In the dynamic world of project management, choosing the right tool can mean the difference between success and failure. While both Teambook and Smartsheet aim to optimize project planning, collaboration and execution, recent developments reveal critical differences that business leaders need to understand before making their choice.
Teambook specializes in resource management and capacity planning with a simple, intuitive interface, while Smartsheet offers broader project management capabilities. However, in-depth feedback reveals significant and growing concerns about Smartsheet’s business practices, platform performance and customer support, which present real risks for organizations that rely on this platform.
This article explores the critical differences between these tools to help you make an informed decision that protects your company’s interests.
⚠️ Critical Smartsheet issues you need to know about
Before evaluating features, it is essential to understand the serious business risks faced by Smartsheet users:
1. Aggressive and non-transparent pricing strategy 💸
Smartsheet has implemented dramatic price increases, with some customers experiencing increases of 30% to 50% – nearly 10 times higher than expected industry norms. This aggressive pricing strategy creates budget uncertainty and makes long-term planning difficult.
Even more worrying is the recent shift to a permission-based pricing model. Organizations now face unexpected costs when guest users who simply modify a few cells are suddenly required to have paid licenses. This fundamentally undermines the collaborative nature of the platform, forcing teams to restrict access to control costs – which defeats the very purpose of a collaborative work management tool.
✅ The Teambook difference: Teambook offers transparent, predictable pricing with unlimited users on Pro plans. You pay for projects, not people, encouraging true collaboration with no hidden costs or surprise charges.
2. Poor and unresponsive customer support 📞
Customer support issues at Smartsheet represent a persistent and worsening problem:
Long-standing customers report zero response from support, with critical issues going unresolved for weeks. Even potential customers trying to purchase licenses report that sales reps don’t respond to emails for weeks despite multiple reminders.
Users describe being ignored until they send more than 5 support tickets, being transferred between seven different people, and being told that there is no formal complaints process. Some customers report that their account manager has changed three times in six months without notification, only discovering this when trying to contact them for support.
✅ The Teambook difference: As a European company, Teambook provides responsive, multilingual support (French, English, German, Italian and Spanish) with direct access to our team. We’re committed to helping you succeed, not abandoning you when problems arise.
3. Increasing problems of performance and reliability 🐌
Recent user reports indicate that teams are experiencing significant performance problems with loading delays for workspaces and master sheets. Users have been describing sheets loading “super slowly” for the past few weeks, with wait times of up to 15 seconds just to adjust cell values. Some organizations are reporting loading problems affecting more than 20 people simultaneously company-wide, with everything freezing on the loading screen.
These performance problems have a direct impact on productivity and create frustration for teams trying to work.
✅ The Teambook difference: Teambook is designed for speed and reliability. Our focused architecture ensures fast load times and responsive performance, even as your projects and data grow. We prioritize user experience over feature overload.
4. Punitive contract terms 🔒
Beyond pricing issues, users report difficulties in cancelling or reducing services due to restrictive contractual conditions. This lock-in approach creates additional business risk, making it difficult to respond to changing organizational needs or budget constraints.
✅ The Teambook difference: We believe in earning your trust every day. Our flexible terms allow you to increase or decrease your usage as needed, without punitive restrictions.
What Teambook and Smartsheet have in common
Despite the significant differences, both platforms offer certain basic capabilities:
Project management
Both tools help plan, organize and track projects, enabling managers to assign tasks, set deadlines and monitor progress.
Collaboration
Both platforms facilitate team collaboration, enabling members to share information and work together.
Real-time visibility
Both offer real-time visibility of projects and resource availability for informed decision-making.
Reports and analyses
Both generate reports on project performance and resource utilization.
Integration skills
Both integrate with commonly used tools such as Microsoft Office, Google Workspace and Slack.
Visual planning
Both provide visual planning features to help users visualize calendars over different periods.
Key differences: Why they matter
Focus and specialization 🎯
Teambook focuses on what matters most for project success: resource management and availability. We excel at resource allocation and capacity planning, giving you clear visibility of who’s working on what and when.
Smartsheet offers a broader but more complex approach, combining project management with spreadsheet-like flexibility. However, this complexity often comes at the expense of usability and performance.
Interface and user experience ✨
Teambook stands out for its simple, intuitive visual interface that teams can quickly master and use with confidence on a daily basis. There’s no steep learning curve – just immediate productivity.
Smartsheet’s spreadsheet-like interface may look familiar to Excel users, but user reviews consistently indicate dissatisfaction with the interface, and advanced features require a significant investment in training.
Reliability and performance ⚡
Teambook delivers fast, consistent performance your team can count on. We prioritize stability and speed because we understand that your business can’t wait.
Smartsheet is facing growing performance challenges that are impacting day-to-day productivity and user satisfaction.
Transparency and fair pricing 💰
Teambook offers honest, predictable pricing that won’t surprise you with sudden increases or hidden per-user fees. You can budget with confidence.
Smartsheet’s recent dramatic price increases and shift to permission-based billing create financial unpredictability and force teams to limit collaboration to control costs.
Customer support and partnership 🤝
Teambook provides responsive, multilingual support from a team that truly cares about your success. We’re a partner, not just a supplier.
Smartsheet’s widespread support problems leave customers feeling abandoned when they need help most.
Teambook features
Teambook is designed to simplify team availability management and resource allocation with powerful yet easy-to-use features:
Main capabilities
- Intuitive drag-and-drop resource allocation for rapid schedule adjustments
- Clear visual overview of team members’ schedules and availability
- Medium-term capacity planning (6-24 months) to understand how your plans affect your business
- Skills management to match the right people to the right projects
- Workload visibility to ensure balanced team utilization
Seamless integration 🔗
Our extensive integrations and robust APIs enable connections.
Teambook integrates with Outlook, Azure, Google, Zapier, Jira, Hubspot, Slack… among others, to facilitate data exchange and workflow continuity. customized to your existing tools.
Easy migration 📦
Already using Smartsheet or another tool? Migrating to Teambook is easy – we provide everything you need to transfer your data without losing any information.
Target users
- Small and medium-sized companies managing multiple projects and resources
- Creative agencies and marketing teams need clear visibility of capacities
- Software development teams balance workloads between sprints and releases
- Any organization that needs simple, efficient resource management without the complexity
European excellence 🇪🇺
Teambook is a Swiss solution and available in most European languages (French, English, German, Italian and Spanish) – including support. Your data is stored securely in Europe, guaranteeing RGPD compliance and data sovereignty.
Smartsheet features
Smartsheet is a flexible work management platform that combines spreadsheet functionality with project management capabilities:
Key features
- Spreadsheet-based interface for task management
- Automation capabilities for workflows and reminders
- Project management tools including Gantt charts, schedules and Kanban boards
- Customizable dashboards and reports
- Wide range of integrations with business applications
The reality
Although these features exist on paper, user experience reveals significant gaps between promise and reality, particularly when it comes to performance, pricing transparency and support responsiveness.
Price comparison: Transparency counts 💳
Teambook pricing
- Free 30-day trial with full access to features
- Starter Plan: €3/month for up to 10 projects – perfect for getting started
- Plans Pro: From €45/month for 40 projects with unlimited users
- Transparent pricing: No hidden charges, no sudden increases, no per-user fees that penalize collaboration
Smartsheet pricing
- Free trial : Limited duration and functionality
- Pro: €8/month per user
- Business: €17/month per user
- Reality: Customers are reporting price increases of 30-50%, and the new permission-based model can significantly increase costs without warning.
Conclusion: Why choose Teambook over Smartsheet 🏆
The decision between Teambook and Smartsheet goes beyond functionality – it’s about choosing a reliable partner who respects your business and supports your success.
Teambook’s value proposition ✨
Teambook offers a fundamentally different approach:
✓ Transparent, predictable pricing encourages collaboration
✓ Responsive, multilingual support that treats you like a partner
✓ Fast, reliable performance keeps your team productive
✓ Intuitive interface requires minimal training
✓ Focused specialization in resource management – the key to project success
✓ Data hosting in Europe for RGPD compliance and data sovereignty.
✓ Flexible conditions that respect your business needs
The end result 💡
If you’re looking for a powerful tool with maximum flexibility and are prepared to accept the risks of aggressive pricing, poor support and performance problems, Smartsheet remains an option – albeit a risky one.
However, if you value transparent pricing, responsive support, reliable performance and an intuitive interface specifically designed for resource management, Teambook is the obvious choice.
Teambook’s simplicity and efficiency allow you to concentrate on successfully managing your projects and resources, without getting lost in the complexity of the tool, being surprised by hidden costs, or being abandoned when you need support.
Ready to discover the Teambook difference? 🚀 S tart your free 30-day trial today and discover what stress-free resource management means.
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