Smartsheet Review, Pricing & Alternatives (2026)

Smartsheet was founded in 2005 in Bellevue, Washington, and built its business on a familiar idea: project tracking that looks like a spreadsheet but adds dependencies, automations, forms and reports. It grew into an enterprise platform used for portfolio management, resource planning and operations at large companies. In January 2025 Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners completed an $8.4 billion deal to take Smartsheet private. In November 2025 it announced Intelligent Work Management, its push to combine AI, data and people across the platform. Smartsheet also owns Brandfolder for digital asset management and sells a Gov edition for US public sector customers.

Work lives in sheets with rows, columns, cell formulas, cross-sheet formulas and dependencies, viewed as grids, Gantt charts, boards, calendars, tables or timelines. Reports roll up rows across sheets, and dashboards show charts and metrics. Forms collect requests, and automations send alerts, request approvals, assign people and move rows on triggers. Higher plans add workload tracking, baselines, proofing, document builder, portfolios and scenario planning. Advanced Work Management bundles Control Center for portfolio rollout, Dynamic View for secure request intake, Data Shuttle for importing data, DataMesh and connectors to Jira, Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. Free contributors can edit shared sheets without a paid seat.

AI features are included on paid plans rather than sold as an add-on. Smart Assist is a chat companion that answers questions about sheet data, makes updates, summarizes and, since September 2026, builds automations from plain-language descriptions. Smart Columns add AI-powered columns that categorize, translate or score sentiment for every row. The AI dashboard builder creates up to ten charts from a prompt, intelligent form fill uses voice input, and AI workspace creation sets up a workspace from a description. Enterprise adds formula generation, data analysis and text summaries. The Smartsheet MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini Enterprise and Microsoft Copilot read and update sheets, with admin controls per connector.

Pro costs $9 per member a month billed annually, or $12 monthly, for up to 10 members, with unlimited sheets, 250 automations a month, 20 GB of storage and the core AI tools. Pro is offered to new customers only. Business costs $19 per member a month billed annually, or $24 monthly, with a minimum of three members, unlimited automations, 1 TB of storage, guests, timeline view and connectors to Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot. Enterprise and Advanced Work Management are priced by quote, adding SAML SSO, portfolios, unlimited storage and premium apps. Add-ons such as Dynamic View start at $125 a month and Data Shuttle at $100.

Smartsheet's strength is structured project and portfolio work at scale, with strong governance and a familiar grid. Its drawbacks are a dated interface next to newer tools, many key features behind add-ons or Enterprise, and per-member costs that add up. Monday.com and Asana offer friendlier interfaces and their own AI agents. Airtable suits teams building database-driven apps. Microsoft Project and Planner fit Microsoft 365 shops, while Wrike and ClickUp compete on all-in-one features. Choose Smartsheet if your organization runs projects and portfolios in spreadsheets today and wants enterprise controls and AI help without leaving that format.