Smartsheet vs. Basecamp vs. SmartSuite: Which Tool to Pick? [2026]

You’re in for a tough choice because Smartsheet differs fundamentally from Basecamp; however, they cater to different teams and use cases.

In this in-depth buyer guide, I’ll break down the key features, pricing, and user feedback for each project management platform to help you make a better-informed decision.

➡️ I’ll also introduce you to an alternative to both tools that covers their weaknesses with its all-in-one project management capabilities: SmartSuite (that’s us).

TL;DR

• Smartsheet uses a grid-first, spreadsheet-style approach. It supports Gantt, card, and calendar views, making it a strong fit for teams managing large datasets, structured workflows, and portfolio-level reporting.

➡️ Choose Smartsheet if you manage enterprise-scale projects that require strict data governance, advanced reporting, and structured planning across many initiatives.

• Basecamp focuses on simplicity and communication. It’s built around to-do lists, message boards, schedules, and file sharing, making it ideal for small teams that want clarity, async collaboration, and minimal process overhead, without complex workflows or configuration.

➡️ Choose Basecamp if you want a straightforward project management tool centred on team communication, transparency, and ease of use rather than advanced customization or reporting.

• SmartSuite combines database-style records with task management, workflow automation, dashboards, and built-in collaboration. It’s designed as a flexible, no-code platform that can adapt to many use cases, from project tracking and onboarding to CRM, operations, and ITSM.

➡️ Choose SmartSuite if you want more structure and automation than Basecamp, but more flexibility and usability than Smartsheet, without relying on plugins or rigid spreadsheet-based workflows.

Smartsheet vs. Basecamp vs. SmartSuite: Features

TL;DR

• Smartsheet delivers powerful spreadsheet-based project management with advanced formulas, multiple views (Grid, Gantt, Calendar, Card), dashboards, and enterprise-grade automation. However, it can feel rigid, complex, and overly technical for teams that prioritize collaboration and day-to-day execution over data-heavy planning.
• Basecamp has been built for simplicity and communication with features like to-do lists, message boards, schedules, file storage, and real-time chat. Despite this, I think that it lacks advanced reporting, workflow automation, custom fields, and flexible data structures.
• SmartSuite bridges the gap between both. It offers structured, database-driven work management like Smartsheet, without the spreadsheet-first complexity, while also delivering stronger workflow control, automation, and customization than Basecamp. 

With built-in collaboration, dashboards, no-code automation, and adaptable workflows, SmartSuite works equally well for lightweight project management and more complex, cross-functional processes.

Let’s go over the 3 platform features, starting with Basecamp: 👇

Basecamp’s Features

Advanced Visualization Tools

Basecamp offers Lineup, Mission Control, and Hill Charts as visual tools to help teams track the progress of their projects.

The tool’s different visualization tools can help you see project progress at a glance and see the direction of the project.

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Integrated Team Chat

Unlike tools like Asana, Basecamp offers built-in team communication: their ‘’Hey!’’ menu.

The ‘’Hey!’’ menu aggregates your team’s notifications and lets you add ‘’Pings’’ (direct messages).

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You can also kick off ad hoc 1:1 chats or chats in small groups with your team to eliminate the need for tools like Slack.

Automatic Check-Ins

Automatic check-ins are scheduled questions for your team to reduce the need for status meetings (which can be annoying for senior leadership to constantly ‘’touchbase’’).

These check-ins can go out to your team regularly, and you can send them out on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

I think of this feature as pretty good for keeping your team up-to-date while also helping your team learn more about each other’s jobs.

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Basecamp is ideal if you:

✅ Work in a small department and are looking for a generous freemium plan with up to 1 GB of storage space.

✅ Would rather have a clean, distraction-free interface that promotes focus for your team.

✅ Need a platform that is good for cross-department communications alongside internal tasks.

Basecamp isn't the best option if you:

❌ Require more integration options, as some of Basecamp’s alternatives offer.

❌ Work on complex projects that require detailed task dependencies.

❌ Require no-code automation capabilities.

Smartsheet’s Features

Advanced formulas and functions

As a spreadsheet-focused project management platform, Smartsheet offers some of the most advanced and dynamic formulas and functions I’ve seen.

The solution lets you perform complex calculations and fetch relevant data within a single or multiple sheets at once.

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Team collaboration

Smartsheet lets you build a library of files, loop in stakeholders for proofing, share attachments, and leave comments. 

Admin control to share access is flexible and allows collaboration with internal and external users.

The software supports file types such as .jpg, .png, .gif, .pdf, .docx, .pptx, and .xlsx and lets you upload content from Brandfolder, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and more.

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Dashboards

Dashboards in Smartsheet help you consolidate your work and build a visualization for the project's performance. 

It’s possible to add interactive widgets, which are the building blocks of a dashboard. Some common widgets include reports, charts, metrics, images, and web content.

You can also share dashboards with your team members who might not have the actual report to maintain complete control over privacy.

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Workload Tracking

Workload tracking helps teams monitor team members’ availability and balance workloads, enhancing team performance.

Smartsheet provides you with a workload heat map as a visual snapshot of your team’s availability, while the workload schedule offers an expanded view of project assignments. 

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Smartsheet is ideal if you:

✅ Need advanced formulas and functions to evaluate a project’s performance.

✅ Are looking for a versatile project management tool with multiple views (Grid, Gantt, Kanban, Calendar).

✅ Require advanced collaboration features for real-time teamwork and file sharing across departments.

Smartsheet isn't the best option if you:

❌ Work in a small team looking for an intuitive interface with a low learning curve, which is why some brands have been looking for Smartsheet alternatives.

❌ Operate with a limited budget.

❌ Need advanced data analysis and reporting capabilities.

➡️ Learn more about Smartsheet with our detailed Smartsheet review, where we cover the tool’s features, integrations, and pricing structure in more detail, including customer testimonials.

SmartSuite Features

SmartSuite offers an all-in-one project management tool that lets you manage all your projects in a single platform with built-in automation and a communication centre.

Our platform is a compelling alternative for teams that have outgrown Basecamp’s simplicity but don’t want Smartsheet’s spreadsheet-heavy rigidity, especially if they want one platform to manage projects, processes, and operational data in a single, customizable workspace.

SmartSuite aims to create one unified no-code platform that runs the entire operation, from project management to process automation to real-time collaboration.

Comprehensive Project Management

SmartSuite’s project management capabilities help you plan, track, and manage simple to complex projects.

To simplify the process, you’ll get built-in intuitive features to execute your tasks perfectly.

Here’s what SmartSuite has in store for your team:

• Smart task management: Turn any item field into a task, a checklist item, comments, or a sub-item. With this flexibility, you will be able to build a solid task list and assign it to the right person with a due date and priority status.

• Project phases and milestones: Having milestones ensures your project stays on track and moves towards the objective. With SmartSuite, you can set them, monitor them through your reporting dashboard, and flag issues.

• Files and project deliverables: With SmartSuite, you can manage and organize all your documents. 

You can also attach project-related files, share feedback with your team, and manage version history, all within your work context.

SmartSuite supports formats like PDF, GIF, CSV, PNG, and MP4. The tool also integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and Microsoft OneDrive, making adding files to your workflows easy.

Also, you can add images directly in SmartSuite by connecting your social media and Unsplash accounts.

• Native time tracking: You can monitor and evaluate task and project completion times. Built-in tracking helps group time entries, see estimates, and segment billable and non-billable entries.

💡 Interested in how other team leaders are using SmartSuite? You can check out our video walkthrough:

Native Team Collaboration

SmartSuite further outperforms Smartsheet with its built-in communication and collaboration features. 

It’s possible to connect with peers in group chats or 1:1 conversations for quick feedback and keep stakeholders updated.

SmartSuite’s members’ directory provides a holistic view of the project team by examining each teammate’s details, such as availability status, job profile, and other relevant information.

Similar to Smartsheet and Basecamp, you can use comments and @mentions to share updates, nudge teammates, or add new people to the conversation.

Comprehensive Project Reporting

SmartSuite offers a dynamic project analytics tool with configurable charts and graphs.

The reporting dashboard helps you track project performance, understand resource allocation, and identify slow-moving projects. 

Based on these insights, you can quickly develop plans to overcome roadblocks and get the project back on track.

You can visualize reporting in Grid, Card, Kanban, Timeline, Map, Calendar, or Dashboard views. Add as many as needed to build a visual storyboard for your project’s progress.

To share reports with external teams or clients, you can make the report public and share the necessary access. SmartSuite also supports printing or exporting PDF, Excel, Google Sheets, or CSV format.

Advanced Workflow Automation

SmartSuite's no-code automation builder is one of the most intuitive, giving a neck-to-neck competition in automation.

You can assemble automation at the task and project level and automate repetitive tasks based on triggers like changing dates, sending notification emails, or updating statuses. 

There are six pre-defined triggers and 15+ actions, with options to build custom ones.

SmartSuite is the right choice if you:

✅ Need quick deployment with minimal configuration, templates for many use cases, and a unified workspace for varied workflows.

✅ Want all-in-one: project tracking + docs + resource management + automation + collaboration in one place with minimal integration overhead.

✅ Have mixed teams, not only engineering, such as operations, marketing and HR, and you need more than bug tracking and sprints.

SmartSuite isn’t the best option if you:

❌ Are looking for a well-established platform with a long track record.

❌ Need extensive third-party integrations.

Integrations: Smartsheet vs. Basecamp vs. SmartSuite

Smartsheet Integrations

Smartsheet integrates with enterprise systems like Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, and Jira. 

The tool also offers data connectors that support large organizations and data synchronization.

In addition to these, there are 100+ native integrations, including Google Workspace, Adobe Creative Cloud, and Tableau.

Other noteworthy integrations include:

• Okta.
• Power BI.
• Oculus.
• Miro.
• DocuSign.

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Basecamp’s Integrations

Basecamp offers a comprehensive range of native integrations, including:

• Mobile and desktop apps, such as Ply and Monkedo.
• Time tracking, invoicing, and accounting platforms, such as AssessTeam, Clockify, and Toggl.
• Reporting, charts, and planning tools like AgencyDots, Bridge24, and Numerics.
• Software development integrations, such as Instabug and Honeybadger.
• Contracts and proposal apps, such as Nusii and Proposify.

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SmartSuite Integrations

SmartSuite integrates with major platforms, including five connectors, such as Zapier, Ply, Integrately, Relay, and Make, to connect with 1,000s of apps to transfer data.

Some of the notable integrations include:

• Salesforce: Create and update records in Salesforce as part of your workflow.
• Slack: Get notified on Slack when something is going on in SmartSuite.
• Twilio: Send SMS messages from Twilio to keep mobile users informed.
• Open AI: Use AI to generate or improve text inside our SmartDoc field.
• Jira Cloud: Use SmartSuite automations to create or update Jira Cloud issues.
• HubSpot: Sync contacts and activities with HubSpot contacts and more.
• Intercom: Sync Intercom contacts with your SmartSuite projects and workflow.

Pricing: Smartsheet vs. Basecamp vs. SmartSuite

Smartsheet Pricing

Unlike Basecamp, Smartsheet doesn’t offer a free plan or trial. 

For pricing plans, Smartsheet charges based on the number of users and offers four paid plans:

• Pro: Starts at $9/seat/month when billed annually, including private sheet creation and unlimited form access with a 10-user limit.
• Business: Starts at $19/seat/month with a minimum of 3 user seats when billed annually, which adds unlimited automated workflows, PowerBI, Tableau, and Adobe Creative Cloud integration.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing, which adds unlimited storage, enterprise plan manager, and AI tools.
• Advanced work management: Custom pricing, which adds portfolio management and a premium support package.

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Basecamp’s Pricing

Basecamp offers a free version that lets you run one project at a time with 1 GB of storage space.

To access the tool’s advanced project management features, you’d have to be on one of their two paid tiers:

• Plus: Starts at $15/month/seat, and adds unlimited projects, 500 GB storage for files & documents and guest invites.
• Pro Unlimited: $299/month fixed price for unlimited seats, which adds 5 TB of storage space, Admin Pro Pack upgrade, Timesheet upgrade, and personal onboarding.

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SmartSuite Pricing

Similar to Smartsheet, SmartSuite doesn’t have a free plan for its project management platform.

We do, however, have a 14-day free trial of our Professional plan, where you can invite teammates and collaborate.

There are four paid plans that you can choose from:

• Team: Starts at $12/user/month when billed annually, including SmartSuite AI, 8+ dashboard views, 5,000 automation runs, time tracking, and collaborative SmartDocs.
• Professional: Starts at $30/user/month when billed annually, including two-factor authentication, Gmail & Outlook integrations, and unlimited editors.
• Enterprise: Starts at $45/user/month when billed annually, including audit logs, data loss prevention, and 50,000 API calls monthly.
• Signature: Customized plan tailored to your organization’s needs and team size.

What are Customers Saying about Smartsheet, Basecamp and SmartSuite?

TL;DR:

• Smartsheet reviews are happy with its customizability and collaborative features, but are not satisfied with its complicated automation setup, group-based pricing, and user interface that can feel cluttered.
• Basecamp's customers are generally satisfied with its intuitive user interface, customer support and how it builds transparency across departments, but some users are not happy with the fact that there are no time-tracking capabilities or Kanban support.
• SmartSuite users are satisfied with its intuitive interface, built-in communication features, customization options, and overall value-for-money. However, some customers are not happy with SmartSuite’s rather limited range of integrations.

Smartsheet Reviews

G2 Rating: 4.4/5.

What users love:

• Customizability and adaptation to the customer’s business processes.
• Ease of collaboration across the organization.
• Ease of use due to spreadsheet-like interface.

‘’I like using Smartsheet to keep track of hundreds of individual projects that my team is working on at any given time. I like that everything is customizable, and I like using automations to move completed projects to a different spreadsheet. I also frequently use the filtering feature to see which projects are assigned to me specifically.’’ – G2 Review.

‘’Collaboration features are great for teamwork and managing workloads. There are loads of features and options to work with many different types of teams.’’ – G2 Review.

Common complaints:

• Complicated automation setup with no version history to track changes.
• Performance issues when working on dashboards.
• Limited native integrations.

‘’One major issue is that Smartsheet can break often, especially when using metrics on dashboards. The data sometimes fails to display correctly, making it look like the dashboard is broken. I even had a sheet become completely inaccessible, which really slowed down productivity for my team. This can be very frustrating.’’ – G2 Review.

‘’Smartsheets have a very limited format for export dashboards. Facing slowness issues when there are many users logging in at the same time. Limited functionality and integration.’’ – Gartner Review.

Basecamp Reviews

G2 rating: 4.1/5.

What users love:

• Basecamp can be a ‘’one-stop shop’’ to store policies, procedures, and lists of tasks to finish.
• The platform cuts down siloes and creates transparency across teams.
• Good customer support.

‘’Basecamp does a great job of making it easy for others to complete tasks and network. It significantly cuts down on meeting time and creates transparency where silos often exist in a manufacturing and production environment. Implementation is straightforward. Customer support has always been great. We use the software on a daily basis for items that would normally have been done with pen and paper.’’ – G2 Review.

‘’Having a "one-stop shop" to be able to store policies, procedures, lists of tasks to finish (to-do's) & also being able to message each other without using multiple systems helps us to be more efficient. Being able to move quickly helps us address our customer & business needs quickly as well.’’ – G2 Review.

Common complaints:

• The interface can be a little bit confusing if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
• No Kanban or Agile support.
• No time-tracking capabilities.

‘’The interface can be a little bit confusing if you don’t know what you’re looking for. I’m on a Mac so I can just use command J to look for what I’m looking for, but it can be difficult.’’ – G2 Review.

‘’Although it has been great and error-free when we work on very large projects with many real-time updates, sometimes you notice that the platform slows down a bit. It hasn't slowed us down, but optimizing it for those cases would be ideal.’’ – G2 Review.

SmartSuite Reviews

G2 Rating: 4.9/5.

What users love:

• Intuitive interface and quick setup when compared to other tools on the market.
• Built-in communication features.
• Flexible customization options.
• Good value for money with its built-in features compared to competitors.

‘’I love how intuitive SmartSuite is from the moment you log in. It's easy to navigate, and the templates really made it simple to quickly realize all the potential ways to utilize the software. I love how easy it is to see progress on a project at any point, and how all files, communication and calendar are tied in within the task. So insanely simple, but there is so much you can do.’’ –Capterra Review.

‘’I love how integrated my team can be when we work on projects together. It's really easy to delegate tasks, collaborate in real time, and work across time zones without missing notes from each other.’’ – G2 Review.

Common complaints:

• Limited integration options compared to established competitors.
• Some advanced features are still in development.
• There’s a lack of a mid-tier between the Team and the Professional plans.

‘’The lack of a mid-tier between the Team and the Professional plan. Also, although it has an amazing customer support, for European customers like myself, a bigger team of support for the European Market would be really appreciated.’’ – G2 Review.

Smartsheet, Basecamp or SmartSuite: Summary

Get Started with SmartSuite For Free Today

Smartsheet and Basecamp have left some customers concerned about their customization options, along with lack of native time tracking and overall user experience.

SmartSuite combines the best of both worlds: offering flexibility, collaboration, and simplicity, making the tool an excellent choice for both small and large teams that want a scalable, easy-to-use platform that centralizes their work.

Here’s what's in it for your team when you try SmartSuite:

• Access to a generous free plan with features including multi-board views (Kanban, Chart, Map, Timeline, Card, and Calendar), 100 automation/month, and 40+ field types, including formula and linked record fields.
• No-code automation builder to set up to 500,000 trigger/action workflows.
• Built-in productivity tools, including time tracking, status tracking, and checklists.
• Team collaboration and planning tools such as whiteboards and SmartSuite docs.
• Resource management across projects and teams.
• 40+ field types, including the option to add your custom fields.

Sign up for a free plan to test the water or get a 14-day free trial to explore all its amazing features.

Or, if you’d like to talk to our team of experts, schedule a demo.

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