A grid that behaves like project management software: dependencies, Gantt charts, approvals and resource planning on top of rows, used mostly by operations and PMO teams.
Do not build this if you are in a large organisation. Audit trails and enterprise habits are the product. What is being bought is not the grid. It is that the tool passes procurement, that every change is attributable, that permissions satisfy an auditor, and that people who have used it for a decade do not have to learn anything. None of that is code, and all of it is why it is chosen. WHEN TO KEEP PAYING - Compliance requirements, or an audit that will ask who changed what - Colleagues who will not adopt a new tool, which is a real constraint rather than an excuse WHEN TO BUILD - A team that controls its own tooling and wants the model to fit. Then the shape is under Airtable and Baserow elsewhere in this catalogue WHAT TO TAKE WHATEVER YOU DECIDE **An append-only revision log**: every field change with the old value, the new value, the actor and the timestamp, enforced by a trigger so it cannot be edited. That single table is most of what an audit trail means, it costs an afternoon, and it cannot be reconstructed after the fact **Real columns with real constraints**, not a generic key-value store. Types, required fields, uniqueness and foreign keys enforced by the database. A spreadsheet-shaped tool without constraints accumulates a column where nine hundred rows are dates and forty are the word 'pending' **Permissions checked inside the query**, per row and per field, with a forbidden field absent from the response rather than hidden in the interface. Default deny AND THE MIGRATION QUESTION TO ASK EARLY Export everything and look at what actually comes out: formulas, attachments, comments, the change history and the permission structure. History and attachments are the two most often thinner than expected, and if the audit trail does not export, it never really belonged to you. THE ONE-LINE VERSION The habits and the audit trail are the product. If you build, make the revision log the first table.
What you lose
- Gantt, dependency and critical-path scheduling that project managers already know how to read
- Approval and request workflows with an audit trail that survives a compliance review
- Enterprise administration: SSO, provisioning, retention policies and regional data residency
- Resource management across many projects and people
- The fact that finance and operations teams already have templates and habits built on it
If you would rather not build
- Monday.com — paid, the direct competitor, stronger on visuals
What it costs
read from their page 15 Aug 2026
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | Last read |
|---|---|---|---|
| — | $12/mo | — | 15 Aug 2026 |
Their pricing page is where these came from. Seeing a different price? Tell us.
The escape hatch
open source · no votes, no paid placement
Grist
$0Spreadsheet-database with Python formulas and granular access rules, self-hostable.
gristlabs/grist-corefree · open source
Baserow
$0No-code database with grid, form and gallery views, self-hostable.
baserow/baserowfree · open source
Why this verdict
our own opinion · changed only by a person
33/100
Verdict no at 33: the scheduling maths is a fair weekend and the prompt covers the critical path honestly. What cannot be built is the reason it is bought — a compliance-grade audit trail and an organisation that already works this way.
History
tracked since 9 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten
Questions about Smartsheet
answered from the record above
Is Smartsheet free?
No — the plan we track is $12 a month. Pro at $12 per member per month billed annually, $14 monthly; Business is $24 and adds automations and approvals.
Can you replace Smartsheet by building your own?
KEEP IT. The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying. Replacement score 33 out of 100, build time longer than it saves. Read what you lose before you decide.
How much does Smartsheet cost?
$12 a month on Pro — $144 a year. Recorded 9 Aug 2026.
What do you lose by replacing Smartsheet?
Gantt, dependency and critical-path scheduling that project managers already know how to read; Approval and request workflows with an audit trail that survives a compliance review; Enterprise administration: SSO, provisioning, retention policies and regional data residency; Resource management across many projects and people; The fact that finance and operations teams already have templates and habits built on it. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Smartsheet?
Yes: Grist, Baserow. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.
Related entries
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