If the part of Smartsheet your team opens every day is the board view, a Smartsheet alternative can be a plain kanban board. You give up Gantt charts, formulas, dashboards and resource planning, and you stop paying per member. If your projects depend on those, a board will not replace them, and you should compare other work management suites instead.
We build a kanban board, so we are not neutral. Smartsheet prices below come from Smartsheet's pricing page, read on 24 October 2026, in US dollars on annual billing. Check it before you budget, because plans change.
Why do people look for a Smartsheet alternative?
Most reasons come down to cost and weight. Smartsheet is built as a spreadsheet first. Its pricing page lists grid, Gantt, board and calendar views, rich formulas, automations and portfolio features, and you pay for the whole product even if you open one view.
The bill also moves with headcount. Pro is $9 per member per month on annual billing, or $12 billed monthly, and it covers 1 to 10 members. Business is $19 per member per month on annual billing, or $24 monthly, and it starts at 3 members. Smartsheet lists unlimited free Contributors on Pro and unlimited free Guests on Business. Read its definitions of those roles before you assume your whole team fits in them.
What do the current Smartsheet alternative lists miss?
The top results are lists of seven or more tools. One is written by a software vendor, and one is a forum thread asking which tool to move to. They compare feature checklists for companies replacing a portfolio tool.
None of them asks the smaller question: what if you only used Smartsheet as a board? Nobody prices that case for a team of three to ten people, and nobody says which of the ten tools on the list is simply a board. This post answers that.
What does Smartsheet cost compared with a flat-price board?
Smartsheet charges per member, so the price follows the size of the team. These are the annual-billing numbers.
| Members | Pro per month | Business per month |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | $27 | $57 |
| 5 | $45 | $95 |
| 10 | $90 | $190 |
EasyKanban is free for 3 boards with unlimited cards and up to 3 team members per board. Pro is €6 a month or €60 a year and removes the board and member limits. The comparison is not price for price, because Smartsheet does things a board cannot. It is price for the job you actually use it for.
Which parts of Smartsheet does a kanban board replace?
A board replaces one view and the habits around it. Cards sit in columns, you drag them across, and you filter by tag or person. It does not replace formulas, dashboards, Gantt dependencies or workload tracking.
Here is a quick test. Open your three most used sheets and look at the column that decides what happens next. If it is a plain status column, and nobody uses dependencies or formulas on it, you are running a board inside a grid. If rows depend on other rows, or a report sums them up for someone else, you are using the tool for what it was built for.
Two things a plain board still does well:
- Limits on work in progress. A grid shows every row at once. A board can warn you when a column holds too many cards, which is how WIP limits stop a team from starting everything at once.
- Starting without setup. A sheet needs columns and column types before it needs a task. A board needs a column name.
Which Smartsheet alternatives fit which kind of team?
Pick by what you use Smartsheet for, not by the longest feature list.
If you manage schedules with dependencies, you want a Gantt-first tool, and no kanban board will do that for you. If your team tracks projects in a spreadsheet and wants a database, the Airtable comparison covers that trade. If you want one tool for tasks, docs and goals and accept per-seat pricing, see the ClickUp alternative guide. For a long-form look at lighter options, read our open source Jira alternatives.
If you want a board and nothing else, see how EasyKanban compares to Trello, or try a board without an account on the no-signup board. The comparison is simple: columns, cards and tags, at a price that does not move when a fourth person joins.
How do I move from Smartsheet to a kanban board?
Export the sheet to CSV or Excel from Smartsheet, then import the CSV into the board tool. EasyKanban reads a CSV and asks you to map its columns in the import dialog, pre-filling any column called Title. Keep one column for the card title and one for the stage.
Before you import, delete the columns you never read. A card holds a title, a description and a tag. Attachments, comments, formulas, dependencies and automations do not come across, so fifteen extra columns will not either, and it is better to learn that on a copy than on your live sheet. Keep the Smartsheet workspace for a month and read from it, so nothing is lost if you change your mind.
What are the trade-offs of leaving Smartsheet?
You lose structure. A grid can enforce types and formulas, and a board lets you write anything on a card. You lose automated alerts and approvals, and you lose the reporting that managers outside the team may rely on.
You gain a smaller thing to maintain. For a team of three to ten that tracks content, client work or a backlog, that trade is usually right. For a team running a portfolio with dependencies, it is usually wrong.
FAQ
What is the best free alternative to Smartsheet?
For a task board, a free kanban board is enough. EasyKanban is free for 3 boards with unlimited cards. For Gantt charts and dependencies there is no board that replaces Smartsheet, so you would compare other project management suites.
Is there a Smartsheet alternative with no per-seat pricing?
Yes. Smartsheet Pro is $9 per member per month on annual billing, and Business is $19. EasyKanban charges per account instead, free for 3 boards or €6 a month for Pro with unlimited boards and members, so adding a fourth person does not change the bill.
Can I import my Smartsheet data into a kanban board?
Yes, through CSV. Export the sheet from Smartsheet, make sure one column holds the stage and one holds the card title, then import it. Formulas, dependencies, attachments and automations do not come across, so check a copy first.
Does Smartsheet have a kanban view?
Yes. Smartsheet's pricing page lists a board view among the views on the Pro plan, next to grid, Gantt and calendar. You pay Pro or Business prices to use it, since it is part of the same product.
When should I stay on Smartsheet?
Stay if your work depends on dependencies, formulas, dashboards or approvals that other people use. A board is the better choice when the sheet has turned into a task list with a status column and you pay per member to move cards.