Smartsheet vs. Tableau Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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)
Tableau Cloud
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Tableau Cloud (formerly Tableau Online) is a self-service analytics platform that is fully hosted in the cloud. Tableau Cloud enables users to publish dashboards and invite colleagues to explore hidden opportunities with interactive visualizations and accurate data, from any browser or mobile device.
$15
per month billed annually per user
Pricing
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Editions & Modules
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
Tableau Viewer
$15
per month billed annually per user
Enterprise Viewer
$35
per month billed annually per user
Tableau Explorer
$42
per month billed annually per user
Enterprise Explorer
$70
per month billed annually per user
Tableau Creator
$75
per month billed annually per user
Enterprise Creator
$115
per month billed annually per user
Tableau+
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Considered Both Products
Smartsheet
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 …
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!
Chose Smartsheet
It allows team collaboration.
Project monitoring is very easy.
Dashboards are very good for the project reporting.
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 …
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 …
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).
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
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 …
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. …
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 …
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
Chose Smartsheet
Functionality is far superior and very easy to use.
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.
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.
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
Chose Smartsheet
All the products seemed to perform the project and task management function adequately. The following factors were the keys to our selection:
  1. Ease of use - so similar to Excel everyone can figure it out.
  2. Flexible architecture lends itself to many different use cases beyond …
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 …
Tableau Cloud
Chose Tableau Cloud
Tableau CLoud is much more user friendly and easy to use.
Chose Tableau Cloud
Tableau Cloud is ery powerful and user friendly with minimal cost when compared with other BI tools.Its robust features like switching toggles, supporting SQL queries for buiding charts and all stands out as the best.It reduces time in creating difficult and complex dashbords …
Chose Tableau Cloud
Tableau Cloud offers easier ways to make the content browsable by users. It also offers more flexible ways to set up self-service governance. Standard filtering functionalities are easier to use.
Chose Tableau Cloud
It seems more robust then the other platforms. There is a lot you can do from merging many different data sets together by joining them at like points, to creating visualizations of the data, or by showcasing some important data to any number of people within your organization. …
Chose Tableau Cloud
Tableau has a way easier Intuitive UI compare to Power BI or Amplitude. AMplitude is great since anyone could create their own dashboard, but building it it's a different thing.
Chose Tableau Cloud
When weighing the pros and cons of Tableau Online vs. SAP ERP, two key considerations emerged as clear winners. SAP ERP is a powerful data purification tool, but it doesn't measure up to the competition in terms of data presentation. When it came to data visualization and …
Chose Tableau Cloud
In my opinion, while Microsoft Power BI is a bit easier to build reports and dashboards with in part to its shared traits and connectivity with other Microsoft products, Tableau Online allows for a greater depth of customization, data sourcing, and most of all the sharing of …
Chose Tableau Cloud
Google Analytics is better for ad-hoc reporting but it's easier to create a uniform, standardized portfolio of reports in Tableau Online. We still use Google Analytics from time to time for quicker data requests.
Chose Tableau Cloud
In determining whether to go with Tableau Online versus Alteryx, two important factors stood out in determining our go-to solution. First, while Alteryx is an impressive tool for data cleansing, it did not stack up in terms of data visualization capabilities. Tableau, on the …
Chose Tableau Cloud
Googles dashboard suite is very user-friendly and anyone can edit and make changes with very little knowledge or practice. But nothing I’ve worked with compares to the customization and multi streams of data in a user-friendly package like tableau does. It’s a really cool piece …
Chose Tableau Cloud
Prior to Tableau [Online], we were using complicated excel formulas and reports that were prone to break or were not easy to format. We used a few free tools before moving forward with Tableau. The free tools also had limitations but we found that the reports, ease of use …
Chose Tableau Cloud
We selected Tableau Online as it was more easy to integrate it with our SaaS platform and get going in no time. It is much more intuitive, easy, and quick to create dashboards using Tableau than other competitors. Also the pricing provided by Tableau to us was very competitive …
Chose Tableau Cloud
I do like to still use Google Analytics for certain things, because its faster to do it in Google Analytics rather than build the report I need in Tableau. While it's helpful, we just don't have the bandwidth as an organization to be able to create every report we would need on …
Chose Tableau Cloud
  • Breadth of services offered is good with Tableau Online
  • Tableau Online offers advanced analytics and visualisations with easy implementation
Chose Tableau Cloud
Tableau Online provides better data visualizations (especially when comparing out of the box visualizations that are available) than MS Power BI and historically we have connected more of our data sources to Tableau vs. other platforms like Google analytics.
Chose Tableau Cloud
Microsoft Dynamics is the only other product I have interacted with that is similar to Tableau Online. I receive reports from Microsoft Dynamics on a weekly basis. I receive really valuable statistics that help me realize how I am interacting through email. Dynamics send me …
Chose Tableau Cloud
[My selection was more determined] by the legacy files from the previous data scientists who build the dashboard with Tableau rather than I decided to choose Tableau from all other options.
Chose Tableau Cloud
Tableau provides more robust system to perform data analytics as compared to the alternatives like Power BI and Qlik. Moreover, Tableaus is super simple to use and is very reliable in terms of its connection with databases. The ability to manipulate data is another big reason …
Chose Tableau Cloud
We used to use an internal tracking platform, and it wasn't nearly as reliable or accurate as Tableau Online. Tableau Online has way more functionality and is able to report on so many more metrics that our old platform was unable to.
Chose Tableau Cloud
There are lots of excellent products are available in market for data analysis like SAP BusinessObjects, IBM Cognos, Microstrategy Analytics, Microsoft Power BI, etc. I found other products are specific to their tools like SAP BusinessObjects suits great with SAP Products …
Chose Tableau Cloud
I don't have direct experience with any of Tableau's competitors, such as Qlik, Domo, Looker or Zoomdata. With that said, I can't imagine any of the aforementioned entities having an offering that is far superior to Tableau. The intuitiveness and overall performance speak for …
Chose Tableau Cloud
Tableau has a capacity to connect to a number of data providers, and it is very easy to get connected to data sources and use all the objects that create dashboards. Customized visualizations are very easy to create. Tableau, generally speaking, has calculations and other types …
Chose Tableau Cloud
We have really enjoyed Tableau for our company. The pricing is a bit higher but the functionality is a lot better for our needs.
Features
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
9.0
Ratings
16% above category average
Tableau Cloud
-
Ratings
Task Management10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
9.1
Ratings
19% above category average
Tableau Cloud
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing9.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
7.0
Ratings
15% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
6.9
Ratings
15% below category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
7.1
Ratings
16% below category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
6.8
Ratings
16% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
7.0
Ratings
19% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
6.4
Ratings
20% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Smartsheet
-
Ratings
Tableau Cloud
6.4
Ratings
20% below category average
REST API00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
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SmartsheetTableau Cloud
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Score 9.1 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SmartsheetTableau Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Read full review
If you're using Tableau as the primary BI tool, then Tableau Cloud is well suited to publish and share the results with a wide(r) audience. It is well suited for various degrees of self-service proficiency, from pure consumers of analytical work to more advanced users who can use web editing for smaller or larger adjustments, and even for desktop power users who will publish their work to Tableau Cloud. It has many good ways to organize the content and make it easily accessible via search, favorites, folders, collections ("playlists for your data"), or history ("recents"). It might not be ideally suited if there are many on-prem sources to be used (even though there are options to connect them) or if you have very special requirements regarding custom server setup, which is limited in a shared cloud environment like Tableau Cloud.
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Pros
  • 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.
Read full review
  • Tableau Online is completely cloud based and that's why the reports and dashboards are accessible even on the go. One doesn't always need to access the office laptop to access the reports.
  • The visualizations are interactive and one can quickly change the level at which they want to view the information. For example, one person might be more interested in looking at the country level performances rather than client level. This is intuitive and one doesn't need to create multiple reports for the same.
  • The feature to ask questions in plain vanilla English language is great and helpful. For quick adhoc fact checks one can simply type what they are looking for and the Natural Language Programming algorithms under the hood parse the query, interpret it and then fetch the results accordingly in a visual form.
Read full review
Cons
  • 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
Read full review
  • Can be a steep learning curve for new users
  • Modeling and building algorithms aren't always intuitive and take some testing/retesting to ensure it's working as it should
  • Inability to integrate easily with our HRIS platform. Reports are pulled from HRIS at various intervals and uploaded into Tableau
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Likelihood to Renew
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.
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The tool's capacity to handle complex data sources.
Read full review
Usability
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
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From an end user perspective Tableau Online is overall very easy to navigate once you get used to it, my only complaint is that when expanding or contracting a graph, the "plus" and "minus" on the bottom left is sometimes hidden, and should always be visible. From a builder perspective, it can take some getting used to but the sheer depth of customization makes it all worthwhile.
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Support Rating
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!
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I have no had a lot of experience with the support team, but I know that it’s hardly necessary for the end-user to contact. Usually, the main questions I get are on how to read a certain dashboard or how to navigate to a certain place. Overall, the simplicity of the software is what helps out with less need for support.
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Implementation Rating
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.
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I wasn't part of the implementation team
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Alternatives Considered
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.
Read full review
When weighing the pros and cons of Tableau Online vs. SAP ERP, two key considerations emerged as clear winners. SAP ERP is a powerful data purification tool, but it doesn't measure up to the competition in terms of data presentation. When it came to data visualization and analytics, Tableau was our go-to tool. The price is the second consideration. Tableau, on the other hand, was the more cost-effective option for our requirements.
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Return on Investment
  • 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.
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  • No need to hire a team of developers to deliver our product, a huge cost savings for a start up company.
  • The ability to work off data extracts allows us to "set in and forget it" so to speak, which allows our customers to use the system during business hours with almost no cost in terms of database usage.
  • It has been a great internal tool for dashboarding company metrics and helping us track goals and implement solutions to meet those goals through efficient data analysis.
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ScreenShots