AlternativesUpdated

Best Smartsheet Alternatives in 2026

Smartsheet tracks projects in Gantt, table, board and calendar views with rich formulas. It has no free plan: after a 30-day trial, Pro is $12 per member a month billed monthly. If you want a free plan, a simpler tool, or an app your clients sign in to, here are six alternatives and what each one does.

By the Fabricate teamWe make Fabricate6 min readPrices checked
Build this app freePublish on Pro
Fabricate CloudFabricate
Fabricate Cloud for one app: its database, form responses, keys and secrets, and accounts for its visitors
An app's database, form responses, keys and visitor accounts in Fabricate Cloud. Real Fabricate screens, shown with sample data.

Key takeaways

  • Smartsheet has no free plan; Pro is $12 per member a month billed monthly, for 1 to 10 members, with free Contributors.
  • Airtable suits a grid of records with forms and views, free for up to 5 editors.
  • monday.com, Asana and ClickUp suit teams planning many kinds of work; Trello suits simple boards.
  • Smartsheet is the pick when projects live in a grid with formulas and a Gantt chart.
  • Fabricate builds a tracker around your own projects, which clients can sign in to, with no price per person who signs in. Building and previewing are free; publishing is on Pro and Max.

Why Are Teams Looking for Smartsheet Alternatives?

  • No Free Plan

    There is a 30-day free trial, then Pro is $12 per member a month billed monthly, or $9 billed yearly.

  • Pro Stops at 10 Members

    Pro is for 1 to 10 members. Business, at $24 per member a month billed monthly, needs at least 3.

  • Records More Than Projects

    When the grid is really a list of records your team edits, a database with forms and views may fit better.

    Fits: Airtable

  • Clients Who Sign In

    When clients should follow their own project, a tracker built around them does that without a seat for each one.

    Fits: Fabricate

Compare at a glance

Fabricate beside Smartsheet, feature by feature.

  • Builds From a Description
    Fabricate
    Yes
    Smartsheet
    No, a ready-made tool
  • Price per Person
    Fabricate
    None for the people who sign in to a published app
    Smartsheet
    From $12 per member a month, billed monthly
  • Free Plan
    Fabricate
    Build and preview
    Smartsheet
    None; a 30-day free trial
  • Timeline View
    Fabricate
    If you ask for it
    Smartsheet
    Gantt view
  • Clients Sign In
    Fabricate
    To their own project only, if you ask for it
    Smartsheet
    As free Contributors
  • Paid Plans From
    Fabricate
    $25 a month
    Smartsheet
    $12 per member a month
Number 1

Fabricate

We make this

Best for: A tracker built around how you work

Builds a project or task app from your description: a board you drag tasks across, lists, owners, due dates, comments and a page of what is due, behind a sign-in for your team, and clients can sign in to follow only their own project. The people who sign in to a published app are not counted as seats. Building and previewing are free; publishing is on Pro and Max.

Checks before you publish

Fabricate's security check on an app: one problem to fix and two quality warnings, each with a Fix in chat button
Each finding comes with a Fix in chat button. A real Fabricate screen, shown with sample data.

What it does well

  • Only the fields and stages you use
  • Clients sign in to their own project
  • No price per person who signs in
Paid plans from
$25 a month
350 credits a month on Pro
Free plan
60 credits
A month, to build and preview
A live app
Pro and Max
Publishing is on paid plans

See the plans

How to Move from Smartsheet to Fabricate

  1. 1

    Save your tasks as a CSV file

    Export what you can from Smartsheet, or copy your tasks into a spreadsheet and save it as CSV.

  2. 2

    Describe how your team works

    Say what a project is for you, the stages a task goes through, who works on what and who may change it.

  3. 3

    Ask for an import page

    Ask for a page, behind your own sign-in, that adds the rows of your CSV file to the app's own database.

  4. 4

    Test it in the preview

    Sign in as two teammates, move tasks, comment, and check who can see and change what.

  5. 5

    Put it online

    On Pro, one press of Publish gives it its own address to share, after the same browser check.

Chat

Fabricate's chat on a phone: the owner asks for opening hours and a note about cardamom buns, and Fabricate says what it changed and that it used 5 credits

Your app

The same bakery app in Fabricate's Your app view on a phone, now showing Open today 7am - 3pm above its menu
Asking for a change in chat, then trying the app. Real Fabricate screens on a phone, shown with sample data.

The other Smartsheet alternatives

What each one does well, and the kind of project it suits best.

  1. Number 2

    Airtable

    Best for: Teams that work in the records

    A database that looks like a spreadsheet, with interfaces, forms and automations on top. Free covers up to 5 editors and 1,000 records per base; Team is $24 per seat a month, billed monthly, and read-only collaborators are free.

    • Grids, boards and calendars
    • Interfaces and forms
    • Free read-only collaborators

    Where Airtable beats Fabricate

    If your team mostly works in the records themselves, sorting, filtering and editing in grids, Airtable is built for that, and read-only collaborators cost nothing.

    From $24 per seat a monthAirtable alternatives

    Sources: airtable.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked ; Airtable support: Airtable plans (opens in a new tab), checked

  2. Number 3

    monday.com

    Best for: Many teams on one shared tool

    Work management on boards, priced per seat, with paid plans sold from 3 seats. Free covers up to 2 seats and 3 boards; Basic is $9 per seat a month billed yearly, Standard $12 and Pro $19.

    • Boards for many kinds of work
    • Free for up to 2 seats
    • Plans to grow into

    Where monday.com beats Fabricate

    If many teams want one shared tool for their boards, monday.com has a plan for each size, from 2 free seats up.

    From $9 per seat a month, billed yearlymonday.com alternatives

    Source: monday.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked

  3. Number 4

    Asana

    Best for: Teams planning many projects

    Plans a team's projects and tasks, with Asana AI included on its paid plans. Personal is free for up to 2 users; Starter is $13.49 per user a month billed monthly, or $10.99 billed yearly.

    • Projects and tasks for teams
    • AI included on paid plans
    • Goals and capacity on Advanced

    Where Asana beats Fabricate

    If several teams plan many projects at once and want goals and capacity across them, Asana is built for that.

    From $13.49 per user a monthAsana alternatives

    Source: asana.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked

  4. Number 5

    ClickUp

    Best for: Teams that want every view in one tool

    Tasks, collaborative docs, Kanban boards, a calendar view and sprints in one workspace. Free Forever has unlimited tasks and free plan members, 60MB of storage and 100 automation actions a month; paid plans are priced per user.

    • Tasks and docs in one place
    • No cap on free members
    • Sprints and time tracking

    Where ClickUp beats Fabricate

    If your team wants tasks, docs and boards in one tool and the free plan's members are not capped, ClickUp gives you that the day you sign up.

    ClickUp alternatives

    Source: clickup.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked

  5. Number 6

    Trello

    Best for: Simple boards for a small team

    Boards of cards your team drags between lists, from Atlassian. Free covers up to 10 collaborators and 10 boards per Workspace; Standard is $6 per user a month billed monthly, or $5 billed yearly.

    • Simple boards of cards
    • Free for up to 10 collaborators
    • Phone apps for iOS and Android

    Where Trello beats Fabricate

    If all your team needs is a board of cards to drag across, Trello is ready in minutes, free for up to 10 collaborators, with phone apps.

    From $6 per user a monthTrello alternatives

    Source: trello.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked

Smartsheet and its alternatives: grids, Gantt charts and who pays

Smartsheet plans projects in a grid that teams already know from spreadsheets, with Gantt, table, board and calendar views and rich formulas. Contributors who only add to a sheet are free, which helps when many people send updates.

There is no free plan. After a 30-day trial, Pro is $12 per member a month billed monthly, for 1 to 10 members, and Business is $24 with at least 3 members.

If the grid is really a list of records, Airtable fits it, with forms and views and a free plan. If the work is tasks on boards, Trello, Asana, monday.com and ClickUp all have free plans to start on.

A tracker built with Fabricate has only the columns and screens you describe, and a timeline if you ask for one. The backend is written into the app's own code: server routes in a Durable Object on Cloudflare Workers, with its own SQLite database. Your team signs in with an invite code, clients can sign in to see only their own project, and nobody who signs in takes a seat. Email reminders and push notifications, ready-made integrations with other tools, sharing documents between people, and phone apps from the App Store or Google Play are not built in. The app opens in any phone browser, and anyone can add it to their home screen.

Frequently asked questions

Is Smartsheet free?
No. There is a 30-day free trial, then Pro is $12 per member a month billed monthly, or $9 billed yearly, for 1 to 10 members, with unlimited free Contributors. Business is $24 per member a month billed monthly.
What is the best free Smartsheet alternative?
For a grid of records with forms, Airtable, free for up to 5 editors and 1,000 records per base. For boards, Trello, free for up to 10 collaborators. For a team that wants many views with no cap on free members, ClickUp. For a tracker built around your own projects, Fabricate, which we make. Building and previewing are free; publishing is on Pro and Max.
Can an app built with Fabricate have a timeline?
If you ask for one. A timeline of tasks or phases by date, and a time log on each task, are screens Fabricate can build into the app; describe how you want them to look.
Can I build my own app like Smartsheet?
You can build the parts most teams use: boards, lists, tasks with owners and due dates, comments and a view of what is due. Describe your projects, the stages a task goes through and who works on it, and Fabricate builds the app and shows it working in a preview. It is your own app rather than a hosted product, so there is no ready-made integrations library or App Store app, and you add features by asking for them.
Can I move my sheets to Fabricate?
Not as a file, but you can rebuild them: save each sheet as a CSV file, describe its columns, stages and who works on what, and ask for an import page that adds the rows to the app's own database. Formulas are rebuilt from your description, not copied. Syncing with Smartsheet is not built in.
Does an app built with Fabricate send reminders when a task is due?
Not by email or notification. The app shows what is due today, this week and late when someone opens it. Ask for live updates and new messages and posts appear on open screens without a refresh, over a connection to the app's own server.

Sources

The pages this guide quotes, each with the day it was read.

  1. smartsheet.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  2. airtable.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  3. Airtable support: Airtable plans (opens in a new tab), checked
  4. monday.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  5. asana.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  6. clickup.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  7. trello.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  8. fabricate.build/pricing, from our live plans

About this guide

Written by the Fabricate team. Fabricate is our product, so it is first on this page and marked "We make this". Where a reason to switch fits another tool better, the reason says which.

Each tool's card lists the pages we read about it and the day we read them. We compared the tools from their own pricing pages and documentation, not by signing up for them. Spotted something out of date? Write to info@fabricate.build.

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