Smartsheet is a strong choice for large organizations that want spreadsheet-style planning, Gantt timelines, forms, reports and mature enterprise administration. Roomwork is the better fit for teams that want the conversation, the meetings, the hours and an AI that knows the project all in one room, without building it from sheets and automations.
Not a feature count, but the decisions that change which one fits your team.
| Decision area | Smartsheet | Roomwork |
|---|---|---|
| Primary orientation | Spreadsheet-style work management | Connected work: rooms, tasks, time and delivery |
| Planning | Grid, Gantt, timeline and calendar views, formulas | Grid, Kanban and Gantt task views, blockers, saved Views. No formulas today |
| Conversation | Comments and proofing on sheets | Project rooms with chat, Jams and client messaging |
| Meetings | Outside the product | Meeting capture: summaries, decisions and action items filed into the project |
| Time and cost | Workload views, with time and expense tracking through the Resource Management add-on | Roomwork Time: desktop clock-in agent, screenshots every 5 minutes, AI review of each session, hour and dollar budgets with runway alerts, payroll |
| Subscriptions | A work-management subscription, with separate chat, calls and time tracking | Free with every Paying.co engagement: chat, projects, issues, time, video calls and meeting notes |
| Setup effort | Powerful, and often needs an owner to build and maintain sheets | A room per project, ready to use, with Alva flagging projects that were never set up |
| AI approach | AI features (Smart Assist, AI columns) on paid plans, added to the sheet model | AI-first: Rōrk, Alva and Sten are part of the room from the start |
| Best fit | Large organizations with formal planning and governance needs | Teams wanting one place for conversation, execution, time and verification |
A client emails help@ about a problem. In Roomwork, the email becomes a ticket in the right client project, assigned to the right people, and the client gets an acknowledgement and updates by email. The team discusses it in the room, tracks the time against it, and Rōrk can answer what happened later. In a sheet-based setup, each of those steps is a form, a rule or a separate tool.
Nothing here asks you to relearn how your team works. The concepts map over directly.
| Capability | Smartsheet | Roomwork |
|---|---|---|
| Sheets / projects | Sheets, with grid, card, Gantt, timeline and calendar views | Projects with rooms, tasks and Canvas |
| Gantt and timeline | Yes | Gantt view per project |
| Formulas and cell logic | Yes | Not today |
| Forms and intake | Forms | Email to ticket, with sender-to-project routing |
| Automations | Rules and workflows | Slash commands, Rōrk actions, and Alva follow-ups |
| Chat | Comments and proofing | Persistent rooms with internal and external messaging |
| Live calls | Not included | Jams, recorded into room history |
| Meeting notes | Not included | Meeting capture to Canvas, with PDF and Word, and action items turned into tasks |
| Time tracking | Workload views; time and expense tracking through the Resource Management add-on | Native Roomwork Time: screenshots every 5 minutes, AI session review, hour and dollar budgets, payroll |
| Security checks | Not included | Sten runs Flaw.co Detect scans and Code reviews |
| Enterprise administration | Mature, including SSO and governance | Role-based access and project grants. A younger product, so check your requirements |
| AI assistant | AI features on paid plans | Rōrk, Alva and Sten, part of every room |
References: Smartsheet, Smartsheet pricing. Competitor details reflect public information as of October 2026 and change over time, so check the vendor's own site for current plans and pricing.
Smartsheet's time and expense tracking is the Resource Management add-on, and its AI features are on paid plans only.
Roomwork is free with every Paying.co engagement, and in limited beta for new teams. Chat, Jams, tasks, time tracking, Rōrk, Alva and Sten are built in, not sold as add-ons, so there is no stack of extra subscriptions to stitch together.
Start a room and bring your next project conversation, task, and delivery into one connected place, with AI built in from the start. Roomwork is free with every Paying.co engagement, and in limited beta for new teams. It replaces separate chat, project, issue-tracking, time-tracking and video-calling subscriptions.
Start a room →