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Comparison · PM
Notion vs Smartsheet
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Notion and Smartsheet — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Notion vs Smartsheet: at a glance
What is Notion?
Every release now lands on the agent: what triggers it, what it can reach, what it costs.
Since Notion 3.6 shipped External Agents, essentially the whole changelog has been agent infrastructure. Custom Agents gained a meeting-note trigger, calendar tools, and a one-click path to share docs into their context; Workers got usage tracking in the credits dashboard ahead of the beta ending; and the model picker now exposes scorecards for speed, intelligence and cost with a per-request effort dial. The one non-agent item in the window is high contrast mode.
What is Smartsheet?
Smartsheet becomes where plans drafted in Claude Sheets get executed.
Smartsheet is rebuilding its core around table view: a table view report builder, Enterprise sheets above 500,000 cells, reports above 1,500,000 rows and a new Gantt view with critical path. On November 10 it added a beta that sends a plan started in Claude Sheets into Smartsheet, ready for a team to act on. Earlier it retired card view for Enterprise and limited AI to Table, Board and Timeline views.
Notion vs Smartsheet: editorial side-by-side
Notion
6.3PMCOMMS
Every release now lands on the agent: what triggers it, what it can reach, what it costs.
◆ Current state
Since Notion 3.6 shipped External Agents, essentially the whole changelog has been agent infrastructure. Custom Agents gained a meeting-note trigger, calendar tools, and a one-click path to share docs into their context; Workers got usage tracking in the credits dashboard ahead of the beta ending; and the model picker now exposes scorecards for speed, intelligence and cost with a per-request effort dial. The one non-agent item in the window is high contrast mode.
◆ Where it's heading
Notion is assembling the unglamorous half of an agent platform - triggers, permissions, connections, metering - rather than adding capabilities. The sequencing is deliberate: agents that can act on your calendar and fire off meeting notes need a permission model and a visible bill before anyone runs them on a team. Surfacing model cost and effort to the end user points the same way, pushing the spend decision down to whoever writes the prompt.
◆ Prediction
The Workers beta ending is the next dated event to watch, and pricing for it is the likeliest announcement; expect further agent triggers beyond meeting notes and more connected tool surfaces on the calendar pattern.
Smartsheet
5.0COLLABPM
Smartsheet becomes where plans drafted in Claude Sheets get executed.
◆ Current state
Smartsheet is rebuilding its core around table view: a table view report builder, Enterprise sheets above 500,000 cells, reports above 1,500,000 rows and a new Gantt view with critical path. On November 10 it added a beta that sends a plan started in Claude Sheets into Smartsheet, ready for a team to act on. Earlier it retired card view for Enterprise and limited AI to Table, Board and Timeline views.
◆ Where it's heading
Two tracks are visible. The core product is consolidating onto fewer, larger views, and Smartsheet is positioning itself as the execution layer for work drafted elsewhere, starting with an AI spreadsheet. Imports from SharePoint and Workday sync point the same way: pull data in, run the work in Smartsheet.
◆ Prediction
Expect the Claude Sheets handoff to leave beta and similar send-to paths from other AI assistants, since the release frames Smartsheet as the destination rather than the drafting tool.
Notion alternatives
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Tap any card for the full editorial trajectory or compare directly with Notion.
Asana
Asana lets Division admins run their own custom roles, on top Enterprise plans only.
NocoBase
NocoBase's v3 beta lets apps ship their own CLI, separate from Agents.
Productboard
Productboard's v2 documents API now keeps plain web addresses and emoji as ordinary text.
Hive
Hive turns reporting into a planning tool: shared inputs, grouped values, per-person drill-downs.
Tracecat
Tracecat 1.5 alpha patches add sub-cases and lock down agent sandboxes.
Smartsheet alternatives
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Tap any card for the full editorial trajectory or compare directly with Smartsheet.
Interact
Interact opens its intranet to outside AI assistants and uses Claude to attack its own platform.
Nextcloud
Nextcloud's November patches lean on preview speed and sharing fixes across three branches.
Mattermost
Mattermost v12.1 puts bots and burn-after-reading messages under the same access rules.
Asana
Asana lets Division admins run their own custom roles, on top Enterprise plans only.
Double
Double turns a recorded Chrome session into an agent that repeats the task.
SiYuan
SiYuan 3.8.11 alphas add freeform mind maps and plugin snapshots right after 3.8.10.
Recent activity from Notion and Smartsheet
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5d agoSmartsheetUse the Jira Smartsheet Connector with Jira v11.x
- 5d agoSmartsheetSort, filter, and find workspaces in Browse
- 5d agoSmartsheetSmartsheet adds bidirectional sync with Dynamics 365
- 5d agoSmartsheetSend to Smartsheet from Claude Sheets, now available in beta!
- 11d agoSmartsheetWork with large-scale sheets and reports in table view
- 11d agoSmartsheetVisualize your project schedule in the new Gantt view
- 3mo agoNotionModel selection, simplified
- 3mo agoNotionShare context with Custom Agents from the Share menu
- 3mo agoNotionAI Meeting Notes can now trigger Custom Agents ⚡
- 3mo agoNotionHigh contrast mode
- 3mo agoNotionWorkers, now in your Notion credits dashboard
- 4mo agoNotionNew calendar tools for your agent
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Notion and Smartsheet?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Notion is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Notion better than Smartsheet?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Notion is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other PM products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Notion?
Top Notion alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Notion alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/notion for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Smartsheet?
Top Smartsheet alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Smartsheet alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/smartsheet for the full list with editorial commentary on each.