The Smartsheet Alternative for Teams That Want Projects, Not Spreadsheets
Smartsheet is a very good spreadsheet that learned to run projects. Orangescrum is a project tool. If your team keeps rebuilding project structure out of rows and formulas, that difference is the whole story.
14 day trial. No credit card. Cloud or self-hosted.
The short answer
Smartsheet works well for people who think in grids, and its formula and cross sheet model is genuinely powerful. Teams move when they realise they are maintaining a spreadsheet rather than running a project: manual roll ups, formulas that break when someone inserts a row, and per Member licenses that cap the plan they are on. If your work really is tabular and your team is fluent in it, Smartsheet is a reasonable place to stay.
When Smartsheet is the better choice
We would rather you find this out here than three weeks into a trial.
- Your team genuinely thinks in spreadsheetsFormulas, cross sheet references, and cell level logic are Smartsheet's core, and we do not have an equivalent. If people are comfortable in Excel and want that model with collaboration on top, that is exactly what Smartsheet is for.
- You need heavy form based data collectionSmartsheet's forms feeding directly into sheets, with conditional logic, are stronger than anything we offer for gathering structured data at scale.
- Unlimited free Contributors suit your audienceSmartsheet licenses Members and lets unlimited Contributors view and edit without a license. If you have a very large audience who only ever consume, that model is well suited to it, although our unlimited users achieve the same thing differently.
- You have built a lot on it alreadyIntricate sheet networks with formulas and automations represent real work. If yours is running well, the cost of rebuilding it may be more than the license saving.
Why teams move from Smartsheet
Projects with real structure
Tasks, subtasks, dependencies, and milestones as first class objects, so roll ups are automatic rather than a formula somebody maintains.
Gantt that is not a view of a grid
Drag to reschedule, real dependencies, and critical path built on the project structure rather than on rows and date columns.
One flat price
No Member licenses and no plan caps by headcount. Every plan includes unlimited users, so the tool never limits who is involved.
A free plan that exists
Smartsheet has no free tier, only a 30 day trial. We have a free forever cloud plan and a free open source edition with no user limit.
Agile and quality built in
Backlogs, sprints, burndown, defect tracking, and test case management, none of which are Smartsheet's territory.
Run it on your own servers
A self-hosted edition for teams that cannot put project data in a vendor's cloud. Smartsheet is hosted only.
Orangescrum compared with Smartsheet
| Orangescrum | Smartsheet | |
|---|---|---|
| Price for a team of 25Pro caps at 10 Members, so 25 people need Business at $24 per user | $69 per month, flat | About $600 per month |
| Users included | Unlimited on every plan | Licensed per Member, unlimited free Contributors |
| Plan caps by headcount | No | Pro is 1 to 10 Members, Business needs at least 3 |
| Free plan30 day trial only | Free forever plan, plus a free open source edition | No |
| Grid view with formulas | No | Yes |
| Tasks, subtasks, and dependencies | Yes | Yes |
| Gantt chart with critical path | Yes | Critical path on higher tiers |
| Scrum, backlogs, and burndown | Yes | No |
| Defect and test case management | Yes | No |
| Time tracking built in | Yes | No |
| Budget, cost, and invoicing | Yes | No |
| Resource and workload management | Yes | Resource Management is a separate paid product |
| Self-hosted edition | Yes | No |
| Free and open source edition | Yes | No |
What it costs as the team grows
Smartsheet Pro at $12 per user per month on monthly billing, against Orangescrum Pro Unlimited at $69 per month for the whole team.
| Team size | Smartsheet | Orangescrum | Difference per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 people | $120/mo | $69/mo | $612 less |
| 25 people | $300/mo | $69/mo | $2,772 less |
| 50 people | $600/mo | $69/mo | $6,372 less |
| 100 people | $1,200/mo | $69/mo | $13,572 less |
The table above uses Smartsheet Pro at its published rate, but Pro is limited to 10 Members, so a team of 25 cannot actually buy it. The realistic comparison at that size is Smartsheet Business at $24 per user per month on monthly billing, which is about $600 a month for 25 people against our flat $69.
Figures use Smartsheet's published monthly billing rate for its Pro plan and assume every person needs a seat. Annual billing is cheaper on most tools, including theirs. This compares list prices, not negotiated ones.
Moving from Smartsheet
Sheets export cleanly, which makes this one of the easier migrations. The work is deciding what should become a project, what should become a task, and which columns are really custom fields.
- Export your sheetsSmartsheet exports to Excel or CSV. Send us the sheets that matter and tell us which columns you rely on.
- We map the structureRows become tasks, hierarchy becomes subtasks, and your columns become custom fields. We show you the mapping first.
- Rebuild what formulas didRoll ups that were formulas become native project structure, so they stop breaking when somebody inserts a row.
- Check and cut overWe import into a sandbox for your team to verify, then run the real import.
Orangescrum vs Smartsheet <em>FAQ</em>
Is Orangescrum a good alternative to Smartsheet?
Does Smartsheet have a free plan?
How does the pricing compare?
What is a Member versus a Contributor in Smartsheet?
Do you support formulas like Smartsheet?
What does Smartsheet do better?
Can I migrate my Smartsheet data?
Can I run it on my own servers?
Stop maintaining a spreadsheet that pretends to be a project
Free 14 day trial, no credit card. Free guided migration from Smartsheet.