Head to head
Smartsheet vs Asana
Both products assessed against the same checklist, with ratings drawn from 397 verified reviews.
- Rating gap
- 0.3
- Reviews behind this
- 397
- Monthly price gap
- US$9
- Features they share
- 1
Side by side
How they compare
Ratings computed from published reviews, and the specifications that change what a product costs to run. The washed column is the higher rated of the two.
| Compared on | Smartsheet Inc. | Higher rated overall |
|---|---|---|
| What reviewers say | ||
| Overall rating | 4.0 | 4.3, higher |
| Ease of use | 3.9 | 4.2, higher |
| Value for money | 3.9 | 4.4, higher |
| Customer service | 3.8 | 4.0, higher |
| Functionality | 4.0 | 4.3, higher |
| Verified reviews | 156 | 241 |
| What it costs | ||
| Starting price | US$9per month, from | Freefree plan available |
| VAT basis | Excl VAT | Excl VAT |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Published plans | 3 | 3 |
| Vendor and support | ||
| Vendor | Smartsheet Inc. | Asana Inc. |
| Founded | 2005 | 2008 |
| Support channels | Email, Telephone on higher tiers, Knowledge base, Learning centre | Email, Knowledge base, Academy, Community forum |
| Integrations listed | 8 | 9 |
| Local bank feeds | 0 | 0 |
The local yardstick
South African compliance
Amber marks a gap rather than a feature. This is usually where the decision is actually made.
Smartsheet
- GDPR tooling that maps onto POPIA
- Role based permissions and sheet level access
- Full audit trail
- Data hosted outside South Africa
Asana
- GDPR tooling that maps onto POPIA
- Role based permissions
- Data hosted outside South Africa
- Audit log on enterprise tiers
What they cost
Pricing, compared properly
Check the VAT basis on each. Vendors are not consistent, and the difference is 15%.
Smartsheet
Listed excluding VAT
- Free
Free
1 user
- US$9/mo
ProPopular
Per user, minimum count applies
- US$19/mo
Business
Per user, minimum count applies
Billed in US dollars per user per month with a minimum user count on paid tiers. Resource management and portfolio reporting sit on the higher tier.
Asana
Listed excluding VAT
- Free
Personal
10 collaborators
- US$11/mo
StarterPopular
Per seat
- US$26/mo
Advanced
Per seat
Billed in US dollars per seat per month, discounted annually. There is no native time tracking, so agencies should budget for an add on.
Capability
The full feature matrix
Every feature either product offers, and whether the other one has it.
| Compared on | Smartsheet Inc. | Higher rated overall |
|---|---|---|
| 23 features across both products | ||
| Approval workflows | Included | Not included |
| Approvals | Not included | Included |
| Audit trail | Included | Not included |
| Automation | Included | Not included |
| Baselines | Included | Not included |
| Cross sheet formulas and reporting | Included | Not included |
| Custom fields | Not included | Included |
| Dashboards and reporting | Not included | Included |
| Dependencies | Not included | Included |
| Dependencies and critical path | Included | Not included |
| Document builder | Included | Not included |
| Forms | Included | Not included |
| Forms and intake management | Not included | Included |
| Grid, Gantt, card and calendar views | Included | Not included |
| Guest access | Not included | Included |
| List, board, calendar and timeline views | Not included | Included |
| Mobile app for iOS and Android | Not included | Included |
| Open API | Included | Included |
| Portfolio dashboards | Included | Not included |
| Portfolios and goals | Not included | Included |
| Resource management | Included | Not included |
| Rules automation | Not included | Included |
| Workload management | Not included | Included |
Our verdict
Which one you should buy
We name a winner. Listing differences and leaving the decision to the reader is not a verdict.
We have not written a full verdict for this pairing yet, so here is the position from the data.
Asana holds the higher rating at 4.3 against 4.0, from 241 reviews against 156. Reviewers rate it 4.2 for ease of use and 4.4 for value for money, against 3.9 and 3.9.
Read the compliance comparison below before deciding on the rating alone. A product that scores well overall can still be missing the one statutory output your business cannot do without.
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