Tracecat
Tracecat merges AI agents into case management—agents can now be @mentioned, mutate cases, and run on audit trails
Comparison · PM
Planify vs SmartSuite
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Planify and SmartSuite — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Planify vs SmartSuite: at a glance
| Feature | Planify | SmartSuite |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | PM | PM |
| Velocity score | 3.8 | 7.5 |
| Sparks · 30d | 1 | 1 |
| Top themes | gnome-app, task-management, caldav, nextcloud | project-management, automations, no-code, linked-records |
| Last editorial update | 3d ago | 3d ago |
| Website | Visit → | — |
What is Planify?
Planify 4.20 lands Nextcloud Deck sync and a productivity goals system, crossing from personal task manager into team-adjacent territory.
Planify has been on an active release cycle through 2026, shipping multiple minor releases focused on CalDAV compatibility, bug hardening, and incremental UX polish. The 4.20.0 release breaks from this pattern with two substantial additions: two-way Nextcloud Deck sync (boards/stacks/cards map to projects/sections/tasks with label, archive, and order preservation) and a structured productivity goals system with daily/weekly targets and an 8-week activity heatmap. These land alongside a natural-language date picker (via Chrono), improved PDF export, and notable memory usage reductions.
What is SmartSuite?
SmartSuite ships viewer-interactive linked record filters and conditional automation branching in rapid succession.
SmartSuite is in an aggressive multi-surface shipping phase, pushing significant features across automations, linked records, forms, dashboards, and mobile in a single two-week window. The Sep 3–10 push alone covers viewer-interactive linked record filters, conditional branching in automations, Slack actionable approval buttons, and workspace-wide mobile search. This is a product closing real capability gaps against Airtable and Notion for complex enterprise workflows.
Planify vs SmartSuite: editorial side-by-side
Planify
3.8PM
Planify 4.20 lands Nextcloud Deck sync and a productivity goals system, crossing from personal task manager into team-adjacent territory.
◆ Current state
Planify has been on an active release cycle through 2026, shipping multiple minor releases focused on CalDAV compatibility, bug hardening, and incremental UX polish. The 4.20.0 release breaks from this pattern with two substantial additions: two-way Nextcloud Deck sync (boards/stacks/cards map to projects/sections/tasks with label, archive, and order preservation) and a structured productivity goals system with daily/weekly targets and an 8-week activity heatmap. These land alongside a natural-language date picker (via Chrono), improved PDF export, and notable memory usage reductions.
◆ Where it's heading
Planify is extending outward from personal task management toward team-adjacent workflows by making Nextcloud Deck a first-class data source. The CalDAV compatibility work — ETag handling, sync-token fallback, VALARM reminder sync — keeps it connected to the open-source groupware ecosystem broadly. The productivity goals and reporting layer suggests investment in retention features rather than pure workflow tooling, trying to give users a daily reason to open the app.
◆ Prediction
Deeper Nextcloud Deck integration — comments, assignment metadata, due date bidirectionality — is the logical next step given that 4.20.0 covers board structure but not all Deck metadata. The GNOME Online Accounts and GNOME Shell search integration suggest continued investment in platform-native discoverability.
SmartSuite ships viewer-interactive linked record filters and conditional automation branching in rapid succession.
◆ Current state
SmartSuite is in an aggressive multi-surface shipping phase, pushing significant features across automations, linked records, forms, dashboards, and mobile in a single two-week window. The Sep 3–10 push alone covers viewer-interactive linked record filters, conditional branching in automations, Slack actionable approval buttons, and workspace-wide mobile search. This is a product closing real capability gaps against Airtable and Notion for complex enterprise workflows.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern across these entries is systematic composability at every layer: filtering at the widget level, branching at the automation level, viewer control at the linked record level, and parity at the mobile level. SmartSuite is assembling the building blocks — conditional logic, nesting, viewer-facing filters — that distinguish an enterprise-grade no-code platform from a feature-rich spreadsheet. The mobile parity push (Calendar, Card, Charts, Forms, Power Search across six weeks) is a parallel track, not a distraction.
◆ Prediction
The automation roadmap points toward a Wait or Delay step next — the loop, branch, and nesting primitives are in place, but long-running async workflows still require that missing block. A timer-based or external-trigger wait action would complete the core automation primitive set.
Alternatives to Planify and SmartSuite
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Planify or SmartSuite.
Camunda
Camunda 8.10 alpha cycles through broad platform bug fixes while 8.7 gets routine security patches
Asana
Asana embeds AI into Slack threads and closes the rich-text gap with Notion
Rize
Rize pivots from solo time tracker to agency operations platform with invoicing, profitability reporting, and a ChatGPT integration.
Hive
Hive is building shared AI automation infrastructure into the core of its PM platform.
Atarim
Atarim cuts AI action costs 40% and plugs in live SEO search data, tightening the value case for its agency AI.
See all Planify alternatives → · See all SmartSuite alternatives →
Recent activity from Planify and SmartSuite
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3d agoSmartSuiteForms: Support for Checklist Field Type
- 3d agoSmartSuiteLinked Records: Advanced Settings
- 3d agoSmartSuiteLinked Records: Static Filters
- 3d agoSmartSuiteLinked Records: Dynamic Filters ⚡
- 3d agoPlanifyPlanify 4.20.0 ⚡
- 10d agoSmartSuiteDashboards: View-Based Widget Preset Filters
- 10d agoSmartSuiteMobile: Power Search
- 1mo agoPlanifyPlanify 4.19.5
- 3mo agoPlanifyPlanify 4.19.4
- 3mo agoPlanifyPlanify 4.19.3
- 4mo agoPlanifyPlanify 4.19.2
- 4mo agoPlanifyPlanify 4.19.1
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Planify and SmartSuite?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. SmartSuite is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 3.8), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Planify better than SmartSuite?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. SmartSuite is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 3.8), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other PM products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Planify?
Top Planify alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Planify alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/planify for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to SmartSuite?
Top SmartSuite alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "SmartSuite alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/smartsuite for the full list with editorial commentary on each.