Airtable vs Smartsheet: Which Spreadsheet-Style Work Tool Fits Your Team in 2026?
Both look like spreadsheets and behave like databases. Smartsheet is the project-and-portfolio tool with Gantt and resource views; Airtable is the relational database with interfaces and automations. Here is what each costs and who is actually billed.
By Bill Belcamino · Last updated September 24, 2026 · Our methodologyResearched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team
Bottom line up front: Does a project team fit Smartsheet or Airtable better?
Teams running dated plans with dependencies fit Smartsheet; teams managing structured data like pipelines, catalogs or content fit Airtable.
Smartsheet Pro is $9/Member/mo yearly against Airtable Team at $20/seat/mo annual, but Pro stops at 10 Members and allows 250 automations a month, where Airtable Team allows 25,000 runs. That automation cap is the one to test, because automations add up faster than people expect. A reminder or status rule fires on every row that changes, so one busy sheet with a few rules can use a month's allowance well before the month ends. During the trial, turn on the automations you'd actually run and watch the counter for a week. If Pro's allowance won't cover it, price Business at $19 with its 3-Member minimum before you compare against Airtable.
Smartsheet at the entry tier: Pro is $9/Member/mo billed yearly against Airtable Team at $20/seat/mo billed annually, so a 10-person team pays $90 a month on Smartsheet against $200 on Airtable. Two things narrow the gap: Smartsheet Pro stops at 10 Members (Business is $19), and Airtable only bills editors, so a team with many read-only users pays for fewer seats on Airtable.
Verified September 24, 2026Prices recorded from each vendor’s own pricing page. See sources
Explore the numbers
Airtable vs Smartsheet: the prices as a chart
Airtable and Smartsheet: plan prices side by side
Plan price: US dollars per seat per month, annual billing
Airtable · Team$20
Smartsheet · Pro$9
Airtable · Business$45
Smartsheet · Business$19
AirtableSmartsheet
Prices exactly as printed in the comparison table on this page (annual billing), in the table’s own tier order: Entry price, Next tier.
What Airtable and Smartsheet cost per month for a team
5 seats: monthly cost = seats × the per-seat price on this page (annual billing)
Airtable · Team: 5 × $20$100
Smartsheet · Pro: 5 × $9$45
Airtable · Business: 5 × $45$225
Smartsheet · Business: 5 × $19$95
10 seats: monthly cost = seats × the per-seat price on this page (annual billing)
Airtable · Team: 10 × $20$200
Smartsheet · Pro: 10 × $9$90
Airtable · Business: 10 × $45$450
Smartsheet · Business: 10 × $19$190
25 seats: monthly cost = seats × the per-seat price on this page (annual billing)
Airtable · Team: 25 × $20$500
Smartsheet · Pro: 25 × $9$225
Airtable · Business: 25 × $45$1,125
Smartsheet · Business: 25 × $19$475
50 seats: monthly cost = seats × the per-seat price on this page (annual billing)
Airtable · Team: 50 × $20$1,000
Smartsheet · Pro: 50 × $9$450
Airtable · Business: 50 × $45$2,250
Smartsheet · Business: 50 × $19$950
AirtableSmartsheet
An example, not a quote: team size times the per-seat prices printed on this page. It leaves out tax, add-ons, discounts and any plan limits. Where a plan has a minimum number of seats, the minimum is used.
List prices from this page’s own comparison table, not a quote. Plans differ in what they include.
Prices in USD from airtable.com/pricing and smartsheet.com/pricing, checked September 24, 2026, using each page’s annual and monthly toggle. Airtable bills editors only: workspace, base or interface collaborators with Owner, Creator or Editor permissions are billable; read-only and commenter collaborators are not. Smartsheet bills Members; Contributors and Guests are free but cannot create sheets, reports or dashboards. Pro is limited to 10 Members and Business needs at least 3.
Both replace the spreadsheet a team has outgrown, but they replace it with different things: Smartsheet with a project plan, Airtable with a database.
Who you pay for
Airtable bills editors only: workspace, base or interface collaborators with Owner, Creator or Editor permissions are billable; read-only and commenter collaborators are not. Smartsheet bills Members; Contributors and Guests are free but cannot create sheets, reports or dashboards. Pro is limited to 10 Members and Business needs at least 3. For a team of 4 editors and 20 viewers, Airtable bills 4 seats; Smartsheet bills its Members and the viewers ride free as Contributors, so the two models converge for read-heavy teams.
Project plan or database
Smartsheet is built for schedules: Gantt, dependencies, workload tracking (Business), portfolios and a Microsoft Project importer. Airtable is built for structured data: linked records across tables, interfaces that turn a base into an app, and sync between bases. Teams that manage dated plans lean Smartsheet; teams that manage catalogs, pipelines and content lean Airtable.
Limits that bite
Airtable Team caps a base at 50,000 records and 25,000 automation runs a month; Business raises those to 125,000 and 100,000. Smartsheet Pro allows 250 automations a month and no more than 10 Members; Business removes the automation cap. Smartsheet imports up to 20,000 rows, 400 columns or 500,000 cells per file.
Moving between them
Airtable has a native Smartsheet importer: export the sheet or report from Smartsheet as .xlsx, then Import, Smartsheet, upload, and map field types in the wizard. Smartsheet has no Airtable importer; the reverse trip is a CSV export from Airtable and Smartsheet’s Excel/CSV import.
Cost calculator: what does your team actually pay?
Airtable
$0/mo
Smartsheet
$0/mo
List prices billed annually, checked September 24, 2026. Airtable bills editor seats only; Smartsheet bills Members only, and its Pro plan stops at 10 Members. Promotions and taxes are not included.
Choose Airtable if…
Your work is structured data (pipelines, catalogs, content calendars), most of your team only views it, or you want a free plan to start on.
Choose Smartsheet if…
Your work is dated project plans with dependencies and workload, your paid team is 10 people or fewer, or you want the lowest per-seat price.
Total cost over time
Uses your selections above. Estimate excludes add-ons, overages, and negotiated discounts.
Ready to pick your work management tool?
Airtable is free for up to 5 editors and Smartsheet offers a trial. Rebuild one real sheet in each and count how many people actually need to edit it; that number decides the price.
Airtable vs Smartsheet: security, offline & remote work
How Airtable and Smartsheet compare on compliance reports, sign-in controls, offline access and the setup details that matter for remote, hybrid and in-office teams. Every value links to the vendor page it came from.
Needs a connectionAirtable says offline access is not supported in any app; the web, desktop and mobile apps all require internet access, and data can only be exported for offline reference.source
PartialIn the mobile app only forms can be filled out offline; submissions upload once you reconnect and sign in, and everything else needs an internet connection.source
YesBusinessAdmin-set web session length (4 hours to 1 year) on Business and Enterprise Scale; Enterprise Scale can also restrict printing, CSV downloads and copying to clipboard from apps (desktop only).source
YesProMicrosoft Intune app protection for the mobile app: PIN/biometric requirement, copy/paste and screenshot restrictions, print prevention, jailbreak/root detection, data wipe after an offline period.source
Audit reports: both publish a SOC 2 report, and Airtable and Smartsheet also hold ISO/IEC 27001. Ask each vendor for the report under NDA before you sign; security reviews usually want the latest one.
Single sign-on: Airtable includes it on Business; Smartsheet includes it on Enterprise. If your team signs in through Okta, Microsoft Entra ID or Google, price the plan that includes SSO, not the entry plan.
Health data: Airtable and Smartsheet will sign a HIPAA business associate agreement (Airtable: Enterprise Scale; Smartsheet: Enterprise).
Working offline: Smartsheet works offline only in part; Airtable needs an internet connection. Details are in the Offline mode row above.
Office-only access: Airtable can restrict sign-ins to approved IP ranges on Enterprise Scale. That suits an office network or a company VPN; fully remote teams need a VPN for it to work.
Where your data lives: Airtable lets you choose US, EU; Smartsheet lets you choose US, EU, Australia on Pro. This matters for teams hiring across the EU, UK or Australia.
Airtable: worth knowing
RemoteOn Enterprise Scale, admins can limit sign-in to approved IP addresses or CIDR blocks (e.g. office or VPN ranges). source
OfflineAirtable has no offline mode; teams needing offline access must export data (e.g. CSV) beforehand. source
SecurityCustomers can choose EU data residency, with the EU data center in Frankfurt, Germany. source
SecurityEnterprise customers can encrypt data at rest with their own keys (Enterprise Key Management). source
Smartsheet: worth knowing
RemoteThe data region (US, EU or Australia) is picked when the account is created and cannot be changed afterwards. source
OfflineThe Windows/Mac desktop app is deprecated and will be retired on or after 29 October 2026; Smartsheet points users to the web app. source
SecurityOn Enterprise, admins can use a safe sharing policy to limit sharing to an approved list of users and domains, which helps control guest and external access. source
SecuritySmartsheet Gov, the separate government edition, holds a FedRAMP Moderate authorization. source
Checked September 24, 2026 against each vendor’s own trust center, help docs and app pages. Hover or tap “source” to see the exact wording we relied on. “Not published” means we could not find the vendor saying it on its own site; it doesn’t mean the feature is missing. Plan names are the lowest plan the vendor says includes the feature. Security · Offline · Remote vs office · Download the data
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Airtable or Smartsheet cheaper?
Smartsheet at the entry tier: Pro is $9/Member/mo billed yearly against Airtable Team at $20/seat/mo billed annually. Airtable bills editors only and has a free plan; Smartsheet Pro caps at 10 Members. Prices checked September 24, 2026.
Does Airtable import Smartsheet?
Yes. Export the sheet or report from Smartsheet as .xlsx, then in Airtable click Import, choose Smartsheet and upload the file; the wizard previews field types before importing.
Does Smartsheet import Airtable?
Not natively. Export from Airtable as CSV and use Smartsheet’s Excel/CSV import (up to 20,000 rows, 400 columns or 500,000 cells per file).
Does either have a free plan?
Airtable does: up to 5 editors, 1,000 records per base and 100 automation runs a month. Smartsheet’s pricing page lists no free plan, only a free trial.
Migration Guides
Already decided? Here’s how to actually switch.
Step-by-step migration guides covering what transfers automatically, what doesn’t, and how to handle the gap — in both directions.
Every “best work management tool” listicle tells you why to buy. Here’s the other half: the specific conditions under which Airtable or Smartsheet is the wrong purchase for your team.
Airtable
✓
Buy Airtable if:
Your data is relational, not a schedule
Most of your team only views or comments
You want a free plan to start on
✕
Do NOT buy Airtable if:
You need Gantt, dependencies and workload tracking
You want the lowest per-seat price
You need SAML SSO below the $45 Business tier
Smartsheet
✓
Buy Smartsheet if:
You run dated project plans with dependencies
Your paid team is 10 people or fewer
You import from Microsoft Project
✕
Do NOT buy Smartsheet if:
You want a free plan
You need more than 250 automations a month on the entry tier
You are moving data out of Airtable
Canonical data for the tools on this page
Every pricing fact, rating, AI billing model and switching guide we hold on each tool, on one page, with the date each figure was last verified.
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.
Verified prices costed for your team size, a check against your must-have requirements, the questions to settle before you sign, and a source for every figure. Print it, or paste it into an email to whoever approves the spend.
Built for the leader who owns the selection, answers for the spend, drives the rollout, and lives with the results. HelpCompare covers the whole decision, not just the first step.
Engineer by training, operator by experience, marketer by choice. Bill spent eight and a half 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.
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