ActiveCollab vs Smartsheet | TrustRadius

What users are saying about

Score 7.5 out of 10

Based on 27 reviews and ratings

Score 8.6 out of 10

Based on 332 reviews and ratings

Likelihood to Recommend

Scenarios where ActiveCollab works well1) ActiveCollab works well for small teams specifically T&M teams.Its invoicing feature is unique & can make your life easy.2) It is very easy to use & posses good range of filters like on the task list, we can drag/drop tasks, Filter by assignee's,
tasks lists, due dates, or completed tasks. 3) It has some simple but awesome features like when you're in
the middle of writing something i.e a comment on story and get interrupted,
it retains what you wrote.4) It allows you to tag team members in threads of comments to grab their attention, its really needed when teams are distributed. Thus helping team members to collaborate easily & stay on same page.5) It integrates pretty well with other web apps like quickbooks , Slack, Trello, HubSpot, Zapier etcScenarios where ActiveCollab did not work well1) Tasks can not have multiple assignee's here so if two members are working on same task it did not allow you to reflect that.2) Sorting capability is not their under invoicing3) It did not work well for larger teams4) Search option is not very detailed & you may end up wasting lot of time searching one particular bug or issue.

Read full review

Sourav Singla ,Safe Agilist, CSP, ICP-ACC, CSM, CSPO, SSM, LSSG

Enterprise Agile Coach

Tata Consultancy ServicesInformation Technology and Services, 10,001+ employees

View all 11 answers on this topic

I use Smartsheet to manage work load between colleagues and freelancers. It is a critical partner of our project management team. A few use cases include response forms with automated row population, alerts to row changes, cell history, formulas, budget/actual dollar spend reports, workload issues on teams, task progress and gantt chart timelines. The functionality potential with Smartsheet is endless! There is a learning curve - especially with reporting and dashboards. I could not do my job without Smartsheet!

Read full review

Sr. Partnership Development & Events

McGraw-Hill EducationE-Learning, 1001-5000 employees

View all 93 answers on this topic

Feature Rating Comparison

ActiveCollab

Smartsheet

Task Management

Resource Management

Gantt Charts

Scheduling

Workflow Automation

Team Collaboration

Support for Agile Methodology

Support for Waterfall Methodology

Document Management

Email integration

Mobile Access

Timesheet Tracking

Change request and Case Management

Budget and Expense Management

ActiveCollab

Smartsheet

Quotes/estimates

Invoicing

Project & financial reporting

Integration with accounting software

Pros

Great for project and task assignments, project workflow and communications.
Solid web-based platform that doesn't require software downloads, also includes great mobile platform.
Great reporting tools for managing billing, estimating, project workflow and other essential project details.
Allows for both the agency and its clients to interact on a single platform using role-specific permissions.

Read full review

Digital Marketing Director

LGD CommunicationsMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees

View all 11 answers on this topic

Formulas. While not as robust as Excel, the formulas offered in Smartsheet are quite good.
Team collaboration. Multiple teammates can access and work on the same sheet at once.
Templates. The standard templates meet all my needs, and are a great guide for what Smartsheet is intended for and the problems it is best suited for solving.
Project management. It is great for creating, assigning, monitoring, and tracking tasks and projects.

Read full review

Marketing Operations

Impartner SoftwareComputer Software, 51-200 employees

View all 93 answers on this topic

Cons

Individual comments cannot be linked to. This makes it more difficult to reference a comment or question.
Unnecessary features cannot be turned off. Since we use it primarily for communication, it would be ideal to turn off tasks etc. that are not needed or be able to move discussions as the first screen.
There isn't an easy way to set up different projects under the same client.

Read full review

Director

ROMI LabMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 11 answers on this topic

Gantt Charts: While the functionality here is very good, sometimes there could be some better options with the automatic coloration of these charts. Additionally, exporting is a little limited.
Formulas: There are a lot of basic formula options but there could be more. Additionally, calculations across multiple sheets could also be improved.
Pivot tables: These are only available as an additional add-on app. I wish this functionality would be standard.

Read full review

HRIS Manager

Penske Truck LeasingTransportation/Trucking/Railroad, 10,001+ employees

View all 93 answers on this topic

Likelihood to Renew

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Ask the community to sound off

Smartsheet 10.0

Based on 21 answers

It definitely meets our needs as far as organizing and archiving our tasks and files. As we train more staff to view it, I see opportunities for more improvement, which I am sure this program can handle. I look forward to seeing continued improvement from Smartsheet on their capabilities and functionality.

Read full review

Courtney Barringer

Communications Specialist

Covenant CreekReligious Institutions, 51-200 employees

View all 21 answers on this topic

Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Ask the community to sound off

Smartsheet 8.6

Based on 13 answers

Smartsheet is very easy to learn. However, while I have been able to pick it easily, Microsoft Excel and Project super users that I have trained on Smartsheet get bogged down in the differences and can find it frustrating. Explaining the differences ahead of time and why Smartsheet is being chosen instead of a different software seems to counteract those reactions

Read full review

Meghan M. Prentiss

Program Assistant, Epidemiology Planning and Communications Division

Tri-County Health DepartmentProgram Development, 201-500 employees

View all 13 answers on this topic

Support

ActiveCollab 7.3

Based on 3 answers

The support team is responsive to requests and their annual support fees are reasonable. Honestly, we don't have to contact them much. Updates happen automatically and the platform is very solid and does not require a lot of support. Documentation is good and the platform is easy to learn.

Read full review

Executive Vice President

Stevens AdvertisingMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees

View all 3 answers on this topic

Smartsheet 8.4

Based on 26 answers

Smartsheet is excellent software for small businesses and agile teams within large organizations alike. It's not overly expensive for the functionality you receive and sports an intuitive interface in a format that everybody is familiar with. I give it a nine instead of a ten only because the jump up into Enterprise and Premier pricing is quite large

Read full review

Ecommerce & Consumer Products Manager

Midwest Tungsten ServiceMining & Metals, 11-50 employees

View all 26 answers on this topic

Implementation

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Ask the community to sound off

Smartsheet 10.0

Based on 6 answers

It's absolutely paramount to take a few minutes to actually play with the software. It's nearly impossible to do anything wrong or make a mistake which cannot be fixed easily. Under the help menu is Live Training option. After you familiarize yourself with the commands, watch the live training for some in depth understanding of how to make the software fit your needs perfectly.

Read full review

Stephanie Carpenter

Project Manager

Vitatech ElectromagneticsEnvironmental Services, 1-10 employees

View all 6 answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

I have used multiple project management platforms such as ActiveCollab, JIRA, Trello, etc. Trello has great visualization with their (Kanban Board) board system and support drag and drop functionality for managing tasks. ActiveCollab, however, does not have the fancy visualization, but is very powerful when it comes to ticketing, task management, task delegation, time tracking, etc.

Read full review

Data Analyst | SEO Specialist

Xivic, Inc.Information Technology and Services, 51-200 employees

View all 11 answers on this topic

Which software we use for project management is often determined by the team we interact with or the client's choices. I prefer Smartsheet for process management due to the ease of setting up alerts and attaching necessary documentation. It was also fairly easy to set up and learn.

Read full review

Digital Asset Management and Licensing Resource

BVKMarketing and Advertising, 201-500 employees

View all 93 answers on this topic

Return on Investment

It has saved us a TON of money (literally thousands) in project management software.
It has helped us gain clients because we can show them the template of what they will see and give them access to it. When others don't have software that does this.
Positive impact on ROI based on the time it's saving compared to our previous PM software.

Read full review

Founder & CEO

Project World ImpactInternet, 11-50 employees

View all 11 answers on this topic

Because we have the ability to enter in expenses and financial info in a real time manner, I am able to run reports more quickly to provide accurate numbers for ROI calculation. The C-Suite loves getting budget info on time!
From what I understand, choosing an enterprise level agreement saves the company money overall, rather than having a bunch of different departments, some using it, some not.
We are more GDPR compliant. That is important to our customers, so it is important to us.

Read full review

Sr. Partnership Development & Events Manager

McGraw-Hill EducationPublishing, 1001-5000 employees

View all 93 answers on this topic

Screenshots

See All (15) ActiveCollab Screenshots

—

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

Optional

$6.25*

* per member, per month, annual billing

ActiveCollab Editions & Modules

On-premise Edition

Self-Hosted Plan	$999¹

license

SaaS Edition

Member annually	6.25¹
Addition - Get Paid Bundle Annually	$3¹
Addition - Get Paid Bundle Monthly	$4²
Member monthly	$7²

per member, per month, annual billing
per member, per month, monthly billing

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Smartsheet Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

Rating Summary

ActiveCollab

Smartsheet

ActiveCollab

Smartsheet

ActiveCollab

Smartsheet

ActiveCollab

Smartsheet

ActiveCollab

Smartsheet

ActiveCollab

Smartsheet

ActiveCollab

Smartsheet

Add comparison