Smartsheet alternatives: where to go, and how to take your sheets with you
Eight destinations, one for each reason to leave, and a seven-step migration plan.
Short answer: monday.com if you want grids, Gantt charts and dashboards in a simpler tool, Asana if you want the cleanest import (its CSV importer names Smartsheet and maps assignees, dates and dependencies), ClickUp if budget comes first, Airtable if your sheets are really a database, SmartSuite if you only want to pay for people who edit, Baserow if you want open source you can host yourself. One thing before you choose: Smartsheet's Excel export keeps your data but drops your formulas, and its backup skips reports, dashboards and automations. We compared these eight destinations and their 2026 pricing.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
Why teams are leaving Smartsheet, and why it takes a while
Smartsheet is still a capable grid-based project tool, with Gantt views and solid reporting. Most recent departures trace back to one change: the per-member User Subscription Model, applied to older plans at their first 2025 renewal. Here are six reasons, all checked in 2026.
Anyone who edits is now a paid seat
Since summer 2024, Smartsheet bills per Member: anyone who creates or edits needs a paid seat, and only Guests and Viewers stay free. Existing plans moved over at their first renewal in 2025. On the Smartsheet Community, one team describes going from 2 seats to nearly 100, another from a bill under $1,000 to over $2,500, because contractors invited as editors suddenly counted.
Seats get added before you notice
New people start as Provisional Members, with full access at no cost for up to 90 days. After that, Smartsheet reconciles seats every quarter on annual plans and every month on monthly plans, and adds the extra seats to your next bill. On Trustpilot (1.2 out of 5 across 128 reviews), several customers describe seats billed without warning, with at best a "one-time courtesy refund".
No free plan, and a tightly capped Pro
You get a 30-day trial, no card needed, and nothing free after that. Pro costs $12 per member per month ($9 billed annually), for 1 to 10 members, and it's only open to new customers. It caps you at 250 automation runs a month, 20 GB of storage, 10 widgets per dashboard and one sheet per report. Business is $24 ($19 annually), with a 3-member minimum.
Renewals that jump
A software procurement firm reports increases of 30% to 50% on some Smartsheet renewals. One Community thread talks about a "nearly 1,000% cost increase". Add-ons stack up too: Dynamic View starts at $125 a month. For a team where lots of people edit a little, the cost per person gets hard to defend.
The export keeps data, not logic
You can export a sheet to Excel, Google Sheets or PDF, and a Gantt chart to PNG or Microsoft Project XML. Formulas aren't preserved in Excel, grouping, summary rows and attachments are excluded, and a report export stops at 20,000 rows. The full backup (a ZIP with one Excel file per sheet) leaves out reports, dashboards, formulas, workflows and your workspace structure.
Canceling takes planning
On Pro and Business, only the System Admin can cancel; Enterprise goes through support. Once you cancel, your items go read-only right away and are deleted 30 days after the effective date. There are no pro-rated refunds. Cancel before exporting everything and you have one month, no more. Several Trustpilot reviewers say Smartsheet "refused to cancel": keep a written record of your request.
You're leaving because… go with…
The right Smartsheet alternative depends on what's pushing you out. Usually only one line applies. Each card jumps to the full write-up below.
Column-based boards, Gantt view, free for 2 seats.
You don't want to rebuild dependencies by handAsanaIts CSV importer names Smartsheet and maps dates, assignees and dependencies.
Per-member billing is killing your budgetClickUp or SmartSuiteClickUp for a low per-seat price, SmartSuite where only editors pay.
Your sheets are really a databaseAirtableLinked records and lookups instead of cross-sheet references.
You run a project portfolio for a large teamWrikeBusiness covers up to 200 users, with portfolio tools.
You want open source, self-hosted or cloudBaserowMIT license, self-hosting available, hosted version too.
Smartsheet alternatives, tool by tool
For each tool: why move there, who it's for, its main limit, how to migrate from Smartsheet, and what it costs. Prices are list prices shown in 2026, in US dollars.
monday.com: the closest match, with less friction
Closest matchWhy move to monday.com. It covers what you already do in Smartsheet: rows, typed columns (status, date, person), a Gantt view and dashboards. The difference is how fast people pick it up. Smartsheet feels like a spreadsheet with extra options bolted on; monday feels like a board you can read at a glance, with colored statuses and automations written as sentences ("when status changes to Done, notify someone").
Who it's for. Marketing, ops and agency teams running several projects at once who need everyone to use the tool, not just the project manager.
Who it's not for. Accounts built on formulas that link dozens of sheets: you'll rebuild each one by hand.
The catch. Paid plans come in seat buckets with a 3-seat minimum. The free plan covers 2 seats. Real automation work needs at least Standard, $12 per seat per month billed annually.
How to migrate. Export each Smartsheet sheet to Excel, then import the file into a new monday board and map each column to a type. Formulas come in as plain values, so recreate them in monday afterward. Run the test on your messiest sheet first.
- Free
- 2 seats
- Paid
- Basic $9, Standard $12, Pro $19 per seat (annual)
- Best for
- teams juggling several projects
- Catch
- 3-seat minimum on paid plans
Asana: the cleanest migration path
Best importWhy move to Asana. It's the only destination here whose CSV importer lists Smartsheet as a source. It matches columns by name and brings over assignees, start and due dates, dependencies, followers and custom fields. If your plan is a chain of dependent tasks, that's hours of retyping you skip.
Who it's for. Teams running projects with clear stages, deadlines and owners, who want a timeline view and goals.
Who it's not for. People using Smartsheet as a calculation spreadsheet: Asana is built around tasks, not cells.
The catch. The free Personal plan covers only 2 users. Starter is $10.99 per user per month billed annually ($13.49 monthly), Advanced $24.99 ($30.49 monthly).
How to migrate. Before exporting, rename your Smartsheet columns to what Asana expects (assignee, due date) and make sure each person uses the same email address in both tools. A mismatched email means an unassigned task. Export to Excel, save the tab as CSV, then run the importer into a new project.
- Free
- Personal, 2 users
- Paid
- Starter $10.99/user (annual)
- Best for
- plans with dependencies
- Catch
- not a spreadsheet
ClickUp: the cheapest way to move a whole team
Tight budgetWhy move to ClickUp. If your Smartsheet bill blew up because everyone edits, ClickUp changes the math: a free plan with unlimited members, then a first paid tier around $10 per user per month. You get list, board, Gantt and calendar views on the same tasks, plus docs in the same place.
Who it's for. Small teams and agencies who want one tool instead of four subscriptions.
Who it's not for. Teams who want something minimal: ClickUp has a lot of settings, and a clean setup takes time.
The catch. The free plan stops at 60 MB of storage and 100 automation actions a month. It's for trying things out, not for replacing Smartsheet.
How to migrate. ClickUp imports CSV and Excel files. Its own migration guide stresses two things: create custom fields before importing, and keep identical email addresses, or tasks land unassigned.
- Free
- unlimited members, 60 MB
- Paid
- Unlimited $10/month ($7 annual)
- Best for
- teams consolidating tools
- Catch
- long setup
Airtable: when your sheet is really a database
Linked dataWhy move to Airtable. A lot of Smartsheet accounts run on cross-sheet references: a client sheet, a project sheet, formulas pulling values from elsewhere. In Airtable that's the core design: tables tied together with linked records, lookups and rollups. The logic ends up sturdier than a cell reference.
Who it's for. Ops teams tracking inventory, catalogs or production, where data points at other data.
Who it's not for. A project manager who mainly wants a Gantt and milestones: Airtable has a timeline view, but that's not its strength.
The catch. It gets expensive fast: Team is $20 per seat per month billed annually, Business $45. The free plan caps records per base.
How to migrate. Import each sheet as a CSV table, then turn reference columns into linked record fields. Plan to rewrite your formulas, since the syntax differs.
- Free
- yes, capped records
- Paid
- Team $20/seat (annual)
- Best for
- connected data
- Catch
- pricey per seat
Wrike: built for project portfolios
Large teamsWhy move to Wrike. If you use Smartsheet to track dozens of projects with workloads, incoming requests and approvals, Wrike is built for that ground: request forms, approval flows and workload views. The Business plan runs from 5 to 200 users.
Who it's for. PMOs and large marketing or product teams that need structured processes.
Who it's not for. A five-person team: all that depth turns into weight.
The catch. It has our lowest score of the eight (3.4 out of 5), mostly for the learning curve and paid add-ons. Team is $10 per user per month (2 to 15 users), Business $25.
How to migrate. There's no direct connector. On the Zapier Community, a user losing Smartsheet access learned that Zapier doesn't handle this migration: go through an Excel or CSV export, import in batches, and check each batch.
- Free
- yes, small teams
- Paid
- Team $10/user
- Best for
- PMOs, large teams
- Catch
- heavy for small teams
SmartSuite: only editors pay
Predictable billWhy move to SmartSuite. It's the most direct answer to Smartsheet's new model: on SmartSuite, only editors pay, and everyone else can view without a seat. The tool blends an Airtable-style database with project management, including Gantt, dashboards and forms.
Who it's for. Teams where a few people build and many people view or comment.
Who it's not for. Teams where everyone edits: the advantage disappears, and seat minimums still apply.
The catch. Team is $15 per seat per month billed annually ($20 monthly) with a 3-seat minimum, Professional $32 with a 5-seat minimum. Its integration library is smaller than monday's or Asana's.
How to migrate. Import by CSV or spreadsheet file, with a 14-day trial and no card, so you can run a real trial on your own data. Smartsheet isn't listed as a source, so prepare your columns by hand.
- Trial
- 14 days, no card
- Paid
- Team $15/seat (annual)
- Best for
- few editors, many viewers
- Catch
- 3-seat minimum
Notion: when projects live next to your docs
Docs and projectsWhy move to Notion. If your Smartsheet sheet is mostly a task list while specs, meeting notes and processes live somewhere else, Notion puts it all together: databases with table, board and timeline views, inside documentation pages.
Who it's for. Small product teams, startups, teams that write a lot.
Who it's not for. Schedules with tight dependencies and a critical path: Notion stays light there.
The catch. The free plan works for one person, but a team quickly needs Plus at $10 per member per month, then Business at $20.
How to migrate. Notion imports CSV, and each row becomes a page in a database. Formulas and references arrive as text, so rebuild them as properties.
- Free
- yes, solo use
- Paid
- Plus $10/member
- Best for
- projects plus documentation
- Catch
- light scheduling
Baserow: the open source option
Open sourceWhy move to Baserow. If Smartsheet taught you to be wary of a vendor that changes the rules, Baserow is a different kind of answer: MIT-licensed code you can run on your own server, or a hosted cloud version. You get a database grid, linked fields, forms and views.
Who it's for. Teams with some technical skills and sensitive data they want to keep in-house.
Who it's not for. Teams who want a full Gantt and management dashboards without installing anything.
The catch. It's a database, not a full project management tool. Roles and direct support come with Advanced at $18 per user. Premium is $10 billed annually ($12 monthly).
How to migrate. Import each sheet as a CSV table. Recreate links between tables, then formulas, in a syntax close to Airtable's.
- Free
- yes, plus self-hosting
- Paid
- Premium $10/user (annual)
- Best for
- keeping data in-house
- Catch
- no full Gantt
The 8 alternatives side by side
Our default pick: monday.com if you want something familiar, Asana for the easiest migration. For a sense of scale, take a 10-person team where everyone edits. Smartsheet Business billed annually comes to $190 a month, monday Standard $120, ClickUp Unlimited around $70 a month billed annually, Asana Starter around $110. If only 3 of those 10 people edit, SmartSuite Team drops to $45. One row per tool: free option on the left, first paid tier and migration path on the right.
| Free or trial | First paid tier and migration | |
|---|---|---|
| SmartsheetWhere you're starting | 30-day trial, no card, no free plan | Pro $12 per member ($9 annual), Business $24 ($19 annual) |
| monday.comClosest match | 2 seats | Basic $9 per seat (annual), 3-seat minimum; Excel import |
| AsanaBest import | Personal, 2 users | Starter $10.99 annual ($13.49 monthly); CSV importer that names Smartsheet |
| ClickUpTight budget | Unlimited members, 60 MB | Unlimited $10 a month ($7 annual); CSV and Excel import |
| AirtableLinked data | Yes, capped records per base | Team $20 per seat (annual); CSV import |
| WrikeLarge teams | Yes, small teams | Team $10 per user; batch import |
| SmartSuiteOnly editors pay | 14-day trial, no card | Team $15 per seat (annual), 3-seat minimum; CSV import |
| NotionDocs and projects | Yes, solo use | Plus $10 per member; CSV import |
| BaserowOpen source | Yes, plus self-hosted edition | Premium $10 annual ($12 monthly); CSV import |
Entry list prices before tax, per seat per month, subject to change. Count how many people actually edit before you compare.
Moving off Smartsheet in seven steps
Order matters. Smartsheet exports cells well and everything else badly. Each step recovers something the export misses, before your account goes read-only.
List what the export won't carry
FirstOpen every sheet that matters and write down: formula columns, cross-sheet references, automations (with their triggers), reports, dashboards, forms and integrations. Note who edits each sheet, too.
Why bother? Formulas, automations, reports and dashboards come out in neither the Excel export nor the backup. Smartsheet gives you no way to back up automations, so a screenshot of each one is your record.
- Lost on export
- formulas, automations, reports, dashboards
- Also note
- who edits what
Run a full backup
On Business and Enterprise, schedule a weekly backup and tick the option to include attachments. You get a ZIP, capped at 4 GB, with one Excel file per sheet, comments on a separate tab, and images.
Watch out: attachments stored in Google Drive, OneDrive, Box or Dropbox, and plain links, aren't in the ZIP. They stay with their host, so make sure access to them doesn't depend on Smartsheet.
- Plans
- Business and Enterprise
- Size
- 4 GB per ZIP
Export each sheet in the right format
You need Owner, Admin or Editor rights. Pick Excel for most destinations, and Microsoft Project XML for a Gantt you want to keep with its dates. There's no direct CSV export: open the Excel file and save the data tab as CSV.
Two traps. Report exports stop at 20,000 rows, so export the source sheets instead. Grouping and summary rows don't come along: flatten your hierarchy into a "parent" column first if you want to rebuild it.
- Rights
- Owner, Admin or Editor
- Limit
- 20,000 rows per report
Line up your people before importing
Invite your team to the new tool with exactly the same email addresses they use in Smartsheet. The Asana and ClickUp importers match tasks to owners by email: a different address and the task arrives with no one on it.
Use the moment to decide who edits and who only views. That's often where the savings are, especially in SmartSuite or in tools with free viewer roles.
- Matching key
- email address
Import one test sheet, then the rest
Start with your most complex sheet, not the simplest. Map each column to a type (date, person, status, number), run the import, then compare row counts and spot-check a few values.
Once the test passes, import the rest in batches. Keep a tracking table: source sheet, destination project, row count on both sides.
- Check
- row counts on both sides
Rebuild formulas, automations and dashboards
Go back to your inventory line by line. Formulas get rewritten in the new tool's syntax, cross-sheet references become linked fields or lookups, automations get rebuilt from your screenshots.
Do dashboards last, since they depend on everything else. Test each automation on a dummy row before you let it run on live data.
- Do last
- dashboards
Cut over, then cancel before renewal
Wrap-upOn cutover day, set Smartsheet sheets to view-only for everyone and share the new location. Keep the account until your final check.
Then cancel as System Admin before your renewal date: Smartsheet doesn't do pro-rated refunds. Items go read-only immediately and are deleted 30 days after the effective date. Download one last backup first.
- After canceling
- read-only, deleted at 30 days
- Refund
- no pro-rating
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
What makes a Smartsheet migration go wrong
The same mistakes show up on the Smartsheet, Airtable and Zapier forums. None of them are technical. They're oversights, and each costs more than the time it would have taken to avoid it.
Assuming the export takes your formulas
The Excel file holds formula results, not formulas. You won't see it when you open the file; you'll notice when the numbers stop updating. Write every formula down during the inventory.
Forgetting cloud attachments
The backup only includes files uploaded to Smartsheet. Anything linked from Drive, OneDrive, Box or Dropbox stays a link: check that it still opens without a Smartsheet account.
Canceling before you've checked everything
You get 30 days of read-only access, then it's gone. Cancel only after the import, the row-count check and one final backup.
Paying for two tools for months
Smartsheet reconciles seats quarterly on annual plans. Remove members as they migrate so they don't count at the next review.
Copying Smartsheet one-to-one
An 80-column sheet pasted into monday or Airtable is still an 80-column sheet. Use the move to split data into linked tables and drop dead columns.
Comparing prices without counting editors
The right math starts with how many people edit, not team size. Our SmartSuite review and monday.com review break down the tiers, so does our ClickUp pricing page, and our project management software ranking compares them all.
- Inventory of formulas, references, automations, reports and dashboards
- Screenshot of every automation
- Full backup with attachments
- Cloud attachments checked outside Smartsheet
- Every sheet exported to Excel or CSV
- Same email addresses in the new tool
- Test sheet imported and rows counted
- Formulas and automations rebuilt and checked
- Members removed from Smartsheet as they move
- Canceled before renewal, final backup kept
Smartsheet alternatives: frequently asked questions
What is the best free alternative to Smartsheet?
For a team, ClickUp: its free plan allows unlimited members, though it caps storage at 60 MB and automations at 100 actions a month. monday.com and Asana are free for just 2 people. Baserow is free and can run on your own server. Smartsheet itself only offers a 30-day trial.
Is Asana better than Smartsheet?
For task-driven projects, yes: Asana is easier for occasional users and imports Smartsheet CSVs with dependencies intact. For spreadsheet-style work with formulas and heavy reporting, Smartsheet still does more. Asana's paid plans start at $10.99 per user billed annually.
Smartsheet or Airtable: which should you pick?
Smartsheet if you run projects with Gantt charts and dependencies, Airtable if your data connects (clients, projects, orders). Smartsheet's cross-sheet references become linked records in Airtable, which hold up better. Our Airtable review covers its limits.
How do I export all my data from Smartsheet?
Two ways. A backup (scheduled weekly on Business and Enterprise) gives you a ZIP of up to 4 GB, one Excel file per sheet. Sheet-by-sheet export gives you Excel, Google Sheets or PDF. Neither includes reports, dashboards or automations.
What happens to my data if I cancel Smartsheet?
It goes read-only right away and is deleted 30 days after the effective date. You can still export during that month. There are no pro-rated refunds, so cancel just before renewal.
Why did Smartsheet get so expensive?
Because anyone who creates or edits is now a paid Member. Before 2025, many teams had free editors; at renewal they became seats. A team where 20 people edit a little pays for 20 seats.
How do I avoid paying for extra seats during the move?
Remove people as they migrate, and switch view-only users to Viewers. New users get 90 free days as Provisional Members, and seat reconciliation runs quarterly on annual plans: schedule your cutover before the next review.
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One tool to leave, one place to go, one plan to get there. That's it.