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Smartsheet Pricing – How Much Does Smartsheet Cost?

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Smartsheet pricing starts at $9 per user, per month for the Pro plan, while the Business plan costs $19 per user, per month . There’s also an Enterprise plan with no public pricing.

If you don’t have much room for steep project management costs , Smartsheet’s free plan is a good option — it includes an automation builder and reporting tools. However, there’s a 1-user, 2-editor limit. There’s also a free trial for Smartsheet that lets you test out a paid tier to its full capacity and get to grips with whether it’s worth paying for.

In this guide, we’ll cover all the Smartsheet pricing plans, as well as hidden costs, add-on pricing, and what alternatives might be a better fit for your business.

Smartsheet Pricing Pros & Cons

Smartsheet Pricing Plans and Cost Per User

Smartsheet Hidden Costs

Additional Smartsheet Products and Pricing

What is smartsheet.

What’s New in Smartsheet (June 2024)

Is Smartsheet Free?

Is it worth switching to smartsheet, who is smartsheet best for.

Smartsheet Alternatives (with costs)
About our Research
Verdict: Should You Pay for Smartsheet?

		The amount you'll pay per month, when billed annually







Add-on	Add-on	Add-on	Add-on

How much does Smartsheet cost per user, per year?

Is smartsheet good value compared to competitors, what are the biggest smartsheet hidden costs, smartsheet pricing plans: pros & cons.

In total, Smartsheet has four plans, all geared towards teams of different sizes:

Smartsheet Free ($0) – The best plan for individuals and duos Smartsheet Pro ($9) – Will suit very small teams of under 10 Smartsheet Business ($19) – Best for mid-sized teams, no user limit Smartsheet Enterprise (Custom) – The best option for larger firms

Here are some of the provider’s strengths and weaknesses so you can work out if it’s right for your business:

30-day free trial available
Basic free plan is a decent option for solo users and duos without a software budget
The Pro plan ($9/user/month) is good value, with excellent task management features
Business plan is very expensive compared to monday.com and ClickUp
The 1-user/2-editor limit on the free plan makes it restrictive
Similarly priced providers, like Asana, are easier to use

As we’ve already discussed, Smartsheet offers four different pricing plans, but only three of them have public pricing.

First up there’s the Smartsheet Free plan, which costs nothing. The Pro plan is priced from $9 per user, per month , which works out as $108 per user, per year when billed annually.

The Business plan is priced from $19 per user, per month or $228 per user, per year when billed annually. There’s also an Enterprise plan for large businesses, but you’ll have to contact sales for a quote.

The Pro plan is well-rated and is comparable to ClickUp (from $9 per user, per month ) and monday’s first paid plan (from $9 per user, per month ) in our latest project management testing.

The Business plan is ideal for companies or teams between 3 and 50 users who might not quite need enterprise-grade features, such as single sign-on or deeper administrative control, but still want to maximize their growth and reduce the percentage of resources wasted on projects (which some studies say can be as high as 11.4% of total resources ) through better project management.

The Enterprise Plan is built for large companies looking to streamline complex projects with centralized task tracking, and governance controls to manage numerous individuals, pipelines, and information access.

While we can’t tell you the pricing for Smartsheet’s Enterprise tier, it’s worth keeping in mind that there may be some discounts to be had after negotiations with the company. Smartsheet’s tiers don’t offer any discounts at the Pro or Business level.

Smartsheet Free plan

The great thing about Smartsheet’s brand new free plan is that there aren’t any costs involved . However, there’s a single-user limit and you’re only allowed two “editors” (colleagues that can contribute to your project and task tracking). If you purchase Smartsheet’s free offering, you’ll get:

Gantt, Grid, Card, Calendar views
Reporting tools
500 MB storage for attachments
100 automation actions per month
Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Apple ID sign in
Help Center, knowledge base, and Community support

Of course, there are several disadvantages to the comparatively limited free plan – it’s just not updated as much as Smartsheet’s other offerings. To use a recent example, in July 2023, Smartsheet brought out automatic color switching for chart labels based on their backgrounds for all plans apart from the Free plan.

Smartsheet Pro plan costs – $9 per user, per month

For those who find Smartsheet’s free plan to limiting, they’ll need to pay $9 per user, per month for the Pro plan, billed annually as $108. For that money, you get:

Unlimited sheets
Unlimited reports (1 sheet per report)
Unlimited dashboards (10 widgets per dashboard)
10 viewers allowed per object
Private sheets and reports
Email support
Grid, Gantt, Card, Calendar views
Pre-built automation rules (250 per month)
20 GB attachment storage
Cell and column formulas
Dependencies
Support for Microsoft 365
Google Workspace and Apple ID logins

With sheets, you can carry out the basics of project management, such as task creation and setting milestones. Support is available via email.

The Pro plan also supports Gantt charts, forms, mobile access, and automated workflows, features that are vital for any project management platform. It limits collaborators to 10 per item, which is better than just a flat 10 if you need to incorporate multiple people across multiple projects. However, it omits several useful features such as the activity log and proofing.

Overall, Smartsheet is a pretty good deal for small teams but does miss out on features that would come in handy.

Creating a relationship between tasks in Smartsheet. Image: Tech.co’s testing process.

Here’s how Smartsheet’s Pro plan compares to other similarly priced plans from competitors like monday.com and ClickUp:

			The amount you'll pay per month, when billed annually











Add-on		100 uses per project

Smartsheet Business plan costs – $19 per user, per month

If you’ve more than ten users, or are looking for more advanced Project Management capabilities, choose Smartsheet Business . This tier costs $19 per user per month when paid annually. For this price, you get everything in the Pro plan, plus:

Unlimited collaborators who can view/edit
Unlimited sheets per report
Unlimited widgets per dashboard
Unlimited automations
Forms with conditional logic
Document builder
Brandfolder Integration
Adobe Creative Cloud extension
Report grouping and summary
Activity Log
Custom Branding
1TB Attachment Storage
User, group, and license management
Publish sheets, reports, and dashboard

You’ll also get the option to buy add-on customer support packages for the Business plan, which aren’t available to Pro plan users. See Hidden Costs for more on this.

Just like Pro, the Business tier supports card view, Gantt charts, Kanban-style “card” view (see below), mobile access, reminders and notifications, and automated workflows.

Access to Resource Management by Smartsheet is also available on this plan. It’s a useful tool for solving staffing conflicts and managing remote teams spread out across the globe.

Smartsheet’s calendar view. Image: tech.co’s testing process.

The business plan then adds features that are necessary for teams that need more than is offered by the pro plan. For instance, you can create forms with fields that follow conditional logic (see below), and Automations are unlimited in the Business plan, so your team can create as many actions as they want.

On the Pro plan, on the other hand, you’re restricted to 250 pre-built automation per month, but there are teams that will need many more than that if they want to use it to really improve efficiency.

Another good feature that’s in the Business plan but not in the Pro Plan is activity logs. The bigger your team, the more useful this function gets; it makes clear who has edited what on any given sheet. There’s also way more storage available in the Business plan (1TB vs Pro’s 20 GB) and a “planned vs actual” function (called Baseline) that easily lets you view how your actual work schedule differs from what you planned. It also adds the ability to manage groups and resources, control sheet ownership, as work with custom branding – the latter of which means you can insert your company logo.

This tier is ideal for any business – large or small – that doesn’t quite need enterprise-grade software for project management , but will benefit from the features geared towards projects involving 25+ people.

A project budget template provided by Smartsheet. Image: Tech.co’s testing process.

Smartsheet Enterprise plan costs – Custom

The tiers for enterprises lack any public pricing, since Smartsheet negotiates these costs on a case-by-case basis. Popular project management software solutions like monday.com and Asana also apply this policy to their highest tier. Enterprise offers everything in the Business plan plus:

Custom welcome and help screens
Workapps: No-code business apps; curated experiences based on user role
Unlimited attachment storage
DocuSign integration
Directory integration: Replicate your user groups and attributes from LDAP or Active Directory to Smartsheet
Single sign-on/SAML
Custom email domains
A service availability guarantee
Approved Domain Sharing
Account discovery
Domain validation – user auto-provisioning
Chargeback reports
Backup / recurring backup
24/7 phone support

With Smartsheet’s Enterprise plan, you also get access to Smartsheet Advance. This means you’ll be able to manage processes at scale with the Control Center feature and enable connected systems of record to orchestrate workflow across the enterprise.

You can also control how the data you’re storing is retained with governance controls. Customer-managed encryption keys also help with data management, allowing you to monitor, grant, and revoke access to data using your own key. There’s also Event reporting, which will let you access detailed logs of all the changes made to your project over the previous 6 months.

Editing in Smartsheet’s spreadsheet view. Image: Tech.co’s testing process.

Smartsheet nonprofit pricing

If you’re part of a nonprofit and looking for project management software for your organization, Smartsheet might be able to provide you with a discount on one of its annual plans.

In the United States, to be eligible for a reduced fee from Smartsheet, your nonprofit will have to have valid 501c(3) status. Nonprofits and charities headquartered in other countries will have to have equivalent status to qualify.

Some organizations are not eligible, such as schools and other educational institutions, government organizations, or any entity that engages in lobbying, legislative or political activities. Financial institutions are also not eligible.

Smartsheet Pricing: Hidden Costs

When it comes to hidden costs the first aspect to consider is contract length . Smartsheet’s best prices are offered on an annual basis, so if you’re not ready to commit to this, then monthly prices do increase, slightly.

Annually, the Pro plan is $9/user/month or $108/user/year
Monthly, the Pro plan costs $12/user/month or $144/user/year

The same goes for Smartsheet’s Business plans:

Annually, the Business plan is $19/user/month or $228/user/year
Monthly, the Pro plan costs $24/user/month or $288/user/year

Smartsheet support add-on costs

Smartsheet also charges extra for Phone support , which isn’t included as standard. Unfortunately, this isn’t available to purchase on the Pro plan , but if you’d like to add on Phone support to your Business package, this comes at a cost of $4/user/month for Standard support or $8/user/month for Professional support .

These packages also come with University eLearning access and, in the case of the Professional Support add-on, 10 lots of 30-minute desk support sessions.

Smartsheet pricing for training

If you’re looking for extra training beyond the standard onboarding, Smartsheet University is available to take you past the basics. This will enable you to access e-learning (for $199 ) and instructor-led online courses on topics such as ‘Solution Proficiency’ and ‘Marketing Professional’ tips.

Instructor-led online courses start from $149 for an individual but go all the way up to $4,999 for the Control Center Blueprint Builder path. Once you’ve mastered all the core skills, you can optionally choose to become “Smartsheet Certified” and demonstrate your mastery by passing an exam, which is $149 per attempt and lasts for one year of Smartsheet certification.

Finally, there are in-person Regional training sessions that can be booked, the fee for which is undisclosed publicly.

Other hidden costs

There are no hidden installation costs or add-on costs for project management integrations or features. The only other so-called “hidden cost” with Smartsheet is its Enterprise pricing, which it doesn’t make publicly available – however, you can bet safely that the more users you’re looking to service, the better deal can be negotiated.

The $19/user/month rate for Smartsheet’s annual Business plan sets the anchor point for custom pricing and we’d wager that Enterprise users might be able to secure the ultimate range of features Smartsheet has to offer for a not-dissimilar price, or perhaps an even lower amount per user, depending on the user number and contract length you’re looking for.

Smartsheet offers more than just its basic project management software. In fact, there is a wide range of additional products with their own pricing available from the platform, and we’re here to break them down for you.

Smartsheet Advance pricing

Smartsheet Advance is a platform with “premium capabilities” relating to project and process management, as well as secure data storage. There is no public pricing at present, so you’ll have to contact sales if you want a quote for your company — but some features are available to Smartsheet Enterprise customers.

At present, Smartsheet Advance has a Silver, Gold, and Platinum tier. The Silver tier comes with features that help facilitate portfolio and secure request management, while the Gold tier is geared towards businesses that want to connect various platforms where their data is stored together, with Smartsheet at the center. The Platinum plan adds hyper-advanced governance and security capabilities.

One of the more sought-after features – which is included on all Smartsheet Advanced plans – is “Data Shuttle.” With Data Shuttle, you can import data into Smartsheet from various other systems you’re using, such as CRM programs, and then offload it as attachments to external sources.

Brandfolder by Smartsheet pricing

Brandfolder is a digital asset management platform (DAM) created by Smartsheet and geared toward enterprises that manage a myriad of brand assets. It allows creatives and marketers to manage digital brand assets in one, central location, track who’s using them, and make them more easily distributable to clients.

Brandfolder utilizes some of the same time-saving features as Smartsheet – such as automated workflows. To find out more about Brandfolder’s pricing, you have to book a demo on the provider’s website.

For those of you unfamiliar, Smartsheet is a project management tool that allows businesses to stay on top of their various teams and projects, part of a growing project management software market that will be worth 9.81 billion by 2026.

Through Smartsheet, you can assign tasks to employees, track project progress with various views, manage calendars, and share documents. While project management software is useful in an office context, it is borderline essential for any business adapting to working from home.

What’s New in Smartsheet (July 2024)

In June 2024, Smartsheet changed its pricing for the first time in a couple of years. For starters, the starting price of the Pro plan, the cheapest paid plan increased from only $7 per month to $9 per month , which means it isn’t quite as good value for money anymore.

However, Smartsheet has lowered the price of its business plan from $25 per month to only $19 per month. This is likely to make it a more appealing option for larger businesses that require advanced features, with the plan’s price now closer to that of comparable packages offered by ClickUp and monday.com.

Speaking of features, in May 2024, Smartsheet launched a wide range of new features to make the platform more effective for your team. Announced at the ENGAGE 2024 conference in London during the keynote speech, Ben Canning, senior vice president of product experiences noted that these changes were designed to “uncover, view, and understand your data.”

AI is, of course, on the menu here, with Smartsheet launching an AI tool that can help you analyze your data directly on the platform. You’ll be able to ask questions like “How many tasks were completed in July?” or “I want a chart of total sales by customer,” and it will churn out results in a simple sidebar.

On top of that, Smartsheet has launched a new timeline view that allows you to “quickly group date-based work, identify overlapping deliverables, track project progress, and better communicate” with your teams. You’ll also find new resource management features , including simple automation for creating reports.

Check out the image gallery below to see some of the new features in action and follow up for more updates on Smartsheet in the future.

Smartsheet has a free plan , with a user limit of one (plus 2 additional project editors). It has automation capabilities – something that isn’t available on every free plan – and you’ll be able to access the provider’s extensive knowledge and help center if you get stuck, just like you can if you opt for a Smartsheet paid plan.

Smartsheet also offers a free 30-day trial , and all you have to do is enter your email address to try out either the Pro or Business plan. This means you’ll be able to find out if the software caters to your business’s needs without spending a cent.

The Pro plan is the cheapest paid Smartsheet plan on offer, coming in at $9 per user, per month which is good value considering it is an elite-tier project management tool. It’s the same price as monday.com’s Basic plan ( $9 per user, per month ) and has a better set of features.

If you’re on the hunt for a good free plan, however, check out Teamwork’s free plan , which is one of the top-rated free project management tool we tested.

Although Smartsheet is now used by companies of all shapes and sizes , Smartsheet’s costs and features suit absolutely every business. If you’ve never tried Smartsheet before, or you’re thinking of making the switch from another project management provider, here’s the lowdown on the different types of teams that will benefit from Smartsheet in particular:

Teams managing complex projects. Thanks to a myriad of task management and workflow creation tools, including an automation builder and an easy-to-use Gantt chart, Smartsheet can handle multi-faceted, complex projects with ease.

Teams transitioning away from spreadsheets . Smartsheet’s spreadsheet-style default view makes it a particularly easy software program to transition to using if you’re used to managing projects on spreadsheets. The only difference is, Smartsheet’s spreadsheets are infinitely more useful thanks to the provider’s collection of powerful, integrated features.

Teams that want to become more efficient . Smartsheet includes a number of tools for editing workflows, such as custom and pre-built automations, so that all of the most mundane tasks in your day can be completed without you even having to think about it.

If you’re concerned about switching from another project management software program to Smartsheet, don’t worry – the provider has extensive onboarding materials available for customers that address everything from building your first Sheet upwards, and offers significantly more customer support than some other providers we’ve tested. There are also detailed instructions on how to import your data in a variety of different formats into Smartsheet, which minimizes downtime.

Yes – for a variety of reasons. If you’re not using project management software yet, and instead keeping track of tasks and duties in a spreadsheet or a similar document, you’ll find Smartsheet significantly more functiona l – even if you opt for the cheapest plan.

If the projects you manage include tasks with quite a few different stages or aspects, you’ll find them a lot easier to keep track of in Smartsheet than in a spreadsheet.

As there are multiple ways to view your project’s progress for your team to choose from, it’s also easier to get top-level clarity on the status of all the different facets of your project. Programming a spreadsheet to do what Smartsheet can with its native task and workflow management features takes days, and often isn’t even possible.

If you already use project management software, it might be worth the switch. Trello, for example, is a widely used but comparatively basic project management tool – if you find you’ve reached a ceiling with it, Smartsheet would be one of the better upgrade options. What’s more, you can import data directly from Trello boards into Smartsheet. Zoho Projects is another provider we’ve tested that we wouldn’t consider as useful for managing larger projects.

If you want to migrate your data across, however, you may have to export it to an Excel or Sheets document, and then re-import it again. However, there are dedicated project management software data migration platforms like Relokia, which offer their services for as little as $1 – although pricing will be dictated by how much data you have to move.

It’s very easy to cancel your Smartsheet subscription if you’re not happy with the service. All you have to do is head over to the “Account” area, then “Account Admin” and Plan & Billing Info. Then you just have to click “cancel account” and fill in the cancellation form. You’ll also have the option to switch to a free account when your subscription ends or move to a free account immediately.

Smartsheet Alternatives

As we’ve covered, Smartsheet is the project management software to go for if you’re familiar with using spreadsheets, or like the approach of Microsoft Project, but want something that’s built for the web. Don’t let the spreadsheets-style view tempt you into thinking this is a database management tool like Airtable, however – Airtable and Smartsheet are quite different, and Smartsheet is very much a “classic” project management tool (plus, Smartsheet costs less than Airtable).

Smartsheet vs ClickUp

We found that Smartsheet isn’t the easiest project management tool to get to grips with, receiving low scores on our ease-of-use testing. Compared to ClickUp , for example, it simply took longer to perform basic tasks like creating reports and finding data.

Managing a task in ClickUp. Image: Tech.co’s testing process.

ClickUp had the best range of features for managing tasks out of all the providers we tested . ClickUp also has an impressive range of workflow creation tools and some of the best free project templates, as well as automations , available on all plans. ClickUp’s pricing plans are also better value — its Business plan costs half as much as Smartsheet’s.

However, Smartsheet offers 24/7 live support, which ClickUp is noticeably missing, although you do have to pay extra for it. When it comes to security, it’s a toss up, with both offering good protocols to protect data. Smartsheet has a wider variety of data compliance certifications, whereas ClickUp has 2-factor authentication on all plans, and Smartsheet only offers this on its Enterprise plan.

Smartsheet vs monday.com

If you need another alternative to Smartsheet, monday.com is also a great pick for its simple, modern interface and great support options , as well as a wealth of customizable features.

monday.com’s Kanban board. Image: Tech.co’s testing process.

Beyond functionality, monday and Smartsheet offer quite similar pricing. The starting price is $9 per month for both, and both offer a $19 per month Pro plan for larger businesses. Where monday is different, though, is that it offers an in-between plan, the $12 per month Standard plan, which might be a better fit if you need something more robust that won’t break the bank.

Read our Smartsheet vs monday.com review to see how the providers compare head-to-head and how Smartsheet’s costs match up to monday.com’s, or see our guide to the best project management software . Alternatively, for a quick overview of Smartsheet’s key rivals such as Wrike and Trello’s pricing , you can check out the table below:

	All prices listed as per user, per month (billed annually)




period.	, and a great value plans for teams.	.	for small teams and a very affordable premium plan.

About Our Research

Here at Tech.co, we spend a lot of our time researching and rigorously assessing every product, service, and software tool we write about. Our product reviews are based on in-depth market research and complex testing frameworks that are used to put providers through their paces.

For project management, our latest round of testing investigated 10 top providers by analyzing five key areas: ease of use, pricing, functionality, customer support, security, and integrations .

Importantly, all of our opinions, rankings, and verdicts are based on the data-driven research conducted by our team, which allows us to write about software and services with confidence and clarity.

Check out our in-depth research guide to learn more about our process

Smartsheet Pricing Verdict: Should You Pay For Smartsheet?

Smartsheet is certainly worth considering if you’re in the market for project management software, especially if you spend a lot of time working in spreadsheets already.

According to our recent research, Smartsheet is the seventh-best project management software provider we tested , but don’t let that fool you, as it offers a solid pick across our research. If customer support is your priority, it’s one of the best options, scoring highly in both areas thanks to its wealth of community help and learning content.

We used to recommend Smartsheet for larger businesses, but now it has a free plan and a competitively priced $9 per user, per month Pro plan, it’s now a lot more affordable for smaller companies and teams. However, we’d recommend considering ClickUp if you need something cheaper, with the pricing starting at $7 per month, or monday.com for a more customizable platform at the same price.

But if you’re happy using spreadsheets as a way of working and looking for a straightforward and genuinely helpful program for tracking and managing tasks, Smartsheet is certainly going to fulfill your requirements.

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Pricing / Software

Smartsheet Pricing Plans & Costs Guide

by Daniel Raymond · January 24, 2024

Smartsheet is a powerful web-based tool that efficiently organizes and streamlines work across teams and organizations. This cloud-based project management software simplifies how teams collaborate, manages project timelines, and streamlines workflow. Known for its comprehensive features, robust integrations, and user-friendly interface, it can benefit freelancers, small businesses, and large enterprises. It features powerful collaboration and project management tools that simplify workflows, automate routine tasks, and increase productivity.

Table of Contents

How Much Does Smartsheet Cost?

Smartsheet offers different pricing plans to cater to the diverse needs of businesses, individuals, and organizations, depending on their scale of operations and requirements. The four Smartsheet pricing plans include the following:

Smartsheet Free – offers basic features like sheet creation, file attachment, and sharing
Smartsheet Pro ($7 per user, per month) – includes features such as admin controls and shared workspaces
Smartsheet Business ($25 per user, per month) – provides additional features like automatic workflows and custom branding
Smartsheet Enterprise (Contact Smartsheet) – offers advanced security, compliance, administration features, and access to Smartsheet Advance and Professional Service Bundles for large enterprises.

If you are on a tight budget and the pricing for Smartsheet is too high, check out AceProject if it matches you. The price for this tool does not depend on the number of users and will give you a lot of savings in the end.

Smartsheet Free Plan

Smartsheet’s Free plan is ideal for individuals or small teams who need basic project management functionalities. It allows users to create and manage up to 2 sheets, collaborate with team members, and access basic features such as Gantt charts, calendars, and file sharing. However, it does not include more advanced functions such as user and group management, directory integration, and document builder.

The Free plan is a good option for individuals or small teams who want to try the software before committing to a paid plan.

INCLUDED IN FREE:

Users, Viewers, Editors – Allows only one user, two viewers or two editors.
Dashboard, Grid, Card, and Calendar Views – View projects based on your preferences.
Sheets – Create and manage a maximum of 2 spreadsheets for their projects.
Gantt Chart View – Visualize project timelines, dependencies, and milestones through Gantt Charts.
Task Management – Assign duties to members of the team, establish time limits, and monitor advancement.
Basic Integrations – Integrate with Google Workspace, Slack, and Microsoft Office 365.
Automated Workflows – Allows up to 100 automation workflows per month with reminders, alerts, notifications, and approval requests.
Storage Space – Includes 500MB file/attachment storage with a maximum size of 30MB per attachment.
Support & Services – Access to the customer support portal, self-service help instructions, and online learning resources for Smartsheet.
Protection and Security – Login with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or Apple ID.

Smartsheet Pro Plan ($7 per user per month)

Smartsheet’s Pro plan is an entry-level plan targeting freelancers, solopreneurs, and small businesses that require a simple project management tool. The plan costs $7 per user per month when billed annually or $9 per user per month when billed monthly. It includes core functionalities such as unlimited sheets, unlimited free viewers, unlimited dashboards, reports, forms, 20GB attachment storage and email support.

The Pro plan is more effective than the Free plan and is ideal for small businesses that need more advanced features.

EVERYTHING IN FREE, PLUS:

Users, Viewers, Editors – Allows up to 10 users, unlimited viewers, and up to 10 licensed editors
Enhanced Collaboration – Invite many viewers to collaborate with your projects, share files, and communicate seamlessly through comments.
Reports and Dashboards – Create unlimited reports, sheets, forms and dashboards with real-time visibility and insights.
Advanced Integrations – Integrate with Box and Dropbox.
Automated Workflows – Allows 250 automation workflows per month with reminders, alerts, notifications, and approval requests.
Storage Space – Includes 20GB file/attachment storage with a maximum size of 30MB per attachment.
User Management – Manage and control user accounts and sheet ownership.
Email support

Smartsheet Business Plan ($25 per user per month)

Smartsheet’s Business plan is for small and medium-sized enterprises and teams that require more robust tools and integrations. It costs $25 per user, per month when billed annually or $32 per user, per month when billed monthly. It includes unlimited free editors, management tool for users, groups, and licenses, baselines, and more storage space for data and file attachments, custom branding and advance reports for your teams.

The Business plan is ideal for larger teams and enterprises that need enterprise-level project management capabilities.

EVERYTHING IN PRO, PLUS:

Users, Viewers, Editors – Requires a minimum of 3 users and comes with unlimited free editors.
Report Grouping and Summary – Slice and dice reports by combining data into groups, compare your actual and planned schedules, and use forms with conditional logic.
Publish sheets, reports, and dashboards – Create a unique URL where you can publish all of these and view them without having to login to Smartsheet.
Storage Space – Includes 1TB file/attachment storage with a maximum size of 250MB per attachment.
Automated Workflows – Allows unlimited automation workflows with reminders, alerts, notifications, and approval requests.
Elaborate Integrations – Integrate with Resource Management by Smartsheet, Brandfolder Adobe Creative Cloud, Tableau and PowerBI.
Document Builder – Generate custom PDFs and customize the creation of contracts, purchase orders, and other standard documents of the organization.
Proofing – Optimize approvals and reviews by uploading images, videos, and files and annotating the feedback in order to save time and finalize content faster.
Administration and Security – Manage user access, group access, and licenses, set permissions, and ensure compliance with granular security controls.
Resource Management – Track resource allocation, plan schedules, and manage budgets in real-time if purchased separately.
Smartsheet University – Access to instructor-led and on-demand training, sold separately.
Standard and Professional Support – 24/7 dedicated support, training, and consulting services to help the organization maximize their Smartsheet investment if acquired separately.

Enterprise Plan (Contact Smartsheet)

Smartsheet’s Enterprise plan leans towards large and complex organizations that require advanced security, compliance, and customized solutions. The plan, billed annually, is available for flexible pricing depending on the scale of operations, needs, and volume. It includes enterprise-grade security, single sign-on (SSO), directory integration, account discovery, and integrations with enterprise applications. Users also get access to dedicated customer support, onboarding, and training, as well as priority access to new features and updates.

EVERYTHING IN BUSINESS, PLUS:

Advanced Security and Compliance – Utilize administrative controls, advanced security protocols, and compliance with industry standards such as SSO/SAML, directory integration, chargeback reports, domain validation, custom email domains, and account discovery.
Enterprise Plan Manager – Centralize control over security, governance, and compliance required by IT.
WorkApps – Develop user-friendly web and mobile applications that optimize business operations and facilitate teamwork.
Work Insights – Enhance decision-making by revealing and creating key significant patterns, activities, and bottlenecks.
Unlimited attachment storage – Attach files, documents, videos and proofs without storage limits.
E-signature with DocuSign – Create and execute business-critical documents in a streamlined way.
Standard Support – Access to 24/7 support team for any concerns.
Professional Support – Access to Professional Support, purchased separately.
Smartsheet Advance – Manage large-scale processes and facilitate the coordination of interconnected systems to regulate workflows encompassing the entire organization.
Data Retention Policies, Event Reporting, and Customer-managed Encryption Keys – You can purchase these separately.

Overall, the different pricing and costs of Smartsheet plans provide a range of options for individuals and businesses to choose from based on their specific needs and budgets. The price of each scheme is reasonable and competitive with other project management and collaboration tools in the market. It is essential for users to carefully consider their needs and budget before selecting a plan to ensure they are getting the most value for their investment.

Whatever scheme you choose, Smartsheet offers a user-friendly interface and cloud-based infrastructure that can help you streamline your workflow, manage projects effectively, and collaborate with your team seamlessly. It has genuinely revolutionized work management, providing powerful tools to simplify vital business processes, regardless of your industry. Before making your decision, please look at our Smartsheet Pros and Cons article.

Source: Smartsheet Pricing Official Website

Daniel Raymond

Daniel Raymond, a project manager with over 20 years of experience, is the former CEO of a successful software company called Websystems. With a strong background in managing complex projects, he applied his expertise to develop AceProject.com and Bridge24.com , innovative project management tools designed to streamline processes and improve productivity. Throughout his career, Daniel has consistently demonstrated a commitment to excellence and a passion for empowering teams to achieve their goals.

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A Full Smartsheet Review with Test Findings in 2024 – Pricing, Features, and More

Tech Report is one of the oldest hardware, news, and tech review sites on the internet. We write helpful technology guides, unbiased product reviews, and report on the latest tech and crypto news. We maintain editorial independence and consider content quality and factual accuracy to be non-negotiable.

For this Smartsheet review, we will put the popular cloud-based project and portfolio management tool to the test to see how it performs. Does it live up to all its promises of increased productivity with streamlined workflows?

Our team has thoroughly tested Smartsheet and similar PPM tools to compile this extensive guide covering its features, pricing, and competitor comparison to help you get the most out of this versatile platform.

Whether you’re a small team or a large organization, we’ve got you covered for all your project management needs with this Smartsheet review!

Key Smartsheet Pros and Cons

The thorough testing of Smartsheet platform and analysis of user reviews revealed severals benefits and drawbacks of the tool:

Familiar spreadsheet-like interface
Customizable sheets with formulas and widgets
Efficient workflow automation and collaboration
Secure and compliant with industry regulations
Real-time reporting for visibility
Deep learning curve for new users
Limited features in the Smartsheet free version
Lacks critical integrations for multinationals unlike Monday.com or Asana

What is Smartsheet?

Behind-the-scenes: how does smartsheet work, what is smartsheet used for, business plan, enterprise plan, automated workflows, gantt charts, resource management, top smartsheet alternatives compared in 2024, interface and ease of use, step 1: start a new smartsheet project, step 2: task delegation and workflow automation, step 3: team collaboration, step 4: progress tracking, step 5: create dashboards for data visualization, step 6: share project progress, a look at what other smartsheet reviews say, why you can trust techreport’s smartsheet review, smartsheet review result: is it worth it, smartsheet review faqs.

In today’s fast-paced work environment, managing multiple projects without a robust project management software is a nightmare.

Enter Smartsheet. A dynamic, flexible, secure, and highly customizable enterprise work management tool.

This customizable PPM tool can be tailored based on organizational structure and use cases , catering to businesses of all sizes from small startups to multinational corporations.

However, bigger organizations might face some difficulties while managing larger, complex projects given that Smartsheets lacks some critical integrations like Figma and Zoom offered by Monday.com and Asana.

That is not to say that it is a siloed tool. You can still integrate it with many other project tools including Jira, Miro, Dropbox, and Slack to ensure seamless operations.

Whether you need streamlined project management, efficient task tracking, collaborative work allocation, or data analysis , Smartsheet’s integrated environment supports you in achieving business success in the most efficient way possible.

On the surface, Smartsheet might look like a simple spreadsheet. But it’s actually designed to simplify work by automating complex project management workflows and streamlining operational processes.

Smartsheet’s collaborative platform is specially designed for teams to work together.

With its intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality, Smartsheet supports real-time collaboration by making it easy to create custom projects, assign and organize tasks, track progress, visualize data, and discuss progress with team members remotely.

All this is possible while ensuring enterprise-grade security , with measures like two-factor authentication and Single Sign-On!

The platform also understands that no two projects are the same. It offers a plethora of customizable templates , allowing you to tailor your workspace to fit the unique needs of your project.

But that’s not all. Smartsheet enhances project tracking with real-time insights and heightened visibility into progress , displayed in your preferred format. Detailed Gantt charts and data visualizations, like Hype Cycle trends, empower you to make effective decisions by keeping an eye on what truly matters.

According to a survey, inadequate communication between employees in a company can cause an average loss of $62.4 million per year.

To prevent this significant financial loss, Smartsheet is ideal for remote or hybrid work models , supporting effective communication, collaboration, and scalable processes.

While using this tool, we have discovered that it serves a range of business use cases. Some common Smartsheet use cases are as follows:

Project Planning: Plan and track projects with Gantt, Kanban, Card, or Grid views to easily monitor critical dependencies and variance
Resource Management: Supported by AI resource manager, allocate resources across projects to optimize workload and maximize productivity.
Task Tracking: Generate real-time dashboards and reports in a centralized platform, providing stakeholders visibility into key project metrics.
Workflow Automation: efficiently schedule tasks into recurring or condition-based smart workflows and generate automated alerts to keep stakeholders informed.
Data visualization: Automatically generate and customize charts to visualize historical data and trends, enabling informed decision-making.

These are some key use cases of Smartsheets, but there are many more that this flexible tool may serve.

How Much Does Smartsheet Cost?

Smartsheet offers four pricing plans based on the number of users or editors, features, functions, and project-specific needs and requirements. These are as follows:

For beginners, this Free Plan serves a single user who can add up to two editors or viewers on a single account . Users can create up to 2 sheets and unlimited dashboards and reports, with 500 MB of attachment storage.

It also offers integrations with popular tools like Microsoft 365, Google Workplace, and Slack, Additionally, users can design web forms to collect data and automate up to 100 repetitive tasks.

As the entry-level paid subscription, the Pro Plan is designed for small teams dealing with complex projects . In addition to the offerings of the Free Plan, this plan supports 10 editors with unlimited access to sheets, viewers, dashboards, reports, and forms.

Additionally, subscribers gain access to a broader array of integrations with 20 GB of attachment storage and allowance of 250 automations per month.

The Business plan caters to larger teams seeking comprehensive project management with an unlimited number of editors and automations allowed, supported by 1 TB of attachment storage.

Aside from what you get with the Pro Plan, the Business one offers robust features such as Single Sign-On and activity log ideal for organizational security as well as integration with Resource Management by Smartsheet for better project resource allocation.

Moreover, this plan boosts collaboration and reporting by integrating with visualization tools like Tableau and Power BI for enhanced functionality.

Smartsheet’s Enterprise subscription is the most premium offering, catering to global enterprises dealing with complex projects and strict security needs . Custom pricing quotes are given based on the unique requirements of your business.

Building upon the Business features, this plan offers enterprise-grade security and governance, smart workflows, CRM integrations, and heightened security and visibility.

The plan, although pricier, has no cancellation refund as it does not lock you down into a contract. Teams looking for a flexible project management software serving larger organizations will be in for a treat.

A Look at Smartsheet’s Top Features

After a thorough testing of the platform, we are pleased to present several core features of Smartsheet that are critical for efficient project management. These key Smartsheet features are as follows:

You can save time and manual effort by using no-code automated workflow management in Smartsheet. Choose an optimized pre-built template for tasks like status requests and due date reminders. Or build your custom workflows designed to provide you results exactly the way you like it.

On top of that, you can build both one-time and recurring workflows with multiple actions and conditional paths . Do all this with reduced approval cycles without the long email chains for managing, updating, and approving user requests.

When testing this feature, we liked automated alerts the best ; it ensured that users were notified on time about project updates or approval requests on email, apps, or integrated messengers like Slack . So, constant project check-ins are no longer needed with better workload management.

Gantt charts are another robust feature of Smartsheet, helping project managers track tasks, milestones, and project timelines. It displays in a timeline format and showcases crucial details such as project timeline, duration, and task dependencies.

Moreover, its drag-and-drop functionality simplifies the creation of task dependencies, adapts automatically, and adjusts timelines whenever there are changes in task dates and dependencies.

You can also use it to establish baselines to track variance and highlight main deliverables on the Critical Path , enabling visual tracking of task duration and relationships. Be sure to benefit from Smartsheet integration with the Google Calendar to easily track project milestones.

Another popular feature in Smartsheet is the dashboards that are custom designed using widgets to display sheets, reports, charts, forms, and external data from integrated data sources like Google Docs or Power BI.

Without granting access to the entire platform, you can even create and showcase certain dashboards to limited internal or external audiences. This offers real-time project visibility to empower stakeholders to make better decisions.

What we liked best was that these interactive, custom-built dashboards truly allowed teams from all parts of an organization to manage their projects in their own way without any roadblocks.

Customer Relationship Management

You can use Smartsheet as a customizable and intuitive CRM software to help manage your sales pipelines in a central location with an organized and updated contacts database ensuring reliable tracking of all the sales stages.

There is also a gallery of built-in templates to get your feet off the ground without the worry of figuring out the platform in one-go. And to ensure no one misses out on important deadlines, you can set automated alerts as a reminder for critical tasks like contacting customers for contract renewals or following up with an important prospect.

You can even integrate the tool with business critical apps like Slack, Dropbox and Docusign to maintain a seamless operation where your sales team can solely focus on bringing in those conversions.

Another specialty of Smartsheet is its resource management capabilities. From project tracking to budget monitoring to projecting hiring needs , Smartsheet ensures all elements of resource management are kept in check.

The people page helps project managers quickly allocate the right resources based on their availability and the required skills. Better yet, use the Allocation Heatmaps to swiftly identify the right people available immediately to start the project work.

Project managers and key stakeholders can also monitor the project progress through detailed visualized analytics.

The real-time budgeting, costs, and personnel hiring insights suggested by Smartsheet are incredibly useful if you need help keeping projects on track for successful delivery.

These valuable insights will truly help project managers in better decision making keeping in mind all critical variables.

We have compared Smartsheet with its other robust alternatives and found out that each tool has its unique strengths and weaknesses. The following table highlights the different characteristics of each PPM tool based on pricing and distinguishing features.


Scale-ups	$7 per user per month	$84 per user per year	Free Plan for 1 user and up to 2 editors/viewers
Start-ups	$8 per user per month	$96 per user per year	Free Plan with no viewers/guests allowed
Budget-friendly	$5 per user per month	$60 per user per year	Free Plan with unlimited guests having unrestricted access
Free tool	$9.80 per user per month	$117.6 per user per year	Free Plan with unlimited users but minimal features
Small teams	$5.99 per user per month	$71.88 per user per year	Free Plan with up to 5 users
Time tracking	€8 per user per month	€96 per user per year	Free Trial for 14 days

While there is other noteworthy project management software in the market, Smartsheet stands out for its scalable platform perfect for the growing teams with changing needs.

While it’s very close in terms of features and integrations to competitors like Monday.com, Smartsheet offers robust security features like Customer Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK) , and better collaborative capabilities like built-in content proofing.

Also, Smartsheet’s Free Plan has many more functionalities than Monday’s equivalent , which means you get to see a lot more of it before committing to a paid plan. Its versatility also allows it to be used across different industries and business functions.

If you have multiple projects to manage and you find spreadsheet interface familiar, we recommend you opt for Smartsheet for its exceptional automated features with an affordable pricing plan and 30-days free trial to get started.

Is Smartsheet Secure?

Enterprise software without top-notch security is particularly vulnerable to data breaches . But the great news is, if you choose to buy Smartsheet, you don’t need to worry about data security.

It offers enterprise-grade security features, including multiple permission levels, AES 256-bit encryption , 2 factor authentication, Single Sign-On and compliance with major industry standards and regulations like HIPAA, GDPR , ISO, and more — Smartsheet is a secure platform.

As a beginner without prior spreadsheet knowledge and experience, Smartsheet’s interface can be challenging for you. However, familiarity and experience with spreadsheets simplify the interface and make it easy for you to start your work. Built-in template gallery is also a time-saver for those looking for a quick start.

A Quick Smartsheet Tutorial on Getting Started

There are two types of users in Smartsheet: Licensed and Free users. You can start as a free user and sign up to create an account first. The following is the step-by-step guide:

After Smartsheet account creation, you can start by creating a new Smartsheet project or importing your existing projects from some other platform. Built-in templates can help you get started quickly if you are struggling to create a project from scratch. You can find pre-existing templates in the Smartsheet Template Gallery to customize for your project needs.

Smartsheet - Creating a New Smartsheet sheet

Now, you can start assigning tasks to your team members by tagging them in your task list. But don’t stop at that! Attach any related documents for more clarity and leave comments to share detailed instructions.

Don’t forget to create automated workflows such as sending deadline reminders to team members or receiving notification when the assigned tasks are completed and ready for review.

With all your project tasks delegated, you can now start collaborating with your team using a variety of Smartsheet’s collaborative features. Feel free to assign tasks, tag to alert users, add comments or annotations to share your views, and do much more.

Smartsheet Collaborative Platform Review

Once project work starts, you can use Smartsheet’s time tracker and progress indicators to check task ownership and progress . This way, you can easily track how much time each task takes and how close you are to completing your project goals.

With your project set up, you can now use Smartsheet’s reporting and analytics tools to gain insights into your data . Use these to create a dashboard to visualize all your critical data insights.

You can use histograms, bar graphs, pie charts, tables, and much more to create comprehensive reports and easily export them as PowerPoint or PDF for external sharing and presentations.

Use Smartsheet to not only plan and track project progress but also share it with key stakeholders for real-time monitoring . You can easily share any sheet, report, or dashboard with stakeholders to keep them in the loop.

Alongside a through testing Smartsheet, we have analyzed Smartsheet reviews published by users. We found user feedback to be mostly positives. On G2, a trusted software review website, Smartsheet has an average rating of 4.4 stars with about 15.000 reviews.

Many users appreciate Smartsheet for its remarkable workflow automation feature along with robust collaboration and the ability to create dashboards.

Many users agree that the software does have a learning curve for new users because of its flexible and customizable nature. But that is what truly makes Smartsheet useful for them as these customizable templates and workflows can be designed specifically for their team needs, be it small departmental projects or complex organization-wide projects.

Other TechReport Project Management Guides

Interested to learn more about project management tools? TechReport has a comprehensive coverage of project management software , with multiple guides showcasing in-depth analysis of other top project management tools. Following are a few key guides revealing our test results of how these top PPM tools perform compared to each other:

The Best Workflow Management Software: Top Tools Compared for 2024
Best Project Management Software: Top Free & Paid PM Tools Compared
The Best Free Project Management Software Solutions Compared for 2024
Monday.com Review – The King of Team Collaboration or All Hype?
The Best Employee Time Tracking Software in 2024
Best Gantt Chart Software Solutions Compared for 2024

We use data analysis to research user reviews and feedback, and explore the products with firsthand testing to gain reliable insights into the inner workings of the tool.

Our goal in this Smartsheet review is to provide unbiased and accurate guidance to aid in your decision-making process.

The answer depends on your answers to the following questions:

Is your business growing fast with ever-evolving needs? Are you seeking a tool to manage multiple projects with a range of customizable templates for various use cases? Do you prefer robust analytics, automation, and reporting capabilities over ease-of-use?

If your answer is yes to any one of these questions, then Smartsheet is the right choice for you . Smartsheet automates project management with customizations and flexible project tracking functionalities to tailor the solution to exactly fit your business needs.

Still not sure? Explore the Smartsheet’s Free Plan or sign up for its 30-day free trial. If you’re not satisfied, you can easily switch to another tool that suits your needs better without risking your money!

Smartsheet is a spreadsheet-like Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management Software that empowers organizations to manage, automate, and scale complex projects within a centralized platform securely.

Is Smartsheet legit?

Yes, Smartsheet is a safe and trustworthy tool that has about 15,000 reviews on G2 with 4.4 star average ratings. It also has a variety of security measures and meets industry standards of various regulatory compliances such as HIPAA, FedRamp, FERPA, ISO, etc.

What does Smartsheet do?

Smartsheet enables teams to create tasks, automate workflows, manage projects, collaborate in real-time, maintain transparency within an organization without the fear of data loss, and ensure optimal data security.

What is Smartsheet good for?

Smartsheet is best for scaling teams with changing needs, handling multiple ongoing projects that are difficult to track.

Is Smartsheet free?

Smartsheet has a Free Plan available for a single user with limited features. It also offers a 30-day free trial opportunity for its users to explore its features.

Why is Smartsheet bad?

Smartsheet can seem like a complex tool initially with a deep learning curve which can serve as a roadblock for smaller teams requiring simpler solutions.

Is Smartsheet safe?

Smartsheet protects your data with AES-256-bit encryption, and two-factor authentication and ensures a safe and secure environment.

Is Smartsheet a CRM?

CRM is one of the many use cases that Smartsheet serves. You can definitely use Smartsheet as a CRM.

Why is Data Analytics Important for Business? (Ohio University)
The Cost of Poor Communications (SHRM)
Workflow Automation: Overview and Research Issues (Academia)
What is GDPR, the EU’s new data protection law? (GDPR EU)

Our Editorial Process

Sabika Tasneem Tech Content Writer

Sabika is an experienced Product Marketing Professional passionate about crafting engaging tech content. Beyond her professional pursuits, Sabika loves immersing herself in the world of literature, exploring diverse cultures, and fueling her creativity through writing.

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Smartsheet Pricing – Which Plan is Right For You in 2024?

Smartsheet is a fully fledged project management solution that resembles a spreadsheet program. But unlike a spreadsheet, Smartsheet comes packed with some highly sophisticated project management features, making it one of the best project management tools .

This post centres on Smartsheet pricing. We are going to dive deep into the plans and the features that come with each plan. Here you will also learn about some strong alternatives to Smartsheet, and find answers to some frequently asked questions about the platform.

Try Smartsheet for free.

Smartsheet Pricing Comparison: Which Plan Should I Pick?

Best smartsheet plan for small businesses.

Smartsheet Pro Plan for Small Businesses

Intended for small businesses, the Pro plan costs $7 per user per month when billed annually. And if you pay monthly, the price is $9 per user per month. This plan offers a convenient way to track, collaborate, manage and execute their operations in real time.

2. Business

Best smartsheet plan for mid sized businesses.

Smartsheet Business Plan for Mid Sized Businesses

The Business plan, which is intended for mid-sized businesses, comes with relatively advanced functionalities. Billed annually, it costs $25 per user per month. The price goes up to $32 when billed monthly. Business is the most popular of the three Smartsheet plans.

3. Enterprise

Best smartsheet plan for businesses that need custom features.

Smartsheet Enterprise Plan for Businesses That Need Custom Features

The Enterprise plan is for companies that need enterprise-grade features. It is not a pre-defined plan, and that means you have to contact the Smartsheet sales team to get a quote. The price depends on the specific features you need for your business.

What Features Do The Different Smartsheet Plans Include?

1. feature of the pro plan.

The Pro plan comes with just about everything you need to to manage a small business. Unlike many other project management tools, Smartsheet offers pretty advanced features with its initial plan. And the reason is simple: it's not a free plan. Here are the features at a glance:

Fundamentals:

Unlimited sheets
Unlimited forms
Unlimited reports
1 sheet per report
Unlimited dashboards
10 widgets per dashboard
Calendar view
Cell formulas
Column types
Cross-sheet formulas
Column formulas
Dependencies
Cell history
Conditional formatting
Lock and unlock rows and columns
Cell linking
Mobile app (Android & iOS)
Private sheets and reports
Up to 10 viewers per object
Up to 10 collaborators for object
Attachments
Maximum 30 MB attachment size
Up to 20 GB file storage
Conversations
Assign people

Automation:

Up to 250 automation actions per month
Alerts and notifications
Update requests
Assign people action
Record a date
Approval requests
Move or copy row
Send alert to Microsoft Teams
Send alert to Slack

Integrations:

Microsoft Office 365
Google Workspace (Gmail, Hangouts, Calendar, Drive, etc.)

Additional Capabilities:

Brandfolder: Digital asset management (available for purchase)
10,000ft: Resource management (available for purchase)

Support & Services:

Smartsheet Community
Online web support
Learning Center

In Smartsheet, all your data lives in a sheet, so it is basically the foundation of your work. You can get the best out of Smartsheet by setting up your sheets appropriately. The familiar-looking grid is the default sheet view, and you can customize it with multiple column types, attachments, hierarchies and elaborative communication.

When it comes to collecting and acting on data, Smartsheet forms are immensely helpful. The forms can be used to collect error-free, conditional data and save it into your sheets . With logos, images, text and background colours, there is plenty of room for customisation.

One of the main purposes of using a project management tool is to work with real time data collected from multiple sheets. Smartsheet reports allow you to do just that. The reports are bi-directional, which means whenever you update a piece of information on a report, the same information will be automatically updated in the sheets and vice versa.

Users can create as many dashboards as they want. The main purpose of using a dashboard is to centralise all information and allow users to access the information in a single place. The building blocks of dashboards are widgets that display live data from your reports and sheets. Users can easily configure the widgets and share the dashboards with anyone. The Pro plan allows up to 10 widgets per dashboard.

With the filters option, users can make a piece of information visible or invisible as per needs. This feature can be used to see tasks that are assigned to you, tasks due on a specific date, or the stage of a specific task in a workflow.

Tasks can be displayed in a grid view, Gantt view, calendar view or card view . In fact, Smartsheet is one of the best Gantt chart softwares tools for project management.

In order to ensure consistent data entry, you can use specific column types. Column types include contact list, text, dropdown, date, checkbox, symbols, multi-select dropdown, and auto-number.

The dependencies feature is another useful functionality used for automatic calculation of dates as values for duration. For example, if you alter the start date of a specific project, the action will immediately adjust the end date, given that you enter values for the duration of the project .

Every project manager knows the fact that starting a project from scratch can be time consuming. A template can help you maintain consistency for conditional formatting rules, column names and column types. The project can be more structured, and that can save you time. Smartsheet offers some great project templates.

Formulas and functions can be used to perform lookups or calculations across multiple sheets or within a single sheet. They are also used to automate drop down fields and symbols. With Smartsheet you can build a formula by either manually entering values or using cell references.

Smartsheet has a mobile app for Android and iOS users. You have real-time access to the platform, can capture images and barcodes, and view dashboards on the go.

Project management involves sharing text, images, audios and other types of files. When you share sheets, reports or dashboards, Smartsheet allows you to set permission levels.

People who have access to your dashboards may be viewers or collaborators. While viewers can just view the contents, collaborators can edit them . The Pro plan allows up to 10 viewers or collaborators per object. Your attachment size cannot exceed 30 MB. Up to 20 GB file or attachment storage is allowed.

Sophisticated Automations

When it comes to automations, Smartsheet has an edge over most other project management tools. Smartsheet offers all its automation features with all three plans. That means, even if you are on the Pro plan, you have access to the same automation features that are available with the Business and Enterprise plans.

There is only one difference: The Pro plan allows up to 250 actions per month. Now, let's see what you can do with the automation features.

You can send update requests to collaborators even if they don't have smartsheet accounts. You can decide to show specific columns in your requests, and send them at a specific time or at regular or irregular intervals. To add or change information, your contractors, clients, colleagues and consultants just have to use a simple form. And they can do it from any device.

The automated alerts and reminders are designed to help you share the right information with the right people at the right time. If there are changes to your sheet, alerts are automatically triggered, notifying stakeholders of the changes . You can set up the alerts and reminders based on multiple conditions.

Once you have assigned tasks to team members, Smartsheet automatically traces the workflow. You always have access to the reports of tasks.

In order to maintain its position among the best task management software for teams , Smartsheet has tried to devise as many ways as possible to reduce manual tasks. For example, users do not have to manually send approval requests to their stakeholders. The tool automatically requests approvals and records feedback .

And as a result, operations run smoothly. You can customise approval requests completely and send them individually, or customise them with multiple steps, making them compatible with a complex workflow.

The Record a Date feature can be immensely useful for team members based in different timezones. When a workflow is triggered, you can set the current date into your chosen field. The sheet will show dates according to the owners’ respective time zones.

Users can also send alerts to Microsoft Teams and Slack. This feature requires connecting Smartsheet with these platforms. Smartsheet is compatible with both the desktop and browser versions of these applications.

Integrations and Additional Capabilities

In terms of integrations, users enjoy sufficient flexibility. You can integrate Smartsheet Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox, Box, Slack, and Quip. These integrations can help you streamline your operations and get more done.

The Pro plan offers two additional capabilities that are available for purchase. These two features are resource management and digital asset management. They incur additional costs.

There are multiple sources of support and services: Smartsheet Community, Online web support, and Learning Center .

The most notable drawback of the problem is security features. If security and control are important for your business, you may consider upgrading to the Business or Enterprise plan.

2. Features of the Business plan

The Business plan is intended for businesses that need fairly good flexibility, automation and security. Here are the features that are unique to this plan:

Conditional form logic
Unlimited sheets per report
Unlimited widgets per dashboard
Templates sets
Report grouping and summary
Activity log
Custom colors & logos
Document builder
Unlimited viewers per object
Unlimited collaborators per object
250 MB maximum attachment size
Up to 1 TB file storage
Publish sheets, reports and dashboards
Unlimited automations
Admin Center
User management
Group management
Integrations with Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams, Adobe Creative Cloud, Brandfolder, Tableau, and PowerBI

Features available for purchase:

Dynamic View
Control Center
Data connectors
Data Shuttle
Calendar App

The Business plan withdraws some limitations from its most notable features. Iit allows unlimited sheets per report, and unlimited widgets per dashboard.

Users can take advantage of the template sets that combine reports, dashboards and sheets. The sets include meeting management, project tracking and rollup, request management, expense tracking, and strategic plan. They can help you jump-start your activity and be more effective at work.

Baselines is another feature that gives the Business plan an advantage over the Pro plan. With Baselines you can set the start and finish dates for individual tasks and rows. Once you have enabled Baselines, three new columns namely Baseline Start, Baseline Finish, and Variance will be added to the sheet . You can view the baseline dates as visual Gantt bars.

Thanks to the report grouping and summary functions, creating informative and actionable reports is easier than ever before. This feature is Smartsheet’s newest enhancement to reporting. The sophisticated report builder is pretty intuitive.

Users can group similar data values and get more organised. The Summary feature uses functions like COUNT, SUM, MAX and MIN to calculate totals on report columns.

Branding is very important for mid sized businesses. By uploading your logo to Smartsheet and using custom colours, you can maintain the brand recognition of your business . The Smartsheet application displays the logo branding and color settings. They are also displayed in the email messages, highlighting your brand.

The effectiveness of collaboration largely depends on understanding and clarity. You need to know what your collaborators are actually doing. You need to know what edits and deletions are taking place in a sheet. The activity log feature allows you to track history of changes. It lets you know who last viewed a dashboard or who did what in a sheet.

Creating customised documents sheet data can be an error-prone and time-consuming task. The Smartsheet document builder removes the manual steps and saves you time. It allows you to generate documents rapidly, without having to leave the Smartsheet platform. Smartsheet’s reputation as one of the best team management software is largely indebted to this flexibility.

More Freedom of Sharing and Storage

With the Business plan you will enjoy a lot more flexibility in terms of sharing documents. This plan does not put any limit to the number of viewers or collaborators per object. The maximum attachment size is 250 MB. Up to 1 TB file storage is allowed.

Getting people to provide proofs and timely feedback can be a pain. Proofing allows your team to manage the process of content creation and approval . Thanks to this feature, anyone can easily edit, review and approve documents, videos, images, and PDFs. To send review requests to vendors, colleagues or clients, you can use existing attachments or upload new files.

With the Business plan feature you can invite anyone to access your reports, sheets and dashboards. For this, you just have to share a unique URL, which you can easily generate within Smartsheet. People who receive your unique URL can access your documents without having to log in to Smartsheet.

You get the same automation features that are available with the Pro plan, but here is a catch: you can automate to your heart's content. Yes, this plan allows unlimited automation actions.

Greater Security and Control

In terms of security, users get three features: Admin center, user management, and group management.

Admin center is used to manage groups, users and license requests. This feature is for group admins and system admins, to govern and administer their Smartsheet account.

The User management feature allows you to add, manage or remove users from your Smartsheet account. A system admin can add both licensed and unlicensed users to a multi-user account .

Thanks to the Group management feature, admins can easily organize contacts into groups. It allows anyone on the Business or Enterprise plan to quickly share information with the group.

More Integrations, Powerful Additional Capabilities

Users of the Business plan can integrate Smartsheet with some more tools and platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Adobe Creative Cloud, Brandfolder, Tableau, and PowerBI.

There are some additional capabilities that the Business plan users can purchase. They include Dynamic view, Connectors, Control center, Data shuttle, Pivot app, Calendar app, and DataMesh.

Some supports and services are available for purchase, which means they don’t come bundled with the Business plan. They include Professional Support, Standard Support, Smartsheet University, Technical Account Managers, and Professional Services.

3. Features of the Enterprise Plan

The Enterprise plan has been designed for companies that need enterprise-grade project management features. With this plan, there is no limitation on any feature . And that means you have access to everything Smartsheet has to offer. Apart from the features that are available with the previous two plans, here are the unique features that come with the Enterprise plan:

Custom welcome and help screens
Unlimited storage
Directory integration
Custom email domains
Enterprise access controls
Domain validation
Account discovery
Approved domain sharing
User account provisioning
Charge back reports
System admin fallback
Org-wide data backup
Enterprise plan manager
E-signature with DocuSign
WorkApps: No-code business apps
Standard support

Additional features available for purchase:

Bridge: Intelligent workflows
Customer managed encryption keys
Governance controls
Event reporting

If your organization requires securing data, maximizing user onboarding with training and centralizing administration, the Enterprise plan will make you happy.

Airtight Security

When it comes to security and control, the Enterprise plan rocks. The directory integration feature is one of the security features, and it can be a bliss for system administrators.

By aligning your operations with existing software management processes, you can manage users across the enterprise while saving time and resources. With your existing Azure active directory, your IT teams can manage all Smartsheet users in your organization.

Smartsheet admin center User management Feature

Single Sign-On (SSO) and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) are two other functionalities that can tighten your organization’s security. Once SSO is activated, your employees will need to use their corporate credentials to sign in to Smartsheet . When SAML is configured, your employees will be able to use the company account button to authenticate with their company.

To combine two users into one and eliminate duplicate entries, you can use the user merge feature. If you have multiple email addresses per employee, you are going to find this feature very useful.

The Enterprise plan gives you control over the way your users work in Smartsheet. With Enterprise access controls, you can set up approved domain sharing lists, choose authentication options, and limit group membership options.

For Smartsheet notification emails, instead of using the default Smartsheet domain you can customize your account so that all users can use your organization’s subdomain. Only a system admin of an Enterprise plan is allowed to configure a custom email domain .

With User auto provisioning, you can automatically add users to your account. The system will automatically detect the users as licensed or non-licensed users. It saves time because you no longer have to invite users manually.

If there is an issue with the authentication service, system admins can still access Smartsheet with their credentials, thanks to the system admin fallback feature.

In a growing organisation, different departments tend to independently roll out Smartsheet. And that can become an issue for administrators, especially when it comes to enforcing governance and security controls. In general, this issue is resolved by merging multiple plans into a single plan.

The Enterprise Plan Manager offers a smarter solution to this problem. With this feature you can ensure that all the Smartsheet plans of your organisation follow your governance, security and compliance requirements .

Preparing custom documents across multiple disconnected platforms can be extremely time-consuming. The procedure is also susceptible to costly errors.

More Integrations and Other Capabilities

In terms of integrations, there is only one feature that makes the Enterprise plan stand apart, and that is E-signature with DocuSign. But it can save a lot of time and streamline your processes. With Smartsheet’s redesigned document builder, users can quickly create custom documents with their row data. With the DocuSign integration, users can send the documents for signatures.

There are some more additional features that are available for purchase only with the Enterprise plan. You may need some of these features, depending on the size and type of your business. Governance Controls, for example, is used to customize data governance and your organization’s requirements for compliance.

The Enterprise plan, in short, comes with all the bells and whistles needed to manage the operations of a large and complex organization . If the default features are not enough, you can always buy additional features to meet your needs.

Smartsheet Alternatives for Project Management

1. monday.com, best smartsheet alternative for small teams.

Monday.com is the Best Smartsheet Alternative for Small Teams

Founded in 2012, monday.com is now one of the best team management tools, particularly for small businesses. The platform is known for its sophisticated features, user-friendly interface, and affordable pricing.

There are five monday.com plans including a free and a custom plan. The three predefined plans namely Basic, Standard and Pro start respectively at $8, 10 and $16 per user per month .

While Smartsheet is a great choice for professional services teams, monday.com is more suitable for startups and freelancers.

Monday.com has a forever free plan. So, if you need to get started with a project management tool without spending a penny, monday.com is definitely a better option. It’s a great tool for IT, HR, construction and creative agencies.

If you are running a small business and have a small budget for a project management tool, you may choose monday.com over Smartsheet.

Best Smartsheet Alternative for Independent Workers

ClickUp is another great tool for task management, project organization and internal communications. The tool is popular for its cutting-edge features, ease of use, and affordability.

There are five ClickUp plans including a free plan. The predefined plans: Ultimate, Business, and Business Plus start respectively at $5, $9 and $19 per user per month. The fifth plan, Enterprise, is a custom plan intended for organizations with many large teams.

The motivation behind building ClickUp is to bring all your work into one place, and replace many apps with a single app. And ClickUp is largely successful in this endeavor.

The platform is more affordable and has a free plan , but that’s just the beginning. ClickUp offers some really great features that Smartsheet struggles to catch up with.

ClickUp’s strength lies in its features like custom statuses, relational databases, time management, customizable tasks, goals & milestones, and communication tools.

If you are looking for a cheaper but strong alternative to Smartsheet, you can’t go wrong with ClickUp.

3. Teamwork

Best smartsheet alternative for the it industry.

Teamwork is a popular project management tool with a strong focus on simplicity. But beneath its simple and intuitive interface, the platform has many cutting-edge features.

There are four Teamwork plans : Free Forever, Deliver, Grow, and Scale. The first one is a free plan with pretty useful features for individuals and small teams . The Deliver and Grow plans start respectively at $10 and $18 per user per month. The fourth plan, Scale, is a custom plan for large businesses.

While Smartsheet is a good fit for users who are comfortable with spreadsheets, Teamwork is a more robust and feature-rich tool with a bit of a learning curve. With that said, Teamwork has an intuitive and visually pleasing interface, and users quickly get comfortable with the tool.

Teamwork has features designed for risk management, time tracking, better billing, and stronger communication. It is to be noted here that Smartsheet offers no way to add risk management information, which makes migrating issues more complicated.

Teamwork is a better alternative to Smartsheet for IT teams that requires remote collaboration and sophisticated features.

Best Smartsheet Alternative for Agencies and Marketing Teams

Now owned by Citrix, Wrike is a popular tool for work management, team collaboration, and project management. Wrike is not cheap, but offers plenty of value.

There are 5 Wrike plans : Free, Professional, Business, Enterprise, and Pinnacle. The Free plan is pretty generous. Professional and Business are predefined plans starting respectively at $9.80 and $24.80 per user per month . Enterprise and Pinnacle are Wrike’s custom plans intended for large businesses.

Wrike is an all-in-one project management tool that comes with just about everything you need for project management, product development and marketing. The main focus of the features is collaboration. The tool allows users to schedule, discuss and prioritize their tasks.

There are seven different visual dashboard views, making Teamwork one of the best visual project management software . Currently, support is available in 13 languages. If you want to use a free project management tool before you invest in it, Wrike is a better option for you.

Smartsheet Pricing FAQ

Smartsheet has three plans: Pro, Business, and Enterprise. The Pro plan costs $7 per user per month when billed annually, and $9 per user per month when billed monthly. Billed annually, the Business plan costs $25 per user per month. Billed monthly, the plan costs $32 per user per month. Enterprise is Smartsheet’s custom plan intended for large businesses. Its price depends on the features you choose for your business.

While Smartsheet resembles a spreadsheet, it’s packed with plenty of highly sophisticated project management features. This no-code, cloud-based platform is popular among business owners and managers who are comfortable working with spreadsheets . Currently, Smartsheet has 9 million users, and about 1 million of them are paid users.

No, Smartsheet has no free version. However, the platform offers a free trial that does not require any credit card.

30 days. You can use Smartsheet for a whole month without paying. No credit card required. Just sign up and get started.

Next Step: Choose the Right Smartsheet Plan for You

Choosing the right Smartsheet plan is easy because there are only three plans to choose from. You can tell which plan is right for you just by looking at the features. Unless you have a large and complex business, get started with the Pro plan and see if you need to upgrade to the Business plan.

Before you invest in this project management tool, feel free to get the free trial. It comes with no strings attached; no credit card required. You have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain. Just sign up and get started.

Was This Article Helpful?

Anastasia belyh.

Anastasia has been a professional blogger and researcher since 2014. She loves to perform in-depth software reviews to help software buyers make informed decisions when choosing project management software, CRM tools, website builders, and everything around growing a startup business.

Anastasia worked in management consulting and tech startups, so she has lots of experience in helping professionals choosing the right business software.

Smartsheet Forward Q3 2024: Innovations that create value and time for the work that matters

by Ben Canning

July 30, 2024

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Hey there, Smartsheet community!

Our team's been hard at work developing new features and enhancements that we’re excited to share with you. These products and features are designed to revolutionize your workflow and enhance productivity. In this edition of Smartsheet Forward, we're covering remarkable additions to our lineup: the Kanban-inspired board view, AI tools, a robust security suite, and a new way to analyze resourcing data. Each of these innovations has been meticulously crafted to meet the evolving needs of modern businesses, combining sleek design with powerful functionality. Let’s dive into the details of each new feature.

Kanban-inspired board view to keep projects on track

A project plan is displayed in Smartsheet board view, modeled after Kanban boards. Task cards are organized by assignee and include images and due dates.

Whether you work in an agile environment or prefer to work more visually, we hope our new board view is a game-changer in your day to day. Modeled after Kanban boards, this view provides clear visibility into task status so you can see what’s in progress, what’s completed, and what’s coming up next at a glance.

With the ability to organize tasks in lanes, show progress, or reassign work by dragging them from lane to lane, it’s a new way to plan sprints, manage product roadmaps, and track tasks to completion in Smartsheet. You also have the option to nest tasks, add subtasks, and reprioritize tasks or change their status and details. Try it out for your next project!

"Board view is great — an exciting addition to the Smartsheet platform. I love that edits are live and updated in real-time, so you don't need to hit save to see your changes and how you can scroll through individual lanes. This has been so helpful for us as we tend to have a large volume of cards in our sheets." — Nick Stafford, Team Lead - Training, Systems and Process, Martin Brower of Canada

Board view joins the recently launched timeline view as one of the many ways you can manage work in Smartsheet. Timeline view is well-suited to visualizing date-based work like marketing campaigns and product launches. We’ve added a cool new feature that lets you display milestone-only timeline views for sheets with just a single date column, in addition to the usual two-date column setup. In the near future, you’ll be able to attach files to tasks and have conversations about your work all in one place.

With each new view launch, we give you more tools to do your best work. You can easily switch between views and enjoy the flexibility to work however you want.

On-the-spot help — just ask AI

For the last year, generative AI has been at the heart of our mission to empower anyone to drive meaningful change. We believe AI unlocks the potential to use the Smartsheet platform to:

Tackle business problems: Smartsheet AI keeps you focused on business outcomes without worrying about the technology.
Supercharge team productivity: Smartsheet AI helps reduce time spent on manual repetitive work and increase efficiency.
Get quick insights: Whether you’re a portfolio manager or a COO, you’ll derive actionable insights from work data.

We’ve introduced conversational AI tools that understand what you need in everyday language, giving you insights about work. With no need for advanced training, users are empowered to excel. Since their rollout, half of Enterprise plans have embraced Smartsheet AI tools for generating formulas, text, and ad hoc charts and metrics. And, in June, we launched the ‘get help with AI’ tool as part of our Premium Support Package, helping users get answers to their Smartsheet questions without leaving their workflow.

“I love just typing in what I am looking for and automatically getting the insight I need from my data. This will help me give my supervisor a quick figure without having to create a formula for it.” — Deborah L. Richardson at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center

Next, we’re building AI-powered tools to summarize conversations, create content automation workflows, and generate text at scale, cutting down repetitive work so your teams can accomplish more. Plus, we’re making it easier to generate formulas and charts across entire portfolios of data, giving managers and executives a holistic look into the status of work, just by asking simple questions.

Flexible, secure access management

In today's dynamic digital landscape, secure and precise user access controls are a must. To enhance security and lighten administrative workloads, we are rolling out two new features in the coming months that’ll help you automate user roles and access management as well as provide granular asset control.

These improvements can make scenarios like this one much simpler: Imagine that Jade, a Project Manager in your finance department, transitions to a new role as an Operations Lead in marketing. Currently, you’d have to manually remove her access to all finance assets and grant her access to marketing assets. We’re making this easier with Identity Provider (IdP) managed access.

By defining roles within Smartsheet — such as Finance Project Manager — you can assign access and permissions to specific Smartsheet assets based on these roles directly through your IdP. If someone switches roles, Smartsheet will automatically revoke access to assets associated with the old role and grant permissions for the new role. You can manage all this seamlessly through your existing IdP, making everything more secure and hassle-free.

For granular asset control, we'll be launching a new permission set called Manager iteratively across the platform. It’s designed to bridge the gap between the Editor (can share) and Admin roles in sheets. Many of our customers have expressed the need for certain team members to have more capabilities than the Editor role offers, like hiding/unhiding columns, modifying sheet column properties, or creating automated approval workflow requests. But, they don't need the full access that an asset Admin has.

The new Manager permission set strikes the perfect balance. It will offer essential permissions for advanced data handling and project management while keeping sensitive administrative controls and configurations reserved for Admins.

More detailed insights into people and work

In June, we launched a brand-new way to analyze your resourcing data. Our advanced reports feature brings Resource Management data right into sheets along with pre-built reports and dashboards. Now you can combine your resourcing data with other information like costs and bill rates to calculate profitability and create custom reports with multiple levels of groupings, summary values, custom sorting, and columns. The pre-made dashboards come loaded with charts and graphs that you can tweak to your liking. Plus, we recently enhanced the capacity view (found via the schedule tab) with new view controls. These let you model different scenarios using custom fields and project types to choose combinations of resources and potential investments, and save those models for quick comparison.

At the end of July, we rolled out the highly requested phase connection with project sheets for our Early Adopter Program customers. This enables you to assign, track, and report on time and budgets for specific parts of your project, giving you more flexibility and detailed insights. This feature will be available to all customers by the end of October 2024. We’re also making it easier to assign work by automatically applying a default allocation for assignments. These improvements apply to both Workload Tracking (included in Business and up plans) as well as the premium Resource Management by Smartsheet add-on.

We want to hear your product ideas

That’s all from me for now, but we are eager to hear from you. Please tell us what you think by submitting your product feedback and ideas or voting on ideas shared by your peers. I can’t wait to see some of you at our ENGAGE customer conference from Oct. 8 to 10 in Seattle to share what’s in the works next quarter and beyond!

Until then, Ben Canning Senior Vice President, Product Experiences

TikTok Spending Drove Microsoft’s Booming AI Business

Microsoft has had success reselling OpenAI’s artificial intelligence to its cloud customers, a core part of its plan to build a new multibillion-dollar profit machine. New data show which customers are powering the business.

TikTok, for instance, was paying nearly $20 million per month to buy OpenAI’s models through Microsoft as of March, according to someone who saw internal financial documents about it. That was close to 25% of the total revenue Microsoft was generating from the business, when it was on pace to generate $1 billion annually, or $83 million per month, this person said.

Smartsheet: Private Takeout Interest Could Finally Unlock Its Real Value

Smartsheet is a strong player in the PWM software space, with a conservative valuation and potential for upside.
Recent Q1 results beat estimates, with enterprise segment strength and improving margins.
Acquisition interest from private equity firms could lead to a potential takeout, driving the share price higher.

Daniel Grizelj/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Smartsheet ( NYSE: SMAR ) is a well-established player in the competitive Project and Work Management [PWM] software space with its easy-to-use platform, especially popular among large enterprises. For long, I've been arguing that Smartsheet has a strong business model, being able to operate as a Rule of 40 company in the longer run, thanks to its sticky PWM platform. In my latest article on the company, I concluded:

Smartsheet tests the patience of investors, but I believe it's worth waiting. Valuation of shares has reached quite conservative levels, which in case of positive fundamental surprises should result in large upside for shares. Recent conservative FY25 guidance has set a low bar for the upcoming quarters, which should limit downside in my opinion. It's true, that Smartsheet became a show me story recently, but I believe the company will deserve investor's trust rather sooner than later.

Since the time of writing, Smartsheet has published earnings for its Q1 FY25 quarter, which sparked a strong rally in shares. There haven't been major positive surprises in the earnings print, but the accompanying earnings call included some notable positives, like the introduction of a new pricing model or the launch of Smartsheet's new user interface.

On the top of that, Reuters published an exclusive report recently claiming that Smartsheet has attracted acquisition interest from private equity firms. This has been a similar positive catalyst for shares, resulting in a ~27% gain since the beginning of June, making the company one of the best performers in the public PWM space:

Seeking Alpha

In the light of improving fundamentals and acquisition interest, there could be further positive surprises in the back half of the year, making the recent strong performance just the beginning of a larger rally.

In-line Q1 with catalysts lining up for the second half

Smartsheet reported revenues of $263 million for its recently closed Q1 FY25 quarter, beating the average analyst estimate by ~2%. Annual recurring revenues (ARR), a more forward-looking topline growth metric the company began to emphasize, recently, came in at $1.056 billion growing 19% yoy:

Smartsheet Q1 earnings presentation

Looking at previous quarters shows that the trend of decreasing topline growth continued into Q1, although at a slightly more moderate pace. The enterprise segment remained the key strength of the company, where the dollar-based net retention rate stayed above 120%. The number of customers with ARR over $1 million increased 50% yoy to 72, representing the company's fastest growing segment. On the other hand, the SMB segment continued to be a drag on overall growth with a dollar-based net retention rate close to 100%, meaning that the ARR of these companies remained constant yoy.

Enterprise strength has been driven by continued seat expansions at large companies and the cross-selling of Smartsheet's capabilities, which now represent 35% of total subscription revenue. Control Center, Dynamic View and Data Shuttle remained the most popular capabilities over the quarter. Meanwhile, the weakness in the SMB segment has been the result of limited seat expansions due to continued cost control efforts in the space, coupled with slightly increasing churn.

The net result of these two effects has been a topline growth of 19%, which has been coupled by continuously improving margins thanks to strict control of operating costs and the utilization of economies of scale. Thanks to these efforts, the company decided to raise its full year operating margin guidance by 2%-points to 14-15% already after the first quarter of the year has passed, which is pretty impressive in my opinion.

Looking at the rest of the year, there have been interesting developments recently. Smartsheet decided to introduce a new pricing plan, which the company expects to be meaningfully revenue accretive in the longer run. The core idea behind the change is to increase the number of licensed Smartsheet users, who pay for the service. This will be accomplished by eliminating the free collaborator option from the plan, making organizations to choose whether specific employees license the platform (pay for it) or not going forward. The elimination of this freebie option will be compensated by a provisional member access, enabling temporary free access for members to try out the platform and engage with it.

To make the decision to stick with the platform as a licensed user easier, Smartsheet decided to decrease its price per user to some extent. The company already tested the new pricing model on some of its largest customers and shared positive feedback with investors on the Q1 FY25 earnings call .

The new plan will be effective for new customers from the 24th of June, while existing customers will transition when they renew their annual plan in 2025. Based on this, most of the financial impact will be felt next year, which could contribute to accelerating revenue growth in my opinion. Until then, it's important to look out for management feedback on quarterly earnings calls as more and more new customers start with the new pricing plan.

Another important development that could increase the engagement with Smartsheet's platform has been the recent redesign of its user interface. The first step in this process has been the launch of Timeline View in April, which has been followed by Board View in July, representing a modern version of the previous Card View. This will be followed by the introduction of Table View later this year.

Looking at the new Board View and comparing it with its predecessor (Card View) I believe the new design is clean, transparent and much more aligned with current standards:

Card View (old):

Smartsheet.com

Board View (new):

Over the long run, this could drive further engagement with the platform in my opinion, even if the launch has been somewhat bumpy based on reviews in Smartsheet's community. There have been complaints about the page freezing or lagging, or even an instance where users couldn't exit the promotional dialog of the new Board View. It will be worth to follow the company's next earnings call closely, what management has to say about these issues. Nevertheless, I think these changes combined with the new pricing model have the potential to bring Smartsheet's adoption in organizations to a next level, which could be evidenced in financial metrics rather next year.

Smartsheet emerging as favorable acquisition target

On the 18th of July, Reuters published an exclusive article on Smartsheet, claiming that the company has attracted acquisition interest from private buyout firms. Due to the stable business model centered around large enterprise customers combined with conservative valuation compared to peers, I haven't been surprised. Smartsheet teamed up with investment bank Qatalyst Partners to review potential offers but hasn't decided yet on the sale.

Looking at this quarter's take-private deals, they enjoyed strong momentum in Q2 as 41 going-private deals have been announced, double the number that of Q1. This has been partly the result of narrowing valuation gaps between buyers and sellers, which has stayed consistently high since interest rates began to increase in mid-2022. I believe this shift could increase the chances of a successful takeout deal, which could quickly increase the value of Smartsheet's shares if a deal is announced.

Looking at the company's growth adjusted relative valuation, we can see that it has caught up to peers recently thanks to the ~30% run up in share price since the beginning of June:

Created by author based on company fundamentals

Smartsheet shares trade currently at an EV/Sales ratio of 5.1, which is coupled with an expected revenue growth rate of 16% for the next twelve months. Based on the respective EV/Sales and revenue combinations of competitors, Smartsheet's shares could trade at an EV/Sales ratio of 5.66 (dotted line), approximately 10% higher than their current market price.

On the top of this 10% discount compared to peers based on sales-based multiples, I believe there is an additional premium applicable for Smartsheet's shares resulting from the company's advancement on the way to profitability. The company guided for 14-15% non-GAAP operating margin for FY25, which is significantly higher than most of its peers (e.g.: monday.com | Your go-to work platform ( MNDY ) 8-9%, Asana ( ASAN ) negative 8%). Besides, Smartsheet is very close to break even on a GAAP net income basis, with accumulating losses of only $9-9 million in the preceding two quarters. I believe this is an important metric for private equity investors as well, as it proves the efficiency of the company's operating model.

Finally, I believe a premium for a potential takeover should also be taken into consideration as shares "only" increased ~5% since the news came out. In my experience, acquisitions usually happen at a ~20-30% premium compared to the share price at the deal announcement, so I believe this news is far from priced in completely yet.

Taking all these things together, I believe Smartsheet shares have the potential to reclaim the $50 level soon, combined with a private take-out option that could lead to a quick bounce in the share price to somewhere $60, 27% above current levels. This is in line with recent update from Jefferies, who claim that Smartsheet would be worth $57- $66 in case of a potential private takeout.

If we assume 50% probability for the takeout, this option would be worth ~$6 assuming a jump to $60 from current ~$47-48 levels. Adding the 10% valuation discount to this option, we get a share price of close to $60, which represents Smartsheet's true potential more realistically in my opinion.

Risk factors

One important risk factor for Smartsheet investors is that a potential private takeout doesn't realize. As shares jumped ~5% since the news came out, I believe the negative impact in such a case would be limited.

Another important risk factor to consider is the hardship of migrating existing customers to the new Views the company is introducing throughout the year. This could have short-term negative impacts on expansion if several customers face technical issues, but I believe these should be mitigated over the medium term.

Finally, let's not forget that the project management software space is very competitive in nature, which could lead to pricing pressures over the longer run. However, based on management comments there are still many greenfield opportunities on the market, where Smartsheet competes only with in-house solutions.

Smartsheet shares currently trade at a price where they traded 5 years ago, with some large swings over these years. I believe recent company-specific news like private takeout interest and the redesign of the platform combined with pricing changes have the potential to finally unlock its real value. As I see limited potential for downside, I believe buying the shares now represents an excellent risk/reward opportunity.

This article was written by

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of SMAR either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

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Britain’s Weekend of Violence: What We Know

The country begins a new week on edge after anti-immigrant riots, fanned by disinformation from the far right, broke out in cities across Britain.

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A handful of protesters, two in masks, face a group of riot police officers with shields. In the background are a crowd, a fire and smoke in the air.

By The New York Times

After a weekend of violent uprisings across Britain, set off by a deadly stabbing rampage and a disinformation campaign aimed primarily at immigrant Muslims that followed it, tensions are high from the streets to government leaders’ offices.

Here is what we know as the country enters a new week of uncertainty.

Where has the unrest taken place?

Protesters over the weekend took to the streets of a dozen cities across the United Kingdom, most of them in England. Trouble broke out from Aldershot in the south to Sunderland in the north and Liverpool in the west. Belfast, in Northern Ireland, was also drawn into the fray.

In some cases, the protesters were merely unruly, but in others the violence was far more pronounced.

Where arrests have been reported

On Sunday, rioters set upon a hotel that was housing asylum seekers in the town of Rotherham, in northern England, breaking windows before surging inside as the police struggled to control them. No guests were injured in the melee, the police said.

In Middlesbrough, a group of rioters, some masked, hurled bottles and rocks at officers. Cars were set on fire, and at least nine people were arrested. On Saturday, a library and a food bank were set alight in Liverpool as groups damaged and looted businesses, and in Hull, fires were set and storefronts smashed in the city center.

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Inside the 'broletariat revolution'

Tech elites hate the media. So they're taking a page from Fox News.

It was December 2020 in San Francisco and Mike Solana was fed up. In the wake of the pandemic, as many of his friends and colleagues in the tech industry were leaving the city, the anti-tech media was shaping their exodus into yet another hysterical narrative. "There was this idea that tech people had come, extracted all the wealth in San Francisco, and moved on," says Solana, the chief marketing officer at Founders Fund, a venture firm cofounded by Peter Thiel and known for its bets on Airbnb, Palantir, and OpenAI . "The premise was just totally wrong." To set the record straight, he took to his Substack.

In a piece called "Extract or Die," Solana argued it wasn't tech that was the parasitic blight on the city: It was government officials. Tech companies had brought San Francisco unfathomable wealth, money that went on to be mismanaged by politicians who had exacerbated every one of the city's issues, from the housing shortage to drug use. "The truth is," he wrote with characteristic bombast, "had tech workers actually assumed a significant measure of political influence, and led in local politics, San Francisco would today be one of the greatest cities in the world."

Solana's cri de coeur ignited a corner of the internet. Hundreds of engineers, executives, and venture capitalists shared the article and thanked Solana for speaking up for them. His Substack, Pirate Wires, gained thousands of subscribers. The response was overwhelming, and he realized there was a role he could fill within the media landscape. "It helped me understand what I was doing that no one else was really doing," he says. Pirate Wires, he resolved, would become its own full-fledged media company. With backing from Founders Fund , Solana hired four full-time editors and writers, moved from Substack to a splashy website reminiscent of Vice, and wrote a swashbuckling mission statement about being an antidote to "our modern publishing giants" and "draconian political censorship."

But he was far from the only one in tech who decided it was time for tech to punch back.

Over the past few years, a cadre of prominent tech founders, investors, and personalities — most but not all of them wealthy, middle-aged white men — have launched their own tech-focused media projects. The most famous of these is "All-In," the clubby podcast hosted by the investors David Sacks, Jason Calacanis, Chamath Palihapitiya, and David Friedberg. Regularly near the top of Apple and Spotify charts since it debuted in March 2020, the show features the self-proclaimed "besties" pontificating on startup investments, politics, and poop jokes . They frequently bring the most influential people on the planet in for friendly interviews, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Tucker Carlson, and Donald Trump.

There's also Coogan, a popular YouTube channel in which John Coogan, a cofounder of the health-food company Soylent, narrates short laudatory documentaries about tech companies and entrepreneurs, like "How to BUILD Like Elon Musk" and "The Epic History of Artificial Intelligence" — a sort of "Why We Fight" for Silicon Valley. Elite venture firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital and even tech companies like Coinbase have launched their own media arms, publishing glossy magazine-style profiles of founders and breathless essays about the ecstatic future of tech — especially AI — while combating "misinformation" about the industry in the legacy media.

Most of these projects have branded themselves as "techno-optimistic," a phrase popularized by Marc Andreessen in his 5,000-word chest-thumping " Techno-Optimist Manifesto ." Though they compete for attention, they're unified in a primary agenda: To advance the idea that, as Andreessen puts it, "technology is the glory of human ambition and achievement, the spearhead of progress, and the realization of our potential."

While it's tempting to cast the pro-tech media as PR with some razzle-dazzle, there's another side to its agenda: to call out the enemies of tech — namely regulation, wokeism, legacy media, and, increasingly, liberal politicians. These outlets are fast becoming the spaces where tech's most powerful players unapologetically say what they really think. It also gives them the opportunity to circumvent scrutiny from traditional media, shaping counternarratives on their own terms. The pro-tech media is, above all, a call to arms for the tech industry. In the words of Solana, it is a "revolution of the broletariat." Or as the investor Balaji Srinivasan put it in a recent interview with Pirate Wires, it is "information warfare of one tribe versus another."

And as the pro-tech media's influence rises, its founders and followers are taking this war into their offices, city halls, and even presidential politics.

For many years, the pro-tech media had no reason to exist, as much of traditional media either ignored tech or cheered it on.

Solana, who began his career as a book editor at the Penguin Group in New York, likely speaks for many when he admits that he was once so insulated from Silicon Valley that he was unaware it was a real place. "I genuinely thought it was a metaphor," the 38-year-old says. Just 20 years ago journalists covered the tech industry "like it didn't matter, like it was this hobbyist, interesting, plucky thing." Back then, startup founders like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk were trumpeted as rebels and aspirational leaders. But to Solana and many in the tech industry, ever since Donald Trump's social-media-fueled election in 2016, many of those same founders have been treated to unrelenting scrutiny and scorn. As Solana puts it, it felt like "the entire startup ecosystem, the concept of startups, anybody working in this stuff was deemed suspicious and bad and that the future would be bad."

On the surface, the pro-tech media aims to bring back some now much-needed hype to the industry. Many of Silicon Valley's most touted innovations over the past several years have failed to live up to their promises: cryptocurrency , NFTs, the metaverse, Web3. Meanwhile, several of its most prominent and lucrative products — most glaringly social media — are increasingly scrutinized by regulators. Sam Bankman-Fried, once touted as the next Warren Buffett, is serving 25 years for fraud. Gen Z is turning away from working for Big Tech. An industry once made up of innovators and upstart "disruptors" has become corporate , bloated, and complacent. To many, tech has lost the plot . The pro-tech media gives tech's main characters the chance to write their way back to the original storyline, that the industry is "making the world a better place."

Trae Stephens, a partner at Founders Fund, described Pirate Wires as a kind of daily affirmation for Silicon Valley.

"We believe in the romance of technology, of industry," Andreessen writes in "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto." "The eros of the train, the car, the electric light, the skyscraper. And the microchip, the neural network, the rocket, the split atom." The pro-tech media is full of this type of romanticizing. Recent Coogan videos include "Palantir: The App That Caught Bin Laden," "Anduril - The Startup Reshaping Geopolitics," and "This Email Changed the Credit Card Industry," a 30-minute documentary about the payment-platform startup Ramp. Pirate Wires, too, touts the awesome promises of tech, with headlines like " Palmer Luckey Saves the World" and "We Need to Be Living Forever" and theatrical, ooh-rah proposals for "why now is the time to build the greatest era of human civilization."

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Through our Discourse journalism, Business Insider seeks to explore and illuminate the day’s most fascinating issues and ideas. Our writers provide thought-provoking perspectives, informed by analysis, reporting, and expertise. Read more Discourse stories here .

I have paid upgrading plan from Pro to Business, but the account still in Pro Plan, how to solve it?

Hi everyone,

I need help, I have paid upgrading plan from Pro to Business, and i also received the payment invoice on my email that said that i have paid for business plan (screenshot below).

But, my account still in Pro Plan (screenshot below), then i still cant use grouping at the report, etc.

is there a wrong way? Does the upgrade process take a time?

Best and Regard

Account and User Management

Hi @Freggy Martin

I hope you're well and safe!

Have you tried to log out and in again?

Did that fix it?

I hope that helps!

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Hi @Andrée Starå

I have tried it before, but doesn't change anything, until now.

Then, i just realized, i only receive invoice in my email, but not in 'View Receipt & History' at Account Administraion.

Best & Regards.

Hi Everyone,

I have read the QnA article about 'Add Licenses', one of the point is " Your account is more than 45 days away from the next renewal date " like the screenshot below.

However, i bought the Pro Plan at 2 March 2023, then i upgraded/added Business licenses at 7 April 2023 (Paid full). Based on the point above, is my account will automatically change to Business Plan at 45 days later after 2 March? Or what should i do with it?

Best and Regards

Based on the invoice you pictured, your account should have already changed to be a Business Plan as the invoice has been paid in full.

Please contact the Finance and Billing Department here with your account details and these same screen captures.

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I paid for the Pro plan, but when I access my sheet, I receive the below message:

"Your sheet is read-only until you upgrade to a paid plan" You can still export or Share this sheet.

Hey @jdroege

Is it possible that the payment didn't go through on the specific email that you're using to sign in? Here's more information to double check your account settings:

My Smartsheet account does not reflect receiving the payment. Attached is the confirmation email I received from Smartsheet on Feb. 7, 2024. I also received my confirmation from Paypal.

Hi @jdroege

Thank you for the image - I've removed your email address as this is a public forum. However based on that email I can see that the plan was set to "cancelled" the very next day (Feb 8th).

Is it possible that the payment was rejected and you received a refund on February 8th, or that it didn't go through?

You mentioned that you used PayPal to make the payment - if you canceled the associated PayPal account this will cancel the Smartsheet plan, as the account would need a valid payment method on file. Or if you cancelled the payment agreement with Smartsheet in your PayPal account this would have also cancelled your Smartsheet plan. You can set the account to cancel at the end of the subscription term in Smartsheet itself, versus PayPal.

In any case, based on that screen capture I would recommend contacting the Finance and Billing Department here with your account details and these same screen captures as well.

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More From Forbes

How to maximize investment returns in commercial real estate.

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Matias Recchia is Co-Founder and CEO of Keyway , the AI- powered real estate investment manager.

In commercial real estate, investors monitor multiple financial metrics to assess the quality of an investment, such as capitalization rates, internal rates of return and cash-on-cash returns. These financial metrics are used to acquire, exit and value commercial real estate assets and measure their success. Investors want to maximize valuation upon the sale of an asset, but they’re not always sure how to drive investment returns through financial, strategic and technological enhancements.

Now, with the proliferation of artificial intelligence and machine learning, investors can automate manual tasks, aggregate public data and make data-driven decisions quickly and with fewer resources. This is something I've seen firsthand through my own company, which provides AI tools for real estate teams and investors. Let’s explore how investors can maximize their net operating income (NOI) in commercial real estate to increase the value of their underlying assets—and what they should know if they plan to use AI to help.

1. Strategic Acquisition

Location, location, location.

Choosing the right location is pivotal in real estate investment. High-demand areas with economic stability and rent growth, proximity to key amenities, transportation, central business districts and good schools are important to most buyers and tenants. Locating properties in these areas can help establish a foundation to drive valuations and rent yields higher. Investors should conduct market research to help identify neighborhoods and properties that have the potential for growth.

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Kamala harris picks tim walz as running mate: here’s what to know about him, ‘don’t be fooled’—coinbase issues serious warning after $800 billion bitcoin and crypto price crash, 2. financial levers.

NOI is a financial metric, so, naturally, pulling financial levers is one of the best ways to drive NOI. Before agreeing to acquire a commercial real estate property, conducting detailed financial due diligence is critical. This includes reviewing financial statements, scrubbing cash flow, calculating debt service coverage ratios and assessing cap rates. Investors should also consider potential economic shifts that could impact rent and property value, including interest rates and inflation.

While financial due diligence can mitigate risk before acquiring a property, ongoing financial analysis is also essential to drive profitability. Once you own a property, implement strict financial controls to stabilize and improve NOI. Review each line item of operating expenses, make energy-efficient upgrades and rightsize staff and service contracts. I also recommend evaluating current rent, assessing rent increases and evaluating other on-property revenue enhancement opportunities, such as parking, that could increase profitability.

3. Property Upgrades

Improving the condition of the property and optimizing space usage are two smart ways to help increase NOI. For example, investors can yield a higher NOI through direct physical improvements on the property. This can lead to higher rents, increased tenant satisfaction and lower turnover. What are some high-impact improvements? Consider updating the facade and signage, improving landscaping, offering modern and smart appliances, and modernizing common areas.

4. Risk Control

Protecting your commercial real estate investment is as important as operating your assets. You have to protect the value of your property from a legal and risk perspective. Conduct a deep legal review to ensure the property complies with all local ordinances, laws and codes. This includes the physical building; environmental, social and governance pursuits; and understanding how modifications might impact legal requirements.

Also, NOI can be adversely impacted if you don’t have robust risk management strategies in place. Consider whether your insurance protects against unforeseen losses, and regularly conduct compliance audits to ensure your property meets all regulatory requirements.

5. Exit Strategies

Investors often think about an exit prior to an acquisition. It’s never too early to start thinking about a potential sale of your commercial real estate asset. The foundational improvements you establish early can set the stage for NOI improvement over time, which ultimately will drive your exit valuation upon sale. While it’s challenging to time the market, investors can monitor local market trends with real-time data analytics.

Leveraging AI To Help

Simply put, if you want to use AI as a commercial real estate investor, you need an AI strategy. How are you using AI to acquire and manage properties? While pen and paper or spreadsheets might still be used by some investors, I believe the future is gravitating toward AI. Generative AI and machine learning can help investors with many of the tasks I've outlined above, including forecasting local market conditions; pricing rent based on property, neighborhood and broader market dynamics; reviewing and managing contracts and more.

However, commercial real estate companies and operators who are considering AI for their business should be aware of several key challenges. First, real estate data can be fragmented and incomplete. Therefore, ensure your data is clean and organized before relying on its outputs.

Second, test your AI analyses alongside traditional analytical methods to ensure your results are accurate. If there is a discrepancy, assess your AI solution, the underlying data or both.

Third, when choosing an AI solution, ensure the solution integrates seamlessly with your existing data sources and current platform. If you are using, or plan to use, an outsourced AI vendor, you should also ensure the AI vendor provides robust and comprehensive training and support. Your real estate team will only be able to leverage the AI solution seamlessly when they understand its comprehensive features.

Maximizing NOI in commercial real estate is not solely financial and managerial; shrewd investors can also leverage technology to gain a competitive edge. By adopting these strategies, investors can enhance the profitability and value of their real estate assets and maximize NOI—even in a competitive market.

The information provided here is not investment, tax, or financial advice. You should consult with a licensed professional for advice concerning your specific situation.

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?

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