Smartsheet Review
Spreadsheet-native project and portfolio management.
Pros
- Excel familiarity with real PM structure on top: Gantt, dependencies, baselines
- Strong enterprise controls: SSO, audit, governance at scale
- Control Center automates portfolio-level project provisioning
- Good forms, proofing and approval workflows
Cons
- Formula-heavy builds become fragile, single-owner systems
- Scheduling engine is simpler than MSP/P6 (levelling, calendars)
- Per-user costs with premium add-ons stack up
- Performance degrades on very large connected sheets
Our review
Smartsheet’s genius is meeting organisations where they are: everyone knows spreadsheets, so adoption is painless, but underneath sit dependencies, baselines, resource views and portfolio roll-ups Excel can’t offer. Control Center is the sleeper feature — provisioning consistent project workspaces automatically is transformative for PMOs running dozens of similar projects. Watch technical debt: complex cross-sheet formula systems need ownership like any codebase.
Pricing
| Pro | Per member/month |
| Business | Per member/month — resource mgmt, activity log |
| Enterprise | Custom — SSO, governance, WorkApps |
Pricing changes often — verify on the vendor site.
Verdict
The strongest bridge between “we run everything in Excel” and real PPM. Ideal for PMO standardisation; not a forensic scheduling tool.
Visit Smartsheet →Best for: Spreadsheet-fluent PMOs & PPM
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