Quick answer: The strongest Smartsheet alternatives are Asana, Wrike and Airtable. Asana is the closest match for most users; the others trade off on price, features or focus. All 4 are compared below on pricing, strengths and best use case.
Smartsheet is a solid spreadsheet-based pm tool — Spreadsheet-like interface scaled into enterprise work and project management, with Gantt, automation, dashboards and strong portfolio/PPM capabilities. But perhaps you've hit a limit, or simply want to compare before committing. Here are the strongest alternatives worth a look, with what sets each apart.
Each option below works in the same broad space as Smartsheet; the right swap depends on which trade-off matters most to you.
Free Personal plan (up to 10-15 seats); Starter from ~$10.99/user/mo; Advanced ~$24.99/user/mo; Enterprise and Enterprise+ custom (billed annually; monthly billing higher).
Project Plan 1 from ~$10/user/mo; Plan 3 ~$30/user/mo; Plan 5 ~$55/user/mo (cloud, billed monthly/annually; on-premise editions separate).
Traditional/waterfall project managers
The alternatives in detail
Asana work management
Polished, widely adopted work-management platform with strong task tracking, timelines, portfolios and a deep automation/AI layer for cross-functional teams. Consider it if cross-functional teams is your priority.
A broad, refined work-management platform that scales from a free personal board to enterprise portfolios.
Stands out for:
Task, subtask and project management with List, Board, Calendar, Timeline (Gantt) and Gantt-style views
Workflow Builder and unlimited rule-based automations (paid plans)
Goals, Portfolios and Portfolio Workload for cross-project tracking
Pricing: Free Personal plan (up to 10-15 seats); Starter from ~$10.99/user/mo; Advanced ~$24.99/user/mo; Enterprise and Enterprise+ custom (billed annually; monthly billing higher). · Best for: Cross-functional teams, Marketing and ops workflows, Teams scaling from free to enterprise
Enterprise-grade work management with custom workflows, request forms, proofing and resource management, popular with marketing, agency and professional-services teams. Consider it if marketing and creative teams is your priority.
Enterprise work management with proofing and resource planning aimed squarely at marketing and creative teams.
Stands out for:
Interactive Gantt charts, Kanban boards, calendars and table/spreadsheet views
Request/intake forms that auto-route work into projects
Built-in proofing and approvals (HTML5, video, documents)
Pricing: Free plan; Team from ~$10/user/mo; Business ~$25/user/mo; Enterprise and Pinnacle custom (billed annually). · Best for: Marketing and creative teams, Professional services, Resource and capacity planning
Flexible spreadsheet-database hybrid with relational tables, multiple views, automations and an app-building layer, used to model custom project trackers. Worth a look for custom project databases.
A flexible spreadsheet-database hybrid that lets teams build custom project trackers and internal apps.
Stands out for:
Relational tables with grid, Kanban, calendar, gallery, Gantt and timeline views
Interface Designer for building internal apps/portals
Automations (rules, scripting) with monthly run limits per tier
Pricing: Free plan; Team from ~$20/user/mo; Business ~$45/user/mo; Enterprise Scale custom (billed annually). · Best for: Custom project databases, No-code app builders, Content and ops calendars
Microsoft's classic project scheduling and portfolio tool with powerful Gantt, critical path, resource management and Power Platform/Teams integration. A good swap when you care most about traditional/waterfall project managers.
Microsoft's classic powerhouse for detailed Gantt scheduling, critical path and enterprise portfolios.
Stands out for:
Detailed Gantt scheduling with task dependencies (lead/lag)
Critical path management and baselines
Resource management and workload tracking
Pricing: Project Plan 1 from ~$10/user/mo; Plan 3 ~$30/user/mo; Plan 5 ~$55/user/mo (cloud, billed monthly/annually; on-premise editions separate). · Best for: Traditional/waterfall project managers, Detailed scheduling and critical path, Microsoft 365 organizations