A comparison · checked October 30, 2026
Looking for a Smartsheet alternative? Here is an honest comparison
The best Smartsheet alternative depends on whether you want to keep working in a grid. If it is price and seats, Smartsheet's Pro plan is for 1 to 10 members and only available to new customers, and Business needs at least 3 members [1]. If it is time tracking, Smartsheet lists it as part of a Resource Management add-on, from Business [1]. If it is AI agents, Smartsheet's Smart Agents are marked coming soon [2]. This page compares Kavanah, Smartsheet, monday work management and Asana on what their own pages said today, says exactly what a Smartsheet export carries and what it leaves behind, and names the cases where you should stay on Smartsheet.
#Why it is different
Why teams look for a Smartsheet alternative
Smartsheet is a spreadsheet that grew into a work platform, and teams usually leave for one of three reasons. The first is the seat model. Members are paid users; Contributors are free but can only view, comment and handle attachments; Guests are free on Business and Enterprise [6]. A Provisional Member gets full access at no cost until the end of the billing cycle, and Smartsheet assigns that seat automatically when someone without a paid seat takes their first qualifying action [6]. Working out who will become a paid seat is part of running Smartsheet.
The second is what sits on which plan. Pro is listed at $12 per member a month, or $9 on yearly pricing, for 1 to 10 members, with 250 automations a month and 20 GB of attachment storage; it is only available to new customers [1]. Business is $24, or $19 yearly, for 3 or more members, and adds unlimited free guests, the Timeline view, workload tracking and unlimited automations [1]. Time and expense tracking is described as part of Resource Management, an add-on from Business [1], and SAML single sign-on and user provisioning are on Enterprise [1]. The third is the grid itself: a sheet holds up to 20,000 rows, 400 columns and 500,000 cells [4], and work that is really a set of tasks, owners and dates is often easier to run on a board.
Be fair to Smartsheet, though, because the reasons to stay are real. A Gantt view is on every plan, including Pro [1]. Its AI tools, from Smart Assist to formula generation, are included on every plan, and Smartsheet says your data never trains third-party foundation models, as a contractual guarantee [1][2]. Its trust centre names SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and FedRAMP [5], and it exports to Microsoft Project [3]. Leaving is a good decision when the grid is a workaround for a task board. It is a bad one when your process runs on formulas, cross-sheet references and reports built over years. The checklist below is how to tell which.
#What to require
What to check in any Smartsheet alternative before you move
Use this list on every tool you shortlist, including ours. The first two are where most Smartsheet migrations go wrong, because they are only discovered after the import.
01
What an export leaves behind
Smartsheet exports to Excel, Google Sheets, PDF and, for Gantt sheets, Microsoft Project XML [3]. Attachments, groupings and summary rows are excluded, formulas are not preserved, and a Gantt chart exported to Excel brings only its task list [3]. Count the formulas and attachments you rely on before you choose.
02
Hierarchy and predecessors
Indented parent rows and predecessor columns are how Smartsheet plans are built. Most tools import a flat list. Check whether the new tool rebuilds parent tasks and dependencies or leaves them for you to redo, and import one real sheet to see.
03
Who counts as a paid seat
Smartsheet has Members, Provisional Members, Contributors and Guests [6]; Asana includes unlimited free guests on Starter [8]; monday.com includes unlimited free viewers on Basic [7]. Count the people who edit, the people who only look, and the clients, and price each tool on those numbers.
04
Time tracking that is built in
On Smartsheet, time and expense tracking is part of the Resource Management add-on [1]. Asana's native time tracking is on Advanced [8] and monday.com's on Pro [7]. If you plan or bill by the hour, check the plan it is really on.
05
Automation limits
Smartsheet's Pro plan includes 250 automations a month and Business unlimited [1]; monday.com's Standard includes 250 automation actions a month and Pro 25,000 [7]. Ask how each tool counts automations and what happens when the count runs out.
06
AI agents that act, with an approval step
Smartsheet's Smart Agents are in development [2]. Ask any vendor which AI agents are live today, what they may touch, which actions wait for a person before they run, and how you reverse one.
07
The price at your real team size
Smartsheet's Pro plan stops at 10 members and Business starts at 3 [1]; monday.com's plans start at 3 users [7]. Price the team you will have in a year, plus any add-on, before you compare.
#How Kavanah does it
How Kavanah covers what you use Smartsheet for
Kavanah is an agentic project management platform: projects, tasks and planning, with AI employees that do coordination work inside limits a person sets. Each item below describes the product as it ships today, including where it falls short of Smartsheet.
CSV import of a Smartsheet export
Export a sheet to Excel, save it as CSV, and import it. Kavanah matches columns by name and reads headings such as Task Name, Assigned To, Status and Due Date, plus Priority, Description and Tags. Imported into a new project, each status becomes a board column, and assignees are matched to members by name or email. Limits: 1,000 rows per import, only the first tag is kept, and row hierarchy, predecessors, formulas and attachments are not imported. There is no Smartsheet connector and no sync.
Boards, lists, timeline and dependencies
Custom statuses per project, list, calendar and gallery views, first-class sub-tasks, custom fields, several assignees per task, a Timeline view (tasks as bars on a calendar, by person), task dependencies (blocked by / blocks) and a critical-path chart in Planning, on every plan. Kavanah has no Gantt view and no spreadsheet formulas.
Time tracking and a client portal on every plan
Native time tracking is included on every plan, not an add-on. Clients you invite through the client portal can follow, collaborate on and approve their projects without being charged as a seat.
Portfolio, capacity and budgets
A portfolio view with programs, strategic objectives linked to projects, budgets and resources, plus team capacity in hours per week. The sprint planner compares each person's estimates with the hours they actually logged and says what fits at the median and at the 90th percentile.
Intake, approvals and automations
Request pages let people inside or outside the company submit work that becomes a task, a task can carry an approval request with a recorded decision, and automations run actions on triggers. Recurring tasks run from a rule.
AI employees with controls, live today
AI employees with a role, scoped tools and access only to the projects you choose; once you turn it on, a task assigned to one is worked by it. Safe mode removes risky actions, action policies make chosen categories wait for approval before they run, every action lands in a ledger, and actions can be undone. Anything that runs on its own or spends AI credits is off until you turn it on.
Learn moreIdentity and security, stated plainly
SAML 2.0 and OIDC single sign-on and SCIM on the Enterprise plan, TOTP and passkey sign-in, per-project and per-task access control, and an audit log. The SOC 2 Type II observation period is underway; there is no report yet, and there is no FedRAMP authorisation.
Learn moreOne kind of seat, AI metered openly
Workspace members are the only seats. Basic is $3 a seat a month ($2 billed yearly) and Pro is $6 ($4 yearly), with unlimited seats and projects. AI usage is metered in credits, about a cent each, with 100 or 250 per seat a month pooled by the workspace. Pay as you go drops the seat fee entirely: you buy credits in packs from $10 per 1,000. The free Starter plan covers up to 5 members and 10 projects.
Learn more#In practice
Migrating from Smartsheet to Kavanah, step by step
One team lead and a workspace admin
1. Take stock before you move
- List the sheets that are really task lists: a row per piece of work, with an owner, a status and a date. Those move well.
- Note the sheets that run on formulas, cross-sheet references or reports. Those may be better kept in a spreadsheet.
- Count who edits, who only views and which clients need access; in Kavanah, clients join through the client portal.
- Invite your team to Kavanah first, using the names or emails in your Assigned To columns, so assignees match on import.
Sheet owner
2. Export each sheet
- Export the sheet to Microsoft Excel [3], open it, and save it as CSV.
- Check the header row. Make sure the task column is called Task Name, the owner column Assigned To, and the date column Due Date, and keep Status as is.
- Split the file so no import is over 1,000 rows, and keep the original sheet as your archive: attachments and formulas stay there.
Workspace admin
3. Import it as a new project
- Send the CSV to the task import API with a project name, from a script or the kvn command line. Each status becomes its own board column.
- For a small file you can instead attach it in chat and ask the agent to import it.
- Read the import report, invite anyone whose name matched no member, then reassign.
Team lead
4. Rebuild what an export does not carry
- Recreate parent rows as parent tasks with sub-tasks, and predecessors as dependencies (blocked by / blocks).
- Recreate the custom fields you report on, and rebuild Smartsheet automations as Kavanah automations.
- Set team capacity and project budgets in the portfolio view, and start logging time against tasks.
- Run one planning cycle in Kavanah before you reduce Smartsheet seats.
#Compared
Kavanah, Smartsheet, monday work management and Asana compared
Each competitor cell describes only what that vendor's own public page said when we checked on October 30, 2026: Smartsheet's pricing, AI and trust pages and its help articles on export, system limits and seat types [1][2][3][4][5][6], monday.com's pricing page [7], and Asana's pricing and CSV importer pages [8][9]. Smartsheet's pricing page shows two figures per plan under a monthly / yearly toggle without labelling each; they are given here as monthly and yearly in that order. "Not described" means the page did not say, not that the product lacks it. Kavanah cells describe the product as it ships.
| Criterion | Kavanah | Smartsheet | monday work management | Asana |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry paid price | Basic $3 per seat a month, $2 billed yearly; or Pay as you go, no seat fee, credits from $10 per 1,000 | Pro $12 per member a month, $9 yearly; 1 to 10 members; new customers only [1] | Basic $9 per seat a month billed annually, from 3 users [7] | Starter $10.99 per user a month billed annually, $13.49 monthly [8] |
| Free option | Starter: up to 5 members and 10 projects, 2 GB | 30-day free trial; a free plan is not described [1] | Free: up to 2 seats and 3 boards [7] | Personal: 2 users, unlimited tasks and projects [8] |
| Who needs a paid seat | Workspace members only; client-portal clients are not charged | Members; Contributors free; Guests free from Business; Provisional Members free until the cycle ends [1][6] | Seats; unlimited free viewers on Basic [7] | Users; unlimited free guests on Starter [8] |
| Bringing work over from Smartsheet | CSV import of an Excel export, matched by column name; 1,000 rows per import; no hierarchy or predecessors | Exports to Excel, Google Sheets, PDF and Microsoft Project XML; no attachments; formulas not preserved [3] | Not described | CSV importer names Smartsheet among its sources [9] |
| Gantt and timeline | Timeline view and dependencies on every plan; no Gantt view | Gantt on every plan; Timeline view from Business [1] | Timeline and Gantt from Standard [7] | Timeline and Gantt views from Starter [8] |
| Native time tracking | Every plan | Time and expense tracking in the Resource Management add-on, from Business [1] | From Pro [7] | Advanced; through integrations on Personal [8] |
| Automation allowance | Trigger-based automations; plans do not cap them by run count | 250 a month on Pro; unlimited from Business [1] | 250 actions a month on Standard, 25,000 on Pro [7] | Unlimited automations from Starter [8] |
| AI agents | AI employees with scoped tools; safe mode, approval policies, action ledger and undo | Smart Assist on every plan; Smart Agents coming soon; MCP server [1][2] | AI agent workforce, limited on Basic [7] | AI Teammates and AI Studio [8] |
| How AI is metered | Credits, about a cent each: 100 or 250 per seat a month pooled, or bought in packs | No separate add-on for most features; limits may vary by plan [2] | 1,000 to 3,000 AI credits a month by plan; 1,000 credits = $10 [7] | 5 AI requests per user a month, up to 50 per account; separate AI Studio credits [8] |
| SSO and provisioning | SAML 2.0 / OIDC SSO and SCIM on Enterprise | SSO on every plan; SAML SSO and user account provisioning on Enterprise [1] | Not described | SAML authentication and SCIM on Enterprise [8] |
| Security attestations named | SOC 2 Type II observation period underway; no report yet | SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and FedRAMP [5] | ISO/IEC 27001 and 27018 [7] | SOC 2 Type II [8] |
#Questions
Questions buyers ask
- What is the best Smartsheet alternative?
- It depends on why you are leaving. monday work management suits teams that want a flexible, visual board with low-code automation. Asana suits teams that want timelines, goals and portfolios. Kavanah fits teams that want boards, dependencies, time tracking and a client portal on every plan, one simple kind of seat, and AI employees doing coordination work under real controls. If your process runs on formulas and cross-sheet reports, staying on Smartsheet may be the better call.
- What is the cheapest Smartsheet alternative?
- For a team whose AI use is light, Kavanah's Pay as you go plan has no subscription and no seat fee: after a first credit pack, seats and projects are unlimited and you buy AI credits in packs from $10 per 1,000. On a seat plan, Kavanah Basic is $3 a seat a month, or $2 billed yearly, against Smartsheet Pro's listed $12 a member a month, or $9 on yearly pricing.
- Can I import my Smartsheet sheets into Kavanah?
- Yes, through a spreadsheet. Export the sheet to Excel, save it as CSV, and import it into a new Kavanah project. Kavanah reads headings such as Task Name, Assigned To, Status and Due Date, turns each status into a board column, and matches assignees by name or email, up to 1,000 rows per import. Row hierarchy, predecessors, formulas and attachments are not imported, so keep the original sheet as your archive.
- Does Kavanah sync with Smartsheet?
- No. There is no Smartsheet connector, sync or direct importer today; moving work is a one-time CSV import. Plan a cutover date for each sheet rather than a long period of running both tools.
- Does Kavanah work like a spreadsheet?
- Partly. Kavanah has list views with sorting and filtering, custom fields and task dependencies, but no Gantt view, and it is a task tool, not a spreadsheet: there are no formulas or cross-sheet references. Teams that move from Smartsheet usually move the sheets that are really task lists and keep financial models and heavy reports in a spreadsheet.
- Does Kavanah have time tracking without an add-on?
- Yes. Native time tracking is included on every Kavanah plan, including the free Starter plan, and the sprint planner uses the hours logged to check estimates. Smartsheet describes time and expense tracking as part of its Resource Management add-on, available from the Business plan.
- When should a team stay on Smartsheet?
- When the process lives in what Smartsheet does well: formulas, cross-sheet references and reports built up over years, Microsoft Project exports, or a requirement for FedRAMP that Kavanah cannot meet today. In those cases the cost of rebuilding is likely to exceed what you save.
#Go deeper
One question at a time
- Smartsheet Alternatives in 2026: An Honest Comparison of Four ToolsSmartsheet is a spreadsheet that grew into a work platform. Here is how monday work management, Asana and Kavanah compare on seats, price, time tracking and AI agents, and when keeping your sheets is the right call.
- How to Migrate From Smartsheet to Kavanah: Sheets, Hierarchy and What Stays BehindMoving from Smartsheet to Kavanah is a spreadsheet import: export a sheet to Excel, save it as CSV, import it by column name. Here is each step, what each side drops, and how to rebuild parent rows and predecessors.
- Smartsheet Pricing Explained (2026): Members, Provisional Seats and Add-onsSmartsheet's per-member price is the start of the bill. Pro stops at 10 members, Provisional Members can turn into paid seats at the end of a cycle, and time tracking sits in an add-on. Here is how it adds up.
- Time Tracking in Smartsheet vs a Tool Where It Is Built InSmartsheet places time and expense tracking in its Resource Management add-on, from the Business plan. Here is what that means for teams that plan or bill by the hour, and how built-in time tracking works in Kavanah.
Related reading
- monday.com alternative: an honest comparisonSeat buckets, automation caps, and moving your boards.
- Wrike alternative: an honest comparisonPlan steps, user caps, and what an Excel export carries.
- Project management software for financial servicesArchiving, supervision and deal workflow.
- PricingPer-seat plans, Pay as you go, and how AI credits work.
Sources
- [1] Smartsheet Pricing — Smartsheet, 2026, updated
- [2] AI Vision — Smartsheet, 2026, updated
- [3] Export a sheet, report, workspace, or folder — Smartsheet Learning Center, 2026, updated
- [4] System requirements and guidelines for using Smartsheet — Smartsheet Learning Center, 2026, updated
- [5] Trust Center — Smartsheet, 2026, updated
- [6] Seat types — Smartsheet Learning Center, 2026, updated
- [7] monday.com pricing — monday.com, 2026, updated
- [8] Asana pricing: Personal, Starter, Advanced, Enterprise — Asana, 2026, updated
- [9] CSV + Asana: Import work data into Asana — Asana, 2026, updated
Sources and the comparison were checked on October 30, 2026. Product details change; check each vendor's own pages before you decide.
Run it on your own work.
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