Which is better for your team?

Smartsheet and Airtable are each cloud-based instruments that can be utilized for venture administration and take their design cues from spreadsheets. Whereas they might look comparable at first look, there are basic underlying variations that affect how every software operates. On this information, we evaluate Smartsheet and Airtable that will help you work out if one among them is true for your small business.

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What’s Smartsheet?

Smartsheet is a workflow and venture administration software that mimics the look of a spreadsheet. This cloud-based software may be accessed through your internet browser, desktop apps for Home windows and Mac or cell apps for iOS and Android.

What’s Airtable?

Airtable is a cloud-based collaboration software that permits groups to construct their very own customized low-code apps and to create and share relational databases. Airtable may be accessed through your internet browser, desktop apps for Home windows and Mac or cell apps for iOS and Android.

SEE: 5 greatest Airtable alternate options for managing your initiatives in 2023

Characteristic Comparability: Smartsheet vs. Airtable

Smartsheet and Airtable pricing

Smartsheet pricing

Smartsheet affords 4 completely different pricing plans:

• Free: This ceaselessly free plan covers one person, as much as two editors, and two sheets.
• Professional: This plan prices $7 per person monthly billed yearly and covers as much as 10 editors and limitless sheets.
• Enterprise: This plan prices $25 per person monthly billed yearly and covers limitless editors.
• Enterprise: This plan requires a customized pricing quote from Smartsheet and contains further options equivalent to single signal on and listing integration.

Along with the ceaselessly Free plan, Smartsheet affords a 30-day free trial of the Marketing strategy so you possibly can strive it before you purchase. For extra data, see our full Smartsheet evaluate.

Airtable pricing

Airtable additionally affords 4 pricing plans:

• Free: This ceaselessly free plan covers as much as 5 editors or creators and affords limitless bases.
• Plus: This plan prices $10 per seat monthly billed yearly and affords six-month revision and snapshot historical past and automated desk syncing.
• Professional: This plan prices $25 per seat monthly billed yearly and affords Gantt and timeline views and granular interface permissions.
• Enterprise: This plan requires a customized pricing quote from Airtable and contains further options equivalent to limitless workspaces and limitless extensions.

Along with the ceaselessly Free plan, Airtable affords a 14-day free trial of the Professional plan so you possibly can strive it before you purchase. For extra data, see our full Airtable evaluate.

Characteristic comparability: Smartsheet vs. Airtable

Undertaking views and templates

Smartsheet combines venture administration instruments with a well-known spreadsheet-like interface, a.ok.a. the grid view. You too can change to Gantt chart view, calendar view or card view, the latter of which is a kanban-style interface. Smartsheet affords over 350 templates to hurry up the set-up course of, or you possibly can construct a venture from scratch. Some template examples embrace particular person activity monitoring (Determine A), an e mail marketing campaign plan and a price monitoring template.

Determine A

Airtable isn’t solely a venture administration software; one of many apps that you may construct within the platform is a venture tracker. By choosing the default venture tracker template, Airtable will robotically create a base and fill it with pattern information to assist get you began. There are additionally 20 further venture administration templates that you may select from if the default one doesn’t suit your wants. Free accounts include grid (Determine B), calendar, type and kanban views — however you’ll have to improve to a Professional account in order for you Gantt chart or timeline views, which is a little bit of a disadvantage.

Determine B

Process administration

Smartsheet and Airtable provide all the basic activity administration options you’ll count on. Nevertheless, they use barely completely different language to explain issues, which may make it complicated for potential customers which are unfamiliar with both platform. As an example, Smartsheet calls a venture a “sheet” whereas Airtable calls it a “base” (brief for database). Smartsheet typically refers to a activity as a “row” whereas Airtable often calls duties “information.”

Each methods help you share a venture with teammates, assign a activity to your self or another person and set deadlines for duties. Each additionally provide native time monitoring talents, so that you don’t want a separate platform. Nevertheless, Airtable considers time monitoring an extension (or further characteristic), and lower-tier plans are restricted in what number of extensions you should use per base. For instance, the free plan solely will get one extension per base.

You possibly can add attachments and recordsdata in every software, albeit in a barely completely different method. Smartsheet permits you to add recordsdata to each all the sheet and a selected row relying in your wants. In Airtable, you have to create an attachment discipline earlier than importing the specified doc, which provides an additional step to the method.

For extra data, see our article about how you can use Airtable as a venture administration software.

Staff collaboration

Each Smartsheet and Airtable help you touch upon gadgets, tag colleagues in messages and reply to feedback (Determine C) straight inside the software. Nevertheless, neither service lets you react to feedback with an emoji equivalent to thumbs up or smiley face, which is a characteristic that the majority different enterprise venture administration software program gives. This implies that you will want to go away a reply each time you need to acknowledge a coworker’s remark, which customers say may be annoying.

Determine C

Moreover, neither platform affords direct messages like Asana or a local video chat possibility like Teamwork. Whereas these further options aren’t as customary as emoji reactions, they’re nonetheless useful. You’ll want to maneuver to a distinct software program equivalent to Slack or Zoom if you wish to have an prolonged dialogue, particularly one which isn’t tied on to a specific activity.

Determine D

Integrations

Presently Smartsheet affords 84 integrations, whereas Airtable affords 34. Each join with common e mail and calendar shoppers equivalent to Outlook and Gmail, doc administration providers like Field and Dropbox, and CRMs equivalent to HubSpot and Salesforce.

Nevertheless, their integrations don’t overlap as a lot as you would possibly count on. As an example, Airtable has native integration with venture administration apps equivalent to Asana and Trello, whereas Smartsheet syncs with a number of information visualization instruments equivalent to Energy BI and Qlik. You too can join every software program to hundreds of extra apps by means of Zapier.

SEE: 8 greatest healthcare venture administration software program for 2023

Smartsheet professionals and cons

Execs of Smartsheet

• Spreadsheet-based design shall be acquainted to many.
• Over 350 venture templates obtainable.
• Glorious safety protocols.
• Complete reporting and analytics.

Cons of Smartsheet

• Sometimes pages don’t replace in actual time and autosave can glitch.
• Some options like useful resource administration are further paid add-ons.
• Doesn’t replicate all Excel options.
• Spreadsheet-based design feels outdated in comparison with different kanban-style apps.

Airtable professionals and cons

Execs of Airtable

• Extremely customizable and versatile platform that goes past venture administration.
• Interface designed software could be very granular.
• Actual-time information updates enable for workforce collaboration.
• Integrates with many alternative apps.

Cons of Airtable

• Should pay for a Professional plan to get Gantt charts and timeline views.
• A little bit of a studying curve on account of all of the options.
• Not as highly effective as devoted spreadsheet software program.
• Complicated interface could make it unnecessarily difficult so as to add data.

Evaluate methodology

To match Smartsheet and Airtable, we consulted demo movies, product documentation, person critiques, and neighborhood useful resource boards. We thought of elements equivalent to pricing, interface design, ease of use and integration in addition to options equivalent to venture views, activity administration, workforce collaboration and venture templates.

Ought to your group use Smartsheet or Airtable?

Smartsheet is extra of a “true” venture administration software, with all of the options you’ll count on for that. Alternatively, Airtable is extra of a database administration software with some venture administration options. As such, every generally is a good match for various use circumstances.

In case you stay in Excel, then you definately’ll most likely get pleasure from Smartsheet’s spreadsheet-based design. Nevertheless, it might probably really feel considerably outdated in comparison with different Smartsheet alternate options equivalent to monday, Wrike and ClickUp. Smartsheet does provide a stable number of venture administration options, however its conventional design is what units it aside. In case you’re not dedicated to the spreadsheet-like interface, then it is perhaps price trying into another rivals that supply comparable (or higher) performance in a extra up to date design.

Alternatively, when you’re principally trying to handle information and construct low-code workforce apps in a single system, Airtable is the proper selection for you. Whereas its databases are formatted like spreadsheets, you should use the software to do rather more than run formulation or plan initiatives, equivalent to gathering buyer suggestions and monitoring gross sales. In truth, some groups select to make use of Airtable for his or her information administration wants and a distinct app (equivalent to Smartsheet) for his or her venture administration wants. You may doubtlessly use each collectively and combine them utilizing Zapier.

Undecided if both Smartsheet or Airtable is true to your wants? Take a look at our record of one of the best venture administration software program for 2023.