3 free Smartsheet alternatives for smaller workflows

If your Smartsheet workspace has become a shared task list, Google Sheets, ClickUp Free Forever, and Asana Personal are free Smartsheet alternatives worth evaluating. Sheets suits a tracker whose calculations and layout matter most. ClickUp is a candidate for assigning and following tasks, while Asana Personal currently fits only one or two people. None of those choices establishes that a more involved Smartsheet workflow can move without rebuilding.

This shortlist compares ongoing free options using official documentation checked October 14, 2026. It is a documentation review, not a hands-on product test. Permute publishes the comparison and sells connected business data and custom applications. Its role in reporting across tools is separate from the free products below.

Switching is unlikely to help if a required approval, dependency, or client handoff would disappear on the free tier. Keep the current workflow in the comparison, including the cost of fixing its specific problem. A lower subscription is useful only if the replacement preserves the work you need.

Separate the tracker from the workflow around it

Look at the sheet people use in the weekly meeting. Then trace how information gets there: a form submission, an owner updating a task, an approval, or a value brought in from another sheet. Write down what happens when a deadline moves or a request is rejected. Those steps tell you whether you are replacing a spreadsheet, task management, or a larger process.

Evaluate the free tier with everyone who needs to participate. Include external reviewers, attachment storage, notifications, and the history you need to retain. A plan that lets you build a workflow during a trial may restrict that feature afterward. Save the current plan comparison with your evaluation notes so you can distinguish the free allowance from something demonstrated on a paid tier.

Three options for a smaller workflow

Google Sheets when the grid does most of the work

Google’s Sheets page confirms that anyone with a Google Account can create spreadsheets. It describes collaborative editing, sharing controls, and revision history. That makes Sheets a candidate for a tracker where people maintain dates, status, and calculations together. Do not include paid Google Workspace administration or Gemini features in a free-plan comparison.

Keep editing control separate from confidentiality. Google’s protected-sheet documentation says protection is not a security measure: people can copy, print, import, and export protected spreadsheets. If a contractor must not see internal rates, put those records somewhere their account cannot access. Hiding a column or preventing edits does not satisfy that requirement.

Try the formulas that drive decisions before recreating the formatting. Include blank dates, canceled requests, and a task that reopens after being marked complete. Assign someone to maintain the sheet structure, since adding a column or copying a formula can change a report that others rely on. For linked business records rather than a project tracker, the free Airtable alternatives comparison addresses a different set of tools.

ClickUp when ownership and task status come first

ClickUp’s pricing table lists boards, calendar view, and one form on Free Forever. Its free tier has limited storage, and the comparison marks Gantt and several other advanced capabilities as trials. Guests on Free must receive full access to what is shared with them; configurable guest permissions appear on a paid plan.

That combination merits a trial for a team moving a task list, but check the records an external collaborator would receive. Test whether a reviewer can change an assigned task when they should only comment. Also decide where attachments will live. Linking to a document elsewhere preserves its usefulness only if every intended reader has access to that location.

Asana Personal for one or two people

Asana’s current Personal plan is free for two users, with unlimited tasks and projects, list, board, and calendar views, and a 100 MB per-file limit. Starter adds Timeline and Gantt views, forms, and automations. Check the current allowance rather than relying on older comparisons when you decide how many colleagues can join.

For a small coordination job, use the evaluation to decide whether the task model fits the way you work. A request should have an owner, a next action, and a clear completion condition. If your Smartsheet rows mostly hold quantities, calculations, and related records, moving every row into a task could make the information harder to maintain. Test that mapping with the person who updates it each week.

Check the export before rebuilding the tracker

Smartsheet’s export documentation explains that exported data may differ from the source and that formula syntax differs between products. Inventory the formulas and workflow behavior separately from the visible values. A file that opens without an error may still contain a result that no longer recalculates.

Use a hypothetical equipment-request tracker as a test. One request is waiting for approval, another is approved but awaiting delivery, and another was canceled. Preserve the request IDs, owner, status, due date, and links to supporting documents. Then change the delivery date and check which reminder or report needs to update. Record anything you had to do manually.

• Can the requester distinguish approval from delivery without reading a comment thread?
• Does a canceled request disappear from the open-work count while remaining available for reference?
• Can an external reviewer access the supporting document without seeing another requester’s private information?
• Does changing the due date update the intended reminder, or leave an old one scheduled?
• Can the owner export the current records and retrieve their attachments after the old account is closed?

Agree on a cutover date and a person who will check changes made after the initial export. Keep the original records until you have reconciled the open-work list and verified access. The ERP migration article describes the mapping and acceptance checks for a larger move; use the parts that fit the smaller workflow.

Where Permute fits across project and business records

Permute sells connected business data and custom applications. We can scope reporting that combines supported sources and supplied project records, with agreed rules for matching identifiers. A team can keep its chosen tracker while improving a report that also needs accounting or operational data.

For example, an operations lead might need a recurring view of approved requests that have no corresponding receipt. The team defines which statuses qualify and which source records establish receipt, and the report retains evidence for checking the result. That is separate from replacing the tracker’s task assignment or approval workflow. The enterprise app development article explains how to scope a custom application around such a requirement.

Keep the replacement scope explicit

Permute is not included as a free Smartsheet replacement. The reporting example requires supplied records or a verified extraction method, and it does not promise a native connector to every tool discussed here. Any new approval workflow, source-system write, or migration needs a separately agreed implementation and access scope.

Choose the free plan that fits the work being moved

Google Sheets, ClickUp, and Asana Personal can each cover a smaller tracking job when their free allowances fit. Choose from the calculations, task ownership, and collaboration you need to preserve. Test the exported records and the workflow around them before moving the rest. If the required behavior depends on a paid tier, include that cost in the decision before retiring the existing workspace.

Questions about replacing Smartsheet on a free plan