Microsoft Project vs Smartsheet vs Teamhood: 5 Crucial Differences (2023)

When thinking about project management tools, Microsoft Project and Smartsheet are without a doubt solutions we consider. But understanding how they differ and where each excels, may be tough if this is your first time implementing such tooling.

In this post, we compare Microsoft Project vs Smartheet vs Teamhood (a newcomer to the project management software field) to see how these tools differ and what situations each of them are best suited for. To make this comparison easy to read, it has been divided into sections depending on the features (task management, project management, collaboration, etc.). Each of which contains a comparison table of the three tools in that area.

Without further ado, let’s see which of these solutions may be your favorite.

Microsoft Project vs Smartsheet vs Teamhood: Overview

To kick off this overview, let us first get more familiar with each individual tool. Here are their short descriptions which provide an excellent introduction to each solution and how they position themselves on the market.

Microsoft Project is an enterprise project and portfolio management solution.

Smartsheet is an enterprise work management tool for large teams or projects.

Teamhood is a Kanban-first project management tool for high-performing teams.

While the three descriptions differ a little, there is a common theme in all 3 solutions – work and project management. So it seems all of these tools aim to improve your processes and make managing them easier. Let’s look at how these tools look in different categories.

Microsoft Project vs Smartsheet vs Teamhood: Kanban Implementation

Agile has been a trend in the project management field for quite a while now and many teams look for tools that can support visualization through Kanban boards. So, let’s explore what can be done with these 3 solutions.

Microsoft Project is a more traditionally focused project management solution, however, it does offer a Kanban view to visualize your items. This view can be modified by using different statuses (columns) to represent your process steps.

Smartsheet is very similar in terms of the Kanban view it provides. This Kanban board can also be modified using different statuses, however, there are no WIP limits or other Kaban features for those looking to implement the practice.

Teamhood on the other hand offers a fully featured Kanban board. You will be able to modify the view with statuses, sub-statuses, and swimlanes, limit the work using WIP limits, and review progress with the help of specialized Agile metrics.

Here is an overview of Kanban-related features in the 3 tools

Microsoft Project vs Smartsheet vs Teamhood: Collaboration

Collaboration features are important because they ease communication between team members and allow for a smoother process. Here are the features found in the discussed tools.

Microsoft Project offers more or less everything you would expect from such a tool. You can communicate with team members through comments, modify user access through roles, and review the information in the workload view.

Smartsheet provides a similar set of features. Allowing you to add third parties as guest users, review all items on a calendar and communicate in the detail section of each task. This solution lacks the workload view, thus understanding the workload of your team members can prove to be more difficult.

Teamhood carries the same features as Microsoft Project and adds a few additional ones as well. In the workload view, you can define the availability and hourly rates for each individual team member. This makes planning and cost estimations much more accurate. Moreover, you can take advantage of the business intelligence feature that learns from your past work and suggest estimations for new tasks.

Microsoft Project vs Smartsheet vs Teamhood: Task Management

Task management is a daily practice for most of us. We have to plan, assign, and execute them effectively. Here is how these solutions can help.

Microsoft Project will give you a good selection of features to use. You can assign tasks to one or multiple team members, divide them into child tasks, and specify due dates, dependencies, and other important information. You will also be able to create task templates for the most commonly used items and save time on new task creation.

Smartsheet is also not shy when it comes to task management features. You can create tasks and subtasks, mark Smartsheet dependencies, as well as set up recurring items to ensure important tasks are not missed. You will be able to place important information in the task details to keep your team on the same page.

Teamhood is very similar to the first two tools. Here you will be able to manage single or multiple tasks with bulk actions. You can also create synchronized copies of your tasks in several boards and add yourself as a task watcher in order to track important items that are not assigned to you.

Microsoft Project vs Smartsheet vs Teamhood: Project Management

Project management features are the center of these three tools. Here is how we can optimize the projects in each.

Microsoft Project is a tool focused on traditional project management practices. As such, you will find a Gantt chart with baselines, portfolio overview, budget tracking, and other automated reports. All of this will give you an overview of the project’s plans and allow you to analyze the results.

Smartsheet project management features are very similar to the ones found in MS Project. This grid-like tool offers Gantt, portfolio, timeline views, as well as custom dashboards to analyze the data that is most important to your efforts.

Teamhood again has all the same project management tools as the previous two solutions. Here we also see two new features – earned value tracking and automatic rescheduling of dependencies. Allowing you to get better insights on your efforts and plan more accurately.

Microsoft Project vs Smartsheet vs Teamhood: Information Management

A large amount of information follows any project. Here is how you can manage it in each solution.

Microsoft Project will give you the possibility to attach related documents and files to the tasks themselves. Thus, easing communication and sharing of information.

Smartsheet is equipped with a document builder feature. Here you can create documents using data from your workspace and have the team members sign them within the tool. There is also the possibility to create a Smartsheet wiki.

Teamhood has a built-in Pages feature that allows you to create wiki-styled documents right in the workspace. You can then further categorize them and create a structure for your project information.

Microsoft Project vs Smartsheet vs Teamhood: Pricing

Teamhood offers a free version of the tool, while the base business plan pricing is displayed below. You can see more detailed pricing by following the links.

Microsoft Project vs Smartsheet vs Teamhood: Suitability for Business

As we have come to the end of this comparison of Microsoft Project vs Smartsheet vs Teamhood, let’s finalize it by defining which business would benefit from each tool the most.

Microsoft Project is a tool for a large business that wants to stick with traditional project management practices. It follows a linear working pattern and will suit businesses that operate in this way. While there is a Kanban view available, those looking to implement the practice will soon find that is not flexible and sufficient enough for their needs.

Smartsheet is also an enterprise tool, but the strength here is in handling large amounts of data. This Excel-like solution will allow you to add large amounts of entries and then analyze them to make further decisions on your business.

Teamhood is a project management solution for small to medium-sized businesses that want to plan and work in a visual environment. There is a good mix of Kanban and traditional project management features (like Gantt) that allows teams and management to merge their processes into one tool.

Check out other Microsoft Project alternatives.

Dovile Miseviciute

Passionate content marketer looking to bring better solutions to the project management space.

2020 - Present Marketing specialist at Teamhood.
2014 - 2020 Marketing manager for Eylean.