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PROJECT MANAGEMENT · MIGRATION GUIDE

Switching from Airtable to Smartsheet

Smartsheet has no Airtable importer. Export each Airtable table as CSV and create sheets from the files; linked records, interfaces and automations are rebuilt as Smartsheet columns, reports and workflows.

Quick verdict: Move to Smartsheet if your work is a dated project plan that needs Gantt, dependencies and workload tracking, and your paid team fits Pro’s 10-Member cap or Business.

Estimate · your inputs

Switching Cost & Friction Estimator

Most buyers only budget for the new subscription. This estimates the hidden labor, data-cleanup, and retraining cost of actually making the switch.

25,000
10

Estimate assumes: 1 hour of data-mapping/cleaning labor per 2,000 records, a blended $75/hr ops rate, tiered migration & cleaning tooling fees, and 4 hours of retraining per seat at a $45/hr fully-loaded rate.

Estimated Migration Time —
Data Friction Rating —
Total Hidden Switching Cost $0

    Why teams move from Airtable to Smartsheet

    Lower per-seat price

    Pro $9 against Team $20, both annual.

    Project tools

    Gantt, dependencies, workload tracking and portfolios.

    More importers

    Excel, Google Sheets, Microsoft Project and Trello.

    How the migration actually works

    No free plan; Pro stops at 10 Members and allows 250 automations a month; linked records between Airtable tables have no direct Smartsheet equivalent.

    StepWhat you do
    1Export from AirtableExport each table (or the view you want) as a CSV file; Airtable has no whole-base export, so do it table by table.
    2Set up your Smartsheet planChoose Pro (1-10 Members) or Business (3+ Members) and add Members; people who only need to view can be free Contributors.
    3Import into SmartsheetCreate a new sheet from the CSV or Excel file (up to 20,000 rows, 400 columns or 500,000 cells per file).
    4Rebuild the planSet column types, add predecessors for the Gantt, recreate automations (250 a month on Pro) and any workload views.
    5Reset sharing and permissionsRe-invite your team and set workspace, base or sheet-level permissions; none of this carries over.
    6Cancel the old planOnce your team is working day-to-day in the new tool, cancel the old subscription.

    What this path doesn’t do for you:

    Rows and columns travel by CSV; Airtable’s linked records, interfaces, sync and automations are rebuilt as Smartsheet cross-sheet references, reports and workflows.

    Pricing side by side

    PlanAirtableSmartsheet
    Pricing basisPer editor seat; viewers freePer Member; Contributors free
    Entry priceTeam $20/seat/mo (annual)Pro $9/Member/mo (yearly), 1-10 Members
    Free plan5 editors, 1,000 records per baseNone; trial only
    Core strengthRelational database, interfaces, automationsGantt, dependencies, workload, portfolios
    Importer for the other toolNative Smartsheet importer; CSV for NotionNone (Excel/CSV import)

    Prices checked on each vendor’s pricing page on September 24, 2026.

    Feature parity check

    CapabilityAirtableSmartsheet
    Pricing basisPer editor seatPer Member
    Free plan5 editorsNone
    ImporterNative Smartsheet importerNone (Excel/CSV)
    Price$20/seat/mo$9/Member/mo

    Going the other direction, or want the full comparison first?

    Read the Airtable vs Smartsheet comparison Switching from Smartsheet to Airtable instead?

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Does Smartsheet import Airtable?

    Not natively. Export each Airtable table as CSV and create a sheet from the file (up to 20,000 rows, 400 columns or 500,000 cells).

    Will it cost less?

    Per paid person, yes: Pro is $9/Member/mo against Airtable Team at $20/seat/mo. Check the 10-Member cap on Pro.

    What happens to linked records?

    They arrive as text. Recreate the relationships with cross-sheet references or lookup columns in Smartsheet.

    Do links, formulas and views survive the move?

    Expect to rebuild them. CSV carries rows and columns; links between tables, formulas, automations, views and permissions are recreated in the new tool by hand.

    Sources

    Prices on this page were recorded from each vendor’s own pricing page on the date shown at the top of the page. Vendors change pricing often — check the live source before you buy.

    Every figure is also in our open dataset (JSON and CSV, CC BY 4.0), with its source page and verification date. See how we research pricing.

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    Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
    About the author

    Bill Belcamino

    Founder and author, HelpCompare

    Engineer by training, operator by experience, marketer by choice. Bill spent nine years as an engineer at HP, was COO of Auctiva (the number one third-party selling platform on eBay, past 200,000 users) and ran Google’s $70M/year search syndication partnership at Alot.com. Then he spent 13 years building his own web properties with his own money at stake. He has bought, trialled, integrated and cancelled more SaaS tools than he can count, and started HelpCompare because the real cost of switching tools is the part nobody covers.

    “I’ve sat on both sides of the table: the agency recommending the tool and the client paying for it.”

    Researched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team. Pricing on this page was last verified on September 24, 2026. No paid sponsorships, no affiliate commissions.