Smartsheet

What is Smartsheet?

From a software developer’s perspective, Smartsheet transcends the simple spreadsheet paradigm. It’s a dynamic work execution platform that leverages a familiar grid-based interface as the foundation for complex project management, process automation, and even custom application development. While it looks like a spreadsheet on the surface, its backend functions more like a relational database, providing the structure needed for enterprise-scale operations. It’s designed to bring order to the chaos of managing large-scale projects and workflows that often get fragmented across emails, static documents, and single-purpose apps. Smartsheet serves as a centralized, executable layer where teams can not only track work but also build the very logic that drives it forward, making it a powerful tool for technical and non-technical teams alike.

Key Features and How It Works

Smartsheet’s power lies in its ability to connect individual tasks to a larger operational architecture. Its core components work in concert to create a cohesive system for managing and automating work.

Robust Automation Engine: At its heart, Smartsheet features a powerful rules engine that allows users to build intelligent workflows using simple if-then logic. For a developer, this means you can offload the creation of notification systems, approval routing, and status updates to business users. These automations can trigger based on date criteria or changes in a sheet, reducing the need for custom scripts or manual intervention.
Comprehensive Integrations and API: The platform’s true scalability is unlocked through its integration capabilities. It offers a well-documented REST API and webhooks that allow for deep, custom integrations with other enterprise systems like Salesforce, Jira, and various ERPs. This enables Smartsheet to act as a central hub or middleware, pulling and pushing data to create a single source of truth across a disparate tech stack.
No-Code App Development (WorkApps): Smartsheet’s WorkApps feature is essentially a rapid application development (RAD) environment for non-developers. Think of it like building with LEGOs; you take pre-built components like sheets, forms, and dashboards and snap them together into a streamlined, role-based application. This empowers business units to build their own solutions for things like resource directories or project intake portals, significantly reducing the backlog for internal engineering teams.
Real-Time Dashboards and Reporting: Smartsheet allows for the creation of customizable dashboards that visualize data from multiple sheets in real-time. This provides stakeholders with high-level visibility into project status, KPIs, and resource allocation without needing to write complex database queries or export data to a separate business intelligence tool.

Pros and Cons

From a technical standpoint, Smartsheet presents a compelling but not perfect solution. Its strengths lie in its structured flexibility, but it has limitations that technical users should be aware of.

Pros:

Scalability and Structure: Unlike traditional spreadsheets, Smartsheet is built to handle enterprise-level complexity with features like cell linking, detailed reporting across thousands of rows, and granular user permissions.
Powerful API: The API is robust and well-documented, offering extensive endpoints for developers to create custom solutions and integrate Smartsheet deeply into existing enterprise architecture.
Reduced Dev Cycles: The no-code and automation features empower business users to self-serve, building their own process tools and freeing up engineering resources for more mission-critical development.
Enterprise-Grade Security: Smartsheet offers strong security controls and compliance with standards like SOC 2 and HIPAA, making it a viable option for organizations with strict data governance requirements.

Cons:

Complex Logic Can Be Opaque: While powerful, building highly complex cross-sheet formulas and automations can become difficult to debug and maintain without careful documentation.
Performance at Scale: Sheets with tens of thousands of rows, heavy cell-linking, and complex formulas can experience noticeable UI latency during loading and calculations.
Cost Structure: The features that make it most valuable for enterprise and development use, such as the API and premium connectors, are typically locked behind the more expensive Business and Enterprise tiers.

Who Should Consider Smartsheet?

Smartsheet is an ideal platform for organizations looking to formalize and scale their operational processes without a heavy reliance on custom software development. It’s particularly well-suited for:

IT and Operations Departments: For managing helpdesk tickets, infrastructure rollouts, change management requests, and asset tracking. The ability to build intake forms and automate approval workflows is a significant asset.
Project Management Offices (PMOs): For standardizing project plans, tracking portfolio health via real-time dashboards, and managing resource allocation across an entire organization.
Engineering Teams: Not as a replacement for Jira or code repositories, but as a complementary tool for managing release schedules, tracking cross-functional dependencies, and coordinating with non-technical stakeholders.
Businesses Needing to Bridge Gaps: Organizations with a mix of technical and non-technical teams that need a common platform to collaborate on complex, process-driven work.

Pricing and Plans

Smartsheet operates on a subscription model, with features and capacity scaling with each tier. While a free trial is available, the core functionality for business use requires a paid plan.

Pricing Model: Paid
Starting Price: $7 per user/month
Available Plans:
Pro Plan: Priced at $7 per user/month (billed annually), this plan is designed for individuals and small teams. It includes core features like sheets, forms, and basic automation for up to 10 users.
Business Plan: At $25 per user/month (billed annually), this is the most popular tier. It unlocks advanced features like dashboards, user and group management, and access to a wider range of integrations, making it suitable for entire departments and organizations.

Disclaimer: Pricing is subject to change. Please consult the official Smartsheet website for the most current information.

What makes Smartsheet great?

Tired of building custom internal tools for every new business process request? This is where Smartsheet truly distinguishes itself. It occupies a unique space between the unstructured flexibility of a spreadsheet and the rigid structure of a dedicated software application. Its greatness comes from being a highly adaptable platform that provides non-technical users with the power to build sophisticated, database-backed solutions. For developers, this means Smartsheet acts as a managed, low-code backend for a huge variety of internal business processes, complete with a robust API for when you need to extend its functionality or integrate it into the wider tech ecosystem. It effectively democratizes solution-building while maintaining enterprise-grade control and scalability.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Smartsheet’s API compare to platforms like Airtable?: Smartsheet’s API is robust and geared towards enterprise integrations, focusing on stability and deep connectivity with systems like Salesforce and Microsoft 365. Airtable’s API is often considered more modern and developer-friendly for rapid, lightweight application development, but Smartsheet’s is arguably more powerful for complex, large-scale corporate workflow orchestration.
Can you version control Smartsheet solutions?: Direct version control like Git is not natively supported for Smartsheet assets. However, you can use the API to back up sheet structures and data as JSON or CSV files to a repository. For tracking changes, Smartsheet’s Activity Log provides an audit trail of modifications made within the platform.
Is Smartsheet suitable for agile development workflows?: Yes, Smartsheet offers templates and features specifically for agile project management, including Kanban-style card views, sprint planning sheets, and dashboards for burndown charts. While not a replacement for a dedicated tool like Jira for dev teams, it excels at managing agile marketing or business projects and tracking high-level epic progress across teams.