There are many different project management tools out there for teams to choose from; however, teams must select the right software based on their unique needs. Two of the best project management software solutions on the market today are Smartsheet and monday work management.

While Smartsheet and monday work management offer similar project management tools, there are some differences between the two.

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What is Smartsheet?

Logo for Smartsheet.
Image: Smartsheet

Smartsheet is work collaboration software with powerful project management features. Through Smartsheet, teams have access to everything they need to move projects forward, including project planning, resource management, strategic planning and budgeting. Smartsheet also offers the spreadsheet-like functionality many project managers know and love. To learn how Smartsheet compares to competitors, check out our comparison review of Smartsheet vs. Airtable, Asana and Microsoft Project.

What is monday work management?

Logo for monday work management.
Image: monday work management

monday work management is the platform offered by monday.com. It is a robust project and work management tool that features monday projects. The tools inside monday work management enable teams to plan projects and track tasks using a simplified interface. To learn how monday work management compares to competitors, check out our comparison review of monday vs. Asana, Basecamp and Jira.

Smartsheet vs. monday.com: Comparison table

FeaturesSmartsheetmonday.com
Task managementYesYes
Project planningYesYes
Team collaborationYesYes
Workflow managementYesYes
Gantt ChartYesYes
CustomizationYesYes
Time trackingNoYes

Smartsheet and monday.com pricing

Smartsheet pricing

Smartsheet offers four pricing tiers: Free, Pro, Business and Enterprise. There is also a 30-day free trial with limited features. The Business plan has a minimum of three users.

  • Free: Allows one user and two editors at no cost.
  • Pro: $7 per user/month, paid annually, or $9 per user/month, paid monthly.
  • Business: $25 per month, paid annually, or $32 per user/month, paid monthly.
  • Enterprise: Provides enterprise-grade controls, but those interested will need to contact Smartsheet’s sales team for pricing details.

monday work management pricing

monday work management has five pricing tiers, and a 14-day free trial for the Pro plan. All paid plans require a minimum of three users.

  • Free: A forever-free plan that offers limited project management features for up to two users.
  • Basic: $8 per seat per month, or $10 per user/month, paid monthly.
  • Standard: $10 per seat per month, or $12 per user/month, paid monthly.
  • Pro: $19 per user per month, or $24 per user/month, paid monthly.
  • Enterprise: Offers enterprise-grade security, automation, integrations and analytics. Interested users will need to contact the sales team for more information.

Feature comparison: Smartsheet vs. monday.com

Project planning

Smartsheet and monday work management offer similar project planning features. Smartsheet delivers everything teams need to manage projects, including the ability to add milestones, create new tasks and subtasks and use a Gantt chart view for easy visualization. It also offers other tools to help teams better prepare for successful projects, such as resource management and simple budget tracking.

Similar to Smartsheet, monday work management offers milestone creation, task planning and a Gantt chart view. Using monday work management, teams can create dependencies, assign contributors and specify deadlines. monday.com offers monday projects as a workflow add-on for monday work management for managing and planning projects.

Task management

Smartsheet allows teams to sort tasks by the due date, create subtasks to give projects more detail and set task dependencies. Currently, it offers a few different views for tasks, including Grid View, Gantt View, Calendar View and Card View for creating easy Kanban task boards.

SEE: Task management vs. project management: Which is best for your team? (TechRepublic)

monday work management task management feature (Figure A) also offers the ability to sort tasks by the due date, add subtasks and set dependencies. One difference is the number of views monday work management offers when compared to Smartsheet. The platform currently offers 10 views, including Workload View, Timeline View, Table View, Kanban View and Files View.

Figure A

monday work management task management feature.
monday work management task management feature.

Team collaboration

Smartsheet offers a wide range of collaboration features (Figure B), including comments, tagging and the ability to reply to Smartsheet conversations directly from the email inbox. In addition, Smartsheet enables easy sharing with collaborators inside and outside of an organization.

While monday work management offers these features too, the platform also includes monday workdocs. Using this tool, teams can create and co-edit documents in real time, as well as embed boards into those documents. This is a tool that simplifies brainstorming and project planning while eliminating the need for another app.

Figure B

Smartsheet offers a wide range of collaboration features.
Smartsheet offers a wide range of collaboration features.

Workflow management

Teams that utilize Smartsheet are able to automate workflows on the platform. The features include the ability to automate repetitive processes, request approvals and lock rows based on preset times. Teams can automate these tasks using a simplified visual editing tool. Additionally, Smartsheet offers many integrations with other popular apps to help teams manage all of their workflows.

monday work management is a bit different when it comes to workflow management. While the platform offers automation just like Smartsheet, it offers four additional products custom-tailored for unique teams. These tools include monday projects, monday sales CRM, monday marketer and monday dev. These customized tools are designed with specific workflows in mind, which simplifies the use of the platform.

Best use cases

Smartsheet

  • Project reporting and analytics.
  • Task management.
  • Managing iterative workflows.
  • Spreadsheets.

monday work management

  • Design and creative projects.
  • Agile development.
  • Project portfolio management.
  • Construction management.

Smartsheet pros and cons

Pros of Smartsheet

  • Robust data security features.
  • Unlimited free viewers in all paid plans.
  • Powerful reporting and analytics.
  • Extensive range of pre-built templates, including templates for Agile project management.
  • Collaboration features are available in the free versions.
  • Multiple work views and unlimited dashboards for data visualization.

Cons of Smartsheet

  • Occasional slow update or loading of pages.
  • Auto-save feature is glitchy.
  • Some advanced tools have a steep learning curve.
  • Access to security and integrations is limited across plan tiers.
  • Not much plan variety for different team sizes.

monday.com pros and cons

Pros of monday.com

  • Offers plenty of collaboration and productivity features.
  • Unlimited free viewers in all paid plans.
  • Powerful automation engine.
  • Extensive range of integrations.
  • Access to 200+ templates in all plans.
  • Two-factor authentication for all plans.

Cons of monday.com

  • Powerful features like time tracking, automation and reporting are limited across plan tiers.
  • User interface can feel cluttered.
  • Default notification settings can be overwhelming.
  • Can be costly for smaller teams.

Methodology

To compare Smartsheet and monday work management, we analyzed several aspects of both software. These include in-app learning content, price, integration capabilities, user interface, scalability and flexibility. We also include customer reviews and testimonials in our analysis of the software.

Should your organization use Smartsheet or Monday?

Teams should select a solution based on their unique needs. For project managers and teams that are used to using Excel or Google Sheets to manage work, Smartsheet might be the best option. The spreadsheet-like design will reduce the learning curve for these teams. monday work management might be the better choice for teams that want access to a plethora of customization options with custom-tailored workflow solutions they can use right out of the box.

If you feel these software don’t meet your requirements, check out our list of the top Smartsheet alternatives and monday work management alternatives.

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Subscribe to Project Management Insider for best practices, reviews and resources. From project scheduling software to project planning apps, stay up to date with the latest in project management tools. Delivered Wednesdays