Monday vs Smartsheet: Identifying the Best Project Management Solution

The world of project management tools is abundant and ever-evolving, with diverse platforms promising to streamline your operations and enhance productivity. In this comparison, we put the spotlight on two leading platforms: Monday and Smartsheet. 

So you want answers, and you want em’ fast. Here they are:


Quick links for the Best CRM Software

1) Best Overall 🏆

Monday.com

Customize your workflows to track all aspects of the sales cycle, from lead gen to post-sale support.

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2) Good Plugins🥈

Hubspot

Hubspot is the undisputed king of full-stack marketing software. With solid CRM features.

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3) Most Features 🥉

PipeDrive

A sales-focused CRM that uses AI to automate repetitive tasks and manage leads and sales.

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Editor’s Summary

Monday

Claiming the top spot overall, Monday excels in comprehensive project and task management. With its visually appealing interface, effective task organization, and striking visualization features, Monday becomes the preferred choice for teams requiring extensive project oversight.

Start With Monday

Smartsheet

While Smartsheet presents a familiar spreadsheet-like interface blended with advanced project management features, it doesn’t quite match the extensive capabilities and user-friendly interface of Monday in providing a holistic project management solution.

Start With Smartsheet

Snapshot: Meet The Platforms

In this section, we offer a brief introduction to these formidable project management platforms, laying the groundwork for our thorough comparison. Welcome to the dynamic world of Project Management – Meet Monday and Smartsheet!

Monday

Monday excels as a comprehensive project management tool, offering flexibility that empowers teams to tailor the platform to their unique needs.

Strengths:

  • Provides a highly customizable project management experience
  • Integrates various facets of task management into one adaptable platform

Weaknesses:

  • Could be less intuitive for users seeking a spreadsheet-like interface

Ideal For:

  • Teams and businesses seeking a flexible platform that allows them to adapt their project management experience to their specific workflows and operations.

Smartsheet

Smartsheet, a key player in the project management landscape, offers a blend of a familiar spreadsheet interface with advanced project management features.

Strengths:

  • Designed with a spreadsheet-like interface for easy adoption
  • Comprehensive project management and collaboration features

Weaknesses:

  • Might not offer the same depth of customization as Monday

Ideal For:

  • Teams that require a platform that combines the familiarity of spreadsheets with advanced project management capabilities.

In this head-to-head comparison of Monday and Smartsheet, we’ll dissect their features, evaluate usability, delve into pricing, and much more. The aim is to provide you with a balanced overview to help you make an informed choice that best suits your team’s needs and objectives. 

So, let’s embark on this journey into the world of Monday and Smartsheet, and uncover which of these tools stands tall in meeting your project management requirements.

Product Overview: Monday vs Smartsheet

Monday is an all-encompassing project management platform that excels in offering customizable workspaces and an intuitive, visually appealing interface.

It’s built for teams of all sizes across different sectors, providing the flexibility to tailor workflows and project management techniques to meet their specific requirements.

With its wide array of features such as task assignments, project timelines, automation, and collaboration tools, Monday serves as a comprehensive solution to diverse project management challenges.

Smartsheet, in contrast, offers a flexible, familiar spreadsheet-like interface that’s supercharged with project management functionalities. This platform allows teams to manage and automate collaborative work.

From rapid task tracking to comprehensive project management, Smartsheet’s solutions aim to improve efficiency and offer real-time visibility at scale. Known for its compatibility with existing office software, Smartsheet integrates well with many tools businesses already use, such as G Suite, Microsoft Office 365, and many others.

In comparing Monday’s holistic project management approach with Smartsheet’s flexible, spreadsheet-like platform, businesses can weigh the contrasting benefits to find the tool that fits best with their project management needs.

Key Features Comparison: Monday vs Smartsheet

The comprehensive evaluation of project management tools warrants a side-by-side comparison of their key offerings.

Let’s focus on three pivotal aspects: Workflow Customization, Reporting and Analytics, and Collaboration Features, for Monday and Smartsheet.

Workflow Customization: The Path to Efficiency

Both Monday and Smartsheet excel in providing workflow customization features, but Monday takes it up a notch. 

Monday offers extensive customization options with its vast array of templates and workflow views, including timelines, kanban boards, Gantt charts, and more.

Furthermore, it comes with a robust automation feature that allows users to create custom workflows, effectively reducing manual tasks and boosting efficiency.

Smartsheet also offers workflow customization with a range of views like grid, card, Gantt, and calendar. However, its customization features may require a steeper learning curve and more manual effort compared to Monday.

Reporting and Analytics: Harnessing Data Power

Monday shines in this aspect with its inbuilt dashboard that aggregates data and presents it in an easy-to-understand, visual format. The tool offers numerous widgets like pie charts, timelines, and workload views that provide quick insights into project status and team performance.

Smartsheet also offers reporting and analytics features. It enables users to create reports across multiple sheets, offering visibility into data. However, it lacks the intuitive, visual data presentation found in Monday, potentially making data analysis more time-consuming.

Collaboration Features: Bridging Teams Together

In terms of fostering collaboration, Monday is again ahead. It provides a centralized workspace where teams can communicate effectively. Features like live updates, comments, and @mentions, ensure that everyone is in the loop, thereby boosting team productivity.

Smartsheet also supports collaboration with features like comments, @mentions, and proofing. Yet, its interface and user experience may not be as smooth and intuitive as Monday, possibly affecting team collaboration.

In conclusion, while Smartsheet offers strong capabilities in workflow customization, reporting, and collaboration, Monday’s more intuitive and user-friendly nature, combined with its powerful feature set, makes it a preferred choice for teams looking for efficiency and simplicity in managing their projects.

Interface and User Experience: Monday vs Smartsheet

The usability of a project management tool heavily relies on its interface and the user experience it provides. In this section, we’ll examine the interface and user experience of Monday and Smartsheet.

Understanding the Interface: Visual Appeal vs Spreadsheet Familiarity

Monday’s interface is visually appealing and offers a high degree of interactivity. It uses a combination of boards, timelines, and charts to represent information, making it both user-friendly and efficient.

With a neat sidebar menu, users can quickly navigate through the platform, accessing sections like the inbox, dashboards, and various project boards.

Smartsheet, however, offers an interface that emulates the familiarity of spreadsheets. Its grid-based design and tab-based navigation make it feel like an enhanced version of Excel, which could be appealing to teams used to spreadsheet workflows. It doesn’t offer as many visual elements as Monday, but it excels in presenting comprehensive data structures.

The User Experience: Interactive Engagement vs Task-Focused Functionality

Monday’s user experience is quite engaging, thanks to its interactive and easy-to-use interface.

Task creation, assignment, and tracking are simple and straightforward, promoting seamless collaboration within teams. Its real-time updates keep everyone on the same page, enhancing team synergy.

On the other hand, Smartsheet offers a task-focused user experience. Its spreadsheet-like structure is perfect for complex task management and detailed project planning.

However, this functional focus might come off as less intuitive for users expecting a more visually driven interface.

Customization Capabilities: Flexible Boards vs Dynamic Sheets

Monday shines with its customizable boards, allowing users to adapt them according to their project needs. Teams can choose from a variety of templates or start from scratch, depending on their workflow requirements.

Smartsheet, conversely, provides customization through its dynamic sheets. Users can define the structure and layout of their sheets to match their specific data and project requirements.

However, customizing these sheets may come with a learning curve, especially for those not accustomed to spreadsheet-oriented platforms.

In conclusion, while Smartsheet offers robust functionality and detailed project management capabilities, Monday’s visually appealing and intuitive interface, coupled with a streamlined user experience, makes it a more approachable choice for teams seeking an easy-to-use, visually oriented project management tool.

Pricing Comparison: Monday vs Smartsheet

Both Monday and Smartsheet offer a variety of pricing tiers aimed at different use cases, which reflect their diverse approach to project management. Let’s delve into a comparison of their pricing structures to see how they stack up against each other.

Starting with the no-cost tier, Monday’s free plan provides a basic package for up to two users and team members, offering three boards, unlimited docs, over 200 templates, eight column types, and access to mobile apps.

In contrast, Smartsheet’s free tier is aimed at individuals, offering up to two editors and two sheets, providing different view options (Gantt, Grid, Card, Calendar), dashboards and reports, and 500 MB attachment storage.

Moving to the entry-level paid plans, Monday’s Basic plan is priced at $10 per seat/month. It expands on the free tier with unlimited free viewers, unlimited items, and priority customer support.

On the other hand, Smartsheet’s Pro plan costs $9 per user/month, allowing up to 10 editors, and includes unlimited sheets, free viewers, dashboards, reports, forms, and 20 GB attachment storage.

In the mid-range pricing, Monday’s Standard plan, priced at $12 per seat/month, provides timeline and Gantt views, guest access, and more automation options.

Smartsheet’s Business plan, priced at $32 per user/month (with a minimum of three users), goes beyond their Pro plan by offering unlimited free editors, user, group, license management, baselines, forms with conditional logic, and 1 TB attachment storage.

As for the top-tier plans, Monday’s Pro plan, costing $20 per seat/month, offers advanced features such as private boards and docs, chart view, time tracking, and enhanced automation capacity.

In contrast, Smartsheet’s Enterprise plan requires you to contact them for pricing, but it provides a more robust suite, including single sign-on/SAML, directory integration and account discovery, unlimited attachment storage, and the ability to manage processes at scale.

For organizations looking for enterprise-level solutions, both platforms offer tailored options. Monday’s Enterprise plan pricing is only available upon request, while Smartsheet encourages you to contact them for their Enterprise package, which offers even more advanced features and security.

In conclusion, both Monday and Smartsheet provide a wide range of options to suit various needs and budgets.

Monday seems to be a cost-effective choice for smaller teams or startups, while Smartsheet offers more advanced features for larger organizations. Choosing between the two ultimately depends on your specific requirements and how much you’re willing to invest in project management software.

Customer Support and Community: Monday vs Smartsheet

In the realm of project management tools, the quality of customer support and the vitality of the user community are pivotal factors for consideration. In this section, let’s compare how Monday and Smartsheet measure up in these aspects.

Monday excels in customer support by offering assistance around the clock. Users can reach out via email, phone, or an online contact form for any issues they might encounter.

Additionally, they maintain an extensive knowledge base with a plethora of tutorials, FAQs, and webinars, allowing users to explore and understand the platform’s features on their own.

The Monday community forum is a bustling platform where users can share their experiences, seek answers to their queries, and receive advice from fellow users and experts from Monday.

Contrarily, Smartsheet provides customer support through email and a help center, which hosts a variety of guides, videos, and webinars aimed at addressing user queries and issues.

However, they lack 24/7 availability and phone support. As for the community, Smartsheet operates a dynamic user forum where users can share their knowledge, get peer assistance, and learn about innovative ways to maximize the platform.

In summary, while both Monday and Smartsheet offer quality customer support and an active community of users, Monday’s 24/7 support availability and the breadth of their support channels make them stand out.

Consequently, for organizations that value round-the-clock support, Monday might prove to be a more suitable choice. Both platforms, however, harbor thriving communities that enable users to exchange experiences and solutions, fostering a collaborative learning environment.

Pros and Cons: Monday vs Smartsheet

Each tool brings its strengths and weaknesses to the table, and here’s how Monday and Smartsheet compare:

Monday:

Pros:

  • Highly visual and user-friendly interface.
  • Robust project management capabilities, suitable for a wide range of projects.
  • Excellent customer support and an active user community.
  • Wide range of integration options.
  • High level of customizability to match unique workflow needs.

Cons:

  • The extensive feature set might be overwhelming for beginners.
  • Pricing can be high for smaller teams or startups.
  • The mobile app could use further enhancement.
  • Over-complex for simple task management.

Smartsheet:

Pros:

  • A versatile platform combining project management with spreadsheet-like functionalities.
  • Strong capabilities for collaboration and file sharing.
  • Extensive integration capabilities.
  • Rich features for resource management and tracking.

Cons:

  • Can be challenging for users not familiar with spreadsheet-based tools.
  • Higher-tier features can get expensive.
  • Steeper learning curve.
  • The user interface is not as intuitive as Monday.

Determining the Ideal User: Monday vs Smartsheet

Understanding the kind of teams that would flourish using these platforms is key to choosing between Monday and Smartsheet.

Monday, with its robust features and intuitive interface, is designed for teams of varying sizes across different industries.

It is particularly beneficial for those needing a highly visual and comprehensive tool for project management and workflow automation. Its ease of use makes it a good fit for teams with a diverse set of tech skills.

On the other hand, Smartsheet, with its blend of spreadsheet functionality and project management, is excellent for teams accustomed to a spreadsheet-style interface and those needing in-depth resource management.

It works well for teams requiring extensive project tracking and resource management.

Final Thoughts: Monday vs Smartsheet

The choice between Monday and Smartsheet largely depends on your team’s specific needs, size, and project types.

Monday offers a highly visual, user-friendly platform with a wide range of features, making it a solid choice for comprehensive project management. Its strengths lie in its customizability, user engagement, and excellent support.

Smartsheet, on the other hand, provides a unique combination of spreadsheet-like interface with strong project management capabilities. It’s especially potent for teams that require in-depth project tracking and resource management.

In essence, if you’re seeking a tool that’s easy to use and offers comprehensive project management, Monday could be your go-to.

But if your team is comfortable with spreadsheet-like interfaces and needs strong resource management features, Smartsheet may be a better fit. As always, it’s advisable to try both platforms to understand which one aligns best with your team’s workflows and needs.

What CRM would you recommend?

In short, It’s Monday.com CRM

It’s very well rounded, well priced, feature-rich with a large community of support and a very top-notch set of tutorials for every use case. You can’t go wrong with Monday.com. It’s the software we use with our clients at our ad agency.

“🚀Try Monday.com CRM For Free, It’s my favorite webinar software to use and recommend.” -Scott Max

Monday.com is a user-friendly CRM platform that provides advanced solutions with its robust marketing tools. It allows larger companies with complex workflows to perform efficiently and produce nifty results. Monday.com has you covered for your: Service, Sales, CMS, Operations, and Marketing needs.

For more details, read our Monday.com Review.