people already know how to use Excel. Smartsheet looks exactly like Excel, where you just have to input data, but it has more capability. I would recommend the solution to other users because it simplifies running a project, storing data, and creating useful sheets for projects.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use the solution to manage and track operational tasks. We can create dashboards for services, design and distribute survey forms, and keep a check on project status using it.

The solution's most valuable feature is the ability to create dashboards for services. It helps in keeping a tab on multiple projects at once.

They should improve the solution's integration with API. It has certain limitations. The solution would work best integrated with multiple tools.

Also, they should add free templates compatible with multiple domains. It will be convenient for us to pick up the templates without worrying about the back-end process.

We have been using the solution for five years.

The solution is stable. We have come across downtime issues only once or twice. I rate its stability as a nine.

The solution has good scalability. We have purchased around 500 licenses. I rate its scalability as an eight.

I have contacted the solution's tech support team for some issues. They resolve the problems immediately. 

Positive

The solution's initial setup has medium complexity. I rate the setup as an eight, as its license is expensive. The deployment process takes around seven business days. Initially, we request a quotation from the vendor for the number of licenses we want to purchase. Then, we procure the PO after receiving the quote. Upon the release of the PO, they issue the software licenses.

I rate the solution's pricing as a six. It is expensive, but there are no additional costs involved.

I advise others to use Smartsheet for its in-built automation features. It helps create dashboards and maintain the data in one place. Also, we can put a message with a heading and description, attach snapshots, and track running issues as well, unlike Excel. I rate the solution as a nine.

I use Smartsheet to streamline our intercompany support process. Instead of sifting through emails, requests go directly into Smartsheet, where we manage and prioritize them. It helps us efficiently estimate projects for sales reps, keeping everything organized in one place and ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

The feature that has most improved my workflow efficiency is the collaboration aspect of Smartsheet. It reduces reliance on emails and facilitates teamwork, which serves as the foundation for utilizing other features like storage and reporting.

The most valuable features of Smartsheet are its collaboration tools, the ability to centralize and prioritize projects, and robust reporting capabilities. 

Areas for improvement in Smartsheet include better integration capabilities with other technologies through APIs and addressing limitations in reporting functionalities. Specifically, the ability to automate and customize reports more efficiently, as well as ensuring that exported reports display properly, especially when printing to PDF, would enhance user experience.

I have been using Smartsheet for a year and a half.

The stability of Smartsheet is excellent. While there have been occasional short connection issues or downtime, they have been minimal, totaling only a few hours over a year or more.

I would rate the scalability of Smartsheet around an eight out of ten. It is highly scalable with the right personnel and computer literacy in place, but adoption and implementation are key factors. Smartsheet's scalability benefits our organization by accommodating multiple teams with similar functions but different operating styles. It enhances collaboration and organization while providing visibility and reporting features that help gauge productivity and track progress transparently.

Overall, there are over 100 users in our organization, including both licensed users and those with limited access to submitting requests.

The technical support is quite good. I would rate it as an eight out of ten.

Positive

I would rate the initial setup experience with Smartsheet around a five or six out of ten. It is not the most intuitive process, and the use of unfamiliar terminology can be confusing. While it is not overly difficult, there is room for improvement in making the setup smoother and more user-friendly.

The deployment of Smartsheet took several months, with a team of around eight to ten department managers involved in the rollout process.  Maintaining the Smartsheet solution mainly involves updating reporting and other features annually, typically requiring the assistance of the Smartsheet team.

We haven't quantified the ROI percentage-wise yet, but based on the time saved, I would say Smartsheet more than doubles productivity.

I would say the pricing for Smartsheet is not cheap, but it is a good value considering what you get. Basic licenses start around $500 per person, and costs increase for additional premium features.

Smartsheet streamlines collaboration by reducing email clutter and providing a centralized platform for managing requests. It saves time and energy by storing data efficiently and facilitating communication with sales reps. Additionally, it enables tracking and reporting, allowing us to gauge productivity and have a clear snapshot of progress over time.

My experience with the Smartsheet mobile app is generally positive. While it is not as robust as the web-based version, it is convenient for quick checks and accessing essential information on the go.

Overall, I would rate Smartsheet as an eight out of ten.