Asana vs Smartsheet: Compare project management software

See how project management tools Asana and Smartsheet compare on key features, such as team collaboration and resource management.

The realm of project management software is vast, housing a wide variety of useful solutions, including Asana and Smartsheet. While these popular solutions differ slightly in some of their core features, both offer easy work management tools, such as team collaboration and third-party app integrations.

We’ll compare and contrast these two solutions based on key features any of the best project management tools should have. For this comparison, we dive into the Premium version of Asana and the Business version of Smartsheet; these are the versions recommended for business use.

What is Asana?

Asana is one of the most popular cloud-based project management tools. It focuses on simple task and project management, as well as team collaboration. Asana enables teams to easily track every aspect of a project, from planning through execution.

SEE: Asana review (TechRepublic)

What is Smartsheet?

Smartsheet is a work collaboration software solution. Delivering on its name, Smartsheet features a spreadsheet-like interface with flexible views. Using Smartsheet, teams can manage projects, create fully custom workflows and more.

SEE: Smartsheet review (TechRepublic)

Asana vs. Smartsheet: Key features comparison

Both Asana and Smartsheet come with a wide range of the features that any solid project management tool should offer. For this review, we used the following key features to compare and contrast these powerhouse tools:

• Project management
• Team collaboration
• Resource management
• Integrations

Project management

First things first: It’s important to know that both tools are used for managing projects. However, the execution is a bit different. Smartsheet structures projects and tasks in a format that’s similar to a spreadsheet. And while the tool offers other views, such as Calendar View and Card View, sheets can quickly become complex, especially if team members are not used to spreadsheets.

Asana is a bit more intuitive when it comes to using the interface and creating projects. For example, users can simply add tasks to My Tasks to work from a traditional “to-do” style list. Or they can use more complex views, such as the Board view or Timeline view.

Beyond the differences in usability, there is little difference in the features offered by Asana and Smartsheet for project management. For instance, both tools offer task dependencies, Kanban-style board views, Gantt views, project reminders, and automated workflows. Plus, both tools enable teams to add project tasks and subtasks and assign users to those tasks for easy management.

SEE: Checklist: How to manage your backups (TechRepublic Premium)

Team collaboration

Asana and Smartsheet are great tools for collaborating on work. In Asana, organizations can create teams for each project to ensure everyone is on the same page and able to view project-specific tasks. And in Smartsheet, multiple team members can work on a spreadsheet simultaneously.

In addition, both tools enable teams to discuss tasks via comments and tag other users to jumpstart conversations. All conversations regarding a specific task are housed in the same place for easy reference.

Resource management

Asana and Smartsheet include resource management tools as part of their solution. Asana offers Workload, a tool delivering workload management, capacity planning and resource allocation. Smartsheet also delivers resource allocation tools built right in. Both tools enable teams to view current workloads and offer the ability to reassign resources when required.

One key difference is that Smartsheet has built-in time tracking. These time tracking tools include pre-filled, one-click timesheets plus a mobile time tracking app. Currently, Asana does not offer time tracking without implementing a third-party integration.

SEE: Feature comparison: Time tracking software and systems (TechRepublic Premium)

Integrations

Speaking of third-party integrations, any project management tool should enable teams to connect their existing workflows. Asana and Smartsheet offer many integrations to choose from. Some of these integrations include apps for communication, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, as well as apps for data visualization, such as Jira.

Both Asana and Smartsheet also offer APIs for developers that wish to build their own integrations.

Pricing

Pricing is a key differentiator between Asana and Smartsheet. For Asana Premium, teams can expect to pay $10.99 per user per month billed annually. For Smartsheet, teams will need to pay $25.00 per user per month, also billed annually.

Asana vs. Smartsheet: Which to choose?

Just like selecting any other tool for business, choosing between Asana or Smartsheet depends on team needs. The tools are so similar that teams can’t go wrong with either choice. However, for teams that are familiar with spreadsheets and that want more robust resource planning features such as time tracking, Smartsheet might be the best option. For teams that wish to prioritize simplicity when it comes to managing projects, Asana could be the better bet.

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