Smartsheet is a strong spreadsheet tool, but the price has risen noticeably over the years. With the User Subscription Model (USM), every editing user is now billed, and add-on modules and tier jumps come on top of that. That is why many teams in the communities are planning their move. This article takes a sober look at total cost of ownership and presents Merlin Project as an alternative that offers real project management and whose costs stay predictable.
It Is Not About the List Price, but About the Total Cost of Ownership
That a license costs money is normal. In Merlin Project, too, everyone who actively plans and edits pays. The decisive difference is not the individual seat price, but the total cost over time, the Total Cost of Ownership.
This is precisely where a lot has shifted at Smartsheet. With the User Subscription Model (USM), every editing user is now recorded as a paid seat and automatically converted into a license via the so-called true-up billing. On top of that come tier jumps: users report base prices that have risen significantly without new features. And reporting, control modules or extensive dashboards often depend on add-on products or external BI tools.
The Mood in the Community
In the Smartsheet community on Reddit, the pricing trend is the dominant topic.
"The new licensing model is highway robbery. We should all have an exit strategy as fast as possible." (paraphrased, from r/smartsheet)
"They want to multiply our costs tenfold. Our entire company is focused on getting out of Smartsheet as quickly as possible." (paraphrased, from r/smartsheet)
A second pattern stands out: many cancel without having a clear target product. One user describes how their company is ending its use company-wide without already having a replacement. The point here is not to talk Smartsheet down. For spreadsheet-centric workflows, the software is strong. The point is more sober: when total cost of ownership becomes harder to calculate year after year, it is worth looking at an alternative.
Why the Pressure on Prices Is Growing
A look at the ownership structure explains a lot. Smartsheet was acquired in 2024 by the financial investors Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners and taken private. Such takeovers by private equity and venture capital can make perfect business sense; they bring capital and growth pressure. For customers, however, there is a flip side: financial investors work with a different return expectation and a fixed time horizon. The path there often runs via higher prices and new paywalls. The switch to the User Subscription Model does not fall by chance into exactly this phase.
In the community, the connection is named openly:
"Private equity ruins everything. The new pricing model and all the sales gibberish are a mess, too." (paraphrased, from r/smartsheet)
Here lies a structural difference to ProjectWizards. We are owner-managed and independent, with no private equity or venture capital behind us. That means: we retain full control over our prices and our roadmap and do not have to serve external return targets.
Total Cost of Ownership Compared
Instead of comparing only the monthly price, it helps to look at all the items that add up in the end.
| Cost Driver | Smartsheet | Merlin Project |
|---|---|---|
| License per editing user | yes, via USM with automatic true-up billing | yes, fixed subscription price, without true-up surprises |
| Resource and capacity planning | extended via the "Resource Management" add-on | included in the feature set |
| Earned Value reports | configuration or add-on product required | built in |
| Standardized projects and portfolio rollups | via the premium app "Control Center" | covered with multi-project management and templates |
The bill does not become expensive because of the first seat, but because of everything that gets added over the years.
Merlin Project: Native Project Management for Apple Devices
Merlin Project is a native project management app for Mac, iPad and iPhone. It comes with real scheduling, from the critical path through baselines and resource leveling to Earned Value, works offline too and keeps your project data in your hands, via MagicSync without conflict copies.
Share results without everyone needing a seat. Editing users need a license; that is fair. But anyone who only needs to see results does not need their own seat: with the publishing mode you place the current status in a public work area or on your own server, and with reports and exports you share plans as PDF, HTML, image or CSV, all the way to MS Project format. That way stakeholders, customers and management consume the results without a license being due for each one.
Utilization and resource leveling
In Merlin Project you distribute work across multiple projects and resolve overloads automatically. The resource utilization view shows across projects who is busy and when, and the resource guide walks you step by step through the assignment.
The Full Feature Comparison
How Merlin Project and Smartsheet stack up point by point on planning and Gantt, resource management, cost tracking, multi-project management and platform is shown in our detailed comparison of Merlin Project vs. Smartsheet, with screenshots of both tools.
Conclusion
When the total cost of ownership of Smartsheet becomes harder to plan over the years, that is a good reason to take stock. Merlin Project combines real scheduling, resource leveling and Earned Value with data ownership, offline capability and predictable costs. Editors are licensed, but you share results without an additional seat. This is project management that does not float in the cloud and whose bill holds no surprises at the end of the year. You can try Merlin Project free for 30 days.
