Effective collaboration is crucial for organizational success, yet many businesses face challenges in this area. According to a global survey, more than 64% of the employees claim that poor workplace collaboration wastes up to 3-5 hours of productivity per week.
To address these challenges, project management platforms like monday.com and Smartsheet have been developed to enhance team coordination and organize workflows more efficiently.
monday.com is known for its highly visual, intuitive interface that makes workload distribution and planning easier for teams of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises. On the other hand, Smartsheet’s structured, spreadsheet-style approach is designed for users who prefer a more data-driven, project-focused interface, making it ideal for those who rely on detailed tracking and reporting.
This guide provides a comprehensive comparison of monday vs Smartsheet, examining their features, pricing, and more.
Monday Vs Smartsheet: At A Glance
Features
Monday
Smartsheet
Project Management Tools
Offers strong portfolio management, automation, and workflow tracking but requires higher-tier plans for advanced views
Provides Gantt charts and card view (Kanban) even on the free plan
Storage Space
Offers up to 1TB on premium plans
Provides up to 1TB on premium plans, with the advantage of unlimited storage on its Enterprise plan
Custom Fields
Provides extensive custom fields, including dropdowns, checkboxes, formulas, and dependencies
Limited to basic column types like text, date, and dropdowns, restricting advanced customization
Theming And Interface Customization
Visually appealing but has limited interface customization beyond color-coded boards
Allows custom branding, logos, and colors, providing more control over visual identity
Flexible Permissions
Offers granular permission settings at the column, board, and project levels for better access control
Permissions are sheet-based, meaning access control is less customizable
Configurable Notifications And Automation
Features an advanced automation builder with highly customizable notification rules
Provides automated alerts but lacks detailed customization for workflow-specific notifications
Pricing
Starts at $12 per seat/month (Basic plan) and includes a free plan for up to 2 users
Starts at $12 per member/month (Pro plan), also includes a free plan, but it limits access to two sheets and two editors
What Is Monday?
monday.com software is a work operating system (Work OS) that enables teams to create custom workflows, manage projects, track progress, and collaborate effectively. Over 225,000 businesses trust this platform, including Motorola, which saw a 346% ROI over three years by improving team productivity and reducing administrative costs.
Not only that, but it has also been recognized as a Leader in Gartner’s 2024 Magic Quadrant™ for ‘Adaptive Project Management’ and ‘Reporting’ for the third consecutive year. This recognition highlights its strong capabilities in automation and collaboration, making it well-suited for industries like marketing, retail, finance, and technology.
Standout Features Of Monday
Workload And Long-Term Planning: The software allows teams to distribute tasks efficiently while planning future workloads. This ensures employees aren’t overburdened and that projects stay on track with clear visibility into capacity and deadlines
Kanban, Map, And Chart View: The platform provides Kanban, Map, and Chart View, allowing users to manage projects in their preferred way. These diverse views offer better clarity, ensuring teams can monitor progress from different perspectives and stay aligned with project goals
Free AI Credits:It offers 500 AI credits per month per account for AI driven insights and automation in every paid plan
Automatic Time Tracking Column: This built-in time tracking column automatically logs the time spent on each task, providing teams with accurate work-hour reports, unlike Smartsheet, which requires manual entry
Panic Button: Enterprise users can instantly lock their account in case of suspicious activity, preventing unauthorized access and ensuring data security until an admin restores access
Pros And Cons Of Monday
Pros
Users can modify board elements, including labels, columns, and formats, to suit their workflow
Its built-in commenting and tagging features are effective in enhancing team collaboration
Sends automatic notifications to users when due dates of project tasks are approaching
Cons
No option to set user-based privacy restrictions
Users must download Excel files to view them properly, as the in-app preview does not display them accurately
What Is Smartsheet?
Smartsheet is a project management software that combines spreadsheet, collaboration tools, and workflow automation to help teams manage projects efficiently. It is used by non-profit organizations, small businesses, and over 80% of Fortune 500 companies globally.
Moreover, The Forrester Wave™ named it a ‘Leader in Collaborative Work Management’ (2020) for its strong team collaboration features. This makes it well-suited for industries like retail, construction, and professional services, where coordination across teams is essential.
Standout Features Of Smartsheet
Built-In Dynamic Form With Conditional Logic: It offers advanced conditional logic, enabling users to create dynamic forms where fields are shown or hidden based on previous responses. This feature enhances data collection by ensuring respondents only see relevant questions. While monday also provides this feature, it lacks these advanced logic capabilities
Grid View: This feature provides a spreadsheet-like interface with powerful project management capabilities. Users can customize columns, sort and filter data, and link cells across sheets, ensuring efficient task tracking
Automated Workflow Management: Smartsheet's project management platform offers automated workflow capabilities, enabling users to streamline repetitive tasks, set up approval processes, and receive notifications for specific triggers
Pros And Cons Of Smartsheet
Pros
Its critical path feature helps users identify and resolve potential project issues before they escalate
Allows users to create structured surveys forms with predefined questions and fillable tax box for easy data collection
It ensures flagged issue stand out, making it easier to filter and address high-priority tasks first
Cons
Limited options for modifying task dependencies in Gantt chart view
Copying and pasting large amount of data can be inefficient, as it only allows a limited number of rows to be moved at a time
Monday Vs Smartsheet: Key Feature Comparison
Task Management Tools
monday excels in structured project portfolio management, offering tools like Gantt charts, dashboards, and workflow automation. It helps teams track milestones, manage dependencies, and align projects with company goals.
Its automation features simplify approvals, reminders, and task delegation, reducing manual effort.What sets it apart is its portfolio-level reporting, which provides stakeholders with real-time insights into project progress and resource allocation.
One drawback, however, is that many advanced views—such as Gantt charts and workload views—are only available on higher-tier plans, making it less accessible for smaller teams or budget-conscious users.
Smartsheet, on the other hand, includes Gantt charts and Card view (similar to Kanban) even on its free plan. This makes it more accessible for startups and small teams without requiring an upgrade. It also provides strong resource and budget management tools, which help organizations effectively allocate resources across multiple projects.
Winner: It's a tie. Smartsheet is great for small teams with budget constraints, while Monday offers better portfolio management and automation for larger organizations.
Storage Space
Both monday and Smartsheet offer a range of storage options depending on the plan. Lower to mid-tier plans on both platforms provide storage between 500MB and 20GB, which is sufficient for small teams managing lightweight projects.
For users who require higher storage capacity, both services offer up to 1TB on their premium plans, making them suitable for larger teams handling extensive project data.
However, the key difference lies in Smartsheet’s Enterprise plan, which provides unlimited storage—a major advantage for organizations managing large-scale operations with extensive file storage needs. monday does not offer unlimited storage on any of its plans, which could be a limitation for data-heavy users.
Winner: Smartsheet takes the lead with unlimited storage on its Enterprise plan.
Custom Fields
monday offers extensive custom fields that allow users to add various data types, including dropdowns, checkboxes, formulas, progress tracking, and dependency-based fields. This makes it highly adaptable to different workflows and industries.
Meanwhile, Smartsheet is more limited in this area, mainly supporting basic column types such as text, date, and dropdowns. It does not provide as many options for advanced custom data input, which may limit flexibility for complex project tracking.
Winner: monday.com wins this round as it provides a more dynamic and flexible approach to data customization.
Theming And Interface Customization
monday, while visually appealing, offers limited interface customization beyond color-coded boards and column labels. Users can personalize dashboards to some extent, but deeper branding options are restricted. However, its intuitive design and drag-and-drop customization make it easy to navigate and configure based on workflow needs.
In contrast, Smartsheet provides greater flexibility in theming and interface customization. Users can apply custom colors, logos, and branding across their sheets, allowing for a more cohesive and professional look. This makes it an ideal choice for businesses that prioritize brand consistency across dashboards and project management tools.
Winner: Smartsheet takes the lead in this category, as it allows greater control over branding and visual customization, giving teams more personalized experience.
Flexible Permissions
monday provides more granular permission controls, allowing administrators to set individual user roles and restrict access at the column, board, or project level. This means you can allow some users to view-only, while others can edit specific fields or manage workflows.
Smartsheet, while offering user roles, does not provide the same level of fine-tuned permission settings. Access control is more sheet-based, meaning once a user is given access, they typically have broader permissions within that sheet, which may not be ideal for organizations needing strict access control.
Winner: monday wins this section due to its fine-grained permission settings, which allows admins to define access at multiple levels.
Configurable Notifications And Automation
Both platforms offer custom notifications, but monday takes it a step further with its advanced automation builder. Users can configure if-then automation rules, such as sending a notification when a task changes status, due dates are approaching, or approvals are needed.
Smartsheet also has automated alerts but lacks the same level of detailed customization. Its notifications are more standardized, meaning they cannot be tailored as precisely to different workflow scenarios.
Winner: monday outperforms Smartsheet with its highly customizable automation and notification system, ensuring users stay updates in more efficient and personalized way.
Pricing
monday's pricing is structured across five tiers, starting with a free plan for up to 2 users, making it a great option for freelancers and small teams. It also offers a 14-day free trial of its Pro plan, which includes monday work management, monday sales CRM, and monday Dev. The plans include:
For Free: $0 (Up to 2 users)
Basic: $12/user/month
Standard: $14/user/month
Pro: $24/user/month
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Smartsheet also follows a five-tier pricing model and includes a free plan, but instead of allowing 2 users, it limits access to two sheets and two editors or viewers per plan, which can be restrictive for collaboration. However, it offers a 30-day free trial of its business plan, allowing users to explore its advanced features before committing. The plans are as follows:
Free Plan: Legacy free plan (Limited functionality)
Pro: $12/user/month
Business: $24/user/month
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Advanced Work Management: Custom pricing
Winner: This round is a tie because monday’s offers a free plan that supports two users, whereas Smartsheet’s longer 30-day free trial gives users more time to explore its full capabilities.
Final Verdict: Which One Wins?
With a score of 4:2 in favor of monday, and two sections ending in a tie, monday emerges as the stronger option overall.
However, the choice between the two comes down to what your business needs most. If you require deep automation, workflow customization, and permission flexibility, monday.com is the clear winner. But if branding control, storage capacity, and broad accessibility are more important, Smartsheet is the stronger choice.
If neither platform fully aligns with your goals, consider Airtable Software for database-style project management or ClickUp Software for a mix of automation and task flexibility.
