Airtable vs. Smartsheet

When it comes to project management software, Airtable and Smartsheet are built on fundamentally different architectures. As the name implies, Smartsheet stores data in isolated spreadsheets. This causes data to fall out of sync and complex formulas to break, while Airtable has 25+ field types to structure and connect any type of business data like marketing content, creative assets, product roadmap, and customer feedback. You can transpose your data across a handful of views—including Gantt charts, timeline views, Kanban boards, and more. 

AI is infused into Airtable for continuous scalability–going far beyond Smartsheet’s AI. When it comes to data management, Smartsheet caps at 20K rows per sheet, while Airtable can manage 12.5x more at 250K records per table. When it comes to platform growth, Smartsheet’s ownership transition raises questions about whether they’ll spend on product innovation vs. cost cutting.

If you’ve used spreadsheets, Smartsheet will look familiar. It pairs the aesthetic of Excel, then layers on collaboration tools like commenting, review approval, and automated workflows. Airtable, on the other hand, empowers anyone to adapt the platform to their needs. So rather than forcing your workflow and processes to fit rigid tools, you can shape Airtable into the perfect solution for your team.

Yes, those that use Smartsheet often find that Airtable’s product matches and exceeds it. If you are on Smartsheet today, explore these Airtable swaps:

• Smartsheet’s Control Center: Try Portfolio Management powered by App Library. You can create a standardized data format for your global portfolio, then give each team their own app to run their part of the process. This enables you to gain roll up reporting and drill down for team-level updates.

• Smartsheet’s Data Tables: Explore HyperDB. With 100M records in a single table, Airtable HyperDB powers data sets 50X larger than Smartsheet.

• Dashboards: Try Interfaces. Smartsheet’s dashboards are good for consuming information, but Airtable interfaces are designed to drive action. Start with Airtable Cobuilder, then drag-and-drop to create experiences your end users need.

Asana, Trello, Google Sheets, and Microsoft Excel are comparable, but for a project management tool that’s flexible and adaptable to your data organization and collaboration needs, Airtable is the better alternative. 

Airtable offers superior capabilities across a wide variety of use cases, including resource management, dependency management, no-code app building, and more—powered by relational databases, data visualization, and AI.

Yes, you can seamlessly integrate with tools you’re already using including Slack, Zapier, Gmail, and more. Because Airtable is a relational database at its core, you can sync entire data sets from critical enterprise systems and CRMs, like Salesforce, Jira, and Snowflake. Spreadsheets like Smartsheet can’t manage that kind of data complexity and scale. 

Airtable is also available in web and mobile apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.

Smartsheet’s Pro plan includes unlimited sheets for up to 10 users. While the Business plan has no user limit. There’s also an Enterprise plan and an Advanced Work Management plan that’s available by request. However, Smartsheet’s recent pricing change is creating confusion and surprise cost increases for customers.

Unlike Smartsheet’s endless add-ons and pricing disruptions, Airtable pricing is straightforward and predictable. 

Airtable offers a forever free plan for up to 5 editors and unlimited bases. The Team and Business plans are paid plans with more advanced features. The Enterprise Scale plan is also available by request.

Airtable offers video tutorials and 100+ pre-built templates to get you started. You're free to scrap, shape, or structure the work for your unique needs.