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Comparison · PM
Asana vs Smartsheet
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Asana and Smartsheet — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:enterprise
Asana vs Smartsheet: at a glance
What is Asana?
Asana lets Division admins run their own custom roles, on top Enterprise plans only.
Asana's fall releases split between new structure and tighter control. Tables arrived on October 29 as a new object type; since then it has added a Client portal tab in Inbox, collapsible headings in Pages and hourly credit limits for AI Studio automations. The November 12 release lets Division Admins assign roles and build custom roles from Member or Guest, with one role per person across all Divisions.
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.
Asana vs Smartsheet: editorial side-by-side
Asana
6.3PMCOLLAB
Asana lets Division admins run their own custom roles, on top Enterprise plans only.
◆ Current state
Asana's fall releases split between new structure and tighter control. Tables arrived on October 29 as a new object type; since then it has added a Client portal tab in Inbox, collapsible headings in Pages and hourly credit limits for AI Studio automations. The November 12 release lets Division Admins assign roles and build custom roles from Member or Guest, with one role per person across all Divisions.
◆ Where it's heading
The governance thread is getting more granular: rules that run with their owner's current permissions, credit caps per automation, and now role control pushed down to Division level. Asana is building the admin layer large companies need before they let AI Studio and new objects like Tables spread across departments.
◆ Prediction
Expect further admin and permission controls for Tables and AI Studio, likely gated to Enterprise tiers as this one is.
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.
Asana alternatives
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Tap any card for the full editorial trajectory or compare directly with Asana.
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.
SmartSuite
SmartSuite adds tracked changes to SmartDocs, so policy edits need an approver.
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.
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.
Hive
Hive turns reporting into a planning tool: shared inputs, grouped values, per-person drill-downs.
Recent activity from Asana and Smartsheet
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoAsanaRole-based access control now available for Divisions
- 3d agoAsana🚦 Keep AI Studio credit use in check with rate limiting
- 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!
- 8d agoAsana📥 Client portal activity now has its own spot in Inbox
- 9d agoAsana🗂️ Collapsible headings are now live in Pages
- 11d agoSmartsheetWork with large-scale sheets and reports in table view
- 11d agoSmartsheetVisualize your project schedule in the new Gantt view
- 15d agoAsanaIntroducing: Tables ⚡
- 1mo agoAsana:puzzle_piece: Subtask types now follow their parent, across projects
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Asana and Smartsheet?
Both compete on the same themes — enterprise — within PM. Asana is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 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 Asana better than Smartsheet?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Asana is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 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 Asana?
Top Asana alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Asana alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/asana 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.