Originally published at: https://www.onlyoffice.com/blog/2022/03/smartsheet-alternatives/
When it comes to team tasks, you probably know about the most popular resource, Smartsheet. It’s mainly used for small and medium businesses. However, a spreadsheet-like interface may not be the most optimal way for displaying tasks and duties. Check out this list of Smartsheet alternatives to find a suitable solution.
Why you need an alternative
Pros of using Smartsheet
Smartsheet has been around for a long time, so developers are familiar with how projects work. A variety of templates are available to help new users get started right away. You can build repetitive projects like employee onboarding into your own templates to quickly choose over and over again.
Cons of using Smartsheet
Most of your work with Smartsheet must take place in the spreadsheet view, with all the quirks and complications that come with spreadsheets. If you’re already an Excel power-user, this might not be so much of a problem, but learning Smartsheet-specific UI and formulas might pose some difficulties for the everyday business user and make you search for Smartsheet alternative.
For the most part, the solution works well as a tool for collaboration. But Smartsheet is limited in its capabilities to autosave your work, which makes it less suitable for real-time collaboration like some of the other options on the following list of Smartsheet alternatives. Other major features the solution lacks include time tracking tool and a centralized activity feed for all projects.
1. ONLYOFFICE Workspace
ONLYOFFICE Workspace is a self-hosted open-source office suite with document editors for text files, spreadsheets and presentations, and a bundle of web apps to manage files, projects, customers, mailboxes and calendars. It combines productivity features with online collaboration, making ONLYOFFICE the number one alternative to Smartsheet.
Create projects in the corresponding module, add tasks and subtasks, set milestones, monitor productivity with Gantt Charts and time tracking tool, and generate reports.
Users can add documents to tasks, attach them to emails, change statuses and access permissions, create a client database in CRM system, schedule events in calendar, and other to ensure greater team workflow.
ONLYOFFICE online editors for text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations are highly compatible with MS formats and support. You can edit complex documents using multiple styling and formatting tools. And the pre-installed plugin set as well as the possibility to add your own plugins allows you to implement extra functionality.
With multiple collaborative features you can work on the same document together with your teammates: real-time and paragraph-locking co-editing modes, track changes, comments, built-in chat, version history.
With a wide range of security tools and services like data encryption at rest and in transit, 2FA, SSO, activity tracking, audit reporting, flexible access rights management, etc., your data is kept safe on all fronts.
The package also includes an intuitive control panel for easy configuration and customization of your workspace.
The multitenancy option allows creating a separate workspace for each branch or department. With customization options, you can choose the modules and tools you need, apply the color style and add your logo to fit your corporate brand. Integration with various third-party services of your choice (e.g. Google, Dropbox, DocuSign, Twilio, WordPress, etc.) allows creating a cross-functional working environment that meets all of your needs.
Try yourself the complete functionality of the free collaborative ONLYOFFICE Workspace in the cloud:
2. Asana
Asana is project management software, offering a lot of helpful features to track team’s activities: Gantt charts, Kanban boards, fillable forms, calendars, and so on. The platform helps to smooth internal work procedures and automate routine tasks, which makes it a good alternative to Smartsheet.
Teams get multiple views, such as board, list, timeline, and calendar views. They have access to core project management tools to organize and share projects, break work into tasks and subtasks, assign responsibilities, set start/due dates and times, and visualize milestones.
Asana includes mobile apps and over 100 free integrations. Asana’s API connections make it easy to track time, share files, use instant messages, edit documents, manage clients with almost any big-name business application.
3. Wrike
Another Smartsheet alternative to consider is Wrike, which is a leading project management tool with time tracking, reporting, budgeting, and automation capabilities. The solution provides optimal visibility of a workflow, streamlines tasks, and tracks progress.
It allows you to communicate directly via @mentions within tasks, share reports, as well as customize dashboards. The tool uses a folder system and Gantt charts to organize projects: each project has its own folder, and within those folders you’ll find tasks, files, and communication related to the project.
Dependencies and timelines visually represent a current status for every project, which helps teams track their progress and make any necessary adjustments before it gets too late. It’s possible to attach individual files to tasks and projects, as there is no designated file management screen.
Wrike offers integration with many popular tools, and has a mobile app.
4. Office 365
Microsoft 365, formerly known as Office 365, is a suite of office applications that help teams stay connected and get things done. It’s a mix of productivity features and cloud services, which makes Microsoft one of the best Smartsheet alternatives.
Microsoft 365 delivers applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Teams. It brings together device management and advanced security in one solution. The multiplatform solution helps teams to stay connected, collaborate on their tasks, and complete work from anywhere.
The software provides tools for co-authoring, networking, chatting, and voice and video calling. You can extend Office 365 with MS Project, a paid tool for managing projects.
5. Google Workspace
Google Workspace, formerly G Suite, provides productivity and collaboration tools, and can be used as an alternative to Smartsheet. It’s suitable for various types of teams, and lets people feel connected, working on their projects from anywhere, on any device.
The platform includes tools like Gmail, Calendar, Meet, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites. This set of flexible tools supports agility, interoperability, customization, and seamless work at scale — across companies, software, and devices. Teams can create and work on files in real-time with other people and store them in the cloud, manage contacts, schedule meetings, and exchange opinions in chat.
Google Workspace’s apps work across devices. Unlike traditional desktop applications, there is no software to install. It is also compatible with dedicated project management solutions, such as Asana.
6. Monday.com
Monday.com is a highly flexible project management tool. The solution is built around the pulse, which can be a task, a contact, a product name, or anything else you can imagine. That makes Monday.com highly customizable, and makes it one of the best Smartsheet alternative.
One of Monday.com‘s most impressive features is its easy-to-use, visual dashboard. The dashboard makes it simple to delegate tasks to team members and to spot an action item. The boards are created for upcoming projects, which makes for easy and quick organization. Each board can be customized based on the project’s needs. Other capabilities of Monday.com’s PM feature include assigning tasks, monitoring deadlines, communicating with team members, and sharing necessary files.
You can equip your web office with more than 1,000 integrations available: communicate with your clients and team members, send mails, schedule meetings, organize video conferences, and so on.
7. Basecamp
Basecamp is a collaboration and project management solution for organizing internal and client projects. The solution combines all the tools teams need to get work done in a single, streamlined package. Today Basecamp is among the most used alternatives to Smartsheet.
Basecamp offers task management, file sharing, time tracking, milestone management, and team communication features. It helps to manage all work tasks, deadlines, files, discussions, and announcements. Users can rename these features and turn off the ones they don’t need.
The software provides everything in one place and shows teams the big picture of the project. When lots of integrations offer services to extend the project ecosystem with messengers, cloud storage, online calendars, mailboxes and so on.
Useful links
What is collaborative workspace in 2022
Top 10 Basecamp alternatives in 2021
7 best SharePoint alternatives to consider in 2021
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