Smartsheet vs Monday.com - Price and Features Comparison

You want to effectively manage projects, not manage frustration.

But when your tool starts slowing you down, the cycle begins: research, demos, debates, and delays. The hesitation is fair, because switching might make things different, not better.

It’s not just fear of change, but the fear that the change might be wasted. If the switch doesn’t solve real workflow problems, then all you’ve done is disrupt a system that was at least functional.

Most teams don’t switch because their current system is unbearable. They switch because they believe they could work smarter, but can’t prove it yet.

Monday.com and Smartsheet are popular, but very different options for project management: Monday.com for flexibility and automation, and Smartsheet for structure, dependencies, and grid-based precision.

However, the best tool depends on how your team thinks and works. Tools alone don’t fix workflows; how you visualize your work does.

If you need flexibility and structure, there’s also Meegle, a visual-first alternative that blends agile execution with deep project visibility.

In this guide, we’ll compare Monday.com, Smartsheet, and Meegle to determine which tool might suit your team best.

Quick comparison: Monday.com vs. Smartsheet vs. Meegle at a glance

Task management capabilities on Monday.com vs. Smartsheet

Project management, at its core, is task management at scale. At scale, managing tasks means managing dependencies, accountability, and execution risk. When one piece slows, the ripple effect can disrupt the entire project management workflow.

Monday.com and Smartsheet offer robust task management, but they serve different operational mindsets.

Task management on Monday.com

Custom workspaces

Monday.com allows users to build task boards from scratch or use templates, making it adaptable for personal and enterprise-level task tracking. Workspaces can be structured around:

• Buckets for broad categorization of tasks
• Daily or weekly task lists to manage granular workflows
• Board views (Kanban, Table, or Gantt) to visualize progress

Each task can be assigned priority levels (low, medium, high), labels (personal, work, university), and due dates, allowing for task categorization that aligns with real-world workflows.

For more advanced users, Monday.com allows cross-board connections, linking related tasks between different workflows. This is useful for more complex task structures where a single item may impact multiple project areas.

Task dependencies and flow management

Task dependencies are critical in project execution, and Monday.com provides a straightforward way to sequence and track dependent tasks.

• Users can define task durations and map dependencies using Gantt Charts to establish a realistic timeline.

• It uses the Critical Path Method (CPM), which helps teams identify the longest string of dependent tasks, allowing them to estimate project delivery timelines more accurately.

• The system also flags external dependencies in the project risk register, making it easier to track and manage risks that lie outside the team’s control.

Using the risk register template, teams can:

• Categorize risks by project and list them under designated groups for better visibility.
• Assign risk owners to ensure accountability and clear responsibility for mitigation efforts.
• Track risk probability, impact, and cost estimates, helping teams prioritize which external dependencies need immediate attention.

Within the risk dashboard view, users gain a real-time snapshot of risks across projects. This includes:

• Charts visualize risk levels and statuses, so project managers can quickly assess which task dependencies might cause timeline disruptions.

• Uses conditional formatting to flag unassigned risks, using color indicators.
• Customizable automation recipes that trigger alerts and actions when a risk status changes.

Best for: Monday.com combines structured task management with dynamic adaptability, making it suitable for both highly structured teams and agile workflows.

Task management on Smartsheet

Task hierarchy structure

Smartsheet operates on a grid-based task management system, where tasks are structured much like a spreadsheet but with built-in project management capabilities.

• Subtasks and parent tasks: Users can indent tasks under a master task, creating clear hierarchical relationships between work items.
• Task assignment and due dates: Tasks can be assigned to specific team members, and deadlines can be tracked using Smartsheet’s date columns.
• Customizable fields: Teams can create dropdown menus for project names, clients, or work categories, for proper and logical grouping.
• Filtering for task prioritization: Users can filter by due date, assignee, or project name, surfacing only the most relevant tasks for immediate action.

Workload management

Managing interdependent tasks is critical in multi-project environments, and Smartsheet provides workload tracking tools to monitor even distribution across the team and resources.

• Workload heat map: Displays color-coded allocation levels, helping managers spot when team members are overloaded or underutilized.
• Resource assignment adjustments: If a team member is overallocated, tasks can be reassigned in real time, either within the same project or across different projects.
• Cross-project task balancing: Managers can review workload across multiple projects and reallocate resources accordingly.
• Task allocation monitoring: Smartsheet calculates how many hours a resource is assigned per task, so work is distributed realistically based on availability.

In Meegle, however, the platform enables teams to visualize task load and handoffs directly within workflow diagrams, making bottlenecks and task dependencies easier to spot and solve in real time.

With the Member Schedule view, managers can see each team member's assigned tasks across projects, color-coded by task status and organized chronologically, offering a clear snapshot of individual workloads and availability. This makes it easier to balance assignments, prevent burnout, and reallocate tasks quickly when timelines shift.

Best for: Smartsheet is ideal for teams that need structured task management with deep visibility into dependencies and resource allocation.

Automation and workflow customization on Monday.com vs. Smartsheet

A project is only as strong as its execution. And execution is only as strong as the systems that support it.

The role of automation and workflow customization is crucial in providing modern teams with efficient execution tools that enhance productivity.

Workflow customization and automation on monday.com

Monday.com provides both pre-built automation recipes and custom automation setups for users to bypass repetitive processes, enforce task dependencies and trigger cross-board actions.

Here’s how workflow automation actually works inside Monday.com:

Trigger-based actions

Users set a trigger, for example, when a task status changes to "In Progress." A condition can be applied to make sure the task has an assigned owner or attached file before moving forward.

Meegle offers a more granular automation system with advanced trigger types, including time loops, dynamic date-based triggers, and field-driven conditions.

This allows teams to automate recurring updates, delay warnings, node stay alerts, and role-specific reminders with precision across complex workflows.

Customizable automations

For teams with more complex workflows, the custom automation builder allows users to add multiple conditions before an automation triggers (e.g., ensuring a project has an assigned manager and an attached document before moving to production).

You can also chain automations together, so one action can trigger another across multiple boards.

Cross-board automation

With this feature, teams working in different areas, such as project planning, production, or finance, can remain in sync without manually updating each other.

For example, when a task is marked "Ready for Production" on the project planning board, an automated item can be created on the production team's board immediately to allow seamless workflow continuity.

This is beneficial in cases where:

• Task progress can be effectively mirrored across boards, allowing leadership teams to track overall project execution from a single high-level dashboard.
• Status changes in one workflow can trigger updates in connected workflows, reducing communication overhead and improving response times.

Best for: Designed for fluid, adaptable teams. Its no-code automation lets users build if-this-then-that logic without technical expertise. It thrives in environments where priorities shift and workflows must flex quickly.

Workflow customization and automation on Smartsheet

Approval-based workflows

Unlike freeform task automation found in other tools, Smartsheet’s workflow automation is deeply structured and approval-driven, making it ideal for teams that require strict oversight over decision-making and task progression. It allows users to do things like:

Automate approval requests – Smartsheet enables workflows that automatically:

• Send approval requests when a task reaches a particular stage
• Require a stakeholder’s approval before progressing to the next step
• Update task status based on approval outcomes

Customize review cycles – Approvals can be set up to escalate automatically if not responded to within a set timeframe.

Automation with row-level data movement

Smartsheet’s automation also enables data movement across multiple sheets for seamless integration between projects, departments, or reporting dashboards without breaking hierarchy.

It does this by:

Auto-moving and copying rows – When specific conditions are met, Smartsheet can:

• Move completed tasks to an archive sheet
• Copy key data to a master reporting sheet
• Automatically assign new tasks in another sheet when a related task is completed

Workflow syncing across projects – A task in one project can trigger updates in another, allowing interdependent teams to stay aligned.

Automated access control & row locking

Unlike Monday.com, which primarily focuses on task automation and workflow triggers, Smartsheet’s automation extends to access control and security measures (like ensuring that once a task reaches a specific stage, it cannot be altered without permissions).

Smartsheet can:

• Lock completed tasks automatically – Smartsheet can lock rows when tasks are completed, ensuring that no further changes can be made without admin approval.
• Prevent unauthorized edits to critical project data – Teams working on compliance-heavy projects (finance, legal, or construction) can use automation to lock completed work and prevent backdated changes.
• Enforce structured access through triggers – For example, a task can only be reassigned, escalated, or updated if certain conditions are met (e.g., executive approval required for task reassignment).

Best for: Built for structured execution. It’s designed for large-scale enterprise projects that need governance, complex dependencies, and process standardization. Automation here is deeply tied to project planning, resource management, and formal task sequencing.

Forms on Monday.com vs. Smartsheet

Smartsheet and Monday.com have form-building capabilities, but take different approaches to data collection.

Forms on Monday.com

Forms that feed directly into boards

Unlike traditional forms that serve as standalone data collection tools, Monday.com’s forms are directly linked to boards so response inputs immediately become part of the active workflow.

• Every form submission creates a new item on a board. There is no need for manual data entry as submissions instantly appear as structured tasks, requests, or data points.
• Form responses automatically inherit board properties – Collected data is mapped to existing board columns, ensuring structured categorization.
• Group-based submission sorting – Responses can be directed to specific groups within a board, allowing teams to organize incoming requests automatically without manual sorting.

Forms that can generate sub-items

Forms on Monday.com can create sub-items, ensuring that multiple related entries stay grouped under a single parent item.

This is useful for detailed tracking, such as multiple expenses under one trip, multiple approvals under a project, or multiple milestones under a goal. Sub-items help maintain a structured view without cluttering the main board.

Best for: Teams that prefer a guided experience with a simpler interface.

Forms on Smartsheet

Forms are auto-mapped to sheets

Smartsheet forms automatically generate fields that mirror the structure of their corresponding sheets. For instance, if a content request sheet includes a dropdown column for "Asset Type," the form will instantly reflect this field, ensuring seamless data consistency between submissions and the sheet.

Changes made in the form builder update the underlying sheet in real-time, meaning form updates don’t disrupt workflow structures.

Forms with advanced conditional logic

Smartsheet now allows dynamic form customization, ensuring users only see relevant fields based on their inputs. For instance, if a user selects "Image" as the asset type, additional fields for image dimensions will automatically appear, streamlining data collection and eliminating unnecessary inputs.

Forms are visually customizable

Customization options allow vertical or side-by-side layouts, adjusting form presentation for clarity. Users can tailor form branding to match company styles, making it more professional for external stakeholders.

Also, Smartsheet forms can be shared via links, email, or embedded into company dashboards or intranet pages.

Best for: Teams that need advanced flexibility and dynamic form customization.

Gantt Charts on Monday.com vs. Smartsheet

A project timeline, by nature, is a paradox. You create it before you start, but everything changes when execution begins.

That’s where Gantt Charts come in and find usefulness in mapping your tasks and exposing fault lines in your planning.

Here’s how Monday.com and Smartsheet compare in their use of Gantt Charts:

Gantt Charts on Monday.com

Gantt Charts built from board data

Monday.com automatically generates a Gantt Chart directly from the main table view. In its Gantt layout:

• Each task is linked to a status column, owner, start date, and due date.
• Project phases are grouped using colors, helping teams differentiate between different milestones like initiation, planning, execution, and closure.
• The Gantt Chart automatically calculates durations and phase timelines based on task start and end dates.

Dependency management in Gantt Charts

Dependencies help establish task relationships and ensure proper sequencing.

• Tasks can be set to start only after a prerequisite task is completed – For example, "Stakeholder Identification" cannot begin until "Project Charter Development" is completed.
• Dependencies are visually represented with connector lines – Enabling “Show Dependencies” in the settings makes these relationships visible.
• Automatic timeline adjustments – When a dependency-related task is moved, subsequent tasks shift accordingly.

Best for: Teams that need a fully integrated, interactive, and flexible Gantt Chart that syncs directly with board data.

Gantt Charts on Smartsheet

Task hierarchy with parent-child relationships

Smartsheet enables users to create parent-child task structures by indenting tasks within the Gantt Chart. This hierarchy helps teams break down projects into manageable components.

• Parent rows summarize all underlying tasks, providing an overview of progress.
• Child tasks allow for detailed tracking of individual project phases (e.g., "Foundation" under "Concrete Work").

Drag-and-drop rescheduling

Users can move task bars within the Gantt Chart view to instantly update project timelines. Moving a task forward or backward updates dependent tasks automatically.

This feature is effective in ensuring that project schedules remain accurate and adaptable.

Progress tracking with completion percentages

Smartsheet allows users to track the progress of each task by assigning a percentage complete value. The Gantt bars visually reflect completion percentages, providing a clear, color-coded representation of progress. The system calculates an overall progress percentage for parent tasks based on subtasks.

Best for: Teams that require structured project tracking with automated dependencies, dynamic scheduling, and advanced progress tracking.

Dashboards on Monday.com vs. Smartsheet

Dashboards provide a centralized view of key project data, helping teams track progress, monitor KPIs, and make data-driven decisions.

Dashboards on Monday.com

Monday.com dashboards focus on visual simplicity and intuitive data tracking. While not as feature-rich as Smartsheet, they offer:

• User-friendly design – Clean, modern interface with drag-and-drop widgets.
• Real-time monitoring – Dashboards pull live data from boards, updating progress and workload metrics instantly.
• Basic interactivity – Widgets link only to related data within Monday.com and do not support external links.
• Streamlined customization – Offers fewer widget types but ensures a straightforward setup for quick insights.

Best for: Ideal if you prefer clean visuals with minimal complexity.

Dashboards on Smartsheet

Smartsheet dashboards (also called Portals) provide a highly customizable and data-rich experience, allowing users to pull in insights from multiple sheets and reports.

Key features include:

• Extensive widget options – Supports charts, reports, images, videos, and web content.
• Interactivity and navigation – Widgets allow clickable links to sheets, reports, or external sites for seamless navigation.
• Real-time data updates – Information automatically syncs with connected sheets and reports, ensuring up-to-date insights.
• Enterprise-ready reporting – Ideal for teams that require scalable, high-level reporting across multiple departments and projects.

Best for: Teams that want maximum customization and interactivity.

Integrations on Monday.com vs. Smartsheet

Both Monday.com and Smartsheet offer a variety of integrations that connect seamlessly with other apps for centralized data management.

Integrations on Smartsheet

Smartsheet supports over 100 built-in integrations, allowing businesses to synchronize their work with key productivity and analytics tools. Notable integrations include:

• Data analytics and reporting: Power BI, Tableau
• Project and issue tracking: Jira
• Team communication: Microsoft Teams, Slack
• Creative collaboration: Adobe Creative Cloud
• Identity access management: Microsoft Entra ID, Okta

Smartsheet offers Data Shuttle, an add-on tool for importing CSV and Excel files into Smartsheet on a recurring schedule.

Best for: Teams seeking enterprise-focused integrations

Integrations on Monday.com

monday.com allows over 200 integrations, some of which include:

• Messaging and email: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Outlook
• Sales and customer management: Salesforce, HubSpot
• Data handling and spreadsheets: Excel, Google Sheets
• Developer and IT tools: GitLab, Jira
• Task and calendar management: Google Calendar, Todoist
• File storage and e-signatures: Google Drive, DocuSign
• Marketing and outreach: Mailchimp

Additionally, Monday.com provides an open API, allowing developers to build custom integrations tailored to their team’s specific needs.

Best for: Teams that need a broader range of app connections.

Pricing on Monday.com vs. Smartsheet

Here’s the pricing for both software:

Monday pricing

• Forever free plan (for up to 2 users)
• Basic plan $9/user/month, billed annually
• Standard plan $12/user/month, billed annually
• Enterprise plan (reach out to sales team for custom pricing)

Best for: Cost-conscious teams seeking affordable, scalable pricing.

Smartsheet pricing

• Pro plan at $9/user/month, billed annually (limited members - 1-10, unlimited viewers)
• Business plan at $19/user/month, billed annually (3+ members, unlimited guests and viewers)
• Enterprise plan (10+ members): contact sales team for custom quote
• Advanced work management – includes everything in the Enterprise plan, plus premium features like Salesforce and Jira connectors and Control Center. Contact the sales team for custom pricing.

Best for: Teams with larger budgets seeking enterprise-grade functionality.

User feedback on Monday.com vs. Smartsheet

This user gave reasons for their pick between the two tools. Their key frustrations with monday.com were its reliance on external apps and a weak item-subitem relationship that made data handling difficult. While they found the UI appealing, they felt it lacked functional depth.

This project manager asked this question:

Notable replies showed one user expressing concerns over Smartsheet's simplicity and UI. The user's frustration suggests that despite its simple interface, Smartsheet may have a steeper learning curve due to limited intuitiveness.

Another user emphasizes that choosing based on price alone is a flawed strategy. They suggested selecting a tool that prioritizes high team engagement (such as cross-team collaboration) for better efficiency and ROI—something Meegle excels at.

Meegle: Alternative to Monday.com vs. Smartsheet for project management

Meegle is a project management and workflow optimization software designed to enhance cross-functional team collaboration. It simplifies complex projects by visually mapping workflows, clearly defining dependencies, and offering full customization of processes, roles, and controls.

Teams can effortlessly adapt workflows by adding or removing steps, ensuring flexibility and efficiency. With real-time updates, intuitive dashboards, and in-depth analytics, Meegle delivers instant visibility into project progress and performance.

Best for: Meegle is especially valuable for teams managing multi-phase projects with multiple stakeholders and task dependencies. Its node-based diagrams allow users to visually map workflows in real time, reflecting task relationships and operational logic.

It offers no-code task automation, seamless tool integrations, and customizable templates tailored for industries like software development, construction, video production, business services, manufacturing, and marketing.

Key features of Meegle

Here are five key areas that define Meegle’s effectiveness as a modern project management platform.

Agile and scalable for complex project execution

Meegle is designed for teams that prioritize structured workflows, efficiency, and clear visibility into project progress.

It also integrates standardized processes with agile support for smaller R&D teams to streamline execution while maintaining alignment across roles and team responsibilities.

It does this by:

Structured sprint planning and issue tracking

Monday.com supports flexible task tracking but lacks deep sprint planning tools, while Smartsheet enforces a structured, spreadsheet-like approach that isn’t optimized for agile workflows.

Meegle blends both methodologies, offering:

• Status-driven workflows for iterative, agile-based sprint execution.
• Node-driven workflows for structured, multi-step projects with clear dependencies.

With Meegle, teams can organize work items into Goals → Epics → Features → Issues → Tasks. This allows you to break down large projects into manageable steps for simpler execution.

• Sprint planning is built into Meegle to better manage development cycles without fully relying on external integrations.
• Issues and features are connected through a structured workflow, ensuring that backlog prioritization, sprint goals, and dependencies remain clear.
• Role-based ownership ensures accountability, assigning tasks automatically based on predefined roles such as Product Manager, Developer, or QA Tester.

Advanced roadmap planning and task dependencies

Meegle provides visual dependency mapping through interactive flowcharts and project roadmaps. Meegle streamlines roadmap planning by:

• Helping define clear milestones and goal tracking: It does this by better structuring your milestones and keeping tabs on them with real-time progress tracking through its table view and OKR implementations.

• Optimize real-time collaboration and prioritization efforts: Unlike static roadmap tools, Meegle enables real-time feedback and role-based contributions, allowing teams to rank features by impact, effort, and urgency. This ensures that high-value tasks receive priority, reducing bottlenecks in execution.

• Customizable roadmap views for different stakeholders: Meegle provides tailored views (Table, List, Kanban, Gantt) for different perspectives. Leadership also gets a high-level strategic overview, while development teams see detailed dependencies and timelines, ensuring that all stakeholders stay aligned without constant manual updates.

Flexible task structures tailored for different workflows

Meegle also provides templates to streamline workflow and enables teams to customize them effectively by:

• Adding or removing workflow nodes dynamically based on project needs without disrupting the entire process
• Customizing work items to align with specific industry needs

Real-time productivity tracking for continuous improvement

Meegle goes beyond Monday.com’s basic task completion tracking and Smartsheet’s static performance reports by offering custom productivity scoring that teams can define based on their own KPIs.

Data-driven decision-making with custom dashboards

Monday.com offers basic KPI tracking, and Smartsheet provides interactive dashboards, but Meegle enables customizable dashboards based on roles (executives, project managers, engineers) and drill-down reporting for in-depth project analysis.

Automate task assignments and processes

Meegle enhances workflow efficiency with automations to better streamline project execution. It does this with:

Smart triggers that activate at key moments

Meegle’s automation kicks in exactly when needed as set by pre-defined conditions. You can:

• Set triggers for task creation, scheduling, or project delays to prompt immediate updates.
• Automate due date alerts to notify team members in advance and prevent last-minute rushes.

Precision conditions for targeted automation

Tasks are automated only when specific criteria are met, reducing unnecessary actions.

• Rule-based task assignments ensure responsibilities shift smoothly based on project needs.
• Rollback automation reverses task progress if a review fails, keeping processes accountable.

A case study of this feature showed how Meegle helped LIZHI (a software development company) to automate key project workflows that significantly improved their execution speed, reducing the average delivery cycle of their projects by 50%.

Its integration with Lark further streamlined operations by replacing manual PMO follow-ups with automated notifications, saving an estimated 5 hours per week.

This automation gave teams real-time status updates on milestones without constant tracking, enabling PMO staff to focus on high-impact initiatives. As a result, LIZHI has seen a sustained increase in deliverables and version iteration efficiency.

Built-in collaboration and communication tools

Monday.com and Smartsheet provide real-time updates, but Meegle keeps discussions connected to the tasks themselves.

Built-in discussion threads ensure that conversations remain tied to actionable work, which reduces the need for external messaging tools. Although, it still integrates with messaging tools like Lark and Slack.

Built-in version control and multi-project management capabilities

While Monday.com has limited version tracking and Smartsheet offers basic change logs, Meegle provides robust version control for documents and requirements. It also integrates seamlessly with your codebase.

Every update is tracked, allowing teams to revert to previous versions instantly. Ideal for technical teams working with evolving documentation and agile sprint backlogs.

Meegle enhances development workflow designs by integrating version control systems like Git, allowing teams to:

• Associate commits with specific tasks
• Conduct code reviews within the project environment without switching tools
• Simplify the process of submitting and processing merge requests

Meegle’s pricing

Meegle offers a free plan for small teams (up to 20 members) with essential project management features. For teams needing more functionality, three paid plans are available:

• Standard plan ($8/user/month billed annually, $9/user/month, billed monthly) – Offers 2TB storage, test & change management, and custom user groups.
• Premium Plan ($12/user/month billed annually, $16/user/month, billed monthly) – Offers 20TB storage, advanced dependencies, auto-scheduling, and enterprise collaboration.
• Enterprise plan (Custom pricing) – Designed for large organizations, featuring brand customization, data restoration, and enterprise SLAs.

We just put Monday.com and Smartsheet head-to-head. Monday shines in flexible, dynamic boards, while Smartsheet is all about structured, spreadsheet-driven execution.

But what if you need both agility and structure? A platform that scales with your team and offers better workflow visualization? This is where Meegle shines—designed for teams who think beyond tasks and want a system that truly adapts to how they work.

Try Meegle for free today and see the difference.

FAQs

Is Smartsheet or Monday.com better?

It depends on your workflow. Monday.com is flexible with automation, while Smartsheet is structured for spreadsheet-style project tracking. If you need a mix of both, there are alternatives like Meegle that blend these strengths.

Who is Monday.com's biggest competitor?

Asana, Smartsheet, Meegle, Trello, Notion, Wrike, and ClickUp are some of its biggest competitors.

What are the drawbacks of Monday.com?

It gets expensive as teams scale and lacks deep hierarchy for structured projects. If your team needs precise dependencies, audit logs, or advanced reporting, you might hit some roadblocks.

Is there anything better than Smartsheet?

For more automation and adaptability, Airtable offers a database-like approach. Meegle combines structured and agile workflows with deeper visualization, making complex projects easier to manage.