Best Smartsheet alternatives and Smartsheet pricing in 2026

How much does Smartsheet cost in 2026?

Smartsheet sells four plans: Pro, Business, Enterprise and Advanced Work Management. Pro is $9 per Member per month billed yearly or $12 billed monthly, and is capped at 10 Members. Business is $19 per Member per month billed yearly or $24 billed monthly, with a 3-Member minimum. Enterprise (10 or more Members) and Advanced Work Management are custom priced. Smartsheet offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. These figures were checked September 2026 on Smartsheet's own pricing and plan documentation, which is where its help centre's plan comparison now redirects.

Members are paid. Contributors can view, comment and attach files without a paid seat, while qualifying external Guests can edit shared items on Business and Enterprise. Internal editing can lead to Provisional Member access and then paid membership. Pro is available to new customers only.

Check Smartsheet pricing for the cost of Members, provisional access and add-ons.

What each plan actually unlocks

The Gantt view and task dependencies are on every plan, including Pro, so you do not need to upgrade for a basic timeline. Forms, grid, board and calendar views, cell and cross-sheet formulas, cell linking and conditional formatting are also on every plan. The gating starts one level up:

• Business and above: timeline view, baselines, workload tracking, proofing, report grouping and summaries, activity log, API access, publishing sheets and dashboards, conditional form logic, custom colours and logos, and unlimited automations.
• Enterprise and above: Portfolios, Scenario Planning, Work Insights, Collections, SAML single sign-on, directory integrations and Enterprise Plan Manager.
• Pro only limits: 250 automated triggers a month, 10 widgets per dashboard, one source sheet per report, 20 GB of attachments and no Guest seat type, so an external person who needs to edit on Pro needs a paid Member seat.

Add-ons that are priced separately

Several of the features people associate with Smartsheet are not in any plan below Advanced Work Management. They are add-ons on top of a Business or Enterprise subscription, and this is where a quote can move a long way from the headline per-Member price.

A quick example of what that means in practice. A team of five on Business, billed yearly, pays $95 a month for the platform. Add Data Shuttle to sync a spreadsheet in and Dynamic View to show a client a filtered slice, and the same five people are at $320 a month before any Resource Management quote. That is the arithmetic behind most of the "Smartsheet is expensive" reviews: the per-seat price is moderate, the platform around it is not.

Is Smartsheet free?

No, not for anyone signing up today. Smartsheet's help centre states that the Free plan has not been available to new signups since 28 August 2024. What new users get is a 30-day free trial with no credit card, after which you pick a paid plan or lose editing access. People who already had a Free plan before that date keep it, with its old limits: two sheets, two editors plus yourself, 500 MB of attachments, 100 automation runs a month and one source sheet per report.

What is free on Smartsheet is the collaborator layer. Since 30 April 2026 the Contributor seat, which replaced the old Viewer seat, lets unlimited people view what is shared with them, comment, add attachments, fill in forms and answer update requests without a paid seat. On Business and Enterprise, external Guests can even edit shared rows for free. What none of those free seats can do is create a sheet, build a report, own a dashboard or edit as an internal user, so a team that wants to plan work in Smartsheet still needs at least one paid Member per person who edits.

If "free" is the actual requirement, the honest answer is a different tool. Ganttile is free with unlimited projects, TeamGantt has a free Personal plan capped at one project and 40 tasks, and Airtable, monday.com, Wrike and Asana all have free tiers, though none of those four includes a Gantt view on the free plan. The entries below spell out what each free plan does and does not include.

What changed in Smartsheet's pricing model?

Smartsheet moved from a licensed-user model to what it calls the user subscription model, and that change, not a list-price rise, is what most searches for "Smartsheet pricing changes" and "Smartsheet new pricing model" are really about. Under the old model, a paid licence was needed to create things, but free collaborators could be given edit rights on shared sheets. Under the new model, only Members pay, and any internal user who edits needs to be one. Everything below comes from Smartsheet's own announcements and help centre, checked September 2026.

• 24 June 2024: Smartsheet announced the user subscription model, collapsing more than ten legacy user types into paid Members plus free Guests and Viewers. It applied to new customers immediately and to existing customers at their first renewal in 2025, or at the end of a multi-year term.
• 28 August 2024: the Free plan closed to new signups.
• 25 June 2025: Smartsheet published its Customer Loyalty Benefit, a transition discount for legacy customers who keep or grow their spend. In the same post it said customers who had already moved were on average "realizing 70% more seats with a less than 10% increase in total user subscription fees", which is Smartsheet's own framing of the cost effect.
• 30 April 2026: the Contributor seat replaced the Viewer seat, adding free commenting and attachments on all user model plans, with no change to the viewer sharing permission on individual sheets.

The part that surprises admins is provisional membership. When someone without a paid seat is shared into a sheet and tries an action their seat type does not allow, Smartsheet gives them a Provisional Member seat automatically: full Member access at no cost for at least 30 days, once per user. At the next review period (quarterly on annual plans, monthly on monthly plans) the admin decides whether they become paid Members or drop back to free Contributors, and if there are no spare Member seats the cost of the extra seats goes onto the next invoice. That is the mechanism behind bills that grow without anyone buying anything. Breeze's write-up on the contributor and viewer seats walks through who genuinely needs a paid seat.

On the list prices themselves, there is nothing on Smartsheet's site announcing a per-Member price increase, and the current figures are the ones in the table above. If your renewal quote went up, the likely cause is seat count: people who were free editors under the legacy model are now Members, and the Customer Loyalty Benefit exists precisely to soften that. Ask for it by name if your quote does not mention it.

Why do people look for a Smartsheet alternative?

Most people move away from Smartsheet for three reasons: cost, complexity and fit. It is a powerful spreadsheet-style work platform with Gantt views, automation and reporting, but it is priced per Member, the useful extras are separately priced add-ons, and it is aimed at organisations that will use all of it. For a small team that mainly wants a shared timeline, that is a lot of platform to pay for and learn, and much of what you are paying for goes unused.

The other common reason is focus. Smartsheet asks you to think in grids, formulas and cell links even when all you need is a clear schedule. Teams that want to plan visually often prefer a tool built around the timeline itself, where a dependency is a line you drag rather than a column you configure. If your core need is a Gantt chart rather than a database, a lighter tool usually wins on speed and clarity.

And some people simply want something simpler, cheaper or free. A freelancer planning a single client project, a small team mapping a launch, or a manager who wants one clean timeline to share in a meeting rarely needs the full weight of a work platform, and since the Free plan closed, Smartsheet has no answer for them at all. For them the question is not which platform replaces Smartsheet feature for feature, but which tool gets a usable schedule on screen with the least friction.

What should you look for in a replacement?

Look for the scheduling features you actually use, not the full Smartsheet feature list. For most teams that comes down to a clear timeline, task dependencies, milestones and an easy way to shift dates when plans change. If a tool nails those four things and is quick to learn, it will cover the bulk of everyday project planning.

After that, weigh price, ease of use, and whether you need a spreadsheet-style database at all. Some tools are pure timeline makers, while others wrap the chart in a flexible platform with grids, automation and reporting. A heavier platform is only worth it if you will use those extra parts, and paying for capability you leave idle is exactly what pushes people away from Smartsheet in the first place. It helps to be clear on the difference between a Gantt chart and a spreadsheet before you choose.

• Scheduling basics: dependencies, milestones, critical path and drag-to-reschedule.
• Access: web-based so everyone sees the same live plan.
• Learning curve: can a new person build a chart in an afternoon?
• Price: free, flat, per project or per user, and what is gated at each level.
• Room to grow: can you add reporting, automation or a database later if you need it?
• Exports: can you share the plan as a PDF, image or file with people who do not use the tool?

The best Smartsheet alternatives

The tools below span the full range, from a free online Gantt chart to a flexible database platform. Ganttile comes first because it is the simplest way to get a timeline without a licence, then the list moves from dedicated scheduling tools toward broader platforms and finally the free manual option. Every price was checked September 2026 on the vendor's own plan documentation, and the review summaries draw on what G2 and Capterra reviewers say collectively rather than on any single review.

1. Ganttile - free online Gantt timeline

Ganttile is a free online Gantt chart tool built for people who want a timeline without the weight of a spreadsheet platform. You get unlimited projects and tasks, dependencies, milestones, automatic scheduling, critical path, day to year zoom levels, a view that puts several projects on one chart, and export to PDF, image, Excel or MS Project. It runs in the browser, so there is nothing to install and no per-user licence standing between you and a working schedule.

It is also worth being plain about what Ganttile is not, because the gap against Smartsheet is real. There is no grid or sheet view, no formulas, no forms, no automations, no dashboards or reports, no resource management or workload view, no baselines, and no comments or attachments on the chart itself. Ganttile is the timeline and only the timeline. If you need any of that list, it is the wrong pick on its own. When you outgrow the standalone chart, the same Gantt view lives inside Breeze alongside project boards, task lists, comments and time tracking, which is a lighter step up than a full work platform.

• Best for: small teams and freelancers who want a simple online Gantt timeline free, with no install.
• Pricing: Free, every feature included, unlimited projects and tasks. No paid tier exists (checked September 2026).

Pros

• Free to use with unlimited projects and no trial clock.
• Timeline-first, so dependencies, milestones and critical path are quick to set.
• Runs in the browser with nothing to install and no per-seat licence.
• Exports to PDF, image, Excel and MS Project for sharing.

Cons

• No grid view, formulas, forms, automations, reports or resource management.
• No baselines, and no comments or attachments on the chart.
• Newer tool with little third-party review coverage so far.

Why teams pick Ganttile

2. GanttPRO - dedicated scheduling depth

GanttPRO is a web-based Gantt tool with a clean interface focused on scheduling. It covers dependencies, baselines, workload and progress tracking, and it is priced per user with a 14-day trial and no free plan. It is a good middle ground if you want more structure than a free maker but less weight than a spreadsheet platform, and its layout will feel familiar to anyone who has used a dedicated project scheduler.

Compared with Smartsheet, GanttPRO trades the grid-and-automation breadth for a tighter scheduling experience. You get baselines to compare planned against actual, workload views to spot overloaded people, and a timeline that stays the centre of attention rather than one tab among many. The catch is that the useful extras are spread across tiers: custom fields and filters start on Advanced, and workload management, portfolios, reports and budgeting need Business.

• Best for: teams wanting a polished, dedicated Gantt tool with scheduling depth.
• Pricing: No free plan, 14-day trial. Core $7, Advanced $10, Business $17 per user per month billed annually; Enterprise $25 per user per month on a limited offer (list $35), 5 users minimum, annual only (checked September 2026 on ganttpro.com/pricing).
• Rating: 4.8/5 on G2 (588 reviews) and 4.8/5 on Capterra (556 reviews).

Pros

• Clean, scheduling-focused interface.
• Dependencies, baselines and progress tracking built in.
• Familiar Gantt layout that is quick to set up.

Cons

• Priced per user, so cost adds up as the team grows.
• Workload, portfolios and reports sit behind the Business tier.

What users say about GanttPRO

3. TeamGantt - approachable and easy to learn

TeamGantt is known for being approachable. Drag-and-drop scheduling, a clean timeline and simple collaboration make it easy to onboard a team, and the visual design keeps the focus on the plan rather than the tooling. It prices per plan rather than per user, so the bill depends on how many projects you run, not how many people look at them.

If the main reason you are leaving Smartsheet is that it feels too much like a spreadsheet, TeamGantt sits at the opposite end. It is deliberately friendly, so a non-technical teammate can look at a chart and understand it, and build one without a walkthrough. The trade-off is that it stays close to scheduling and collaboration rather than expanding into databases and heavy automation, and the free Personal plan is small enough that it is really a taster. A closer look at the two side by side is in the Smartsheet vs TeamGantt comparison.

• Best for: teams that want an approachable, easy-to-learn standalone Gantt tool.
• Pricing: Free Personal plan (1 user, 1 project, 40 tasks, with dependencies). Base $59 a month or $590 a year for up to 5 projects, 1 manager, 10 collaborators, 150 tasks per project; Business $120 a month or $1,140 a year for 5 projects with unlimited managers and collaborators and 500 tasks per project; Builder $199 a month or $1,908 a year for 10 projects. Base has no per-project add-on, and extra projects cost $24 a month on Business. The 14-day trial needs a card.
• Rating: 4.8/5 on G2 (895 reviews) and 4.6/5 on Capterra (204 reviews).

Pros

• Intuitive drag-and-drop timeline that is easy to learn.
• Pleasant, readable design that non-technical teammates take to quickly.
• Per-project pricing, so viewers and collaborators do not add to the bill.

Cons

• Free plan is limited to one project and 40 tasks.
• Per-project caps mean the cost jumps once you run more than a handful of projects.

What users say about TeamGantt

4. Microsoft Project - deep enterprise scheduling

Microsoft Project is a long-established scheduling tool with detailed dependency, baseline and resource planning. It is powerful but complex, priced per user on an annual commitment, and has a steeper learning curve than the web tools above. It suits dedicated planners who need fine control over a schedule and are willing to invest time to get it. Microsoft now sells it as Planner and Project Plan 3, which bundles the Project desktop app with premium Planner features, while Planner Plan 1 is the cheaper web-only option with a Gantt view and basic dependencies.

Where Smartsheet is a broad work platform, Project is a specialist scheduler with decades of depth behind it. If your work depends on detailed resource levelling, precise dependency types with lead and lag, and rigorous baselines, few tools match it. For a small team that just wants a shared timeline, though, that same depth is more than they need. One date to know: Project Online retires on 30 September 2026, with customers pointed to Planner premium and Project desktop, which are unaffected. The Microsoft Project vs Smartsheet comparison goes deeper on the trade-off.

• Best for: teams needing deep, enterprise-grade scheduling in the Microsoft ecosystem.
• Pricing: No free plan, one-month trial. Planner Plan 1 $10 per user per month and Planner and Project Plan 3 $30 per user per month, both paid yearly on an auto-renewing annual subscription. Plan 1 has the Timeline (Gantt) view, milestones and finish-to-start dependencies; Plan 3 adds baselines, critical path, advanced dependencies with lead and lag and the Project desktop app (checked September 2026 on Microsoft's Planner plans page).
• Rating: 4.0/5 on G2 (1,627 reviews).

Pros

• Powerful scheduling with deep dependency and baseline control.
• Strong resource management for complex plans.
• Long-established with wide industry familiarity.

Cons

• Priced per user on an annual commitment, and costly for what many teams need.
• Steep learning curve, and parts feel dated or desktop-bound.
• Weaker collaboration than the modern web tools.

What users say about Microsoft Project

5. Wrike - work management with a timeline

Wrike is a broader work management platform with an interactive Gantt chart, dashboards and resource management. It has a free plan with board and table views and paid tiers for planning. Like Smartsheet, it is a full platform, so it makes sense when you need collaboration and reporting around the schedule rather than the schedule alone, and it is the closest like-for-like replacement on this list.

The reason to pick Wrike over a dedicated Gantt tool is breadth. You get request forms, workload views, dashboards and automation alongside the timeline, which suits mid-sized teams coordinating across departments. Note that the Gantt chart is not on the free plan, and the Business tier is annual only, so budget for a year rather than a month. It is also a platform to learn and configure, so it is worth adopting only if you will use the parts beyond scheduling.

• Best for: mid-sized teams wanting work management plus a Gantt-style timeline.
• Pricing: Free plan (no Gantt chart). Team $10 per user per month for 2 to 15 users and Business $25 per user per month for 5 to 200 users, both priced per month and billed annually; Pinnacle and Apex on request. 14-day trial with no card (checked September 2026 on wrike.com/price).
• Rating: 4.2/5 on G2 (4,538 reviews) and 4.4/5 on Capterra (3,038 reviews).

Pros

• Powerful feature set with timeline, dashboards and resource management.
• Highly customisable for cross-team work.
• Free plan to test the basics.

Cons

• Steep learning curve is the recurring complaint.
• Gantt chart starts on the paid Team plan, and Business is annual only.

What users say about Wrike

6. Airtable - flexible database with a timeline

Airtable is a flexible database that feels like a friendlier spreadsheet, with Timeline and Gantt views for scheduling on top. It has a free plan and paid tiers, and it shines when you want to shape your own data structure rather than work in fixed grids. It is closest to Smartsheet in spirit, and its per-seat price is a little above Smartsheet Business, so the reason to switch is the data model, not the bill.

Pick Airtable when the data around the schedule matters as much as the timeline itself. You can model your own records, link tables, add automations and forms, and then view the same data as a grid, a Kanban board, a calendar or a Gantt. That flexibility is its strength and its cost: you are designing a system, not just filling in a chart, and the Gantt and Timeline views only start on the paid Team plan.

• Best for: teams wanting a flexible database with a timeline or Gantt view.
• Pricing: Free plan (1,000 records per base, up to 5 editors, no Gantt or Timeline view). Team $20 per seat per month billed annually or $24 monthly; Business $45 billed annually or $54 monthly; Enterprise Scale on request (checked September 2026 on support.airtable.com).
• Rating: 4.6/5 on G2 (3,289 reviews) and 4.6/5 on Capterra (2,243 reviews).

Pros

• Highly flexible, spreadsheet-like database you can shape yourself.
• Multiple views including grid, Kanban, calendar, Timeline and Gantt.
• Free plan and a large template and automation ecosystem.

Cons

• Steep learning curve, since you build the structure yourself.
• Gantt and Timeline views need the paid Team plan, and cost climbs with seats.

What users say about Airtable

7. monday.com - visual all-purpose boards

monday.com is a colourful work platform built around customisable boards, with Timeline and Gantt views among its options. It has a small free plan and paid tiers, and it aims to be a visual home for many kinds of work, from project schedules to marketing calendars to CRM-style pipelines.

As a Smartsheet alternative it competes on the same ground: a flexible platform where a timeline is one of several views. The draw is the friendly, visual interface and the range of things a team can run in one place. The consideration is the tiering: the Gantt view starts on Standard, and the advanced columns that give you dynamic dependencies between tasks are a Pro feature, so a team that wants proper dependency-driven scheduling is paying $19 a seat, not $9.

• Best for: teams wanting a flexible, colourful work platform with a timeline view.
• Pricing: Free plan (up to 2 seats, 3 boards, no Gantt). Basic $9, Standard $12 and Pro $19 per seat per month billed annually, with a 3-seat minimum on paid plans and about 18% more on monthly billing; Enterprise on request. Timeline and Gantt views start on Standard, dynamic dependencies on Pro (checked September 2026 on monday.com/pricing).
• Rating: 4.7/5 on G2 (17,191 reviews) and 4.6/5 on Capterra (6,100 reviews).

Pros

• Bright, approachable interface that teams take to quickly.
• Customisable boards with Gantt, calendar and Kanban views.
• Smooth onboarding for getting people started.

Cons

• Gantt needs Standard and dependencies need Pro, on top of a 3-seat minimum.
• Advanced features and automation volume are gated to higher tiers.

What users say about monday.com

8. Asana - task management with a timeline

Asana is a widely used work management tool that treats tasks as the core object, with Timeline and Gantt views for laying out dependencies and dates. It has a free Personal plan and paid tiers that add reporting, workload and more advanced views. It leans toward task coordination first and scheduling second.

Compared with Smartsheet, Asana feels lighter and more task-centred, which suits teams whose day-to-day is assigning and tracking work rather than maintaining a detailed grid. The timeline is capable for mapping how tasks connect, though it is not as scheduling-heavy as a dedicated Gantt tool, and both the timeline and task dependencies only start on the paid Starter plan. It is a good fit when the schedule supports the work rather than being the main deliverable.

• Best for: teams wanting task management with a timeline or Gantt view on paid plans.
• Pricing: Free Personal plan for up to 2 users, no timeline or dependencies. Starter $10.99 per user per month billed annually or $13.49 monthly; Advanced $24.99 billed annually or $30.49 monthly; Enterprise on request. Timeline, Gantt and dependencies start on Starter (checked September 2026 on asana.com/pricing).
• Rating: 4.4/5 on G2 (13,939 reviews) and 4.5/5 on Capterra (13,661 reviews).

Pros

• Intuitive interface with easy task management.
• Timeline and Gantt views for dependencies on top of everyday tasks.
• Strong collaboration with clear ownership and due dates.

Cons

• Timeline, Gantt and dependencies are only on paid plans.
• Tasks have a single assignee, and notifications pile up unless tuned.

What users say about Asana

9. Google Sheets or Excel - free manual chart

If you want the cheapest possible option, a spreadsheet you already own can produce a basic Gantt chart by hand. With a table of tasks, start and end dates, and some conditional formatting or a stacked bar chart, Google Sheets or Excel can show a timeline without any new tool or licence. Templates exist to save you the initial setup.

This is the manual, free end of the spectrum, and it is honest about its limits. There are no real dependencies, no automatic rescheduling and no critical path, so every change is something you update by hand. It works for a one-off plan or a very small project, but the effort grows quickly, which is exactly the friction a purpose-built tool like Ganttile removes. Our guide on the difference between a Gantt chart and a spreadsheet covers where the line falls.

• Best for: a tiny, stable, one-off chart when you do not want a new tool.
• Pricing: Free within Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, but fully manual.

Pros

• Free and already installed for most people.
• Familiar, with templates to get started.
• Fully under your control with no lock-in.

Cons

• No real dependencies, critical path or automatic rescheduling.
• Every change is manual, so upkeep grows fast.

A spreadsheet has no real dependencies and nothing reschedules on its own, so it works for a one-off chart but breaks down as the plan grows and every change becomes manual upkeep.

Smartsheet alternatives compared

Here is a quick view of how the main options line up on type, entry price and whether the free tier includes a Gantt chart. Prices are list prices checked September 2026 and can change, so confirm on each vendor's site before you commit.

Which Smartsheet alternative should you choose?

Choose based on how much tool you actually need. If you want a shared timeline without cost or setup, a free online Gantt chart like Ganttile is the simplest answer and the fastest to start. If you want a dedicated scheduler with more structure, GanttPRO and TeamGantt sit a step up, with TeamGantt leaning toward ease of use and per-project pricing and GanttPRO toward planning depth. For fine-grained control over a complex schedule, Microsoft Project remains the specialist.

If you manage many projects and need automation, forms, reporting and a flexible database, a platform like Wrike, monday.com or Airtable earns its price, with Airtable the pick when the data model matters most and monday.com or Wrike when you want a visual home for coordination across teams. Asana fits when tasks are your daily reality and the timeline supports them rather than the other way around. And if you only need an occasional chart, Google Sheets or Excel will do it for free, at the cost of manual upkeep.

A good way to decide is to price your real team on Smartsheet first. Count the people who edit, because each one is a Member, then add any add-on you would actually use. If that number is fine and you will use the grid, the forms and the automations, stay. If it is mostly buying a timeline, build one real project in a free tool and see how far it takes you. For a lot of teams leaving Smartsheet, the honest answer is that they were paying for a spreadsheet platform when a focused schedule would do.

Common questions about Smartsheet pricing and alternatives

Does Smartsheet charge for viewers?

No. Since 30 April 2026 the free Contributor seat, which replaced the Viewer seat, lets unlimited people view, comment, add attachments, submit forms and answer update requests on every plan. Anyone internal who needs to edit or create needs a paid Member seat, and external Guests can edit for free only on Business and Enterprise.

What is the cheapest Smartsheet plan?

Pro, at $9 per Member per month billed yearly or $12 billed monthly, checked September 2026. It has no minimum, is capped at 10 Members, is only sold to new customers, and limits you to 250 automation runs a month, one sheet per report and 20 GB of attachments.

Which Smartsheet alternatives have a free plan with a Gantt chart?

Ganttile is free with unlimited projects, and TeamGantt's free Personal plan allows one project and 40 tasks with dependencies. Wrike, Airtable, monday.com and Asana all have free tiers, but none of them includes a Gantt or timeline view until the first or second paid plan.

Do I need a full platform or just a Gantt chart?

If your main need is a schedule with dependencies and milestones, a focused Gantt tool is enough. Choose a full platform like Smartsheet, Wrike, monday.com or Airtable only if you also need automations, forms, reporting and a custom database in the same place, and be aware that Ganttile has none of those.

Is Smartsheet worth it compared to these alternatives?

Smartsheet is worth it for organisations that will use its grids, forms, automation and reporting together and can budget for add-ons like Data Shuttle and Resource Management. If you mainly want a shared project timeline, that breadth is more than you need, and a focused Gantt tool usually gives you a clearer schedule for less cost and setup.

Conclusion

Smartsheet is a capable platform with clear pricing on paper, $9 or $19 per Member per month billed yearly, but the total depends on how many people edit and which add-ons you need, and there is no free plan any more. If your real need is a clear project timeline with dependencies and milestones, a focused Gantt tool gets you there faster and cheaper, and you can always move up to a broader platform later if the extra parts start to matter. The best way to know is to build one real project and see how far it takes you.