10 best Smartsheet alternatives in 2026, grouped by why you're leaving

The best Smartsheet alternatives in 2026 are monday.com, Asana, ClickUp and Wrike for project work, Microsoft Lists and Planner or Google Sheets if you already pay for those suites, and Airtable, Grist or Notion for database-style tracking. To keep Smartsheet but give people a simpler screen, GoodTaco builds an app on it.

This guide is for operations leads and project owners weighing a move off Smartsheet. We compare 10 tools on price per editor, free plans and who can view for free, grouped by the reason you’re leaving, then show how to export your sheets and switch.

Reviewed October 2026 against each vendor’s own pricing and help pages. Prices are list prices, billed yearly unless noted, and they change often.

The 10 best Smartsheet alternatives compared

Tool	Best for	Price to start	Free plan?	Where your data lives
monday.com	Visual boards a whole team picks up quickly	$9/seat/month, 3 seats minimum	Yes, up to 2 seats	monday.com’s cloud
Asana	Tasks, timelines and team workload	$10.99/user/month	Yes, for 2 users	Asana’s cloud
ClickUp	Tasks, docs and time tracking in one tool	$7/user/month	Yes	ClickUp’s cloud
Wrike	Larger projects across many teams	$10/user/month	Yes	Wrike’s cloud
Microsoft Lists and Planner	Teams already on Microsoft 365	Included in Business Basic, $7/user/month	No	Your Microsoft 365 account
Google Sheets	Simple trackers at no extra cost	Free; Workspace from $7/user/month	Yes	Your Google Drive
Airtable	Linked records with a grid on top	$20/seat/month	Yes	Airtable’s cloud
Grist	Spreadsheet users who need permissions	$8/user/month	Yes	Grist’s cloud, or your own server
Notion	Projects that live next to docs	$10/seat/month	Yes	Your Notion workspace
GoodTaco (our product)	A focused app on the Smartsheet you already have	Free plan; paid from $9/month	Yes	Your Smartsheet, a Google Sheet, an Airtable base, or a built-in database

Why do people look for Smartsheet alternatives?

Smartsheet is work management software built on a spreadsheet-style grid, with Gantt, board and calendar views. It does project work well. People start looking when one of these gets in the way:

• Paying for every editor. Anyone who creates or edits content needs a paid Member seat. Contributors are free: they can view, comment, upload attachments, respond to update requests and submit forms, but can’t edit (Smartsheet pricing). Pro is $9 per member a month billed yearly ($12 monthly) for 1 to 10 members, and Business is $19 ($24 monthly) with at least 3 members. Someone without a paid seat who takes a qualifying action becomes a Provisional Member, free until the end of the billing cycle, and admins can set those people to upgrade to paid Members automatically (seat types).
• People outside the company. Guests, free outside users who can edit and comment, come with Business and Enterprise but not Pro (seat types).
• Showing people only their rows. Dynamic View, built for this, is an add-on starting at $125 a month on Business and Enterprise (Smartsheet pricing).
• Features on higher plans. Pro includes 250 automations a month. Timeline view and workload tracking start at Business, portfolios at Enterprise, and Control Center is an add-on on Business and Enterprise, included in Advanced Work Management (Smartsheet pricing).
• Sheet size. A sheet holds up to 20,000 rows, 400 columns or 500,000 cells, whichever comes first (Smartsheet limits).
• Too much tool for some people. A technician who updates one status, or an approver who clicks yes or no, still lands in a full project grid.

There’s no free plan: Smartsheet offers a 30-day trial with no credit card.

What does a 10-person team pay on each Smartsheet alternative?

List price per month for 10 editors, billed yearly.

Tool and plan	10 editors a month	People who only view
Smartsheet Pro	$90	Free as Contributors
Smartsheet Business	$190	Free as Contributors; outside Guests free
monday.com Basic	$90	Unlimited free viewers
monday.com Standard	$120	Unlimited free viewers
Asana Starter	$109.90	Unlimited free guests
ClickUp Unlimited	$70	Unlimited read-only guests
Wrike Team	$100	Viewers can be added free
Microsoft 365 Business Basic	$70	—
Google Workspace Business Starter	$70	Share with any Google account
Airtable Team	$200	Read-only collaborators free
Grist Pro	$80	2 free guests per document
Notion Plus	$100	Free guests on invited pages

The Microsoft and Google prices also cover business email, file storage and video meetings.

Which Smartsheet alternatives are easier for project teams?

If Smartsheet feels heavy, or you need more project control than your plan gives you, these four are built around tasks and timelines.

1. monday.com

monday.com runs work on colorful boards. Standard adds Timeline and Gantt views, a calendar view and guest access for outside people (monday.com pricing).

• Best for: teams that want something everyone picks up in a day.
• Pricing: free for up to 2 seats and 3 boards; Pro is $19 a seat. Plans start from 3 users, and monthly billing isn’t discounted.
• Limitation: Gantt views and guests start at Standard, which includes 250 automation actions a month; Pro raises that to 25,000.
• Verdict: the easiest switch for teams that found Smartsheet heavy for day-to-day updates.

2. Asana

Asana organizes work as tasks and projects. Starter adds Timeline and Gantt views, reporting dashboards, forms and unlimited automations (Asana pricing).

• Best for: teams that manage deadlines and handoffs more than data.
• Pricing: Starter is $13.49 billed monthly. Advanced is $24.99 billed yearly ($30.49 monthly) and adds portfolios, goals and resource management.
• Limitation: seats come in steps of 5 up to 30 users, then larger steps, and Asana is a task list, not a grid, so number-heavy trackers fit less well.
• Verdict: a clean choice when your sheets were really task lists.

3. ClickUp

ClickUp puts tasks, docs, chat and time tracking in one place, with unlimited Gantt charts on paid plans (ClickUp pricing).

• Best for: small teams that want one tool for most of their work.
• Pricing: Unlimited is $10 billed monthly, and Business is $12 billed yearly ($19 monthly). Some visitors see a newer lineup that starts with Core at $9, discounted from $12. Free Forever includes 60 MB of storage and Gantt charts only as a trial.
• Limitation: guests who can edit are capped (5 for a one-person Unlimited plan, plus 2 per extra paid user), and the sheer number of features takes setup.
• Verdict: one of the cheapest paid seats for a full project tool, if your team will invest in setting it up.

4. Wrike

Wrike is project management for larger teams, with interactive Gantt charts from its Team plan and resource planning and budgeting on Pinnacle (Wrike pricing).

• Best for: teams that left because Smartsheet did too little project management, not too much.
• Pricing: Team covers 2 to 15 users; Business is $25 a user for 5 to 200 users. Pinnacle and Apex are priced on request, and there’s a 14-day trial.
• Limitation: people outside your company count as full users and need a paid seat.
• Verdict: the strongest pick here for complex, cross-team projects.

Which alternatives come with tools you already pay for?

Many teams already pay for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and both include a way to track work.

5. Microsoft Lists and Planner

Microsoft’s answer comes in two apps. Lists tracks records, such as events, issues or assets, and Microsoft says it’s included in your Microsoft 365 subscription. Planner manages tasks with Grid, Board, Schedule and Charts views (Planner plans).

• Best for: teams already on Microsoft 365 that want to stop paying for a separate tool.
• Pricing: Business Basic lists To Do, Lists and Planner among its apps (Microsoft 365 plans). Planner Plan 1, at $10 per user a month paid yearly, adds the Timeline (Gantt) view, and Planner and Project Plan 3, at $30, adds advanced scheduling.
• Limitation: records and tasks live in separate apps, and Gantt costs extra per person.
• Verdict: the low-cost move for Microsoft shops, if you can live with two apps instead of one.

6. Google Sheets

Google Sheets is the spreadsheet most teams already know, free with a Google account. Smartsheet can send a sheet straight to it: select File > Export > Export to Google Sheets (Smartsheet export).

• Best for: simple trackers that a few people maintain.
• Limitation: there’s no Gantt chart with dependencies (Business Standard and higher Workspace plans add a timeline view), and anyone who can open a sheet sees all of it.
• Verdict: the cheapest landing spot for small trackers. Our Airtable vs Google Sheets comparison explains when a sheet stops being enough.

Which alternatives work more like a database?

If your sheets hold records, such as clients, assets or orders, more than schedules, a spreadsheet-style database may fit better than a project tool.

7. Airtable

Airtable is a database that looks like a spreadsheet. Records link across tables, and paid plans add a Gantt view.

• Best for: related records several people update, such as clients, projects and orders.
• Pricing: Free plan with 1,000 records per base. Team is $24 billed monthly, with 50,000 records per base (Airtable plans).
• Limitation: each editor costs more than a Smartsheet Pro member, and every base has a record cap.
• Verdict: the best pick when your data matters more than your timeline. See our roundup of Airtable alternatives if you’re weighing it against others.

8. Grist

Grist blends a spreadsheet and a database, and its access rules set who can see or edit each table, column and record (Grist pricing).

• Best for: spreadsheet power users who need record-level permissions, such as partners who see only their own rows.
• Pricing: the Free plan allows 10 team members and 5,000 records per document. Pro is $10 billed monthly, with 100,000 records per document. Grist is open source, and the self-hosted Community edition is free.
• Limitation: Grist’s own comparison credits Smartsheet with Gantt charts, critical paths and resource tracking (Grist vs Smartsheet), so it’s a weaker fit for schedules.
• Verdict: the strongest choice if permissions, not price, made you leave.

9. Notion

Notion puts docs, wikis and databases in one workspace (Notion pricing).

• Best for: teams whose projects live next to their docs and meeting notes.
• Pricing: Free plan; Business is $20 a seat. Guests can only open the pages they’re invited to.
• Limitation: on the Free plan, a workspace with several members can add only a limited number of blocks, uploads are capped at 5 MB, and you can invite 10 guests.
• Verdict: a good home for light project tracking next to your docs.

What if you’d rather keep Smartsheet?

Sometimes Smartsheet is fine for the people who plan the work, and what’s missing is a simple screen for everyone else: a form for technicians, an approval page, a status view for a client.

10. GoodTaco (our product)

GoodTaco is an AI app builder for business apps. You connect your Smartsheet with your Smartsheet sign-in, so there are no API keys to copy, and describe the app you need, such as “a form for technicians to update job status, and a dashboard of open jobs by region”. GoodTaco builds a working web app with screens, forms, search and sign-in in minutes. The app reads, adds, updates and deletes rows in the same sheet, and the rows stay in Smartsheet.

People sign in with Google or an emailed link, and private apps show no data until they do. For a client view, ask GoodTaco to show each person only the rows that match their email, then sign in as a test client to check before you invite real ones.

• Best for: teams that like their sheets but want a focused app for people who only update or check their part.
• Pricing: Free plan with no credit card; paid plans from $9 a month, priced per workspace. Connecting needs a Smartsheet plan that includes its API, the connection other apps use: Business, Enterprise or Advanced Work Management (Smartsheet API). Smartsheet’s sheet limits and seat rules still apply, so ask your Smartsheet account manager how they cover the people who use the app.
• Limitation: GoodTaco builds apps; it doesn’t replace Smartsheet’s Gantt charts or project planning. Apps can’t store files or photos that people upload yet.
• Verdict: pick it when the sheet is right and the screen is wrong. Start free, no credit card needed.

Smartsheet vs Airtable: which is better?

They solve different problems. Smartsheet is a project tool shaped like a spreadsheet; Airtable is a database shaped like one.

	Smartsheet	Airtable
Built around	Project schedules: Gantt, board, calendar and table views on every plan	Linked records across tables, with Gantt on paid plans
Free plan	No; 30-day trial	Yes, 1,000 records per base
People who don’t edit	Free Contributors view and comment	Read-only collaborators are free
Size	20,000 rows or 500,000 cells per sheet	50,000 records per base on Team

Choose Smartsheet for timelines, dependencies and status updates from many people. Choose Airtable when the work is really a set of related records.

Other Smartsheet competitors worth a look

• Trello is free for up to 10 collaborators per workspace. Standard is $5 per user a month billed annually, and Timeline view starts on Premium at $10 (Trello pricing).
• Baserow is an open-source, Airtable-style database. The cloud Free plan holds 3,000 rows per workspace, and Premium is $10 per user a month billed yearly (Baserow pricing).
• Stackby is a spreadsheet-style database with a free plan for up to 5 users. Paid plans start at $4.20 per user a month, billed annually for 3 users (Stackby pricing).

How to choose a Smartsheet alternative

Start with the reason you’re leaving:

If you’re leaving because…	Start with
Every editor costs a seat	ClickUp, Grist or Microsoft 365, well below Smartsheet Business per seat
You already pay for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace	Microsoft Lists and Planner, or Google Sheets
Smartsheet feels too heavy	monday.com or Asana
You need more project control	Wrike, or Planner and Project Plan 3
Your sheets hold records, not schedules	Airtable or Grist
Your projects live next to docs	Notion
People around the sheet need a simple screen	Keep Smartsheet (Business or above) and add GoodTaco

Then check each finalist against these criteria:

• Who edits and who only looks. Count both. Free viewers, guests and Contributors are where most of the savings hide.
• People outside your company. Wrike charges full seats for them; Smartsheet Business, Asana and Notion let them in free with limits.
• Size. Compare your largest sheet with each plan’s record or row cap.

Stay on Smartsheet if your team plans in Gantt charts every day, most people are Contributors, and the price works. A move costs real time.

How to move off Smartsheet step by step

1. List what each sheet does

Write down every sheet, formula, automation, form, report, dashboard and update request, plus who uses each one. Exports move data. They don’t move logic.

2. Export your sheets

Select File > Export > Export to Microsoft Excel or Export to Google Sheets. Groupings, summary rows and attachments are left out, formulas aren’t kept, and dropdown, contact and checkbox columns export as text. Reports export up to 20,000 rows (Smartsheet export). Download attachments separately.

To get an app instead of another grid, upload the workbook to GoodTaco, up to 2,000 records and 10 MB per upload. If the file arrives as an older .xls workbook, open it in Excel and save it as .xlsx first. You don’t need an account to try it; create one to keep the app. If you export to Google Sheets instead, GoodTaco’s Google Sheets app builder can build on that sheet.

3. Rebuild formulas, automations and reports

Smartsheet formulas use their own syntax, so rewrite each one in the new tool, then rebuild automations, reports and dashboards and test them with real data.

4. Run both side by side, then switch

Keep Smartsheet running while a few people do real work in the new tool. Compare row counts, sign in as a test user to check what each person can see, then make the old sheets read-only and move everyone over.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best alternative to Smartsheet?

It depends on why you're leaving. monday.com and Asana are easier project tools, Wrike suits larger projects, Microsoft Lists and Planner come with Microsoft 365, Airtable and Grist work more like databases, and GoodTaco puts a focused app on the Smartsheet you already have.

What is the Microsoft equivalent of Smartsheet?

There isn't a single one. Microsoft Lists tracks records and Planner manages tasks, and both come with Microsoft 365 business plans such as Business Basic. Planner's Timeline (Gantt) view needs Planner Plan 1, at $10 per user a month paid yearly.

Is there a free alternative to Smartsheet?

Yes. monday.com, Asana, ClickUp, Wrike, Trello, Airtable, Grist, Notion, Google Sheets and GoodTaco all have free plans, though most limit seats or features. Smartsheet offers a 30-day free trial instead of a free plan.

Is Airtable better than Smartsheet?

Airtable is better for related records, such as clients, projects and orders that link to each other. Smartsheet is better for project schedules, with Gantt charts on every plan and free Contributors who can view and comment.

Who are Smartsheet's main competitors?

Work management tools such as monday.com, Asana, ClickUp, Wrike and Trello; Microsoft Lists and Planner and Google Sheets for teams already paying for those suites; and spreadsheet-style databases such as Airtable, Grist, Baserow and Stackby.

Can I keep Smartsheet and build an app on it?

Yes, if your Smartsheet plan includes API access, which means Business, Enterprise or Advanced Work Management. GoodTaco connects through your Smartsheet sign-in, and the app reads and writes the same rows, which stay in Smartsheet. Smartsheet's sheet limits and seat rules still apply.

Is Smartsheet basically Excel?

No. It looks like a spreadsheet, but it's built for shared project work, with Gantt, board and calendar views, automations, forms and sharing. Formulas don't carry over when you export a sheet to Excel, so expect to rewrite them.