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It's a split decision.
Choose Airtable for building no-code apps and AI-supported workflows around team data. Choose Smartsheet for project and portfolio visibility, resource planning, and intake workflows. Smartsheet starts at $9 per member monthly when billed annually, compared with Airtable’s $20 per user monthly on its Team plan. Airtable has a free plan; Smartsheet does not. Seat costs depend on who needs edit or member access, so the lower starting price may not settle the comparison for your team.
01Side by side
| Airtable | Smartsheet | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $20/user/month, billed annually | $9/member/month annually; $12 monthly |
| Free plan | Free plan available | No free plan listed |
| Best for | No-code apps and connected team-data workflows | Projects, portfolios, resources, and approvals |
| Core strength | App building, AI agents, and connected records | Project visibility, resource planning, and portfolio dashboards |
| Learning curve | Ease-of-use review score: 8/10 | Ease-of-use review score: 6/10 |
| Integrations and data | AI model options; HyperDB supports hundreds of millions of records | Brings work from other apps into shared plans |
| Team and seat costs | Editors pay; read-only collaborators are not charged | Paid members; Pro and Business list unlimited contributors |
| Support | Review support score: 5/10; details not published | Review score: 5/10; support packages listed as add-ons |
Airtable Choose Airtable if
- Choose Airtable if you want to build apps from team data.
- Choose Airtable if you need AI agents to act across records.
- Choose Airtable if a free plan or free read-only access matters.
Smartsheet Choose Smartsheet if
- Choose Smartsheet if you manage projects and portfolios.
- Choose Smartsheet if resource planning and workload balancing matter.
- Choose Smartsheet if you want a lower listed starting price.
02Pricing compared
Airtable offers a free plan for lightweight needs. Its Team plan is $20 per user/month and Business is $45 per user/month, both billed annually; monthly rates are not published. Airtable charges for users with edit permissions, while read-only collaborators, form submissions, and share links are not charged on those plans.
Smartsheet starts lower: Pro is $9 per member/month billed annually or $12 monthly. Pro covers 1–10 members, with 250 automations per month and 20 GB of attachment storage. Business is $19 per member/month billed annually or $24 monthly. It includes unlimited automations and 1 TB of storage. Smartsheet has no free plan. The seat definitions differ, so compare who needs edit access in Airtable and member access in Smartsheet before treating the starting prices as directly comparable.
03Features and depth
Airtable is the stronger fit when the goal is to shape team data into custom apps and workflows. Its no-code app building uses conversational prompts and components, and its AI agents can work across records and orchestrate actions. The platform lists model options from OpenAI, Gemini, Llama, Anthropic, and other providers. For larger deployments, HyperDB supports record limits in the hundreds of millions. Airtable also lists admin roles, fine-grained permissions, role-based access controls, ISO, HIPAA, SOC 2, audit logs, and data residency support.
Smartsheet is more explicitly centered on project and portfolio operations. Its feature set includes real-time project visibility, portfolio dashboards, resource and capacity planning, milestone and dependency tracking, and intake and approval workflows. It also supports client collaboration portals, resource forecasting, and AI-powered customer reporting. That makes Smartsheet a better match for structured PMO work; Airtable has more emphasis on building flexible workflow apps around connected data. Both products have plan limits and paid tiers, so confirm the required capacity and controls against the specific plan.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Airtable’s no-code components and conversational app-building prompts may make it approachable for teams assembling workflows without building custom software. That does not mean every setup is simple: its review rates ease of use at 8/10, but value at 6/10, and the source does not publish a learning-time estimate.
Smartsheet’s project, portfolio, resource, and intake features give teams a more defined work-management structure, but the review rates ease of use at 6/10. We would not assume either product is effortless to learn. The better question is whether your team wants to design apps around its data or work within project-planning workflows. The published product information does not specify training requirements or onboarding time.
Questions people ask
What is Smartsheet best for?
Smartsheet is best suited to teams coordinating projects and portfolios. Its listed capabilities include project and portfolio visibility, resource and capacity planning, milestone and dependency tracking, intake approvals, and client collaboration. It is a stronger fit for structured PMO work than for building custom no-code apps around team data.
How difficult is it to learn Airtable?
Airtable offers no-code components and conversational prompts for building apps, but the published information does not publish a learning-time estimate. Its review score for ease of use is 8/10. That is a useful signal, not a guarantee: teams still need to decide how to structure their data, permissions, and workflows.
Can Power Automate work with Smartsheet?
The published Smartsheet information does not confirm a Power Automate integration or explain its setup, so we can’t verify compatibility from these sources. Smartsheet lists connectors among its add-ons, but that does not identify Power Automate specifically. Check Smartsheet’s current integration documentation before choosing it for that connection.
Does Google have a version of Smartsheet?
The published information does not identify a Google product as a Smartsheet equivalent. It describes Smartsheet as a project and portfolio work platform, while Airtable is a no-code workspace for connected data and workflows. We would not treat either description as evidence of a direct Google alternative.