Microsoft Planner vs. Smartsheet

Microsoft Planner

Smartsheet

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
Microsoft Planner	Score 7.6 out of 10	N/A	Microsoft Planner is presented as a solution to organize teamwork with intuitive, collaborative, visual task management. With it, users can create Kanban boards using task cards with files, checklists, and labels. Users can collaborate in Planner and Microsoft Teams and check visual status charts—all in the Microsoft cloud.	N/A
Smartsheet	Score 8.4 out of 10	N/A	Smartsheet is an online project management and collaboration tool. It includes automated alerts, instantaneous updating and sharing across team members, resource management, nested tasks organized in a hierarchy, a Gantt chart view, exportable and automated reports, and integration with email.	$12 per month per user (up to 10 users)

Pricing

Microsoft Planner

Smartsheet

Editions & Modules

No answers on this topic

Pro: $12
per month per user (up to 10 users)
Business: $24
per month per user (3 user minimum)
Enterprise: Contact Sales
Advanced Work Management: Contact Sales

Offerings

Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Planner	Smartsheet
Free Trial
No	Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

Entry-level Setup Fee

No setup fee

Additional Details

—

A discount is offered for annual billing.

More Pricing Information

Community Pulse
	Microsoft Planner	Smartsheet
Considered Both Products	Microsoft Planner Brandon Stokes Global Revenue Enablement Manager Chose Microsoft Planner Our organization chose MS Planner because it is an included tool in the MS Suite, and since we are unfortunately replacing our current and much better project management tool due to a consolidation of the tech stack. However, it doesn't appear that any of the teams using the … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner In my experience, Microsoft Planner has much less features and less effective than other project management tools. But, it's free and included as part of Microsoft 365, so senior management may think it's saving them money. However, the poor productivity and the inefficient … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner The Planner has a more straightforward and intuitive interface, making it ideal for teams that want to get started quickly without a steep learning curve. Additionally, Planner is more budget-friendly, making it a better option for smaller teams like mine. Additionally, … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner We used Microsoft Planner because it was free to our organization but ended up paying for Asana for more features we needed for our team. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Microsoft Planner stands out for its seamless integration with Microsoft 365, making collaboration with tools like Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint effortless. Its user-friendly interface, with drag-and-drop features and color-coded labels, simplifies task management. Microsoft … Incentivized Helpful? Matt Aldridge Learning Analytics Lead Chose Microsoft Planner Compared to the other options, we already had access to Microsoft Planner, preconfigured accounts, and support and ordination from tech internally to use it. We previously used Wrike, I wanted to use Asana, and other people in the organisation either used Microsoft Project, or … Incentivized Helpful? francesca turra Project Manager Chose Microsoft Planner The integration with Microsoft Teams is a must that other platform doesn't have. Incentivized Helpful? DA Deepika Arora Digital Marketer Chose Microsoft Planner Microsoft Planner was included in our package of Microsoft email. Thus, we [don't] have to pay anything separately. This is was the main reason. However, the functionality we required was similar. [Microsoft] Planner also gives a schedule calendar where we can add tasks as per … Incentivized Helpful? Quratulain Habib, PMP Partner / Director / Head of Projects Chose Microsoft Planner While Asana and Trello are mature products, Planner is getting there pretty quickly. Since our organization is on the Microsoft ecosystem, it helps to use SSO for most of the apps that are within the same license. It helps save money and does the work. For proper project … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Microsoft Planner won out over Todoist due to it's ability to integrate other software and allow us to be able to do more work in one software. The project management functions were superior as well. Probably the biggest advantage was the task management. We liked how it worked … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Have moved to JIRA in my recent project. I can say Microsoft plan is a good option but JIRA is more powerful compare to this tool. The only thing is its integration and easy communication feature between teams or assigned groups stand it out while comparing with the similar … Incentivized Helpful? DS Darshil S Assistant Manager Chose Microsoft Planner Microsoft Planner has a clear cut edge over all the other project planning software of having its native and extensive capability of integrating with the Office 365 apps which everyone uses heavily. Also, it is highly accessible and usable to a large extent through PDAs and … Incentivized Helpful? Christie Carbone Digital Marketing Analyst Chose Microsoft Planner Pros: Communicating with all members of the plan is easy since it’s part of the Office 365 suite. This allows you to easily communicate via Outlook. You can quickly view all the tasks everyone is working across Boards Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Planner provides better integration with Microsoft products that are used across the organization as a whole. It provides better connection to SharePoint, MS Teams, MS Office products, and even in MS Outlook, which is the company's email client. Incentivized Helpful? Fernanda Ministerio Especialista de Desenvolvimento Industrial Chose Microsoft Planner Many areas of the company still use Trello to organize their activities and tasks, but gradually Microsoft Planner must replace the activities. Users are often "attached" to familiar technologies, but Office 365 takes advantage of the more organized use of the tools. This year … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner I would recommend Planner for light project / team management with strong MS Teams integration. For a PMO / large project with resources/cost/gantt management, I would really recommend MS Project. Incentivized Helpful? John Bayerl Director of Teaching Excellence Chose Microsoft Planner I have not used any other products that serve a similar function to Microsoft Planner. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Planner, tho its user interface could be improved, was leaps and bounds better than TYA suite. Their user interface is difficult for many at our job site to use, especially the older generation. The decision to bring it in was largely a corporate decision. Individuals likely … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner I've used Asana and prefer it to Microsoft Planner. Asana has more functionalities than Planner and I think it is more user-friendly. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Trello is better as a one off product, but if you use the Microsoft suite then Planner integrates better into the rest of your day-to-day apps. The integration into team members' calendars and mail makes the ease of assigning tasks across our organization well worth using the … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Microsoft Project Incentivized Helpful? RH Richard (Ric) Hazel Strategy Planning Advisor Chose Microsoft Planner Microsoft Planner is far superior and doesn't require expensive training to give people access to it. It is far easier to customize and allows for people to add projects and milestones without the cumbersome interface that Agility offers. I would far rather use Microsoft … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner We tried to select software from various tools, and in the end we chose Planner both for economic reasons (it is included in the Microsoft 365 license we have in the company) and for its ease of use (we have no particular or specific needs, such as advanced scheduling or ticket … Incentivized Helpful? MC Micaella Cirilo Talent Acquisition Specialist Chose Microsoft Planner Main reason is that it is cost efficient because we're already using Microsoft 365 and it's literally part of the ecosystem. No need to purchase any other software. Microsoft is also a well known company, credible for providing business solutions and has a strong enterprise … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Planner is free and integrated with other Microsoft products that we use. We don't have a need for something more sophisticated given the price it would have cost to purchase licenses for a dedicated task/project mgmt tool. Incentivized Helpful?	Smartsheet DR Dustin Roberts Marketing Associate Chose Smartsheet I use both. Excel for more data/spreadsheet focused tasks and Smartsheet for our event planning and project management. Smartsheet allows for collaboration, has project management features like task tracking and the Gantt chart, and even has some handy automation features … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Smartsheet I tried Miro for a while and it just didn't have the features Smartsheet does. If I'm going to pay for a "supercharged Excel," I expect to really do a ton more than Excel! Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Smartsheet It allows team collaboration. Project monitoring is very easy. Dashboards are very good for the project reporting. Incentivized Helpful? TK Tomasz Kowalski Senior Program Manager Chose Smartsheet Asana and monday.com are typical project management tools where resources can be tracked based on the tasks, etc. Smartsheet does exactly the same but additionally allows people outside of PM to automate their data collaboration with other employees. The solutions that … Incentivized Helpful? Syed Ghufran Hassan Project associate Chose Smartsheet Smartsheet is user friendly with easy to use templates as compared to Microsoft project. Other thing is collaboration which cannot be achieved in Microsoft project. Smartsheet has different types of pricing for different types of users but Microsoft project only offers … Incentivized Helpful? Ehud Lehavi Quality Assurance Analyst Chose Smartsheet Jira is better on user interface and task tracking. However the dashboard isn't as versatile as on Smartsheet. That being said, it takes maintenance to keep the Smartsheet dashboard updated regularly (not automated). Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Smartsheet Definitely a lot more intuitive and a lot less clunky and confusing. When I have to introduce Smartsheet to other team members who have experience with MS project they are overwhelmed with how easy it is and feel a lot more engaged when developing their own workbooks Incentivized Helpful? Angelo Liriano Cepeda Business Developer & Key Account Manager Chose Smartsheet Smartsheet enable users to build the more custom solutions that can include workflows, reports, dashboards, sheet data, reminders, etc. It allows to create the most complete reports and have available thousand of already built solutions on the Solution Center. Also, has the … Incentivized Helpful? Abigail Selebe Freelance Consultant Chose Smartsheet Smartsheet is a dedicated project management tool that is built on spread sheet principles. When compared to Microsoft's own offering, Smartsheet came out on top in some areas like dedicated project management features vs having to build custom features to Microsoft 365. … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Smartsheet Jira and Redmine are much more robust and technologically advanced project management solutions. I enjoy using either when managing a very large project. However, I prefer to use Smartsheet for my smaller to medium sized projects. As for Google Drive - I would say that Google … Incentivized Helpful? David Chamberlain Executive Creative Director Chose Smartsheet It has been my favorite alternative; I can control Smartsheet from my mobile device since, as a manager, it allows me to visualize the files made through it, with the convenience of any time and space. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Smartsheet Price and ease of collaboration was the deciding factor and since we made this decision quite awhile ago, Microsoft Project's collaboration features were not there yet, making Smartsheet the clear winner. Many of our Project Manager were comfortable working with Microsoft … Incentivized Helpful? Duane Thompson Product Development Lead Chose Smartsheet Smartsheet makes it simple to plan and budget on projects, streamline business workflows and improve overall customer service. The pricing plans are affordable and businesses that implement Smartsheet enjoy tremendous long-term value. Employee work performance is boosted and … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Smartsheet I believe Smartsheet is much easier to use than Asana. There is a better way to collaborate with colleagues and track your progress on projects. There is a better structure on how to set up your system. It has better filters to see what you have accomplished vs what is open and … Incentivized Helpful? Brad Estes Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President Chose Smartsheet Functionality is far superior and very easy to use. Incentivized Helpful? GM Gloria Musuli Human Resources Assistant Chose Smartsheet Smartsheet is an exceptionally robust and ,offer unique hybrid solution to manage projects and automate workflows that is based on accurate data. It offers better time-saving functions that speeds up delivery of projects on schedule and using the allocated resources. Incentivized Helpful? Ben Pincus Sales Executive Chose Smartsheet Smartsheet has been a positive success; it has been easy to use and quite intuitive. It allowed us to foster collaboration between colleagues. Incentivized Helpful? EC Emily Caplin Senior Project Manager Chose Smartsheet Works more efficiently than MPP as updates can happen in real time in the cloud and be collaborated on with other team members. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Smartsheet Before utilizing Smartsheet we utilized a combination of Quip and an in-house developed task management tool. Even though we did not utilize Smartsheet for all of our project management needs it did provide a useful structure for planning a schedule for routine tasks and … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Smartsheet Other software's are more geared towards the construction process while Smartsheet is more geared to generic Project Management, no specific to the construction industry. We are using Smartsheet to communicate with our client and not to manage construction so from that … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Smartsheet I prefer the more traditional usability of Smartsheet. It's like Microsoft Project or Excel, but far easier for my organization to access. We don't currently have it set up as our resource manager or integrate it with our timesheets (our problem, not Smartsheet), and I think … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Smartsheet Smartsheet is much easier to collaborate on than Microsoft or Primavera in terms of scheduling software, but lacks the customizability of its competitors. You can also much easier link projects together when master scheduling which is a huge advantage compared to Microsoft … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Smartsheet We use Basecamp for our day-to-day in-house operations, but need a more "rigid" structure (spreadsheet) for managing projects with clients. Everything is in one place in Smartsheet and clients are able to find and use it easily. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Smartsheet All the products seemed to perform the project and task management function adequately. The following factors were the keys to our selection: Ease of use - so similar to Excel everyone can figure it out. Flexible architecture lends itself to many different use cases beyond … Incentivized Helpful? Michael Rastall, MBA IT Project Manager Chose Smartsheet Smartsheet is a must to companies that are in need of automating key business processes that will save them time and eliminate productivity killers. This software enables teams identify bottlenecks early on tasks and projects that are due so that they are able plan on a course … Incentivized Helpful?

Features

Microsoft Planner

Smartsheet

Project Management

Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
	Microsoft Planner - Ratings	Smartsheet 9.0 Ratings 16% above category average
Task Management	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Resource Management	00 Ratings	9.00 Ratings
Gantt Charts	00 Ratings	9.00 Ratings
Scheduling	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Workflow Automation	00 Ratings	8.10 Ratings
Team Collaboration	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology	00 Ratings	7.00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology	00 Ratings	8.90 Ratings
Document Management	00 Ratings	8.90 Ratings
Email integration	00 Ratings	9.90 Ratings
Mobile Access	00 Ratings	8.00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management	00 Ratings	9.00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management	00 Ratings	9.00 Ratings

Professional Services Automation

Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
	Microsoft Planner - Ratings	Smartsheet 9.1 Ratings 19% above category average
Quotes/estimates	00 Ratings	8.80 Ratings
Invoicing	00 Ratings	9.80 Ratings
Project & financial reporting	00 Ratings	8.90 Ratings
Integration with accounting software	00 Ratings	8.90 Ratings

Best Alternatives
	Microsoft Planner	Smartsheet
Small Businesses	7shifts Score 9.9 out of 10	Stackby Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	Whimsical Score 8.5 out of 10	InEight Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises	Whimsical Score 8.5 out of 10	InEight Score 8.3 out of 10
All Alternatives	View all alternatives	View all alternatives

User Ratings
	Microsoft Planner	Smartsheet
Likelihood to Recommend	7.5 (0 ratings)	10.0 (0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	3.0 (0 ratings)	10.0 (0 ratings)
Usability	7.8 (0 ratings)	9.0 (0 ratings)
Performance	- (0 ratings)	10.0 (0 ratings)
Support Rating	- (0 ratings)	8.1 (0 ratings)
Online Training	- (0 ratings)	7.0 (0 ratings)
Implementation Rating	- (0 ratings)	10.0 (0 ratings)

User Testimonials
	Microsoft Planner	Smartsheet
Likelihood to Recommend	Microsoft Planner is a user-friendly visual tool for organizing tasks and workflows. It’s great for team collaboration, integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 tools like Teams and Outlook, and offers flexibility for projects of all sizes. Additionally, it provides mobile and web access for seamless productivity on the go. That’s a big plus right there. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	The Smartsheet platform is extremely similar to Microsoft Excel, so if you are familiar with Excel, you will pick Smartsheet up quickly. Even if you aren't Smartsheet has a relatively simple user interface, meaning just about anyone can learn it. One thing to note is that the interface is that some may consider the interface so simple that they feel the need to look for more robust platforms. If you have a small to medium project that needs to be manages in a central hub, Smartsheet would be a great fit. If you have a very large project, I might consider looking into more advanced platforms. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Pros	I love the ability to tag and untag others as needed I love the ability to customize the tag labels and that there are so many options I love the ability to add comments and it notifies the others tagged in the task I love that the task description can be changed as needed without notification to others assigned to the task Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	The easy to use dashboard has enabled us get comprehensive view of projects across the entire business. It has streamlined internal communication with ease of sharing information across different teams. Smartsheet automates our workflows, enhances collaboration and ensures there are no data silos. I like that it saves time for us and ensures we spend less time switching between apps. Incentivized GM Gloria Musuli Human Resources Assistant Read full review
Cons	Does not allow you to view all tasks and sub-tasks (checklist) in a nested view. Comments have character limits that can make it harder for teams to communicate exactly what they want to share. There is no way to mention a teammate in a comment and share files and documents in the conversation (collaborative tool???). Fernanda Ministerio Especialista de Desenvolvimento Industrial Read full review	Smartsheet set up is similar to Excel, yet when you upload an Excel file, things like conditional formatting are lost. Smartsheet has its own conditional formatting, and you have to reinstate the rules. It would be great if those would apply automatically once a file is uploaded Some Smartsheet management and access rules can take some tweaking to work properly. This may be a case of offering more info to admins so they can apply these better and with more efficiency Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Likelihood to Renew	It is a very useful tool that brings teams in sync with one another. The integration with other Microsoft products makes it an obvious choice because you don't have to purchase a license for a completely different tool that doesn't have cross-functional capabilities with the software you already use on a daily basis. Incentivized Richard (Ric) Hazel Strategy Planning Advisor Read full review	Smartsheet has made my work life easier. Reduced my email *significantly*. Smartsheet and SaneBox have got me leaving the office with 0... Yes 0 emails in my inbox. My inbox would reach 150-250 email per day. Smartsheet brought that number down significantly and SaneBox took it the rest of the way. Do yourself a favor and check out SaneBox, too. Kris Walsh Senior Marketing Manager Read full review
Usability	The tool is easy to use, but it is just as easy to set up. No specific skills are required, but its usefulness in our work is immediately apparent. Colors are very helpful in creating a clear interface and providing a very precise overview of the tasks to be performed. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Smartsheet is very easy to learn. However, while I have been able to pick it easily, Microsoft Excel and Project super users that I have trained on Smartsheet get bogged down in the differences and can find it frustrating. Explaining the differences ahead of time and why Smartsheet is being chosen instead of a different software seems to counteract those reactions Incentivized Meghan M. Prentiss Program Assistant, Epidemiology Planning and Communications Division Read full review
Support Rating	No answers on this topic	They're a smaller company but they've always given great service when we rarely need to reach out. Pretty good online content but a bigger user base would help to produce more content in a self-sufficient community much as we see with Salesforce. To be fair we haven't needed their direct customer support very often. The sales guys are nice and not too pushy! Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Implementation Rating	No answers on this topic	Work with the Smartsheet support team to get the best overall. If no one in your organization has used Smartsheet before, the support team will get things started. We had a couple of people who had used this product before and it was a great help in getting our framework together how we wanted to use it. Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Alternatives Considered	Our organization chose MS Planner because it is an included tool in the MS Suite, and since we are unfortunately replacing our current and much better project management tool due to a consolidation of the tech stack. However, it doesn't appear that any of the teams using the current program intend to use MS Planner due to its poor functionality. We will likely be pivoting to Jira instead. Incentivized Brandon Stokes Global Revenue Enablement Manager Read full review	Smartsheet is a dedicated project management tool that is built on spread sheet principles. When compared to Microsoft's own offering, Smartsheet came out on top in some areas like dedicated project management features vs having to build custom features to Microsoft 365. However when you compare them on price, Microsoft 365 definitely has more value than Smartsheet. Incentivized Abigail Selebe Freelance Consultant Read full review
Return on Investment	Saved over $1000 each year by not having to purchase a third party tool for our content planning Not sure that I can provide a hard number to this, but having the oversight to see when something is coming due and making sure everything gets executed in time Incentivized Christie Carbone Digital Marketing Analyst Read full review	Our positive ROI has decreased the overall cost in project management as it reduced the amount of MS project licenses we needed. We have also seen a positive ROI on using the cloud storage and it automatically supports proper version control. Incentivized JB Jesse Bickel Sr. Project Manager Read full review
ScreenShots