Our verdict
Choose monday.com for an approachable, visual tool that many departments can shape themselves. Choose Smartsheet if your team lives in spreadsheets and runs structured projects with dependencies and portfolio reporting.
monday.com and Smartsheet both target teams that have outgrown simple to-do lists, but they look and feel very different. monday.com is colourful and board-based, easy to adapt to almost any workflow. Smartsheet is grid-based, familiar to spreadsheet users, and strong for structured project plans, dependencies and portfolio reporting.
Choose monday.com if…
- You want a visual, approachable tool for many departments
- Non-technical teams need to build their own workflows
- You want lots of templates and integrations
- You value dashboards that look good for stakeholders
Choose Smartsheet if…
- Your team thinks in spreadsheets
- You manage complex schedules with dependencies and critical paths
- You need portfolio-level reporting and resource views
- You run formal project management in operations, construction or PMO settings
Side by side
| Criterion | monday.com | Smartsheet |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 8.4 / 10 | 8.0 / 10 |
| Features & fit | 8.7 | 8.6 |
| Ease of use | 9.0 | 7.4 |
| Value for money | 7.6 | 7.4 |
| Support & reliability | 8.2 | 7.8 |
| Security & privacy | 8.2 | 8.8 |
| Integrations & ecosystem | 8.6 | 8.4 |
| Starting price (indicative) | Free for individuals; paid from around $9–12 / seat / month | From around $9–12 / member / month |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | Non-technical teams | Operations and PMO teams |
Feature by feature
| Feature | monday.com | Smartsheet |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, up to 2 seats | No (trial only) |
| Entry paid price (indicative) | Around $9 / seat / month (seat buckets) | Around $9 / member / month |
| Primary interface | Boards | Spreadsheet grid |
| Gantt and dependencies | Yes (Standard+) | Yes, strong |
| Formulas | Formula column | Full spreadsheet formulas |
| Automations | Yes, monthly limits by plan | Yes |
| Portfolio reporting | Pro / Enterprise | Business / Enterprise |
| Best fit | Cross-department workflows | Formal project and portfolio management |
Pricing compared
monday.com
| Plan | Indicative price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Up to 2 users |
| Basic | ≈ $9 / user / mo | Per seat, annual; sold in seat buckets |
| Standard | ≈ $12 / user / mo | — |
| Pro | ≈ $19 / user / mo | — |
Smartsheet
| Plan | Indicative price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | ≈ $9 / user / mo | Billed annually |
| Business | ≈ $19 / user / mo | Billed annually; minimum members |
| Enterprise | Custom quote | Quote |
| Team size | monday.com | Smartsheet |
|---|---|---|
| 5 seats | $45 (Basic) | $45 (Pro) |
| 10 seats | $90 (Basic) | $90 (Pro) |
| 25 seats | $225 (Basic) | $225 (Pro) |
Indicative USD list prices; excludes tax, add-ons and promotions. Confirm on each vendor’s site.
Interface
monday.com uses boards with coloured status columns, making progress obvious at a glance. Smartsheet uses rows and columns with formulas, which spreadsheet users learn instantly.
Project scheduling
Smartsheet is stronger for Gantt charts, dependencies, baselines and critical path. monday.com supports timelines and dependencies, but formal scheduling is not its core.
Pricing
monday.com is priced per seat in buckets (Basic around $9, Standard around $12, Pro around $19 per seat). Smartsheet's Pro is around $9 per member and Business around $19, with minimum member counts on Business.
Reporting
Smartsheet's cross-sheet reports and dashboards are strong for PMOs. monday.com's dashboards are visual and easy to build, with deeper reporting on Pro and Enterprise.
Flexibility
monday.com adapts well to CRM, marketing and HR workflows beyond projects. Smartsheet is most at home in structured project and operations work.
Pros & cons
monday.com
- Extremely flexible boards
- Easy to learn
- Attractive dashboards
- Seat bundle minimums
- Automation limits by tier
Smartsheet
- Familiar grid interface
- Strong Gantt and dependencies
- Automations and forms
- Less intuitive for non-spreadsheet users
- Minimum seats on Business
Key features of each
monday.com
- Boards. Custom columns for any workflow.
- Automations. Recipe-based no-code automations.
- Dashboards. Combine data across boards.
- Integrations. Connect email, CRM and more.
Integrates with: Slack, Gmail, Outlook, Zoom, HubSpot.
Smartsheet
- Grid, Gantt, card, calendar. Multiple views of the same sheet.
- Automations. Alerts, approvals and updates.
- Dashboards. Roll-up reporting.
- Forms. Collect requests into sheets.
Integrates with: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Salesforce, Jira.
Who should avoid each
Skip monday.com if…
- Teams of one or two on paid plans
- Heavy dependency planning
Best for: Non-technical teams; Businesses tracking many types of work; Visual dashboard lovers.
Skip Smartsheet if…
- Visual or creative teams
- Very small budgets
Best for: Operations and PMO teams; Construction and field projects; Spreadsheet users.
Switching between monday.com and Smartsheet
Migration difficulty: Moderate
Both import from Excel and CSV. Moving from Smartsheet to monday.com is usually done sheet by sheet; formulas and cross-sheet references need rework.
- Export active sheets or boards to Excel.
- Redesign column types — status, people, dates — in the destination.
- Import and rebuild formulas, dependencies and automations.
- Recreate dashboards and reports for stakeholders.
- Train owners and retire the old workspace on a fixed date.
Weigh it your way
Adjust the weights to your priorities to see which tool comes out ahead for you. Print or export the result for your team.
| Tool | Features | Ease | Value | Support | Security | Integrations | Your score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. monday.com | 8.7 | 9.0 | 7.6 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.6 | 8.43 |
| 2. Smartsheet | 8.6 | 7.4 | 7.4 | 7.8 | 8.8 | 8.4 | 8.03 |
Drag the sliders to match your priorities. Scores are our editorial sub-scores; weights start at the values we publish on the methodology page. Nothing you change is stored or sent anywhere.
How our scores and weights work · Add a third tool side by side
Frequently asked questions
Is Smartsheet just a spreadsheet?
No. It looks like a spreadsheet but adds Gantt charts, automation, forms, reports and dashboards for project management.
Is monday.com good for project management?
Yes, for most teams. Very complex schedules with critical paths are better served by Smartsheet or dedicated PM software.
Which has a free plan?
monday.com has a free plan for up to two seats. Smartsheet offers a trial rather than a full free plan.
Do monday.com seat buckets matter?
Yes. monday.com sells seats in buckets (for example 3, 5, 10), so a 6-person team may pay for 10 seats.
Does monday.com or Smartsheet have a free plan?
monday.com has a free plan; Smartsheet has a free trial but no permanent free plan. Indicative starting prices: monday.com — Free for individuals; paid from around $9–12 / seat / month; Smartsheet — From around $9–12 / member / month.
Which is cheaper for a team of 10, monday.com or Smartsheet?
On indicative list prices, the cheapest paid plan that fits 10 users costs about $90 per month on monday.com (Basic) and about $90 on Smartsheet (Pro), so monday.com is cheaper at that size. Taxes, add-ons and discounts are excluded — and the plan you actually need may be higher.
Which scores higher in our review, monday.com or Smartsheet?
monday.com scores 8.4/10 and Smartsheet 8.0/10 on our weighted rubric. monday.com leads on 5 of six criteria. A higher score does not make it right for every buyer — see the “choose if” lists above.
