Happy Valley

Plane vs Smartsheet

Plane and Smartsheet are both project management tools. Plane is aimed at developers and small businesses, while Smartsheet is aimed at enterprise and small businesses. Plane costs less, from $8/mo versus $12/mo for Smartsheet. Only Plane has a free plan.

Plane

Open-source project management

Smartsheet

Spreadsheet-style work management for enterprises

PricingOpen source · $8Paid · $12
Starting price$8/mo$12/mo
Free planYesNo
Free trial14 days—
Built forDevelopers, Small businessesEnterprise, Small businesses
Platformswebweb, ios, android
CountryUS · 2022US · 2005
Rating——

Choose Plane if

Engineering and product teams that want Linear-like workflows with open source and lower cost.

  • Open source with a real self-host path
  • Cheaper than Linear and Jira per seat
  • Flexible views without Jira's complexity

Look elsewhere if: Teams needing enterprise reporting and ecosystem today (Jira) or maximum polish (Linear).

Choose Smartsheet if

Enterprises and PMOs.

  • Familiar spreadsheet feel
  • Enterprise features
  • Strong Gantt

Look elsewhere if: Startups wanting modern tools (Airtable, Notion).

Plane vs Smartsheet pricing

Plane

  • Community (self-hosted)$0AGPL, self-hosted
  • Free (Cloud)$0Up to 12 users
  • Pro$8/seat/mo$6/seat/mo billed annually; 500 AI credits/seat
  • Business$15/seat/mo$13/seat/mo billed annually; 1,000 AI credits/seat
  • Enterprise GridCustomPrivate and managed deployments, granular access

Smartsheet

  • Pro$12/member/mo$9 billed yearly; 1-10 members, unlimited contributors
  • Business$24/member/mo$19 billed yearly; 3+ members, 1 TB storage
  • EnterpriseCustom10+ members, SAML SSO, portfolios
  • Advanced Work ManagementCustomControl Center, Dynamic View, Data Shuttle

Plane · Key features

  • Issues, cycles, modules and multi-layout views
  • Pages for docs and Intake for triaging requests
  • Self-hosting with Docker; AGPL community edition
  • Importers from Jira, Linear, Asana and GitHub
  • Custom workflows, time tracking and Plane AI (Pro)
  • API, webhooks and Slack/GitHub integrations

Cons

  • Less polished than Linear
  • Smaller integration ecosystem
  • Self-hosting needs maintenance

Smartsheet · Key features

  • Grid, Gantt, card, calendar views
  • Automated workflows and approvals
  • Forms and dashboards
  • Resource management
  • Portfolio management
  • Enterprise governance

Cons

  • Dated UI
  • Costs rise at enterprise
  • Less flexible than Airtable

Plane vs Smartsheet: FAQ

Which is cheaper, Plane or Smartsheet?

Plane starts at $8/mo and Smartsheet at $12/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.

Do Plane and Smartsheet have a free plan?

Plane has a free plan. Smartsheet has no free plan.

Not sure yet?