Likelihood to Recommend Plutio is great for the individual who is constantly on the go, managing a wealth of online information and projects. I can see those who work in education, such as administration, or technology coaches/teacher coaches using a platform like this to stay organized. Freelance or consultants would also benefit as it can manage your digital self.
Read full review 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.
Read full review Pros Task management is excellent. It can be broken down into so many levels and makes it easy to keep track of what needs to be done. The ability to customize your method of using it is key. Setting it up to both look and work in a way that fits your company and employees is very important and Plutio does this very well. Read full review 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. Read full review Cons The design of the invoices, when I used it, was not as sleek as I would have wanted it to be. There wasn't a proper template that I could use. Similar to the design of the invoice, there wasn't a proper email template I could use. The app itself didn't seem to be very secure, when I used it, it seemed to be buggy/clunky in some areas, not updating properly, etc. When I used this, there wasn't a professional-looking contract, and there was no auto sending of the contract once an action was taken by a client, such as payment. It didn't make for a smooth enough workflow for me. Read full review 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 Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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 Usability The GUI is not always so intuitive for non IT people, like some customers. The GUI is still being developed constantly. Leo is very committed to taking this platform forward and making it more and more professional
Read full review 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 Support Rating I have only needed to reach out for support once and got a quick response. There was an issue with the Mac app, but I knew it was in beta. Leo, the owner, was quick to reply thanking me for letting him know about the issue, that the Mac app is still in beta, and that I can use the web version in the meantime until the bug was fixed.
Read full review 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.
Read full review Implementation Rating 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 Alternatives Considered I have tried Suite Dash, Agiled, FlowLu throughout the process of finding a tool that fits our business the best. Plutio was the easiest to deploy and use by far. The other systems had more features and capability but was pretty difficult to learn how to use and set up. We were up and running with Plutio in a matter of hours with a business process, rather than a spreadsheet and an independent proposal and invoicing process.
Read full review 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!
Read full review Return on Investment This has afforded my colleague and I a place to stay organized and keep track of projects we are working on without losing documents. We have been able to hold each other accountable on tasks we are working on and delegate projects. This has sped up our time in gathering everything we need when meeting or running a show. Read full review 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