Smartsheet
Stackby
| Feature | Smartsheet | Stackby |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $9/mo | Free / from $5/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.3 / 5 | 4.1 / 5 |
| Best For | enterprise, project-managers, operations-teams, it-teams | small-businesses, solopreneurs, budget-conscious-teams, non-technical-users |
| Founded | 2005 | 2019 |
| Sheets | ✓ | ✗ |
| Gantt Charts | ✓ | ✗ |
| Automation | ✓ | ✗ |
| Dashboards | ✓ | ✗ |
| Forms | ✓ | ✓ |
| Resource Management | ✓ | ✗ |
| Api Columns | ✗ | ✓ |
| Column Types | ✗ | ✓ |
| Views | ✗ | ✓ |
| Automations | ✗ | ✓ |
| Pre Built Templates | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Smartsheet Pros
- Familiar spreadsheet interface
- Powerful automation
- Enterprise-grade
- Good dashboards
✗ Smartsheet Cons
- Can be confusing
- Expensive for small teams
- Learning curve
✓ Stackby Pros
- Very affordable pricing
- API column type for live data
- Pre-built templates for common use cases
- Good Airtable alternative
✗ Stackby Cons
- Smaller user community
- UI less polished than competitors
- Limited automation capabilities
The Verdict
Smartsheet is built for enterprise and project managers, with a focus on sheets and gantt-charts. Stackby targets small businesses and solopreneurs and leads with api-columns and column-types.
Pricing is close: Stackby starts at $5/mo versus $9/mo for Smartsheet — not a deciding factor on its own.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.