LiquidPlanner vs. Smartsheet

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
LiquidPlanner
Score 8.3 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
LiquidPlanner is a cloud based predictive project management solution. Some key features include: Dynamic Timeline View, Workload View, and Real-Time Activity Stream.
$0
per month per user
Smartsheet
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Smartsheet is an online project management and collaboration tool. It includes automated alerts, instantaneous updating and sharing across team members, resource management, nested tasks organized in a hierarchy, a Gantt chart view, exportable and automated reports, and integration with email.
$14
per month
Pricing
LiquidPlannerSmartsheet
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
per month per user
Essentials
$15.00
per month per user
Professional
$25
per month per user
Ultimate
$35
per month per user
Enterprise
CALL FOR VOLUME PRICING
Individual
$14
per month
Business
$25
Per User / Per Month
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Premier
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
LiquidPlannerSmartsheet
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
LiquidPlannerSmartsheet
Considered Both Products
LiquidPlanner

No answer on this topic

Smartsheet
Chose Smartsheet
Smartsheet offers the best blend of features from its direct and indirect competitors. It is intuitive and collaborative, like Asana. It provides entry-level features from DevOps in regards to Agile, it offers traceability and integrations better than both Teams and Liquid …
Chose Smartsheet
I was attempting to do all I've described with Google Sheets & SharePoint. Google Sheets didn't have all the functionality we needed. SharePoint was too difficult to set up and doesn't work well with Mac users. None of the solutions I listed could match Smartsheet's versatility …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
LiquidPlannerSmartsheet
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
LiquidPlanner
8.1
15 Ratings
7% above category average
Smartsheet
7.7
123 Ratings
2% above category average
Task Management8.711 Ratings8.2120 Ratings
Resource Management8.69 Ratings8.8102 Ratings
Gantt Charts8.68 Ratings8.0103 Ratings
Scheduling8.810 Ratings8.5105 Ratings
Workflow Automation8.47 Ratings8.194 Ratings
Team Collaboration8.911 Ratings8.3116 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology7.76 Ratings8.476 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology8.46 Ratings5.674 Ratings
Document Management9.93 Ratings6.595 Ratings
Email integration7.914 Ratings7.994 Ratings
Mobile Access4.99 Ratings7.390 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking7.210 Ratings6.257 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management7.66 Ratings8.069 Ratings
Change request and Case Management00 Ratings8.163 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
LiquidPlanner
8.3
5 Ratings
11% above category average
Smartsheet
6.6
61 Ratings
12% below category average
Quotes/estimates8.54 Ratings5.639 Ratings
Project & financial reporting8.45 Ratings7.155 Ratings
Integration with accounting software7.94 Ratings7.629 Ratings
Invoicing00 Ratings6.132 Ratings
Best Alternatives
LiquidPlannerSmartsheet
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.8 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
LiquidPlannerSmartsheet
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(17 ratings)
8.5
(141 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
4.4
(2 ratings)
10.0
(23 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.6
(12 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(2 ratings)
8.1
(45 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
User Testimonials
LiquidPlannerSmartsheet
Likelihood to Recommend
LiquidPlanner
LiquidPlanner is amazing for any time of project management scenario where you have to manage several teams and details. Running a project through LiquidPlanner is so easy because it lets you break down the project into sections and folders and small tasks that you can assign to specific people. With a small to medium size team-- LiquidPlanner is amazing for organizing and tracking details. If you have a huge team or not a ton of details to track LiquidPlanner might not be right for you because it is a software that requires some good training to learn and has tons of functions that can be utilized so it seems better suited to be used by a smaller group looking to coordinate or for people who have lots of details that can be difficult to track.
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Smartsheet
For teams and users who are very familiar with Excel and its mode of operation, Smartsheet will feel like a walkover. If you have a number of users who use Excel or Google Sheets for their personal project management then you will find this tool to be very useful and somewhat familiar.
Teams that may be used to other project management suites or styles would find Smartsheet a bit challenging to adapt to, as formulas and formatting can be challenging to adapt to.
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Pros
LiquidPlanner
  • Priority based planning. Every other planning software we've used relies on dates and therefore needs constant attention. Priority based planning means that the plan is always up to date.
  • Ease of use. LiquidPlanner has a very short learning curve. This is critical to getting team members to use it.
  • Forecasting. LiquidPlanner makes it very easy to run scenarios by simply dragging and dropping projects and reassigning resources.
  • Awesome Support. I get personal responses very fast. Usually within a couple hours. And, they listen and ask for more information.
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Smartsheet
  • The easy to use dashboard has enabled us get comprehensive view of projects across the entire business.
  • It has streamlined internal communication with ease of sharing information across different teams.
  • Smartsheet automates our workflows, enhances collaboration and ensures there are no data silos.
  • I like that it saves time for us and ensures we spend less time switching between apps.
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Cons
LiquidPlanner
  • The interface is messy and cluttered. The best way to find things and see what you actually want to see is the main Projects view which is also the most cluttered and hardest to maneuver in.
  • Clicking an external link someone posted in a comment or task description doesn't open in a new window by default, so we are constantly having to go back to get to LiquidPlanner again.
  • The way that the interface saves your state globally (rather than per tab instance) means that if you click a link from someone else to a task that's not yours, then it adjusts your filters on the Projects page. Then if you refresh another LiquidPlanner window where you were on the Projects tab, suddenly all of its filters are updated and what you were looking at may no longer be there.
  • It might just be the way that we use the system, but the Home and My Work tabs are fairly useless for us. They typically don't show the tasks we're actually looking for.
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Smartsheet
  • Smartsheet set up is similar to Excel, yet when you upload an Excel file, things like conditional formatting are lost. Smartsheet has its own conditional formatting, and you have to reinstate the rules. It would be great if those would apply automatically once a file is uploaded
  • Some Smartsheet management and access rules can take some tweaking to work properly. This may be a case of offering more info to admins so they can apply these better and with more efficiency
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Likelihood to Renew
LiquidPlanner
We may not renew LiquidPlanner's contract, but only because my company has recently been acquired and we'll be adopting some of the software that they're using to standardize process. LiquidPlanner's development team releases new features pretty often, so it seems like the gaps and inefficiencies are slowly getting smaller/less frequent
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Smartsheet
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.
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Usability
LiquidPlanner
Easy to learn and utilize. Can export charts and reports for sharing with colleagues.
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Smartsheet
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
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Support Rating
LiquidPlanner
They have been great in trying to come up with creative solutions to help us do what we want to do with the platform. I would say their support has been exceptional because we have hit them with some complex requests.
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Smartsheet
I give this rating because it fills a niche in the market. MS Project scares many away from proper task management but there are limited tools our there, especially cloud-based that are mobile-friendly. Smartsheet fills this market gap, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. IT is not fair to compare it to MS Project, but fairer to see what gaps it fills.
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Implementation Rating
LiquidPlanner
No answers on this topic
Smartsheet
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.
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Alternatives Considered
LiquidPlanner
Miro is a more versatile tool, but not quite made for planning and organizing. LiquidPlanner is very intuitive, fast to learn and easy to communicate. The added value of prioritizing tasks, personalized boards and gantt charts are really important during the planning and design thinking in the business. LiquidPlanner is simplified yet more helpful.
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Smartsheet
Jira and Redmine are much more robust and technologically advanced project management solutions. I enjoy using either when managing a very large project. However, I prefer to use Smartsheet for my smaller to medium sized projects. As for Google Drive - I would say that Google sheets and Smartsheet are almost identical in my opinion when it comes to functionality. Personally I prefer to manage smaller projects via Google Drive, but it is a personal preference!
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Return on Investment
LiquidPlanner
  • LiquidPlanner really forces you to map out your workflow. For me, honing into a template that I can later adjust as needed has been huge, as there is less time at the beginning of a project trying to assign and figure out what needs to happen when usually it never changes.
  • Communication between employees, especially ones not immediately available in the office has been very welcomed. It helps having conversations documented in a public, logical place that is easy to find and refer to as the project continues.
  • Our productivity has definitely skyrocketed as we've really gotten a feel and committed to using LiquidPlanner daily. As we move forward, we continually try to add more and more ways for us to use the service.
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Smartsheet
  • This has really opened up collaboration across teams. A lot less working in silos.
  • It hasn't fully replaced any one tool so it means having to go to another place. Hopefully, we can eliminate a tool or two in the next six months.
Read full review
ScreenShots

LiquidPlanner Screenshots

Screenshot of Project Dashboards allow users to build high-level views that help visualize data.Screenshot of Workload Views allow users to see an entire team's workload at once and make resource adjustments in stride.Screenshot of Time Sheets keep track of hours per task and automatically update project estimates.Screenshot of Project View allows users to view any project in detail, assign tasks, set their priority, and access schedule risk.Screenshot of My Work View is a personalized view of all work to always know what to work on next.