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Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

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10 Best Freshservice Alternatives for ITSM in 2025

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Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

Namely, while Freshservice remains a popular choice, many teams are hitting roadblocks, ranging from steep pricing and feature limitations to inflexible workflows and underwhelming reporting.

The truth is, ITSM isn’t one-size-fits-all. What works for an enterprise might be overkill (or over-budget) for a fast-moving mid-market team.

That’s why I researched and tested dozens of ITSM platforms to find the best Freshservice alternatives – tools that deliver on automation, incident tracking, and service delivery without the hidden trade-offs.

Whether you’re scaling support, streamlining change management, or improving response times, this list will help you find a solution that actually fits your team and budget.

Ready to upgrade your ITSM stack with confidence? Let’s begin!

Why do you need Freshservice alternatives?

Freshservice is an enterprise-level ITSM platform, meaning its features – and pricing – are designed with large-scale companies in mind.

As such, it has a few functionalities large IT teams can find handy, such as:

  • Robust automations and workflows that help you streamline various processes.
  • An advanced CMDB that gives you a complete, real-time picture of your IT environment, allowing you to trace incidents back to the root cause faster and tackle them head-on.

However, there are quite a few limitations some users experience with Freservice that often urge them to look for an alternative solution.

Let’s get a closer look at some of the major concerns users have with Freshservice.

1. It can be cost-prohibitive for smaller businesses

Although Freshservice has a multi-tiered pricing system, it’s fair to say that it’s still on the pricier end of the range.

Firstly, its pricing is user-based, meaning that your costs will grow as your team does, which is not ideal for scaling businesses.

And secondly, its best, AI-powered features are available only on its most expensive, Custom plan.

“There are a few aspects that could be improved. The associated subscription cost is a bit on the higher side, especially since some advanced features are locked behind higher-tier plans. Additionally, more customization options are required for business needs.” – G2 Review

2. Its reporting and analytics features leave a lot to be desired

Having robust analytics and reporting as part of your ITSM platform is critical for a number of reasons.

Being able to track key metrics in real-time, dissect reports and adjust them to your specific needs helps detect issues in time, monitor performance, allocate tasks and resources more efficiently, etc.

Freshservice’s reporting features are pretty clunky and limited in terms of customization and the metrics they let you track.

“Reporting could be a bit more flexible – building custom dashboards for our specific needs takes work.” – G2 Review

“Although Freshservice is a very efficient tool, I believe that some reports could be more customizable and detailed to further facilitate performance analysis. Additionally, some integrations require manual adjustments that could be more automated.” – G2 Review

3. Limited customization options

Finally, many users complain about Freshservice being pretty rigid and lacking more sophisticated customization options.

Sometimes, reporting features feel a bit limited. Customizing reports could be easier. Also, the pricing can get high as you add more features or users. – G2 Review

This can easily turn into a big problem for teams with bespoke needs that require more flexibility and freedom to tailor their solution to their own goals and workflows.

The limited customization of the Support Portal (would love to be able to incorporate the company colours / themes on the Support Portal). – G2 Review

What are the best Freshservice alternatives for ITSM in 2025?

After testing a bunch of different tools and interviewing long-term users, here’s the curated list I came up with:

  1. SmartSuite – A no-code, all‑in‑one work and ITSM platform that empowers teams to customize workflows, automate service delivery, and scale support operations without friction. 
  2. Jira Service Management – An agile-first ITSM tool that integrates deeply with development pipelines and offers a rich catalog of pre-built workflows for modern DevOps teams. 
  3. Atera – A unified RMM+PSA solution with built-in ticketing, patching, remote access, and AI-driven automation designed for MSPs and IT support teams seeking full operational visibility. 
  4. ServiceNow – Enterprise-grade ITSM powerhouse offering advanced CMDB, change, incident, and release management capabilities ideal for large-scale, complex IT environments. 
  5. Zendesk – A multichannel ticketing platform that bridges internal IT support and external customer service through AI-powered routing and self-service portals. 
  6. SolarWinds Service Desk – An AWS-hosted ITSM suite with strong incident, asset, change, and configuration management backed by AI automation and intuitive dashboards. 
  7. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus – A cost-effective ITSM tool that combines incident, change, and asset management with robust automation at scales suitable for SMBs and enterprises. 
  8. HappyFox – A lightweight, multichannel help desk focused on simplifying request management and analytics for teams that want fast deployment and straightforward workflows. 
  9. SysAid – A highly customizable ITSM platform offering deep automation, asset discovery, and flexible deployment options.
  10. Budibase – A low-code platform enabling teams to build their own secure, self-hosted ITSM apps with custom workflows and AI integrations on top of a modern data stack.

1. SmartSuite

Best for: Teams of all sizes looking for a customizable, no-code ITSM platform that’s easy to use, fast to deploy, and flexible enough to grow with you.

Full disclosure: While SmartSuite is our platform, we’ll share an unbiased view of the tool’s abilities and why it stands out from other Freservice alternatives. 

SmartSuite redefines what an ITSM platform can be by combining the power of enterprise-grade service management with the accessibility of a no-code interface. 

Whether you’re managing incidents, automating change approvals, or tracking assets across departments, SmartSuite gives you complete control without requiring IT to hardcode every process. 

Its intuitive drag-and-drop workflow builder, built-in templates, and real-time reporting make it easy to tailor workflows to your exact needs, from help desk ticketing to cross-functional service delivery. 

And because it’s built to be flexible, SmartSuite scales seamlessly as your IT operations evolve without the bloated costs or complexity of legacy tools like Freshservice.

Here are some of the key features that make SmartSuite a strong Freshservice alternative:

1. Provides a unified, no-code platform for comprehensive ITSM

At the heart of SmartSuite’s appeal as a Freshservice alternative is its unified, no-code platform designed to simplify and centralize every aspect of ITSM. 

Instead of juggling disconnected tools or relying on technical teams to hardwire every workflow, SmartSuite puts power directly in the hands of IT teams and business users alike. 

From request intake to resolution, every process lives in one flexible system that adapts to how your team actually works. 

As a result, you get a smarter, more streamlined approach to ITSM that’s fast to implement, easy to scale, and built to evolve with your organization.

Here are some of the things SmartSuite lets you do from a single point of control:

  • Track tickets & issues in real-time – Deploy help desk and issue tracking solutions to capture, resolve, and analyze IT incidents and spot trends before they impact operations.
  • Manage IT assets & licenses – Monitor hardware, software versions, user assignments, and license renewals in one place to stay compliant and budget-ready.
  • Manage internal IT projects seamlessly – Plan, assign, and track internal IT initiatives to roll out technology solutions faster, and always stay on time and under budget.
  • Elevate IT governance – Publish IT policies, manage audits, and ensure compliance with centralized documentation that supports your security and data protection goals.
  • Streamline IT workflows – Centralize service requests, prioritize incoming tickets, and track resolution SLAs through dashboards that keep your team aligned in real time.
  • Automatically prioritize tasks – Use dynamic triggers to intelligently push or pull work based on urgency, helping your team respond faster and more proactively.
  • Automate repetitive work – Set up no-code automations that power your IT operations in the background, so your team can focus on what matters most.

2. Lets you collaborate in real-time wherever work happens

Modern IT support moves fast, and SmartSuite is built to keep your team moving with it. 

Instead of waiting for emails, chasing updates in chat threads, or losing time in status meetings, SmartSuite brings collaboration directly into your IT workflows. 

Whether it’s triaging a ticket, escalating an urgent issue, or resolving a system outage, teams can communicate in context, in real time.

For example, SmartSuite enables you to start conversations exactly where the issue is unfolding – within the record itself. 

Loop in subject matter experts, tag teammates, and share insights to troubleshoot faster and keep everyone aligned.

Moreover, with fully native iOS and Android apps, SmartSuite keeps you synced on the go. 

This means that you can easily access tickets, share updates, upload files, and keep the resolution process moving from anywhere, which is perfect for remote or hybrid teams.

Finally, the platform’s flexible team management lets you assign and escalate tickets based on expertise and workload 

As a result, you can ensure that critical problems are seen by the right people instantly, so nothing slips through the cracks.

3. Advanced analytics and dynamic reporting

You can’t fix what you can’t see, and that’s why SmartSuite’s reporting and analytics capabilities are built directly into every layer of your ITSM workflow. 

Whether you’re tracking ticket volumes, spotting recurring incidents, or monitoring team performance, SmartSuite gives you instant visibility into what’s happening, what’s at risk, and where to focus next.

With its reporting capabilities, you can:

  • Track tickets, trends, and team performance – Use real-time dashboards to visualize key metrics like response times, resolution rates, and SLA compliance, all in one place.
  • Drill into the data – From high-level summaries to deep-dive insights, you can slice and filter ticket data to uncover root causes, spot bottlenecks, and take proactive action.
  • Highlight critical issues before they escalate – Roll up key metrics into leadership-ready dashboards that surface red flags and track progress toward resolution in real time.
  • Stay in control, wherever you are – SmartSuite’s flexible reports and visual dashboards keep you informed on any device, whether you’re in the office, in a meeting, or out in the field.

4. Jumpstart success with customizable ITSM templates

SmartSuite takes the guesswork out of setting up ITSM by offering a library of customizable templates designed to match the real-world needs of modern IT teams. 

These pre-built solutions give you a head start for anything from tracking asserts to enforcing security policies, while still offering the flexibility to tailor every field, workflow, and dashboard to your team’s unique needs.

For example, with these templates, you can instantly deploy:

  • IT help desk – Lets you centralize ticket intake and support delivery with visibility into maintenance schedules and hardware lifecycle data.
  • IT security policies – Easily create, update, and distribute internal policies to ensure safe and compliant tech usage across the organization.
  • IT asset management – You can automate asset procurement, assignment, and decommissioning across software, hardware, and cloud infrastructure.
  • IT work request – Receive and process work orders from internal teams, contractors, or external vendors in one secure location.

Want to try one of our templates out for size?

Test the incident management template that lets you capture, assign, and resolve issues faster, all in one streamlined workspace.

The best part is that these templates aren’t just plug-and-play – they’re built to evolve with your team. 

This means you can customize every element to match your internal processes and scale your IT operations without building from scratch every single time.

Pricing

Unlike Freshservice, SmartSuite has a free forever plan that provides access to its templates, dynamic dashboards, team collaboration features, 100 monthly automations, etc.

Moreover, each of SmartSuite’s paid plans includes unlimited users, making it ideal for growing teams.

There are four tiers to choose from:

  1. Team: $12/user/mo, includes everything in Free, plus unlimited users, Gantt charts, 5,000 automation runs, etc.
  2. Professional: $30/user/mo, includes everything in Team, plus two-factor authentication, Gmail & Outlook integrations, AI features, more automation runs, etc.
  3. Enterprise: $45/user/mo, includes everything in Professional and adds audit logs, data loss prevention, 50,000 monthly API calls, etc.
  4. Signature: A customized plan tailored to your organization’s needs and team size with no predefined limits.

The first three paid plans have a 14-day free trial – no credit card needed.

How does SmartSuite compare to Freshservice?

Although Freshservice is packed with enterprise-grade features, for many teams, it comes with trade-offs, such as high pricing, limited customization, and underwhelming reporting.

SmartSuite flips that model on its head. 

It gives you a unified, no-code ITSM platform that’s easy to customize, quick to deploy, and built to scale without requiring a dedicated IT department to manage it. 

Unlike Freshservice, SmartSuite lets you create flexible workflows, collaborate in real time, and gain instant visibility into performance metrics, all from a single interface.

And with built-in templates and unlimited users on every paid plan, it’s a future-ready solution that works just as well for growing teams as it does for mature ones, all without breaking the budget.

Pros & Cons

✅ No-code platform makes it easy to customize workflows without technical expertise.

✅ Unified workspace for tickets, assets, audits, and projects in one place.

✅ Built-in ITSM templates to accelerate setup and standardize best practices.

✅ Real-time collaboration features, including mobile access and in-record conversations.

✅ Transparent pricing with unlimited users on all paid plans.

✅ Flexible reporting and dynamic dashboards for better visibility and decision-making.

❌ Fewer native ITSM integrations compared to enterprise platforms.

2. Jira Service Management

Best for: Agile IT and DevOps teams that want deep integration with development pipelines and powerful, customizable workflows.

Built on the robust Jira platform, Jira Service Management delivers an ITIL–aligned ITSM suite with top-tier incident, problem, and change management, while offering unmatched flexibility, automation, and seamless integration with development tools. 

It’s ideal for teams that value agility, visibility, and a unified approach to support and engineering workflows. 

Key features

  • Customizable workflows – These let you tailor every ticket, lifecycle, and escalation path to mirror internal processes.
  • Real-time reporting & analytics – You get dashboards, burndown charts, velocity reports, and JQL-powered filters for data-driven IT decisions. 
  • Self-service portal & knowledge base – These come with ML-powered search and virtual agents that ensure users find answers fast without agent intervention.

Pricing

Jira Service Management has a free forever plan that lets you onboard up to three agents.

On it, you get ITSM templates, alerts and incident templates, multichannel support, knowledge base, etc.

If you need more features or users, you can subscribe to one of three paid plans:

  1. Standard: Starting at $23.80 per agent per month, includes everything in Free, plus custom-branded help centre, unlimited email notifications, up to 20,000 users and unlimited customers, etc.
  2. Premium: Starting at $53.30 per agent per month, includes everything in Standard, plus Rovo Agents, Search and Chat, for AI-powered service and operations, virtual service agent, advanced incident management, real-time incident monitoring, etc.
  3. Enterprise: Custom pricing, annual billing only, includes everything in Premium, plus cross-product insights, advanced admin controls and security, unlimited automations, etc.

Similar to most Atlassian products, you get a volume discount on the price, meaning that the price per user goes down the more users you onboard.

Pros & Cons

✅ Strong reporting tools and community support.

✅ Excellent multi-tool integration via Atlassian Marketplace.

❌ Asset management module locked behind Premium plan.

3. Atera

Best for: MSPs and small-to-mid IT teams needing unified RMM + PSA with AI-powered automation.

Atera is an all-in-one IT management platform that combines remote monitoring, professional service automation, patch management, and AI-driven insights.

Additionally, it recently introduced a range of AI agents that enable autonomous ITSM, making it perfect for teams who want to make the most of AI capabilities.

Key features

  • Remote monitoring & management (RMM) – Tracks servers, workstations, and network devices in real time with customizable alerts to address issues before they escalate.
  • AI Copilot – Real-time productivity assistant for IT technicians that delivers instant ticket summaries, remote troubleshooting insights, script and command-line generation, and knowledge base recommendations.
  • IT Autopilot – Independently handles tickets, troubleshoots issues, and delivers 24/7 support through human-like interactions across Slack, Teams, email, and the user portal.

Pricing

Atera has separate packages for IT departments and MSPs.

When it comes to IT departments, there are four pricing plans to choose from:

  1. Professional: $169/technician/mo, includes remote monitoring, management, and alerts, patch and software management, service portal, etc.
  2. Expert: $229/technician/mo, includes everything in Professional, plus custom asset, ticket auto-tagging, remote access using AnyDesk, etc.
  3. Master: $269/technician/mo, includes everything in Expert, plus custom analytics reports, longer audit log, more custom assets, data recovery, etc.
  4. Enterprise: Custom price, includes everything in Master, plus SSO, Azure AD continuous sync, script-based custom fields, etc.

‍

If you’re an MSP, there are also four plans you can check out:

  1. Pro: $139/technician/mo, includes the same features as the IT Professional plan.
  2. Growth: $189/technician/mo, includes the same features as the Expert plan.
  3. Power: $249/technician/mo, includes the same features as the Master plan.
  4. Superpower: Custom price, includes the same features as the Enterprise plan.

Each of these plans for both IT departments and MSPs comes with a 30-day free trial.

In addition to these plans, there are also optional add-ons which you can purchase on any of these eight plans:

  1. AI Copilot: $95/technician/mo, includes all of AI Copilot’s capabilities.
  2. Network Discovery: $29/technician/mo, scans your network, detects unauthorized devices, and onboards new assets.
  3. AI Agents: Custom price, depending on the type and scale of agent you want.

Pros & Cons

✅ Intuitive interface.

✅ Strong RMM, PSA, patch management, and remote access in a single platform.

❌ Reporting capabilities are functional but could be deeper.

4. ServiceNow

Best for: Large enterprises and complex organizations that need a full ITSM ecosystem with strong ITIL alignment, robust AI capabilities, and deep integrations across IT and business functions.

ServiceNow offers an end-to-end, cloud-based ITSM platform built on the Now Platform, providing seamless incident, problem, change, and asset management across the service lifecycle. 

With powerful AI, automation, and a unified CMDB, it enables complex workflows and enterprise-scale operations with consistency and control.

Key features

  • Comprehensive ITIL-aligned suite – Has tools that cover incident, problem, change, request, and asset management for full service lifecycle management from a single platform.
  • Powerful CMDB & asset management – Lets you centrally track configurations, dependencies, lifecycle data, and compliance across all IT and field assets.
  • Generative AI and virtual agents – These tackle things like predictive analytics, automated resolutions, and conversational support.

Pricing 

ServiceNow doesn’t disclose prices for any of its products, including its ITSM product suite.

You’ll have to contact sales for details or check our in-depth guide on its pricing.

Pros & Cons

✅ Robust CMDB and 360-degree asset lifecycle visibility support a compliant and proactive approach to incident management.

✅ Advanced AI-powered automation capabilities.

❌ Steep learning curve and interface complexity can be overwhelming for smaller teams.

5. Zendesk

Best for: Mid-sized teams and internal IT/help desk groups that prioritize intuitive setup, multichannel support, and fast deployment with minimal technical overhead.

Zendesk offers a clean, user-friendly platform that consolidates tickets from email, chat, phone, and social media into a centralized support environment. 

As such, it can deliver fast-to-deploy IT service management capabilities – like incident tracking, SLA enforcement, and self-service portals – while leveraging AI-powered automated workflows and dynamic knowledge bases to deflect tickets and drive efficiency.

Key features

  • Omnichannel ticketing & SLA automation – Lets you centralize support requests across email, chat, voice, and social into one stream, with rules to triage based on urgency.
  • AI-driven self-service & bots – Helps you reduce ticket volume by offering automated answers and smart article suggestions powered by prior conversations.
  • Knowledge base & community forums – Allow your end users to access self-help articles and peer insights, and cut down reliance on IT agents.

Pricing

Zendesk has four essential pricing plans:

  1. Support Team: $25/agent/month, includes basic automations and insights, simplifying email support with ticketing, etc.
  2. Suite Team: $69/agent/month, includes everything in Support Team, plus omnichannel support, AI agent-driven automations, etc.
  3. Suite Professional: $149/agent/month, includes everything in Suite Team, plus team collaboration on closing tickets, smart routing, etc.
  4. Suite Enterprise: Custom price, includes everything in Suite Professional, plus sandbox for testing updates, custom permissions, change tracking, spikes handling, etc.

In addition to these, there’s a wide range of add-ons you can purchase on top, such as:

  • AI Copilot: $50 per agent/month, billed annually, available on Professional and above.
  • Zendesk Workforce Management: $25 per agent/month, billed annually, for organizations managing teams in Zendesk.
  • Zendesk Quality Assurance: $35 per agent/month, billed annually, lets you automatically analyze 100% of conversations across human and AI agents, BPOs, channels, and languages.
  • Zendesk Workforce Engagement Bundle: $50 per agent/month, billed annually, lets you enjoy the power of Zendesk Workforce Management and Zendesk Quality Assurance at a discounted bundle rate and lead your team to deliver superior CX.
  • Advanced Data Privacy and Protection: $50 per agent/month, billed annually, supports your compliance and security policy obligations with an extra layer of protection and privacy.
  • Contact Centre: $50 per agent/month, billed annually, lets you power the world’s most complex contact centres with Zendesk’s ease of use and flexibility, available on all Suite plans.

Pros & Cons

✅ Easy, fast deployment with a low learning curve. 

✅ Powerful omnichannel support for internal IT teams spanning email, chat, phone, and social.

❌ Lacks advanced ITSM features like native CMDB or comprehensive asset/change management because it’s not an ITSM dedicated platform.

6. SolarWinds Service Desk

Best for: Mid‑sized to large IT teams that need a full-featured, ITIL-compliant platform with strong asset and configuration management at a predictable, per-technician cost.

SolarWinds Service Desk is a cloud-based ITSM suite praised for combining powerful incident, change, and asset management with AI-driven automation and an intuitive interface.

The platform includes a visual CMDB, intelligent runbooks, virtual agents, and customizable reporting, making it a strong choice for teams seeking operational efficiency without excessive complexity 

Key features

  • AI-powered incident management – The platform provides sentiment detection, auto-routing, and virtual agents to speed resolution and reduce response time.
  • Visual CMDB with dependency mapping – Offers real-time visibility into asset relationships and incident impacts to support proactive change and risk analysis.
  • Customizable reporting & powerful dashboards – This lets you track all the essential metrics, while providing downloadable 360° reports and Power BI integration for advanced analytics.

Pricing

SolarWinds has several different product packages, each of which has distinct pricing.

When it comes to IT Service Management, there’s one plan, Service Desk, with pricing starting at $39/technician/month.

It’s best to request a custom quote to find out the exact price for your organization. If you’d like to test it first, there’s a 30-day free trial.

However, if you need incident response features too, you should know that these are included in a separate Incident Response plan, with pricing starting at $9/user/month.

Pros & Cons

✅ Easy to use with lots of out-of-the-box features.

✅ Highly configurable and customizable, can be adjusted to various workflow types.

❌ Lacks a free or entry-level plan, plus its per-user pricing scales badly.

7. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

Best for: SMBs to mid-size enterprises seeking a full ITIL-aligned ITSM + asset management suite at transparent, technician-based pricing.

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus delivers a broad IT service desk capable of handling incidents, assets, change, problems, and project management, all within a single platform built on ITIL-certified best practices. 

It combines flexible workflow automation, multi-channel ticketing, and powerful asset discovery to enable end-to-end ITSM.

Key features

  • Asset & CMDB management – Automatically discovers hardware/software assets and lets you visually map and track configurations, lifecycles, contracts, and licensing. 
  • Customizable workflows & business rules – Allows configuration of ticket actions, escalations, notifications, and approval steps with no coding required.
  • Reporting & dashboards – Offers 150+ pre-built reports and lets you easily build custom reports to drill down into essential metrics.

Pricing

When it comes to ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus’ cost, there’s little I can tell you, as the platform doesn’t publish pricing details.

Judging by its quote request form, though, it’s fair to assume that the pricing will depend at least partially on the number of technicians you need to onboard and your preferred deployment method.

You can contact its team for a custom quote.

Pros & Cons

✅ Virtual agent and AI features (triage, assistance) available out-of-the-box.

✅ Flexible deployment options.

❌ Complex initial implementation.

8. HappyFox

Best for: Small to mid-sized teams and internal help desks that want a clean, highly customizable ticketing system with strong automation without enterprise complexity.

HappyFox offers a sleek, intuitive help desk that consolidates requests from email, chat, phone, and social media into a unified support queue. 

With powerful smart automation rules, a built-in knowledge base, and multi-channel support, it simplifies ticket handling while empowering teams to streamline workflows efficiently. 

Key features

  • Smart automation rules – You can easily automate ticket assignment, prioritization, escalation, and reminders based on various criteria.
  • Optimized asset management – Built-in tool for centralized asset management that provides instant visibility into affected users, impacted services, and asset histories when troubleshooting.
  • Wide range of AI features – These include autonomous AI agents for handling repetitive tasks, auto responses, ticket summarization, writing assistance, insights and recommendations, etc.

Pricing

HappyFox has three pricing tiers:

  1. Team: $69/agent/mo, includes incident and service request management, service and product catalogs, 500 assets, etc.
  2. Pro: $119/agent/mo, includes everything in Team, plus problem, change, and release management, custom roles and permissions, 2,000 assets, etc.
  3. Enterprise PRO: Custom price, includes everything in Pro, plus 25 service portals, 5,000 assets, email archival, etc.

However, neither of these plans includes any of HappyFox’s AI features, which are only available as add-ons, with pricing starting at $14/agent/month for the most basic package.

You can get a free trial if you request a demo in order to determine whether HappyFox could be the right fit for your organization.

Pros & Cons

✅ Powerful automation rules reduce repetitive tasks and manual follow-up.

✅ Clean, user-friendly interface that’s quick to implement and easy to use.

❌ Reporting setup and customization are complex and limited.

9. SysAid

Best for: Mid-sized to large IT teams that require ITIL-aligned support with deep automation, customizable workflows, and flexible deployment.

SysAid offers a comprehensive ITSM suite featuring incident, problem, change, and request management, backed by powerful asset discovery, automation, and self-service capabilities.

Its unique strength lies in its high configurability, offering unlimited templates and custom fields to match exact business needs 

Key features

  • SysAid Copilot – Lets you incorporate generative AI into every aspect of ITSM for faster and more accurate service.
  • Automation & workflows – Visual workflow builder lets you streamline approvals, notifications, and repetitive tasks with easy-to-configure rules and triggers.
  • Service level management – You can customize SLAs and performance metrics to align with your unique service delivery goals, ensuring issues are resolved within agreed timeframes and customer expectations are consistently met.

Pricing

SysAid doesn’t publish prices.

You can contact its team for more information.

Pros & Cons

✅ Highly customizable, meaning it can easily fit into varied and complex organizational needs.

✅ Advanced AI features powered by ML algorithms that adapt and learn with time.

❌ The UI can feel clunky at times.

10. Budibase

Best for: IT teams or business units that need ultra-flexible, low-code internal tools – like custom ITSM apps, asset trackers, or ticketing systems – that they can build and self-host without heavy engineering dependency.

Budibase isn’t an ITSM platform as such.

Instead, it’s an open-source low-code platform designed for creating tailored internal tools in minutes, with no-code building blocks and full data integration capabilities. 

This means that, unlike pre-baked ITSM suites, Budibase lets you design exactly what your team needs – whether that’s a check-in/out portal, incident tracker, or asset dashboard – and deploy it either in the cloud or on-premises. 

Key features

  • Drag-and-drop app builder with pre-built components – Lets you rapidly design all kinds of CRUD apps, forms, portals, and admin panels. 
  • Self-hosted or cloud deployment – This ensures total control, with ISO 27001 security and GDPR compliance available for both use cases.
  • Built-in app security & scalability – Including SSO, RBAC, backup snapshots, and enterprise SLAs for maximum safety and stability.

Pricing

Budibase has a free plan for teams that would like to try it out. It includes unlimited apps, data sources, and automations, but has a limited number of users and omits more advanced features.

If you need more, you can subscribe to one of two paid plans:

  1. Premium: $60 per app creator/month + $6 per app user/month, includes Budibase AI, custom branding, PDF generation, etc.
  2. Enterprise: Creator only pricing + free & unlimited app users, includes everything in Premium, plus active directory/SCIM, custom AI (LLM) connection, audit logs, PWA support, etc.

With each of these plans, you can choose to either self-host or host with Budibase.

Pros & Cons

✅ Allows fast app creation using visual tools and data-driven autogeneration features.

✅ Supports wide data integrations and custom logic, providing you with the flexibility to build anything from a ticket system to a license tracker 

❌ Lacks built-in ITSM modules out of the box, meaning you’ll need to build each workflow yourself.

Next steps: Choose the right ITSM platform for your team

The ITSM landscape in 2025 offers more flexibility than ever. 

Whether you’re looking for a fully packaged solution, deep customization, or a lightweight help desk, there’s no shortage of Freshservice alternatives that can fit your team’s size, complexity, and budget.

That said, if you’re looking for an ITSM platform that combines ease of use, full customization, powerful automation, real-time collaboration, and transparent pricing – all without the enterprise bloat – SmartSuite stands out as one of the most flexible and scalable solutions on the market.

Start your free trial today and see how SmartSuite can simplify your ITSM workflows.

Or, if you want to see it in action first: Schedule a demo with our team and get a personalized tour.

Read more

‍

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

BMC Helix Pricing: Is It Worth It In 2025? [Reviewed]

· ·

Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

Even though BMC Helix does not publicly disclose its pricing on its website, I was still able to find some pricing information from verified user reviews and insiders.

In this guide, I’ll cover everything that is known about BMC Helix’s pricing structure, including how they calculate their pricing and reported numbers.

➡️ I’ll also introduce you to a BMC Helix alternative that has a more affordable pricing structure, is quick to set up, and comes with premium customer support without having to pay 6 figures a year.

How Does BMC Helix Calculate Its Pricing?

BMC Helix uses a modular, user-based pricing model that varies by product suite (e.g., ITSM, AIOps, Knowledge Management), license type (named vs concurrent), and deployment model (on-prem vs SaaS).

The final cost will depend on:

  • Which modules do you require? BMC Helix offers IT Service Management, Operations Management, AIOps, Virtual Agent, and Knowledge Management as separate or bundled services.
  • The type and number of users: Licenses can be assigned as named (per individual) or concurrent (shared among users), with analyst licenses priced higher than self-service or requestor roles.
  • Deployment preference: Prices are different between SaaS (Helix delivered via BMC cloud or AWS) and on-premise or hybrid deployments.
  • Contract terms and volume: Discounts may apply for long-term contracts or enterprise-scale purchases. SaaS offerings also allow purchasing in credits (e.g., $10,000 worth of credits for a year, as you’ll see later).
  • Use of AI add-ons like HelixGPT: AI features are bundled into some editions but require separate backend token usage charges (e.g., Azure OpenAI or GCP Vertex costs).
  • Implementation, customization, and training: These services often range in cost.

Does BMC Helix Have A Free Plan Or A Free Trial?

BMC Helix ITSM offers a free trial environment with no expiration date. 

Your IT team can sign up to explore features, workflows, and dashboards.

Other BMC Helix modules (e.g. Discovery, Control-M, Continuous Optimization) also provide free trials or guided demos, typically time-limited (e.g. 30 days) or focused on specific capabilities like cloud migration tools.

Apart from this, BMC Helix does not offer a free‑forever tier for small teams or long-term use. 

All modules require paid licensing after the trial period. There’s no perpetual free usage tier.

How Much Does BMC Helix Really Cost?

According to insiders from Vendr, BMC Helix pricing costs approximately $30,000 per year, based on data from three recent deals. 

For teams looking at per-user pricing, the going rate for a named user (e.g., help desk analysts, asset owners, or admins) is $114.75/month, according to BMC Helix’s Salesforce AppExchange listing.

➡️ Self-service users (those simply submitting IT tickets or requests) are included at no extra cost in that offering.

Another source, the UK Government’s Digital Marketplace, provides detailed SaaS pricing, including:

  • £218.15/month per concurrent Service Desk user.
  • £72.70/month per named Service Desk user.
  • £395.70/month per concurrent user for the full Helix Suite.
  • £131.90/month per named user for the full Helix Suite.

If you purchase BMC Helix via the AWS Marketplace, the platform also offers a $10,000/year SaaS credit bundle for 12 months. 

These credits are pre-paid and applied against licenses or usage, with any overage billed separately.

💡 According to a BMC forum post, BMC Helix Knowledge Management requires “a minimum of 30 user subscriptions at $149/month, including one named user” at initial purchase.

⚠️ Disclaimer: BMC Helix pricing is highly variable and customized based on your contract length, the modules you choose, the number and type of users, and whether you opt for SaaS or on-prem deployment. The prices above are representative, not definitive, and may shift depending on negotiations and enterprise scale.

Does BMC Helix Provide Good Value for Money?

Customers of BMC Helix are overall happy with its solution, including how they can automate and manage internal ITSM operations.

‘’Very modernized tool to automate and manage your operations. It helps in tracking tickets, tasks, changes, and data. Great support team. Integration friendly and gives options to customise as per your needs.’’ – G2 Review.

Despite this, there are many users on PeerSpot who expressed that BMC Helix ITSM is priced higher than other alternatives.

‘’The pricing of BMC Helix ITSM and its implementation costs are quite high, including subscription and maintenance costs per year.’’ – PeerSpot Review.

Looking For an BMC Helix Alternative?

All things considered, BMC Helix was designed for enterprises in mind. Users of the platform are happy with its functionality, but agree that the cost would be prohibitive for a small or medium-scale company.

ITSM leaders have been looking for BMC Helix alternatives not only due to the expensive pricing of the solution, but also because:

  • The platform’s UI is not user-friendly and is rather outdated.
  • The tool is difficult to configure and customize as the language is non-JSON, which makes it harder for developers to write.

‘’But UI is very old and needs to be changed. It is also very, very slow when switching between tabs and options.’’ – G2 Review. 

SmartSuite (that’s us) offers the best BMC Helix alternative for ITSM with our modern, no-code project management software.

Our IT service management solution has been built to help you streamline critical IT processes, organise projects, and remove traditional obstacles in the tech landscape.

Here’s a quick walkthrough of the platform and our solution for IT teams:

[embedded content]

Let’s go over the features that make SmartSuite the best choice for teams looking for an BMC Helix alternative: 👇

All-In-One IT Service Management

SmartSuite lets you manage your IT processes, projects, and asset management all in one single solution.

Our no-code, easy-to-use solution enables IT teams to automate all technical processes with ease.

Here are the features and use cases that you’ll get with SmartSuite:

  • Manage critical IT processes: Manage IT data and workflows in one place, from deploying help desk and issue management solutions to ensuring core business operations stay uninterrupted.
  • Track tickets & issues: You can deploy help desk and issue management solutions to ensure your business operations are not interrupted.
  • Manage your IT assets and licenses: Track all of your IT assets, to whom they are deployed to and what software versions are deployed.
  • Manage internal IT projects: Plan deployments, schedule your teams, and monitor progress to ensure you deliver on time and under budget.
  • Integrate with your existing systems: Our software lets you integrate with existing systems and data to consolidate and centralize your data. 
  • Automate for accuracy and efficiency: You’ll be able to remove inefficiencies and the chance for human error by automating repeatable workflows.
  • Monitor and report on your work with customizable IT dashboards that help your team slice and dice data, track help tickets, work requests, and more in dynamic interactive dashboards.

Standardize Your Team’s IT Workflows

SmartSuite lets you streamline your IT request workflow with a centralized work request process. 

You will be able to prioritize tasks, assign IT staff and ensure that you achieve service level agreements. 

You can monitor your team with flexible reports and dashboards that keep you updated in real time.

Apart from that, SmartSuite’s no-code automation builder provides IT teams with a visual interface that makes it easy to respond to events and take action.

That means your team can customize your ITSM workflows without technical resources.

💡 Working from mobile? You can stay connected to critical IT information, tickets and device information with our native iOS and Android apps.

Your team can use our mobile apps to share files, images, updates and other feedback to resolve problems and close tickets.

Ready-To-Use ITSM Templates

Our team has prepared a bunch of ITSM templates for IT teams looking to get started right away, instead of building everything from scratch, such as an IT Help Desk.

Our ITSM template includes a:

  • IT Service Request Management, where you can streamline work requests, automate repetitive tasks, and manage IT assets.
  • IT Help Desk, which we built for internal IT departments looking to capture and resolve internal technology issues.
  • IT Asset Tracker, where you can keep track of IT assets issued to employees or implemented in networks, facilities and workspaces.

You can customize our ITSM management templates here for various use cases, such as IT Security Policies, IT Security Audits, and IT Work Requests.

How is SmartSuite different from BMC Helix?

Unlike BMC Helix, SmartSuite offers a platform with:

  • A modern solution with an intuitive interface that does not confuse your IT team or require extensive training.
  • An affordable and transparent pricing model with a generous free plan to help you get started.
  • Automated workflows that can help you build multi-step automations to trigger actions at the right time.
  • Customer support and account management, which will help you with setting up the automations inside the platform.

💡 Case Study: Learn how MediaLab transformed operations, minimized risk, and saved $40,000+ per year by cutting software costs.

Pricing

Unlike BMC Helix, SmartSuite offers a free plan with access to 250+ automation actions, team collaboration, multi-dashboard views, and more.

There are four paid plans with a 14-day free trial (no CC required):

  • Team: Starts at $12/user per month, including Gantt charts, timeline views, 5000 automation runs, and native time tracking.
  • Professional: Starts at $30/user per month and adds two-factor authentication, Gmail & Outlook integrations, and unlimited editors.
  • Enterprise: Starts at $45/user/month and includes access to audit logs, data loss prevention, and 50,000 monthly API calls.
  • Signature: A customized plan tailored to your organization’s needs and team size with no predefined limits.

Next Steps For IT Teams: Get Started With SmartSuite & Our Templates For Free

If you’re an IT manager looking to build IT service management workstreams, you can give SmartSuite a chance with our free plan and ready-to-use ITSM templates.

SmartSuite’s platform offers just the right customization, native collaboration capabilities and a library of 200+ project management templates to help teams create and maintain a project management workflow.

Here’s what’s in it for your team when you try SmartSuite:

  • Access to a free plan with features including multi-board views (Kanban, Chart, Map, Timeline, Card, and Calendar), 100 automations/month, and 40+ field types, including formula and linked record fields.
  • No-code automation builder to set up to 500,000 trigger/action workflows.
  • Built-in productivity tools, including time tracking, status tracking, and checklists.
  • Team collaboration and planning tools such as whiteboards and SmartSuite docs.
  • Resource management across projects and teams.
  • 40+ field types, including the option to add your custom fields.

Sign up for a free plan to test the water or get a 14-day free trial to explore all its amazing features.

Or, if you’d like to talk to our team of experts, schedule a demo.

Read More

‍

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

10 Best ArcherIRM Alternatives For GRC In 2025, Read more

· ·

Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Bi-Weekly Getting Started Workshop. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

· ·

Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

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If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

LogicGate Pricing: Is It Worth It In 2025? [Reviewed]

· ·

Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

Despite the fact that LogicGate’s pricing is not disclosed on their website, I still managed to find some numbers and verified user reviews to help you find out whether it’s the right tool for you, cost-wise.

In this guide, I’ll discuss LogicGate’s pricing structure, going over how they calculate their pricing, and include reported numbers.

➡️ I’ll also introduce you to a LogicGate alternative for governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) that offers a more affordable pricing structure, is quick to set up, and has premium customer support without having to pay 6 figures a year.

How Does LogicGate Calculate Its Pricing?

LogicGate calculates its pricing based on 3 main factors:

  • The number of Power User licenses* that you’ll need for your.
  • The different applications that you’ll need for your GRC program, meaning that you wouldn’t pay for features you won’t need.
  • The additional services that you’ll need to get your platform up and running such as implementation, integration, and consulting services.

➡️ Power User licenses in LogicGate are for individuals who are going to be managing their GRC program inside LogicGate’s Risk Cloud. 

Other user licenses for non-administrators are at no additional cost (e.g., reviewers).

According to a G2 review from an Enterprise client of LogicGate, it can get costly to get the full set of modules that your compliance team needs.

‘’Could get costly on the full set of modules required.’’ – G2 Review.

Does LogicGate Have A Free Plan Or A Free Trial?

As of June 2025, LogicGate does not offer a free plan or a free trial of its solution.

Users of the platform are not happy with the fact that they were not able to try the product at no cost or get access to a free trial.

‘’Not having a free trial period is a crucial missing aspect of the platform, also not having a free version is a serious missing point too.’’ – Capterra Review.

How Much Does LogicGate Really Cost?

The median LogicGate buyer pays $52,567 per year for the platform, based on data from 17 purchases from Vendr.

According to Vendr, the entry threshold for the platform can be as low as $13,765/year, while for an enterprise-grade solution, it can cost up to $130,041/year.

Does LogicGate Provide Good Value for Money?

According to an enterprise client of LogicGate, the platform may be a serious step up in price in comparison to alternatives, but at least, your team can select the functionality that they’ll need, so you won’t pay for features you won’t need.

The user goes on to mention that the platform is ideal for organizations looking for a highly customizable GRC platform to centralize their whole program.

However, if you’re looking for a more simplistic solution for a few tasks, perhaps it might not be the right option for you.

‘’It’s a step up in price from other privacy platforms, but it comes down to what your company needs. If you need a highly customizable platform to centralize your whole program, it’s the right call. If you need a simple application for a few tasks, maybe it’s not.’’ – G2 Review.

Any Surprises At Contract Renewal?

There are multiple instances of customers of LogicGate receiving a 15% increase in their pricing when they had to renew their contracts with the platform.

However, the platform was willing to negotiate lower prices or to cap their percentage increase in the contract.

What’s more, LogicGate seems to favor long contracts, which is why the platform was willing to set a flat price in exchange for a 2-year commitment.

Looking For A LogicGate Alternative?

People have been looking for LogicGate alternatives not only due to the expensive pricing of the tool, but also because the platform’s UI is outdated, it has a confusing interface, and a steep learning curve.

‘’UI is ugly and confusing. Not much ease in end user experience, no third parties want to use it.’’ – G2 Review.

SmartSuite (that’s us) offers the best LogicGate alternative for compliance teams in 2025 with our modern, no-code work management platform that simplifies complex regulatory requirements.

Our GRC software lets you streamline and automate policy creation, approval, and control assessments within one place.

SmartSuite helps your compliance team move faster, manage policies smarter, and adapt easily, without having to hire expensive consultants or sign up for training to see how the solution works.

💡 We have recently partnered with the Cyber Risk Institute to deliver a CRI profile for U.S. Banks’ compliance needs.

Let’s go over the features that make SmartSuite the best choice for teams looking for a LogicGate alternative: 👇

All-In-One Risk Management & Compliance Platform

I believe that compliance should be simple, automated, and accessible to all financial institutions, regardless of their size.

Our easy-to-use platform empowers compliance managers and CISOs to automate all GRC processes with ease.

Here’s how teams are using SmartSuite:

  • Risk Management: Identify, assess, score, and monitor enterprise risks.
  • Compliance Management: Track regulatory requirements, controls, and evidence.
  • Audit Management: Manage audits, findings, and remediation workflows.
  • Policy Management: Publish, distribute, and track acknowledgement of policies.
  • Third-Party Risk: Evaluate and monitor vendors’ risk and compliance posture.
  • Incident Management: Log, triage, and resolve compliance and risk events.

SmartSuite helps compliance leaders achieve and maintain compliance without the expense and complexity of adapting legacy GRC solutions like LogicGate to accommodate new compliance requirements.

Here are the features and use cases that you’ll get with SmartSuite:

  • Create reports and dynamic dashboards: You can monitor executive views into your organization’s overall risk profile with powerful charting and metrics widgets. 
  • Collaborate and respond to risks in real-time: It’s possible to instantly engage key stakeholders in a real-time discussion of potential threats or vulnerabilities.

Our solution will also let you get immediate updates when critical information is available.

  • Streamline policy creation, in real-time approval, and control assessments: Streamline risk management by building an integrated program on a single platform.
  • Keep risk and compliance data secure: Define your teams and manage access to information across all GRC practice areas.
  • Integrate with your existing systems: Our GRC software lets you integrate with existing systems and data to consolidate and centralize your data. 
  • Automate for accuracy and efficiency: Remove inefficiency and the chance for human error by automating repeatable workflows.

SmartSuite’s no-code automation builder provides organizations with a visual interface that makes it easy to respond to events and take action. That means you can customize your GRC workflows without technical resources.

  • Monitor, measure and score: Create your own risk calculations and metrics to evaluate every aspect of organizational risk.

You can generate risk scores and evaluate key indicators with SmartSuite’s powerful calculation capabilities.

  • Policy management: Establish a strong foundation with streamlined and flexible policy management. Simplify the entire process, from authoring to review and release.

You’ll be able to assign ownership, manage revisions, and ensure your policies consistently align with key business initiatives and regulatory requirements.

  • PSTOS Compliance Tracker: Designed for regulatory compliance and built on SmartSuite.

This solution focuses on data security as the core of compliance frameworks with services such as compliance readiness, virtual CISO, and IT security implementation.

Learn more about it from our CEO, Jon Darbyshire, who held a webinar on the topic:

[embedded content]

Prioritize & Mitigate Risks

Our platform lets you create a centralized Risk Register to help you effectively identify potential risks to your organization.

You will be able to assess threats and establish risk mitigation strategies inside SmartSuite.

You can also ensure that the appropriate controls are in place and measure their effectiveness by evaluating risk indicators and displaying results in SmartSuite’s rollup reports and dashboards.

💡 Pro Tip: Teams love our platform because they can use automation to move tasks through defined workflow stages that comply with their policies and procedures.

I know how important threat management is and the need to respond quickly to incidents.

Our platform lets you centralize incident response and threat mitigation by linking incidents to assets and organizational data to offer context during your investigations.

You can also set up automations with our no-code automation builder to escalate critical events to make sure that your team is aware of active risks to your organization.

Pre-Built GRC Templates

We built GRC templates for teams looking to get started right away, instead of building everything from scratch.

Our general risk management template includes a:

  • Risk register, where you can break down the risks, the risk owner, the annual loss expectancy, risk event category, risk type, volatility, and status.
  • Issue assessments, where you’ll be able to see a comprehensive breakdown of each risk.
  • Action plans, where you can describe the actions (best practices) to mitigate the risks.
  • A separate tab for control standards, your findings, exception requests, risk assessment by type, and risk assessment issues.

You can customize our risk management template here.

Alternatively, check out and customize our 14 other risk management templates for various use cases, such as contract management, policy management, and incident management.

How is SmartSuite different from LogicGate?

Unlike LogicGate, SmartSuite offers:

  • A modern solution with an intuitive interface that does not confuse your team or require training.
  • An affordable and transparent pricing model, as well as a generous free plan to help you get started.
  • Automated workflows that can help you build multi-step automations to trigger actions at the right time.
  • Best-in-class customer support and account management that will help you with setting up the automations inside the platform.

💡 Case Study: Find out how MediaLab transformed operations, minimized risk, and saved $40,000+ per year by cutting software costs.

How is SmartSuite’s Pricing Different From LogicGate’s?

Unlike LogicGate, SmartSuite offers a free plan with access to 250+ automation actions, team collaboration, multi-dashboard views, and more.

There are four paid plans with a 14-day free trial (no CC required):

  • Team: Starts at $12/user per month, including Gantt charts, timeline views, 5000 automation runs, and native time tracking.
  • Professional: Starts at $30/user per month and adds two-factor authentication, Gmail & Outlook integrations, and unlimited editors.
  • Enterprise: Starts at $45/user/month and includes access to audit logs, data loss prevention, and 50,000 monthly API calls.
  • Signature: A customized plan tailored to your organization’s needs and team size with no predefined limits.

Next Steps For Compliance Teams: Get Started With SmartSuite & Our Templates For Free

If you’re looking to build GRC workstreams and prioritize and mitigate risks, you can give SmartSuite a chance with our free plan and ready-to-use GRC templates.

Our platform offers just the right customization, native collaboration capabilities and a library of 200+ project management templates to help compliance teams create and maintain a project management workflow.

Here’s what’s in it for your team when you try SmartSuite:

  • Access to a generous free plan with features including multi-board views (Kanban, Chart, Map, Timeline, Card, and Calendar), 100 automations/month, and 40+ field types, including formula and linked record fields.
  • No-code automation builder to set up to 500,000 trigger/action workflows.
  • Built-in productivity tools, including time tracking, status tracking, and checklists.
  • Team collaboration and planning tools such as whiteboards and SmartSuite docs.
  • Resource management across projects and teams.
  • 40+ field types, including the option to add your custom fields.

Sign up for a free plan to test the water or get a 14-day free trial to explore all its amazing features.

Or, if you’d like to talk to our experts, you can schedule a demo.

Read More

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

10 Best LogicGate Alternatives For GRC In 2025 [Reviewed]

· ·

Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

Are you searching for LogicGate alternatives to effectively manage your GRC workflows?

LogicGate, a modern and flexible GRC platform, helps automate your workflows, quantify risks, and collaborate using data-driven insights. 

However, some customers of the platform are not happy with its pricing model, outdated interface, and steep learning curve.

In this article, I’ll go over the 10 best LogicGate alternatives for government, risk, and compliance in 2025 that can help you manage your organizational policies, track compliance efforts, and ensure regulatory alignment.

Why are some companies looking to switch from LogicGate?

Now, I’m not saying that LogicGate is a horrible tool that needs to be switched from. 

Hundreds of satisfied users are more than happy with the tool, as it has helped them reduce manual effort through the tool’s AI-powered capabilities.

Despite this, some customers have been dissatisfied with the platform for several reasons:

#1: The platform can get expensive, even for Enterprises

LogicGate may not disclose its pricing on its website, but 3rd party data from Vendr shows that the average cost for the tool is $52,567/year out of the 17 deals they have handled for them.

Considering that you’ll have to pay for the use of different models, not for all features, Enterprise-grade users of the platform mention that it can get expensive if you want to get the full product suite.

‘’Could get costly on the full set of modules required.’’ – G2 Review. 

#2: Outdated and confusing user interface

Next up, verified users of the tool mention that the user interface is outdated and that it can be complicated.

One of the issues with this is that, as the user mentions, third parties like subcontractors, auditors, and suppliers will not want to use it.

‘’UI is ugly and confusing. Not much ease in end user experience, no third parties want to use it.’’ – G2 Review.

#3: There’s a steep learning curve

Lastly, customers of the platform mention that LogicGate was daunting for them at first, and they have to complete a ‘’power user training’’ to learn how to use their platform.

➡️ Nowadays, I’m seeing more and more companies switch from traditional GRC solutions like LogicGate, which are expensive with outdated UIs, to modern solutions that have an intuitive interface and are easy to set up and use.

‘’It can seem a little daunting at first, even after completing the power user training, especially if you are someone new to the company, which is already using Risk Cloud.’’ – G2 Review.

What are the best LogicGate alternatives for GRC in 2025?

Here are the 10 best LogicGate alternatives on the market for government, risk, and compliance after reviewing 30+ platforms:

#1: SmartSuite: Best for companies looking to launch GRC workflows in days. Our platform lets you manage policies, audits, risks, and compliance in a unified, customizable platform.

#2: OneTrust: Good for companies looking to automate framework compliance and gain enterprise-wide visibility into technology risk.

#3: ArcherIRM: Ideal for managing policies, controls, risks, assessments, and deficiencies from a single platform.

#4: ServiceNow: Best for companies looking for integrated risk management and compliance automation.

#5: MetricStream: Good for enterprises looking for a unified platform to manage governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) across international operations.

#6: AuditBoards: Ideal for compliance teams looking to unify audit, risk, and compliance functions with automations and connected workflows.

#7: StandardFusion: Best for organizations looking for proactive risk oversight and strategic alignment across all GRC activities.

#8: SAI360: Good for enterprises looking for a comprehensive, customizable platform with preconfigured modules and advanced analytics.

#9: Apptega: Ideal for teams looking to continuously manage cybersecurity compliance across multiple frameworks.

#10: Monday.com: Best for smaller compliance teams looking to create custom, real-time dashboards that monitor risk levels by category.

#1: SmartSuite

SmartSuite offers the best LogicGate alternative on the market for compliance teams with our modern, no-code work management platform that simplifies complex regulatory requirements.

Originally built for Banks and Credit Unions, our GRC software lets you streamline and automate policy creation, approval, and control assessments, all in one place.

SmartSuite helps your team move faster, manage policies smarter, and adapt easily, without having to hire expensive consultants or sign up for training to see how the solution works.

💡 We have recently partnered with the Cyber Risk Institute to deliver a CRI profile for U.S. Banks’ compliance needs.

Let’s go over the features that make SmartSuite the best choice for compliance teams looking for a LogicGate alternative: 👇

All-In-One Risk Management & Compliance Platform

We at SmartSuite believe that compliance should be simple, automated, and accessible to all financial institutions, regardless of their size.

Our no-code, easy-to-use platform empowers compliance managers and CISOs to automate all GRC processes with ease.

Here’s how teams are using SmartSuite:

  • Risk Management: Identify, assess, score, and monitor enterprise risks.
  • Compliance Management: Track regulatory requirements, controls, and evidence.
  • Audit Management: Manage audits, findings, and remediation workflows.
  • Policy Management: Publish, distribute, and track acknowledgement of policies.
  • Third-Party Risk: Evaluate and monitor vendors’ risk and compliance posture.
  • Incident Management: Log, triage, and resolve compliance and risk events.

SmartSuite helps compliance leaders achieve and maintain compliance without the expense and complexity of adapting legacy GRC solutions like LogicGate to accommodate new compliance requirements.

Here are the features and use cases that you’ll get with SmartSuite:

  • Create reports and dynamic dashboards: You can monitor executive views into your organization’s overall risk profile with powerful charting and metrics widgets. 
  • Collaborate and respond to risks in real-time: It’s possible to instantly engage key stakeholders in a real-time discussion of potential threats or vulnerabilities.

Our solution will also let you get immediate updates when critical information is available.

  • Streamline policy creation, in real-time approval, and control assessments: Streamline risk management by building an integrated program on a single platform.
  • Keep risk and compliance data secure: Define your teams and manage access to information across all GRC practice areas.
  • Integrate with your existing systems: Our GRC software lets you integrate with existing systems and data to consolidate and centralize your data. 
  • Automate for accuracy and efficiency: Remove inefficiency and the chance for human error by automating repeatable workflows.

SmartSuite’s no-code automation builder provides organizations with a visual interface that makes it easy to respond to events and take action. That means you can customize your GRC workflows without technical resources.

  • Monitor, measure and score: Create your own risk calculations and metrics to evaluate every aspect of organizational risk.

You can generate risk scores and evaluate key indicators with SmartSuite’s powerful calculation capabilities.

  • Policy management: Establish a strong foundation with streamlined and flexible policy management. Simplify the entire process, from authoring to review and release.

You’ll be able to assign ownership, manage revisions, and ensure your policies consistently align with key business initiatives and regulatory requirements.

  • PSTOS Compliance Tracker: Designed for regulatory compliance and built on SmartSuite.

This solution focuses on data security as the core of compliance frameworks with services such as compliance readiness, virtual CISO, and IT security implementation.

Learn more about it from our CEO, Jon Darbyshire, who held a webinar on the topic:

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Prioritize & Mitigate Risks

SmartSuite lets you create a centralized Risk Register to help you effectively identify potential risks to your organization.

You will be able to efficiently assess threats and establish risk mitigation strategies inside SmartSuite.

What’s more, you can ensure that the appropriate controls are in place and measure their effectiveness by evaluating risk indicators and displaying results in SmartSuite’s rollup reports and dashboards.

💡 Pro Tip: You can also use automation to move tasks through defined workflow stages that comply with your policies and procedures.

I know from experience how important threat management is and the need to respond quickly to incidents.

SmartSuite lets you centralize incident response and threat mitigation by linking incidents to assets and organizational data to offer context during your investigations.

You can also set up automations with our no-code automation builder to escalate critical events to make sure that your team is aware of active risks to your organization.

Pre-Built GRC Templates

We have prepared GRC templates for teams looking to get started right away, instead of building everything from scratch.

Our general risk management template includes a:

  • Risk register, where you can break down the risks, the risk owner, the annual loss expectancy, risk event category, risk type, volatility, and status.
  • Issue assessments, where you’ll be able to see a comprehensive breakdown of each risk.
  • Action plans, where you can describe the actions (best practices) to mitigate the risks.
  • A separate tab for control standards, your findings, exception requests, risk assessment by type, and risk assessment issues.

You can customize our risk management template here.

Alternatively, check out and customize our 14 other risk management templates for various use cases, such as contract management, policy management, and incident management.

How is SmartSuite different from LogicGate?

Unlike LogicGate, SmartSuite:

  • Offers a modern solution with an intuitive interface that does not confuse your team or require training.
  • Offers an affordable and transparent pricing model, as well as a generous free plan to help you get started.
  • Has automated workflows that can help you build multi-step automations to trigger actions at the right time.
  • Includes best-in-class customer support and account management that will help you with setting up the automations inside the platform.

💡 Case Study: Learn how MediaLab transformed operations, minimized risk, and saved $40,000+ per year by cutting software costs.

Pricing

Unlike LogicGate, SmartSuite offers a free plan with access to 250+ automation actions, team collaboration, multi-dashboard views, and more.

There are four paid plans with a 14-day free trial (no CC required):

  • Team: Starts at $12/user per month, including Gantt charts, timeline views, 5000 automation runs, and native time tracking.
  • Professional: Starts at $30/user per month and adds two-factor authentication, Gmail & Outlook integrations, and unlimited editors.
  • Enterprise: Starts at $45/user/month and includes access to audit logs, data loss prevention, and 50,000 monthly API calls.
  • Signature: A customized plan tailored to your organization’s needs and team size with no predefined limits.

Pros & Cons

✅ The free plan includes access to advanced features.

✅ 15 pre-built GRC templates for various use cases.

✅ Dynamic dashboards and reporting that are easy to navigate.

✅ Integrated document and file management.

✅ Automate risk scoring, compliance tracking, audits, and vendor reviews.

✅ Modern and intuitive user interface.

❌ Fewer native integrations when compared to other alternatives on the market.

#2: OneTrust

Best for: Companies looking to automate framework compliance and gain enterprise-wide visibility into technology risk.

Similar to: ArcherIRM, ServiceNow.

The OneTrust platform simplifies compliance and optimizes the entire risk and compliance lifecycle by automating controls, evidence collection, and reporting. 

The platform is a viable LogicGate alternative for enterprises looking for ready-to-use frameworks, extensive integrations, and dynamic dashboards.

Features

  • Streamline compliance with 55+ ready-to-action frameworks, prescriptive content, and evidence requirements broken down into measurable tasks.
  • Connect teams via a user-friendly portal, automated workflows, and 200+ pre-built integrations.
  • Map systems, data, and risks in one unified view: Prioritize action with dynamic scoring and strategic impact insights.
  • Automatically generate required controls and evidence tasks across 300 jurisdictions.

Standout Feature: Proprietary Shared Evidence Framework

What stood out to me about OneTrust is that you can collect evidence once and comply across 50+ frameworks with OneTrust’s shared evidence framework to eliminate duplicate data requests. 

Pricing

OneTrust has different pricing plans for its 5 product lines, all of which have custom pricing:

  • Consent & Preferences: Capture and activate consent, preferences, and first-party data across your user touchpoints.
  • Privacy Automation: Simplify compliance, improve operational efficiency, and help your business better use personal data.
  • Third-Party Management: Third-party risk management and the ability to fully manage your third-party lifecycle.
  • Tech Risk & Compliance​: Scale governance, risk, and compliance, and mature your risk program.​
  • AI Governance: Gain visibility and control over your AI technology and empower risk-based decisions.​

Pros & Cons

✅ Collect evidence and comply across 50+ frameworks with OneTrust’s shared evidence framework.

✅ Good range of integrations when compared to other competitors in this list.

✅ You can monitor and manage your program with dynamic dashboards.

❌ The price can be an issue for smaller companies, as it’s expensive.

❌ The user interface has been described as outdated by G2 reviews.

#3: ArcherIRM

Best for: Managing policies, controls, risks, assessments, and deficiencies from a single platform.

Similar to: MetricStream.

Archer provides enterprises with a holistic, integrated risk management solution that helps them manage policies, controls, risks, assessments, and deficiencies.

The platform is a proper enterprise-grade LogicGate alternative for organizations looking to effectively manage risk and ensure compliance.

Features

  • Centralized management of policies, controls, risks, assessments, and deficiencies on one GRC platform.
  • Integrated risk management across multiple dimensions, including IT, operational, and third-party risk.
  • A customizable solution that can adapt to your internal functions and extended third-party ecosystems.
  • Streamlined compliance management to efficiently consolidate standardized reports, audits, and assessments.

Standout Feature: Archer Evolv

ArcherIRM’s Archer Evolv functionality lets you track regulatory developments from all over the world and creates visibility into all requirements for better control over policies.

Pricing

ArcherIRM does not disclose its pricing structure, so you’d have to contact them to get a product demo and a quote.

Pros & Cons

✅ Real-time cyber risk intelligence capabilities.

✅ Good analytics and real-time reporting.

✅ An AI-powered analytics tool that can be used for predictive risk identification.

❌ Enterprise-grade pricing, which starts at approximately $55,000/year, according to info collected from insiders.

❌ The software seems to have an outdated interface that is not very intuitive, similar to LogicGate.

#4: ServiceNow

Best for: Companies looking for integrated risk management and compliance automation.

Similar to: MetricStream, ArcherIRM.

ServiceNow offers a GRC solution that provides you with a unified approach to governance, risk, and compliance by helping you integrate data and workflows across security and IT teams.

The platform is a good alternative to LogicGate as it automates manual processes and delivers AI-driven insights for real-time risk mitigation.

Features

  • Single data model: The platform helps you eliminat silos by centralizing enterprise risk and compliance data into one source.
  • No-code workflow automation: Lets you enable cross-functional risk response and compliance management without having to hire consultants or programmers.
  • The GRC suite operates on ServiceNow’s Now Platform, which enables seamless data sharing and real-time collaboration across all GRC products.
  • Third-party risk management: You’ll be able to identify and mitigate risks from external vendors and partners.

Standout Feature: AI-Powered Actionable Insights

ServiceNow offers AI-powered actionable insights that accelerate decision-making with predictive analytics and process optimization.

Pricing

ServiceNow’s pricing is not disclosed, so you’d have to book a demo with their team.

I was able to find ServiceNow customer and public reviews, which show that the average cost of ServiceNow contracts can range between $50,000 and $500,000 annually.

The pricing structure depends on the number of licenses, features, and other configuration requirements.

Pros & Cons

✅ Sophisticated risk, audit, and compliance management features.

✅ Real-time risk monitoring and prioritization that helps you make better decisions.

✅ Integrations with other tools and centralized management of alerts and tickets.

❌ Steep learning curve and complexity, unlike some ServiceNow alternatives.

❌ Training, skills development, and ongoing support can be costly.

#5: MetricStream

Best for: Enterprises looking for a unified platform to manage governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) across international operations.

Similar to: OneTrust, ServiceNow.

MetricStream offers a GRC software platform that centralizes risk, compliance, audit, and third-party management to help you transform data into actionable intelligence.

The platform is a proper LogicGate alternative for compliance teams looking to break down organizational silos, automate workflows, and deliver real-time insights to their leadership team.

Features

  • Enterprise-wide risk management framework that comes with advanced analytics and real-time reporting.
  • Automated compliance management, which includes regulatory change tracking, policy alignment, and impact assessments to minimize compliance violations.
  • Real-time cyber risk intelligence and unified IT risk management to help you proactively address threats and ensure regulatory adherence.
  • Centralized third- and fourth-party risk management, which includes performance tracking and business continuity risk assessment.

Standout Feature: AI-powered insights (AiSPIRE) 

Similar to LogicGate, MetricStream also has an AI-powered insights tool, AiSPIRE, that can be used for predictive risk identification, duplicate control detection, and cognitive recommendations.

Pricing

MetricStream does not disclose its pricing structure, so you’d have to contact them to get a product demo and a quote.

Pros & Cons

✅ Real-time cyber risk intelligence capabilities.

✅ Advanced analytics that cover the weaknesses alongside real-time reporting.

✅ An AI-powered insights tool, AiSPIRE, that can be used for predictive risk identification.

❌ The platform’s pricing structure is not SME-friendly, according to G2 reviews.

❌ The tool has an outdated interface that can be hard to navigate.

#6: AuditBoards

Best for: Compliance teams looking to unify audit, risk, and compliance functions with automations and connected workflows.

Similar to: ArcherIRM, ServiceNow.

AuditBoard offers a GRC solution help you break down silos between audit, risk, and compliance teams to help them to build resilience and improve operational efficiency.

The platform is a viable alternative to LogicGate as it uses AI and integrated workflows to transform risk data into actionable insights.

Features

  • Unified risk platform: Connects audit, risk, and compliance teams for a single, in-depth view of organizational risk.
  • AI-powered insights: Automate workflows, deliver data-driven insights, and optimizes risk and compliance models.
  • Flexible reporting and dashboards: Customizable reports and out-of-the-box dashboards that help uncover insights, track trends, and support data-driven decisions.
  • Integrated workflows and APIs: Streamline data collection and task management through integrations.

Standout Feature: Preloaded Library of 30+ Frameworks

AuditBoard offers access to its preloaded library of 30+ frameworks (including SOC 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR) to help you stay audit-ready as your organization scales.

Pricing

AuditBoard has not disclosed its pricing, so you’d have to contact them to book a demo and get a quote.

Pros & Cons

✅ Access to a single view of organizational risk.

✅ Modern interface with good AI capabilities, unlike LogicGate.

✅ Access to a preloaded library of 30+ frameworks to help you stay ready for audits.

❌ The median contract value of the tool is around $42,775/year, according to insiders.

❌ Some users of the platform find it difficult to use, with some of them requiring special training.

#7: StandardFusion

Best for: Organizations looking for proactive risk oversight and strategic alignment across all GRC activities.

Similar to: Apptega.

StandardFusion’s GRC Platform consolidates enterprise risk, compliance, audit, policy, vendor, and privacy management into a single system. 

The platform is a good alternative to LogicGate for teams looking for proactive risk oversight and strategic alignment across all GRC activities.

Features

  • Centralized GRC ecosystem integrating risk, compliance, audit, policy, vendor, and privacy management into one platform.
  • Enterprise Risk Management integration that helps you guide all GRC activities for strategic decision-making and risk mitigation.
  • Centralized data and analytics for monitoring internal controls.

Standout Feature: Automated Workflows

StandardFusion offers automated workflows that aim to streamline your GRC processes and reduce system complexity.

Pricing

StandardFusion does not disclose its pricing structure, so you’ll have to reach out to them to get a product demo and a quote.

Pros & Cons

✅ User-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, according to G2 reviews.

✅ Comprehensive control, monitoring, and risk management features.

✅ Consolidates multiple compliance frameworks (e.g., ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, NIST) in one platform.

❌ Recurring task management and tracking can be difficult.

❌ The tool’s annual price increases are a concern for smaller businesses.

#8: SAI360

Best for: Enterprises looking for a comprehensive, customizable platform with preconfigured modules and advanced analytics.

Similar to: ArcherIRM, MetricStream.

SAI360 offers a unified GRC platform that comes with preconfigured modules, advanced analytics to help you proactively manage risk and ensure regulatory alignment.

Its cloud-based, AI-powered platform is a good alternative to LogicGate for teams looking to enhance security and streamline workflows.

Features

  • 20+ preconfigured GRC modules that include enterprise risk, IT risk, third-party risk, internal audit, business continuity, policy, and incident management.
  • Leverages AI to enhance reporting, risk assessment, and operational efficiency.
  • Built-in eLearning, which ensures employees are well-prepared to meet regulatory demands.
  • Pre-mapped frameworks and controls aligned with international regulations for faster deployment and easier compliance.

Standout Feature: Integrated GRC from Every Angle

What stood out to me about SAI360 is that it offers a holistic, enterprise-wide approach that helps you unify risk, compliance, and ethics management into one customizable system.

Pricing

SAI360 does not disclose its pricing, so you’d have to contact them to get a product demo and a quote.

Pros & Cons

✅ AI-powered reporting, risk assessment, and operational efficiency.

✅ A holistic approach that helps you unify risk, compliance, and ethics management.

✅ 20+ preconfigured GRC modules.

❌ The platform is described as outdated and difficult to manage by G2 reviews.

❌ Admins are not able to easily modify fields or workflows.

#9: Apptega

Best for: Teams looking to continuously manage cybersecurity compliance across multiple frameworks.

Similar to: LogicGate, SmartSuite.

Apptega’s platform simplifies compliance management by consolidating security measures and regulatory requirements into one unified system. 

The platform is a viable alternative to LogicGate as it streamlines evidence collection, task automation, risk scoring, and cross-framework alignment to help you reduce manual effort and improve visibility.

Features

  • Assessment Manager with questionnaire-based templates for 30+ frameworks (e.g., NIST, SOC 2, PCI DSS) to help compliance teams identify risks and unmet controls.
  • Risk Manager for scoring, ranking, and reporting on risks with actionable insights to improve security posture.
  • Audit Manager for accelerated evidence sharing, control validation, and audit preparation.

Standout Feature: Real-Time Dashboards 

Apptega’s real-time dashboards and reporting functionality are useful for providing instant visibility into compliance progress, security posture; with stakeholder-ready insights.

Pricing

Apptega might not disclose its pricing, but at least the platform lets you get a free trial of its Starter plan.

You can play around with 1 workflow, its Risk Manager, and custom reporting to see if the platform is a good fit for your needs.

Pros & Cons

✅ Built-in frameworks, such as NIST, CMMC, and ISO.

✅ Automated tracking boosts governance and risk management.

✅ Excellent customer service and a dedicated onboarding team.

❌ The user interface feels outdated, occasionally impacting the speed of operations, according to user reviews.

❌ Large enterprise customers find the platform too simplistic for their needs.

#10: Monday.com

Best for: Smaller compliance teams looking to create custom, real-time dashboards that monitor risk levels by category.

Similar to: ClickUp, SmartSuite.

Monday.com is an all-in-one project management platform, similar to Asana and ClickUp, that offers a good range of features for compliance teams, such as dashboards and automations.

It’s a proper alternative to LogicGate for lower-budget teams that are looking to create a comprehensive real-time risk management dashboard.

Features

  • Risk identification and description: Capture the details of the risk, the description of the problem, and categorize it.
  • Risk assessment and response: Assess the impact and probability of the risks by building Time Impact, Cost Impact and Quality Impact columns.
  • Risk action plan: Initiate the action plan in the Risk Log. The columns will then collect the general status of the risk mitigation action.

➡️ Find out more about Monday and its other project management features in our in-depth Monday review.

Standout Feature: Real-Time Risk Management Dashboard

Compliance teams can monitor the risks directly in the task management software with a custom dashboard by incorporating the risk log in Monday.

Pricing

Monday.com offers a free plan for up to 2 seats, where you can test out the tool’s basic project management features.

💡 In our guide on Monday’s pricing, we dive deeper into whether the platform’s pricing offers good value-for-money.

To access the platform’s advanced features, you’d need to be on one of their four paid plans:

  • Basic: Starts at $17 per user/month and adds Kanban board view and unlimited users with view-only access.
  • Standard: Starts at $20 per user/month and adds 250 automated actions/month, 3+ dashboard views, and Zoom integration.
  • Pro: Starts at $32 per user/month, and adds all five dashboard views, time tracking, and 2-factor authentication.
  • Enterprise: Custom price, which adds a dedicated customer success manager, enterprise-level reporting, and administration control.

Pros & Cons

✅ Advanced reporting and analysis at the project and portfolio level, which is ideal for smaller and larger teams.

✅ 200+ integrations across apps you’re probably already using, including communication and productivity.

✅ Build custom dashboards to monitor risks in real-time.

❌ Plan upgrade available in set increments of 5 and 10 users.

❌ Automation features are gated to the more expensive plans, which is why some teams have been looking for alternatives to Monday.

Next Steps For Compliance Teams: Get Started With SmartSuite & Our Templates For Free

Well, that was it: our list of the 10 best LogicGate alternatives on the market in 2025.

If you’re looking to build governance, risk, and compliance workstreams and effectively prioritize and mitigate risks, you can give SmartSuite’s free plan and ready-to-use GRC templates a chance.

Our platform offers just the right customization, native collaboration capabilities and a library of 200+ project management templates to help compliance leaders create and maintain a project management workflow.

Here’s what’s in it for your team when you try SmartSuite:

  • Access to a generous free plan with features including multi-board views (Kanban, Chart, Map, Timeline, Card, and Calendar), 100 automations/month, and 40+ field types, including formula and linked record fields.
  • No-code automation builder to set up to 500,000 trigger/action workflows.
  • Built-in productivity tools, including time tracking, status tracking, and checklists.
  • Team collaboration and planning tools such as whiteboards and SmartSuite docs.
  • Resource management across projects and teams.
  • 40+ field types, including the option to add your custom fields.

Sign up for a free plan to test the water or get a 14-day free trial to explore all its amazing features.

Or, if you’d like to talk to our team of experts, schedule a demo.

Read More

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

10 Best Project Management Tools & Software In 2025 [Reviewed]

· ·

Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

Are you trying to figure out what the best project management solution is for your organization?

A good project management platform can improve your team’s productivity by providing a centralized platform for task management, real-time collaboration, and effective communication.

In this article, I’ll go over the 10 best project management platforms for 2025, including their top features, pricing structure, and pros and cons.

Factors To Consider When Evaluating Project Management Tools

Before we begin with the list of the best PM tools, I wanted to go over the factors I took into consideration:

#1: Depth of project management features

If I were to look for a project management solution for our team right now, I’d start by looking at the key features required to plan, manage, and execute projects, such as:

  • Task management: You can start by assessing if the software caters to your project management methodology, such as agile. You want to see the different views of visualizing your tasks, such as Kanban board, Gantt charts, and Timeline views. 
  • Automation capabilities: Check if the platform comes with a native automation builder or offers integrations with your existing automation solution, like Zapier.
  • Team collaboration capabilities: Look for features like a native document builder, comments, @mentions, whiteboards, and communication tools.
  • Reporting: Check the report types you can build and whether the tool offers a customizable dashboard that can curate data from different projects.
  • Time-tracking and budgeting so you can keep track of billable hours by contractors.
  • Resource management: Explore the platform’s resource management features and see how it helps you allocate, manage, and report your resources.
  • Risk management features, such as identifying risks associated with projects, including overdue tasks or potential impact on projects.

#2: Customizability

As you work on multiple projects, some of them will require a tailored approach.

The best project management tools will allow you to: 

  • Create workflows that match your specific processes, regardless of whether you follow Agile, Waterfall, or another methodology.
  • Customize your dashboard to display the metrics, KPIs, and tasks to be done for different projects.
  • Get access to a variety of templates that you can use and tailor to your needs. These standardized templates are ready-to-use, such as a risk matrix template.

#3: Range of integrations

If you are looking to create a cohesive project management workflow with your team, you need to be looking for a PM solution that connects with your existing productivity tool stack.

For example, if the platform has a native integration with Slack, that would facilitate instant communication, and there wouldn’t be a need to switch platforms.

#4: Intuitiveness and ease of use

Your team and clients wouldn’t want a tool that takes ages to figure out and requires extensive training to figure out how to use.

Project leaders prefer tools that are intuitive and quick to learn to avoid disrupting their workflow.

Here are a few questions you can ask to make informed decisions.

  • How easy is it to understand the hierarchical structure of all the tasks?
  • Can my team navigate the interface without getting confused?
  • Is the navigation menu clear and outlines all the options?
  • How easy will it be for my team members to update the task’s status?
  • Would you need to configure the tool according to your enterprise project’s goals and deliverables? 

In such cases, look for the onboarding and set-up support offered. 

💡 For example, when you purchase 25 or more user seats on SmartSuite (that’s us), you get a dedicated customer success manager who offers personalized training and continued support.

#5: Pricing structure

Lastly, you’ll need to consider the pricing structure of each project management platform before you can make the final decision.

Since almost all project management tools’ pricing is based on seats, it’s crucial to consider which tool gives your large or small team the best value for your buck.

➡️ Some of the platforms we will review also have a generous free plan that you can use to get a sense for their platform before committing to a paid plan.

What Are The Best Project Management Tools In 2025?

#1: SmartSuite: An all-in-one project management solution that lets you plan, manage, and track projects, resources, and stakeholders.

#2: ClickUp: Manage complex projects in a custom-built interface.

#3: Monday.com: Advanced reporting and workflows.

#4: Asana: Build advanced workflows through dependencies and automation.

#5: Smartsheet: Manage multiple projects using a spreadsheet-like interface.

#6: Todoist: Manage complex tasks via checklists and subtasks.

#7: Miro: Intuitive and simplistic project management tool.

#8: Basecamp: Simplify task management and cross-department communication between different teams and clients.

#9: Wrike: Manage complex workflows across multiple departments in your company.

#10: Airtable: Manage workflows through relational databases.

#1: SmartSuite

SmartSuite offers the best project management tool on the market that lets you manage all your projects on a centralized platform with built-in automation and a communication centre.

But we are not trying to add to the noise of other project management solutions on the market.

Our solution aims to create one unified no-code platform that runs the entire operation, from project management to process automation to real-time collaboration.

Let’s go over the features that make SmartSuite the ideal choice for companies looking for a comprehensive project management solution: 👇

Plan, Track & Manage Simple To Complex Projects

SmartSuite’s project management features help teams plan, track, and manage multiple projects at scale. 

To simplify the process, your team will get numerous built-in, intuitive features to execute your tasks.

💡 Interested in how other team leaders are using SmartSuite? You can check out our video walkthrough:

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Here are the features that teams from all over the world love the most about SmartSuite:

  • Smart task management: You can turn any item field into a task—a checklist item, comments, or sub-item. It’s possible to build a solid task list and assign it to the right person with a due date and priority status.
  • Project phases and milestones: Ensure your project stays on track and moves towards the objective. With SmartSuite, you can set milestones, monitor through your reporting dashboard, and flag issues.
  • Files and project deliverables: Manage and organize all your documents. It is also possible to attach project-related files, share feedback with your team, and manage version history, all within your work context.

💡 SmartSuite supports formats like PDF, GIF, CSV, PNG, and MP4 and integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and Microsoft OneDrive, making adding files to your team’s workflows easy.

You can add images directly in SmartSuite by connecting your social media and Unsplash accounts.

  • Native time tracking: Teams can monitor and evaluate task and project completion times. Built-in tracking helps group time entries, see estimates, and segment billable and non-billable entries.

Native Team Collaboration

Crucial feedback on tasks is likely getting lost in long email threads or Slack messages if your team is not using a dedicated project management platform.

SmartSuite’s built-in communication and collaboration features help centralize communication.

The conversation happens where the work is, in your project management tool.

Here are the key features that make collaboration easy in SmartSuite:

  • Built-in communication centre for connecting with peers in group chats or 1:1 conversations for quick feedback and keeping stakeholders updated throughout the project.
  • The member’s directory lets you see all the details about your co-workers, including their availability status and job profile, making it efficient to contact the right people.
  • SmartSuite docs help you brainstorm with your teams, map out the campaign’s resources, or do a SWOT analysis.

Comprehensive Project Reporting & Custom Dashboards

Our platform has a dynamic project analytics tool with configurable charts and graphs.

The reporting dashboard helps you track project performance, understand resource allocation, and identify slow-moving projects. 

Based on that information, you can develop plans to overcome roadblocks and get the project back on track.

Your team can visualize reporting in Grid, Card, Kanban, Timeline, Map, Calendar, or Dashboard views. 

You can add as many as needed to build a visual storyboard for your project’s progress.

To share reports with your stakeholders or clients, you can make the report public and share the necessary access.

No-Code Automation Builder

SmartSuite’s no-code automation builder lets teams automate some of the repetitive tasks that they face in day-to-day operations.

For example, you can assemble automation at the task and project level and automate repetitive tasks based on triggers like changing dates, sending notification emails, or updating statuses.

There are six pre-defined triggers and 15+ actions, with options to build custom ones.

Once you’ve set up a workboard in SmartSuite, head to “Automations” and automate anything from record creation to updates to task assignments and notifications. 

Here’s more information about SmartSuite’s workflow automations: 👇

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SmartSuite Pricing

SmartSuite offers a free plan with access to 250+ automation actions, team collaboration, multi-dashboard views, and more.

There are four paid plans with a 14-day free trial:

  • Team: Starts at $10/user per month, including Gantt charts, timeline views, 5000 automation runs, and time tracking.
  • Professional: Starts at $25/user per month and adds two-factor authentication, Gmail & Outlook integrations, and unlimited editors.
  • Enterprise: Starts at $35/user/month and includes access to audit logs, data loss prevention, and 50,000 monthly API calls.
  • Signature: A custom plan tailored to your organization’s needs and team size with no predefined limits.
Factors to Consider When Choosing an Organization Software

SmartSuite Pros and Cons

✅ The free plan includes access to advanced features.

✅ 200+ project templates for various business use cases.

✅ Dynamic dashboards and reporting that are easy to navigate.

✅ Integrated document and file management.

✅ Comprehensive workflow automation.

❌ Fewer native integrations when compared to other alternatives.

#2: ClickUp

Best for: Managing complex projects in a custom-built interface.

Similar to: Monday.com, Asana.

ClickUp offers a cloud-based project management platform that helps teams automate workflows and manage tasks.

The solution gives you access to Gantt charts, board views, and portfolios that you can use to simplify your work management, as well as advanced reporting features.

Who Is It For?

ClickUp is best for large teams looking for customization options so they can tailor the platform for different use cases and standardize their process.

ClickUp’s Top Features

  • Task management: You can get an overview of each project’s tasks with the app’s multiple task views, custom fields, dependencies, and comment-based collaboration.
  • Whiteboards: A virtual canvas where your team can build agile workflows, outline dependencies, and figure out action items to meet the project’s objectives. 
  • Sync time tracking to improve your team’s productivity and billable hours for your HR team.

➡️ Learn more about ClickUp and its features in our comprehensive ClickUp review.

ClickUp Pricing

ClickUp’s pricing offers a free plan that includes unlimited task creation, access to 100 MB of storage, and collaborative docs.

The platform has three paid plans with a 14-day free trial:

  • Unlimited: Starts at $7 per user/month, which includes access to unlimited custom views, timesheets, guest access, and 100 mind map creations.
  • Business: Starts at $12 per user/month and adds private docs, sprint reporting, and all dashboard views.
  • Enterprise: Custom price that adds white labelling, enterprise-grade security, and AI features.

ClickUp Pros and Cons

✅ Low entry-level pricing plans for smaller teams.

✅ Highly customizable with a comprehensive range of built-in tools for large enterprises.

✅ Solid team management and collaboration tools.

❌ Can get overwhelming for new users due to the platform’s complex interface, which is why some organizations have been looking for ClickUp alternatives.

❌ It can take longer to set up a dashboard that fits the bill, according to some G2 reviews.

#3: Monday.com

Best for: Teams that are looking for advanced reporting and workflows.

Similar to: Asana, SmartSuite.

Monday.com offers an all-in-one project management app with an excellent range of features for organizations of all sizes, such as work management, automations, and reporting.

The PM software helps you build project-level goals, plan resources and budgets per project, and assign responsibilities to employees and contractors.

Who Is It For?

I think of Monday.com as ideal for medium to large enterprises (such as consultants) looking to equip their team with best-in-class reporting and automations.

Monday.com’s Top Features

  • No-code automation builder: Build automations and send timely alerts or update status to clients and employees.
  • Organize multiple projects: Portfolio management features that let your team track overall progress and assign resources and budgets to each project.
  • Custom work forms: Build custom forms to collect and share feedback from your company. Your team can then sync form responses by adding them to relevant projects.

➡️ Learn more about Monday and its features in our in-depth Monday review.

Monday.com Pricing

Monday.com offers a free plan for up to 2 seats, where you can test out the tool’s basic project management features.

💡 In our guide on Monday’s pricing, we discuss the platform’s pricing structure and aim to figure out if it has good value-for-money plans.

To access the platform’s advanced features, you’d need to be on one of their four paid plans:

  • Basic: Starts at $17 per user/month and adds Kanban board view and unlimited users with view-only access.
  • Standard: Starts at $20 per user/month and adds 250 automated actions/month, 3+ dashboard views, and Zoom integration.
  • Pro: Starts at $32 per user/month, and adds all five dashboard views, time tracking, and 2-factor authentication.
  • Enterprise: Custom price, which adds a dedicated customer success manager, enterprise-level reporting, and administration control.

Monday.com’s Pros and Cons

✅ Advanced reporting and analysis at the project and portfolio level, which is ideal for large teams that work with clients.

✅ 200+ integrations across apps, including communication and productivity.

✅ Custom work forms that you can turn into actionable tasks for your team members.

❌ Plan upgrade available in set increments of 5 and 10 users, making it not ideal for start-ups or smaller businesses.

❌ Automation features are gated to the more expensive plans, which is why lower-budget teams have been looking for alternatives to Monday.

#4: Asana

Best for: Building advanced workflows through dependencies and automation.

Similar to: Wrike, SmartSuite.

Asana is a project management solution built for large organizations that helps teams of all sizes streamline processes through workflows and work portfolios.

The project management platform lets you organize multiple projects with access to all documents, tasks, and due dates in one place, so you would not have to switch between projects each time.

Who Is It For?

I think of Asana as ideal for medium-to-large-sized marketing teams looking to manage multiple client projects simultaneously.

Asana’s Top Features

  • You’ll be able to create standardized forms to send to your prospective and new clients to collect all of their details right away.
  • Advanced capacity planning: Teams can allocate and optimize resources (time, people, and cost) to each project throughout its lifecycle.
  • Dedicated portfolios for client work to organize multiple projects: Each portfolio can be personalized to your clients and provides an overview of work status and go-live dates.

➡️ Learn more about Asana and its features in our in-depth Asana review.

Asana Pricing

Asana’s pricing offers a free plan for up to 10 users with unlimited file storage (100MB per file), and three task views: board, list, and calendar.

The platform has four paid plans with a 30-day free trial:

  • Starters: Starts at $10.99/user/month for up to 500 members, which includes Asana AI, private projects and teams.
  • Advanced: Starts at $24.99/user/month, which includes 25,000 automations/month, 100 portfolios, universal reporting, and goal tracking.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing, which includes advanced integrations, unlimited seats, portfolio, and automation bundles.
  • Enterprise +: Custom pricing, which includes audit log API, HIPAA compliance, and data loss prevention integrations.

Asana Pros and Cons

✅ Good workflow automations with no coding skills required.

✅ 270+ native integrations with other productivity apps.

✅ AI features, such as smart chat, smart fields, and smart status, to get quick updates on your projects.

❌ Lack of built-in collaboration tools, so your team might have to rely on its integration with Slack.

❌ Limited customization fields, unlike other alternatives to Asana.

#5: Smartsheet

Best for: Managing multiple projects using a spreadsheet-like interface.

Similar to: Airtable, SmartSuite.

Smartsheet offers an enterprise-grade project management solution that helps teams plan, track, and manage client work in a spreadsheet-like interface.

The platform stands out from its competitors with its variety of pre-built templates, one of which is its risk matrix template, which can help you visualize potential impacts on projects.

Who Is It For?

I see Smartsheet as ideal for accountants working in large organizations looking to manage complex and numerous projects in a spreadsheet interface.

Smartsheet’s Top Features

  • Built-in proofing that helps you expedite content planning and approval. Your team can invite collaborators to review, edit, and approve images, videos, documents, and PDFs.
  • Plan resource consumption with the platform’s resource management features, where you can review usage throughout the process and then take action to keep projects on track.
  • Build workflow automation: You can set up automations, such as sending due date reminders, requesting signatures via DocuSign integration, and performing calculations.

➡️ Learn more about Smartsheet and its features in our detailed Smartsheet review.

Smartsheet Pricing

Unlike the other tools in this buyer guide, Smartsheet’s pricing does not offer a free plan (anymore) for its solution.

There are 4 paid tiers:

  • Pro: Starts at $12 per member/month and includes private sheet creation and unlimited form access with a 10-user limit.
  • Business: Starts at $24 per member/month for a minimum of 3 user seats, which offers unlimited automated workflows, PowerBI, Tableau, and Adobe Creative Cloud integration.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing that adds unlimited storage, enterprise plan manager, and AI tools.
  • Advanced Work Management: Custom pricing that adds portfolio management and a premium support package.

Smartsheet Pros and Cons

✅ Comprehensive library of project templates.

✅ Powerful analytics and reporting tools for enterprise teams.

✅ Integrations with tools like Jira and Salesforce.

❌ Steep learning curve for spreadsheet beginners, according to G2 reviews.

❌ Data is not updated in real-time, unlike some of the other Smartsheet alternatives.

#6: Todoist

Best for: Managing complex tasks via checklists and subtasks.

Similar to: Asana, Smartsheet.

Todoist is a task management software that helps teams manage complex tasks by breaking down tasks into smaller work blocks.

Your organization can filter and sort set priorities, and attach labels to keep tasks organized and visible across your workspace.

Who Is It For?

I think of Todoist as ideal for small-sized teams and individual freelancers (such as writers) who have a complex but limited number of tasks to manage.

Todoist’s Top Features

  • Subtasks and checklists: Your team will be able to use subtasks and checklists to break down bigger projects or tasks into manageable ones.
  • Team collaboration: You can assign tasks, share updates via comments, and build shareable projects with your clients.
  • Custom views: Add filters, sort, and grouping options and save them as custom views. Each custom view can then be used across the workspace.

Todoist Pricing

Todoist’s beginner plan is available for free and lets you create up to 5 projects with access to a 1-week history to see your tasks in the list and board layouts.

The project management software has two paid plans for both individuals and teams:

  • Pro (individuals): Starts at $5/month, including 300 personal projects, unlimited activity history, and Calendar layout.
  • Business (Teams): Starts at $8 per user/month and adds shared team workspace, 1,000 team members and guest invites, and centralized team billing.

Todoist’s Pros and Cons

✅ Synchronization across all devices and platforms.

✅ Work reports, including productivity and team activity.

✅ Relatively affordable when compared to other solutions on the market.

❌ No advanced automation features, unlike alternatives like ClickUp, Airtable and SmartSuite.

❌ No built-in team communication option.

#7: Miro

Best for: Teams looking for an intuitive and simplistic project management tool.

Similar to: SmartSuite, Asana.

Miro offers a digital whiteboard solution that was built for visual collaboration, making it ideal for teams who need a space for brainstorming and conceptual work.

Who Is It For?

I see Miro as the right choice for ideal for creative leads who collaborate with UX and UI teams.

Miro’s Top Features

  • AI-powered canvas: Your co-workers can create expansive visual workspaces for road mapping, sprint planning, and task organization.
  • A built-in documentation tool: You’ll be able to create SOPs, outline proposals, and keep track of the team’s feedback.
  • Real-time collaboration: Multiple employees can work on the same board at the same time for brainstorming.

Miro Pricing

Miro offers a free plan with unlimited contributors that includes 3 editable boards, 10 AI credits, and access to 150+ integrations. 

To access the platform’s advanced features for more editable boards, you’d need to be on one of their 3 paid plans:

  • Starter: Starts at $8/user/month, which adds a private mode, 25 AI credits per member/month, brand centre, and task timeline estimation app.
  • Business: Starts at $16/user/month, which includes 50 AI credits per member/month, a smart diagramming tool, dependencies and a task planner.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing with a minimum team size of 30, which adds advanced administration control, dedicated support, and premium security.

Miro’s Pros and Cons

✅ Visual interface that aligns well with designers’ work style.

✅ Good for collaboration and virtual workshops.

✅ Extensive integration capabilities with other project management and productivity tools.

❌ Limited project management features for more complex projects.

❌ Pricing can get steep for larger teams.

#8: Basecamp

Best for: Simplifying task management and cross-department communication between different teams and clients.

Similar to: SmartSuite, ClickUp.

Basecamp offers a visual task management software that has been designed for ease of use, which helps team leaders get a bird’s eye view of their projects.

The platform allows teams to communicate through a built-in messaging option, manage tasks through their calendar, and track task progress through visual graphs.

Who is it For?

I see Basecamp as ideal for small-to-medium-sized businesses looking to prioritize clear communication and straightforward project organization.

Basecamp’s Top Features

  • Advanced Hill charts: Track project progress and identify potential bottlenecks.
  • Integrated team chat: Keep conversations organized by project and communicate with your co-workers and clients in one place.
  • Prompt workers to share updates with automatic check-ins, which are scheduled questions for your teams to reduce the need for status meetings.

➡️ Learn more about Basecamp and its functionality in our detailed Basecamp review.

Basecamp Pricing

Basecamp’s pricing offers a free version that lets you run one project at a time with 1 GB of storage space.

To access the platform’s advanced project management features, you’d have to be on one of their two paid plans:

  • Plus: Starts at $15/user per month, and adds unlimited projects, 500 GB storage for files & documents and guest invites.
  • Pro Unlimited: $299/month fixed price for unlimited seats, which adds 5 TB of storage space, Admin Pro Pack upgrade, Timesheet upgrade, and personal onboarding.

Basecamp’s Pros and Cons

✅ Generous freemium plan with up to 1 GB of storage space.

✅ Clean, distraction-free interface that promotes focus for smaller teams.

✅ Good for cross-department communications alongside internal tasks.

❌ Limited integration options, which is why some people have been looking for Basecamp alternatives.

❌ May not be best for complex projects requiring complex task dependencies, such as IT teams.

#9: Wrike

Best for: Managing complex workflows across multiple departments in your company.

Similar to: Airtable, Asana.

Wrike offers a client management software that helps teams manage multiple client accounts.

The platform lets you streamline client feedback and keep all stakeholders informed with best-in-class collaboration features.

Who Is It For?

I think of Wrike as a good option for medium-to-large-sized businesses managing multiple clients that are looking for collaboration features to improve client communications, such as remote marketing teams.

Wrike’s Top Features

Project Management Software Features by Wrike

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  • Collect and manage requests from clients through the tool’s custom forms. Each request will then get automatically added to your workspace. 
  • Adobe Creative Cloud integration: Wrike integrates with Adobe Creative Cloud, reducing friction in cross-team collaboration, approvals, and feedback requests.
  • Manage workflows by keeping internal and external stakeholders in the loop through built-in collaboration features, including comments and @mentions.

➡️ Learn more about Wrike and its functionality in our in-depth Wrike review.

Wrike Pricing

Wrike’s pricing offers a generous forever-free plan with email integration and enterprise-grade security. 

To access the platform’s advanced features, you’d need to be on one of their five paid plans, which also come with a 14-day free trial:

  • Team: Start at $9.80/user/month for up to 25 users, including custom fields, workflows, unlimited request forms, and dynamic Gantt charts.
  • Business: Starts at $24.80/user/month for up to 200 users, including portfolio management, AI Risk Prediction, nested projects, and real-time reports.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing, which adds unlimited users with advanced admin, reporting, security, and integrations. 
  • Pinnacle: Custom pricing, which adds a native Power BI integration, locked spaces, and budgeting features. Contact sales for a quote.

Wrike Pros and Cons

✅ The platform offers 400+ integrations with other productivity tools that your team might already be using.

✅ Generous free plan with unlimited users.

✅ Library of customizable project templates.

❌ Learning curve due to overwhelming features, according to reviews.

❌ The budgeting feature is only for Pinnacle plan clients, which is why smaller teams have been looking for Wrike alternatives.

#10: Airtable

Best for: Teams looking to manage their workflows through relational databases.

Similar to: Smartsheet, SmartSuite.

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Airtable offers a non-standard PM solution as a database management software that offers relational capabilities.

The platform lets you connect multiple data sources so you can draw conclusions and insights from your projects.

Who Is It For?

I think Airtable is ideal for teams who are dealing with B2C clients, such as healthcare teams. 

This is because the platform lets you connect customer feedback data with a research database to draw insights from consumers.

Airtable’s Top Features

  • You’ll be able to build multi-sequence automated workflows to reduce your team’s repetitive tasks through more than 15 actions and 10 triggers.
  • Build custom views for different departments: Offer a more transparent peek into the work progress of each department. You can access lists, Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and calendar views.
  • Build custom interfaces to show your stakeholders specific and relevant information with the platform’s interface designer.

➡️ Learn more about Airtable and its functionality in our in-depth Airtable review.

Airtable Pricing

Airtable’s pricing has a free plan that offers access to a single workspace with all basic dashboard views and 100 automations per month.

The paid plans come in three tiers, with a 14-day free trial available only for the Team plan.

  • Team: Starts at $20 per user/month, which adds a timeline view, 25,000 automations per month, and Airtable AI.
  • Business: Starts at $45 per user/month, which adds multi-source syncing and dynamic filtering.
  • Enterprise scale: Custom pricing, which includes admin reports, enterprise-level integrations, and premium support.

Airtable Pros and Cons

✅ High-level customization and flexible dashboards.

✅ User-friendly interface with multiple views.

✅ A good variety of pre-built templates for different use cases.

❌ Limited reporting capabilities regarding other competitors on the market, which is why some project leaders have been looking for Airtable alternatives.

❌ Limited team communication, according to G2 reviews.

Next Steps For Project Leaders: Get Started With SmartSuite’s Free Plan

Selecting the ideal project management software for your team involves carefully considering your needs, workflow, and dynamics.

Each software we’ve explored offers unique strengths but the best choice depends on your team size, project complexity, client involvement, and specific processes at work.

➡️ Smaller teams might prefer the simplicity of Asana or Miro, while larger businesses could benefit from Wrike’s scalability or ClickUp’s comprehensive range of features.

➡️ SmartSuite stands out from the list due to its comprehensive list of offerings suitable for basic to complex client projects.

Our platform’s built-in automation, extensive template library, custom dashboards, and robust communication features make it the best choice for teams of all sizes.

Try a 14-day free trial or sign up for a free plan to explore how SmartSuite can help your organization.

Here’s what’s in it for your team when you try SmartSuite:

  • Access to a generous free plan with features including multi-board views (Kanban, Chart, Map, Timeline, Card, and Calendar), 100 automations/month, and 40+ field types, including formula and linked record fields.
  • No-code automation builder to set up to 500,000 trigger/action workflows.
  • Built-in productivity tools, including time tracking, status tracking, and checklists.
  • Team collaboration and planning tools such as whiteboards and SmartSuite docs.
  • Resource management across projects and teams.
  • 40+ field types, including the option to add your custom fields.

Sign up for a free plan to test the water or get a 14-day free trial to explore all its amazing features.

Or, if you’d like to talk to our team of experts, schedule a demo.

Read More

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If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

How to Automatically Create Tasks for New Projects in SmartSuite

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Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

How to Automatically Create Tasks When New Projects Are Added in SmartSuite using Looping Automations

[embedded content]

Welcome back to another SmartTips blog! I’m Gavin Brennen, a Product Specialist here at SmartSuite. Today, I’m going to walk you through how you can automate the creation of tasks automatically whenever you add a new project to your project management solution.

Let’s dive right in!

The Goal

Whenever you create a new project, SmartSuite will automatically generate a predefined set of tasks based on the project type and link them back to the newly created project — no manual work required!

Setting Up Your Solution

First things first: we’re using a standard Projects solution template from SmartSuite’s Solution Library. No custom changes have been made yet. You can download the same template to follow along.

Here’s how you set it up:

Step 1: Create a Template Table

  • Duplicate the Tasks table and rename it Template.
  • This new table will house the “master” tasks for each project type.

Tip: You can hide this Template table later, but keep it visible for now while setting up.

Step 2: Add Project Type Field

  • In the Template table, add a Single Select field named Project Type.
  • Ensure the selections exactly match those in your Projects table (no extra spaces, correct spelling, etc.).

Step 3: Group Templates by Project Type

  • Group your Template tasks by Project Type.
  • Assign specific tasks to each type of project.

For example:

  • Product Launch: 4 tasks
  • Brand Development: 6 tasks

Keep in mind: exact matches in Project Type names are critical!

Step 4: Clear Existing Tasks

  • Delete any tasks in your Tasks table — start fresh!

Now your solution should look like this:

  • Projects Table: List of your projects
  • Tasks Table: Empty for now
  • Template Table: Predefined tasks grouped by Project Type

Building the Automation

Here comes the magic part: creating the automation!

Step 5: Configure Automation

  1. Trigger:
    • When a record is created in the Projects table.
  2. Action 1: Find Records
    • Find records in the Template table where Project Type equals the newly created project’s type.
  3. Action 2: Looping
    • Add a Looping action.
    • Select the records found in the previous step.
  4. Action 3: Create New Record (Inside Loop)
    • Create a new record in the Tasks table.
    • For each field:
      • Use Current Item (from the Template) for fields like Task Name, Status, Priority.
      • Use Field from Trigger (from the new Project) to link the task to the correct project.

Important: Always pick fields from “Current Item” unless you’re linking back to the new project (then use “Field from Trigger”).

Step 6: Turn It On

  • Save and activate your automation.
  • Group your Tasks table by Project to easily see new tasks as they come in.

Testing Your Automation

Let’s do a quick test!

  • Submit a new project form.
  • Choose a project type (e.g., Product Launch).
  • Watch SmartSuite automatically create the correct tasks based on your template!

You’ll see tasks roll in almost immediately, populated with details from your templates such as priority and status. You can expand the automation to include fields like Owner or Due Date if needed — just add them in the “Create Record” step.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

  • Exact Match Needed: Project Types must match exactly across tables.
  • Correct Field References: Always use “Current Item” for template fields and “Field from Trigger” for linking back to the new project.
  • Field Selections: Make sure you’re copying values from the right source (current template item vs. new project).

Why This Method Is Best

Before SmartSuite introduced Looping Actions, automating this kind of workflow was much more complicated. Now, it’s streamlined and powerful — saving you hours of manual work!

If you found this guide helpful, leave a comment below and let us know. We love hearing your feedback! Until next time, keep enjoying SmartSuite!

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If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

SmartSuite Announces Integration with X-Analytics to Empower CISOs with Financially-Driven Cyber Risk Management Success

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Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

Cyber Risk Intelligence
Turn Insight into Impact: SmartSuite + X-Analytics

April 24, 2025 – Newport Beach, California – SmartSuite, the leading no-code platform for managing enterprise workflows and GRC processes, today announced a strategic integration with X-Analytics, the industry leader in cyber risk economics management. This powerful combination enables Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and security leaders to translate cybersecurity activities into measurable financial risk reduction, transforming how organizations understand and manage cyber risk.

The integration bridges the long-standing gap between operational security efforts and strategic business impact. By connecting SmartSuite’s robust work management capabilities—including policy management, control assessments, incident response tracking, and risk remediation—with X-Analytics’ proven cyber risk financial exposure insights, organizations can now quantify the financial value of every cyber risk initiative.

“Cybersecurity leaders have long struggled to communicate the business value of their work in financial terms,” said Jon Darbyshire, Co-Founder and CEO of SmartSuite. “Our integration with X-Analytics gives CISOs the tools to not only operationalize their cyber risk  programs but also clearly demonstrate ROI on those efforts—grounded in economic impact analysis aligned with business strategy.”

Key Benefits of the Integration:

  • Turn Insight into Impact: Quantify how risk mitigation  actions—tracked and executed through SmartSuite—deliver risk reducing business benefits.
  • Strategic Budget Justification: Equip CISOs with real-time financial data to support CFO budget planning and board-level conversations.
  • Prioritized Remediation: Align incident response and control testing with the highest-value risk reduction opportunities.
  • Unified Risk View: Merge operational execution and cyber risk economics in one connected ecosystem, enabling smarter, faster decisions.

With the rise of ransomware, regulatory scrutiny, and digital transformation, boards and executive teams are demanding clear, quantifiable answers about cyber risk. This integration answers that call, enabling security teams to demonstrate how their actions support the bottom line.

“Together, X-Analytics and SmartSuite transcend legacy GRC approaches with next generation continuous cyber risk management success ,” said John Frazzini, CEO of X-Analytics. “This integration is a transformative option for CISOs seeking the ability to translate the technical complexity of cybersecurity into business understandable clarity and communicate the risk-reducing value of their initiatives with confidence.”

The SmartSuite + X-Analytics integration is available to all SmartSuite Enterprise customers who license X-Analytics, and is designed to work out-of-the-box for GRC, cybersecurity, and risk management teams.

About SmartSuite

SmartSuite is a modern work management platform that unifies your data, workflows, and teams into a single, no-code solution. Designed to handle everything from simple task tracking to complex GRC processes, SmartSuite empowers teams to automate, integrate, and execute—all in one place. Learn more at www.smartsuite.com

About X-Analytics
‍
The innovators behind X-Analytics are on a mission to deliver a cyber resilient future. The X-Analytics cyber risk management platform is setting the standard and transforming how CISOs, executives, boards and the risk management industry align cybersecurity strategy with successful risk reducing business benefits. To learn how hundreds of organizations across the globe trust X-Analytics to deliver next generation continuous cyber risk management success, visit https://www.x-analytics.com.
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Press Contact:
‍
Tara Darbyshire
Co-Founder, SmartSuite
press@smartsuite.com

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Centralized vs. Separate Project Management in SmartSuite: What’s Better?

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Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

Should You Use One Project Management System or Separate Solutions for Each Project in SmartSuite?

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Hello and welcome back to another episode of SmartTips. My name is Gavin Brennen. I’m a Product Specialist here at SmartSuite, and today we’re gonna be talking about project management.

A common question we get from new users is whether they should have one centralized project management system that manages all of their major projects, or if they should use separate solutions for each project. Today, I’ll walk you through the pros and cons of both options to help you decide which setup fits your workflow best.

Option 1: Separate Solutions for Each Project

Many people opt to have one SmartSuite solution per project. In my own workspace, I have separate solutions like Project Keith, Project Isaac, Project Emma, Nate, and Megan.

Each of these individual solutions includes:

  • A project overview (typically just one record)
  • Project tasks
  • Milestones
  • Deliverables
  • Status reports

So instead of having a system where one solution lists all projects in one place, this method creates a dedicated space for each project.

Key Benefit: Permission Control

If you want airtight permissions—say, one team only needs access to one project—you can set permissions specifically for that solution.

Permissions in SmartSuite can be set at:

  • Workspace level
  • Solution level
  • Table and field level (on certain plan types)

To set permissions:

  1. Go to your solution
  2. Click on Permissions
  3. Set up Advanced Permissions and invite your specific team

Pros:

  • Better control over who can see what
  • Laser-focused environments—everything in the solution relates to one project

Cons:

  • Not ideal for scaling
  • Projects become siloed
  • No cross-project insights or shared metrics

To be honest, while this method has its uses, it’s my least favorite option.

Option 2: One Centralized Project Management System

This is my go-to method. One solution that encapsulates all of your different projects.

In my setup, we have:

  • A Projects table (listing all projects)
  • Linked tables for Tasks, Deliverables, and more

Right now, my solution includes eight different projects, all connected to their respective tasks and deliverables.

Organizing Tasks by Project

A common question: If all tasks are in one place, how do you keep them organized by project?

Answer: Views.

Example:

  • We created a view that groups tasks by project
  • You can instantly see which tasks belong to which project

You can also:

  • Create a new grid view
  • Filter it by a specific project (e.g. Allon Product Line Launch)
  • Name the view accordingly
  • Organize views into folders

And yes, we support folder permissions (on specific plan types), so you can:

  1. Go to the folder settings
  2. Set visibility to selected members
  3. Choose only the team members who need access

So even though it’s one solution, you can still control visibility at the view or folder level.

Pros:

  • Consistent structure across all projects
  • Powerful cross-project reporting
  • Easier to manage and scale
  • Cleaner, more professional build

Real-World Use Case:

If you have task tables spread out across multiple solutions, you can’t:

  • Compare tasks side by side
  • Run reports like “What tasks are overdue across all projects?”

Only the My Work section would give you that insight—otherwise, you’d be stuck managing in silos.

As your workspace grows, more projects mean more clutter if you go with the separate solutions approach. The centralized system keeps things organized and scalable.

Gavin’s Take:

Even if you’re starting with just a few projects, I recommend using the centralized project management system from the start.

Start with SmartSuite’s Project Management template. It’s designed for exactly this type of setup. Use views, folders, and permissions to stay organized and secure.

If this was helpful, drop a like or comment. If you’ve got questions, leave them below or reach out to our support team. We check comments often and are here to help.

Until next week—keep enjoying SmartSuite!

‍

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

How to Build an Interactions Table in SmartSuite to Track Emails, Meetings & Calls

· ·

Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

How to Create an Interactions Table in SmartSuite to Track Texts, Emails, and Meetings

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Welcome back to another episode of SmartTips! I’m Gavin Brennen, a Product Specialist here at SmartSuite, and today we’re diving into how to build an Interactions table inside your workspace. This feature lets you log texts, emails, and meetings—linked directly to your Contacts and Opportunities—so you always have a clear view of your communication history.

Whether you’re manually entering activity or building automations to streamline it, this guide will show you how it’s done from start to finish.

What Is an Interactions Table?

An Interactions table is a custom-built table inside your SmartSuite solution that lets you track every touchpoint—calls, emails, meetings, texts—and link them back to the people and deals they’re related to.

This is especially helpful if you’re using SmartSuite as a CRM and want to see all communication with a contact in one place.

In this walkthrough, we’ll build an Interactions table using the Sales CRM template as our starting point.

Start with the Sales CRM Template

Before we build the table, we need a base solution. Here’s how to get the Sales CRM template:

  1. Click Add New Solution or go to the Template Gallery
  2. Search for Sales CRM
  3. Click Use Template to bring it into your workspace

This gives us the foundational structure with tables like Contacts and Opportunities, which we’ll link to in our Interactions table.

Creating Your Interactions Table

Let’s build the table from scratch.

  1. Create a new table and name it Interactions
  2. Delete the default fields so we can start clean

This table will log all your communication—whether added manually or through automation.

Add Core Fields

Next, let’s add the fields we need to make this table functional:

  • Single Select – This will be your Type of Communication
    Start with options like:
    • Email
    • Meeting
  • Linked Record – Link this to the Contacts table
    So each interaction is tied to a person in your CRM
  • Assigned To – This field shows who is responsible for the activity
    (e.g., the rep who sent the email)
  • Smart Docs – This is your Content field
    Use it for summaries, email bodies, or meeting notes
  • Created Date – Display the existing First Created field
    You’ll use this to sort interactions by date

Auto-Generate the Title Field

Now let’s make the record titles useful and consistent.

Modify the Title field so it auto-generates like this:

[Linked Contact] – [Type of Communication] – [Created Date]

For example:
Justin Dryer – Email – April 11, 2025

This gives you a quick snapshot of the interaction details right from the record name.

Sort by First Created

To keep things in chronological order, go to your view settings and sort records by the First Created field.

This helps you easily track the history of interactions in the order they happened.

Adding Interactions Manually

Now that your table is ready, you can start logging interactions manually.

Let’s create one:

  1. Add a new record in Grid View
  2. Select Email as the type
  3. Link the contact (e.g., Justin Dryer)
  4. Assign yourself as the activity owner
  5. Paste in some content (e.g., “Hi Justin, this is a test…”)

Just like that, SmartSuite generates a titled record:
Justin Dryer – Email – April 11, 2025

This is now linked to Justin’s contact profile for easy tracking.

Automating Interactions

Want to streamline your workflow even more? You can log interactions automatically using SmartSuite Automations.

Here’s an example:

  • Trigger: A record in the Opportunities table changes to “Closed Won”
  • Action 1: Send an email
  • Action 2: Create a new record in the Interactions table

In that second action, you’ll:

  • Assign the same owner
  • Paste in the content of the email
  • Link it to the contact from the triggering record

Now, every time you send an email via automation, a record of that interaction is automatically saved.

Going Further with Third-Party Integrations

Want to take automation to the next level?

Use tools like:

  • Make
  • Zapier
  • Ply

These platforms can help you:

  • Log incoming and outgoing emails automatically
  • Capture calendar meetings
  • Sync messages and calls from third-party platforms

This allows you to create a two-way sync between SmartSuite and external communication tools—turning your Interactions table into a full communication hub.

Final Thoughts

The Interactions table is a simple yet powerful way to track your communication across contacts and opportunities—all in one place.

Here’s a quick recap:

  • Start with the Sales CRM template
  • Build a custom Interactions table from scratch
  • Add fields for communication type, contact link, owner, content, and date
  • Customize the title field for clear record naming
  • Sort by date to track history
  • Use automations to log emails and interactions automatically
  • Integrate with third-party tools for full coverage

If you’ve got questions about automations or want help setting this up in your workspace, drop a comment—we’d love to help out.

Until next time, keep enjoying SmartSuite!

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Getting Started with SmartSuite Solution Templates: A Beginner’s Guide

· ·

Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

How to Use and Customize Solution Templates in SmartSuite

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Welcome back to another episode of SmartTips! I’m Gavin Brennen, a Product Specialist here at SmartSuite, and today we’re diving into a topic that’s essential for anyone just getting started on the platform: Solution Templates.

If you’ve heard of templates in SmartSuite but aren’t quite sure what they are, how to use them, or how to make them your own—this guide is for you.

What Are SmartSuite Solution Templates?

Solution templates are pre-built SmartSuite setups designed to meet industry standards across a variety of workflows and use cases. With 200+ templates available, you can quickly launch fully-structured solutions tailored to:

How to Add a Solution Template

There are a couple of easy ways to get started with templates in your SmartSuite workspace:

  1. Navigate to the Template Gallery
    On the left-hand menu, click the Resources tab, then select Template Gallery.
  2. Browse or Search Templates
    • Use filters on the left to browse by workflow category or industry.
    • Use the search bar to find something specific—e.g., “Sales CRM”.
  3. Preview the Template
    Click on a template to view:
    • A detailed description
    • Images of the solution
    • A live demo
  4. Click “Use Template”
    With one click, the template will be downloaded directly into your workspace.

What’s with the Demo Data?

Each template comes with demo data so you can see how the solution works in action. This includes mock records across all tables and fields.

But don’t worry—these aren’t real people or real companies. It’s all just to show you the flow and structure of the template.
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Customizing Your Template

To make a template your own, follow these steps:

1. Review the Structure

Start by reviewing how the tables are linked:

  • For example, a Sales CRM might include:
    • Accounts → Contacts → Opportunities

If the structure works for your process, great! If not, you can:

  • Add new tables
  • Delete or rename existing ones

2. Edit Fields and Columns

Not all default fields will be relevant to your business.

  • To delete a field, just click and remove it.
    • Example: If you don’t need PDF uploads for each account, delete the “Account Files” field.
  • To add a field, such as a currency field for estimated value:
    • Click “Add Field” → Choose “Currency” → Name it “Estimated Value”

Now you have a custom field that better reflects your needs.

Deleting Demo Data

Once your structure is set, it’s time to clean up.

Delete All Demo Data in One Click:

  1. Click the solution title (e.g., “Sales CRM”)
  2. Scroll down and click Delete Template Demo Data
    • Important: Do not click “Delete Solution”—that removes the entire solution!
  3. Confirm deletion, and the demo records will be wiped.

Note: Any new data you’ve added (like a custom account called “SmartSuite Smart Tips”) will remain untouched.

Final Thoughts

Solution templates are one of the fastest ways to get started with SmartSuite. Just remember:

  • Browse the gallery for a template that fits your workflow.
  • Customize the structure, fields, and tables as needed.
  • Delete the demo data so you can start fresh with your real information.

This tutorial covers the basics, but we go even deeper in future episodes. If you’re ready to level up your SmartSuite game, be sure to subscribe to our weekly SmartTips videos!

Got questions or want us to cover a specific topic in a future post? Drop your suggestions in the comments or reach out to us directly.

Until next time, keep enjoying SmartSuite!

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Visual Project Management: Definitions & 10 Examples

· ·

Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

Are you trying to figure out how you can use visual project management to simplify your workflows?

I believe that every story is best told with a visual.

Projects are kind of stories – with multiple characters, doing different things. A visual representation of the story can work wonders for the audience (both internal and external stakeholders) to understand your project management process. 

In this guide, I’ll explain in great detail what visual project management is and then show you 10 different ways of visualizing your tasks.

Let’s begin with the fundamentals: ⤵️

What is visual project management?

Visual project management is an approach in project management that uses visualization tools, such as Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and timelines, to better organize, track, and communicate project tasks, deadlines, and progress.

Put simply, visual project management simplifies complex workflows by presenting information in graphical formats that make it easier for your team to understand the milestones, tasks to be done, and dependencies in an easy-to-understand way.

➡️ I’ve been through the era of project management where everything was written in documentation, and our team had to read through it all to understand what they had to do.

💡In 2025, you can reduce that reliance on heavy documentation and skip towards visual project management that will help you provide a bird’s eye view of the tasks to be done for your team and improve communication.

Visual project management vs. regular project management: What’s the difference?

The main difference between visual project management and regular project management is how information is presented and communicated: 

  • Visual project management uses tools like Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and flowcharts to display tasks and workflows visually.
  • Regular project management relies on text-based documentation and spreadsheets.
  • Visual project management makes it easier for your team to quickly understand project status, priorities, and bottlenecks at a glance.
  • On the other hand, regular project management often requires more time-consuming reviews of detailed reports and manual updates to track progress. 

➡️ The way I see it is that regular project management, as it was done 20-30 years ago, is better suited for compliance-driven projects that require detailed documentation and formal processes.

Digital and modern teams can leverage visual project management’s diagrams and visual boards to better consume project information and more easily access information.

10 examples of visual project management tools

Now that we’ve got the basics out of the window, I wanted to show you 10 examples of visual project management by using the visualization tools available at SmartSuite (that’s us): 👇

#1: Kanban View

Kanban View and Scrum Boards are perfect for visualizing a workflow through the different stages of work, tracking progress, and assigning tasks to team members to remove bottlenecks.

The concept of Kanban originates from Japan from the 1940s when it was used at Toyota to remove operational bottlenecks and ensure that the workers can move tasks from the ‘’backlog’’ to ‘’in progress’’ and then to ‘’complete.

With SmartSuite, you can also group the tasks by status, such as ‘’minor’’, ‘’normal’’, ‘’important’’, and ‘’urgent’’ to better prioritize tasks for your team.

Such visual project boards have been the standard for IT project management for the last years and aim to provide a quick look at the tasks to be done by status.

You can then click on each specific task and expand its details to learn more about what’s required from each team member.

That way, you are reducing the large portion of the technical details so only the people responsible for the task have to read the task’s description.

Learn more about the Kanban boards at SmartSuite and how you can set them up:

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#2: Gantt Chart

You can use the newly popular Gantt Charts to highlight task dependencies with the chart’s dependency field, which automatically adjusts task timelines when changes are made.

SmartSuite’s Gantt Chart provides a 360-degree view of milestones and dependencies, simplifying complex project structures with drag-and-drop timeline adjustments for real-time flexibility.

The visualization tool can help you optimize resource allocation by enabling you to visualize team workloads and potential bottlenecks for balanced task distribution.

➡️ Think of having to go through a website migration and having the SEO team as a dependency of tasks to be done before the developers can do their part (e.g., URL remapping of the old URLs to the new ones).

Learn more about SmartSuite’s Gantt chart view:

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Our Gantt charts also have integrated communication features, such as task comments and updates, to let you collaborate with your team on the product roadmap.

#3: Dashboards

Next up on this list, you and your team can build custom dashboards inside of SmartSuite to help your team get a project breakdown analysis by status and status for tasks like project budget vs. actual spend.

You can build easy-to-understand, visually thrilling views into your data or project progress.

You can track project stages, stoplight status, roll-up status reports, and attach project documentation.

The reason why SmartSuite’s customers love the custom dashboards is that they can aggregate any of their data into a single view using our library of configurable visuals.

Your leadership team would not have to be digging for information because it’ll be right there in the dashboard – and you can choose how to display it.

#4: Mind Maps & Whiteboards

You can create a visual representation of your project management workflow via a whiteboard (also known as a mind map), which is ideal for top-level visualization of the workflow.

➡️ In SmartSuite, our team uses whiteboards when we want to pitch an idea internally about a process that we want to conduct or optimize.

Whiteboards can help your team get a bird’s eye view of the project management process and then be able to export it as an image.

You can check out how to create and use a whiteboard in SmartSuite:

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#5: Calendar View

You can use SmartSuite’s Calendar View to enhance visual project management by providing a dynamic, interactive calendar that displays tasks and events through customizable date fields like Due Date or Date Range. 

Team members can zoom between year-long overviews for strategic planning and focused week/day views for immediate task management.

➡️ I think of the calendar view as ideal for balancing long-term projects with daily priorities. 

The drag-and-drop functionality of SmartSuite’s calendar view allows real-time adjustments to deadlines, while color-coded Spotlight filters help quickly identify critical items or categorize tasks by priority, team, or project phase. 

You can use our integrated record listings to enable seamless navigation between high-level schedules and detailed task specifications to maintain context without losing visibility. 

By aggregating data from multiple tables into a unified calendar, your team can gain a consolidated view of cross-functional workflows and reduce scheduling conflicts.

#6: Flowcharts (Chart View)

Your team can also use flowcharts (also known as Chart view in SmartSuite) to visualize your data with multiple chart types, from bar and line charts to bubble, heat map, and scatter.

Flowcharts can be used for the following purposes:

  • Comparing items by shared data groupings with Bar and Column charts.
  • Tracking values over time with SmartSuite’s Line and Area charts. 
  • Using Pie or Donut charts to assess how common items relate to each other.
  • Diving deeper into some advanced options for viewing more complex relationships with Bubble, Scatter or Heat Map charts. 

For example, by using a Bar Chart, you can compare items between groups, such as ‘’Support tickets by assigned customer support rep’’, and then track changes to values over time.

#7: Card View

An underrated way of using visualization for your project management is to use Card Views.

Card Views enable your team to view your data as visual cards that can include logos, images, PDFs, documents, and spreadsheets.

➡️ I think of Card Views as ideal for teams working with image-based content, such as restaurants looking for visual project management. 

The beauty of the card view is that your team can instantly switch between card sizes and use the Fields to Display control to preview the most important information.

However, it is the customizability that is hitting the nail with this one. You can drag and drop cards into any order, and sort/group galleries the way you want.

#8: Map View

Using a Map View is an interesting way to visualize your project management workflows if you work in real estate.

A map view lets you view any of your location data in a fully interactive map format inside SmartSuite, which includes powerful display features.

I find map views particularly useful for teams working on anything, from property management to deliveries and construction job sites.

The way it works is that SmartSuite automatically recognizes address fields and maps records geographically, displaying a pin and a preview of the address.

Your team can expand to view the entire record in the context of the map with a single click.

And the best thing about it?

You can customize your map elements inside SmartSuite, meaning that you can visualize your data exactly how you want to.

#9: Timeline View

You can use a Timeline view to view your projects and processes in a timeline format, which some teams find great for visualizing workstreams and schedules over a custom period of time.

It is a more simplistic version of the Gantt chart, which aims to identify dependencies, manage competing priorities, and keep your team proactive on their deadlines.

You can use SmartSuite’s drag-and-drop timeline view by choosing a data range you want to display and colour-coordinating tasks.

You can also use the timeline view as a Gantt chart by visually grouping by any attribute.

I personally find this use case particularly useful when I want to view data with shared attributes, such as when I’m managing marketing campaigns.

Your team can then open the Record Listing panel with a single click, which displays all available data and/or tasks in your selected view, such as your plan for launching a new website.

#10: Grid View

Last but not least, the grid view: the visualization that helped us ditch the spreadsheets from the 1990s.

You can view projects and processes in a spreadsheet-like grid format with powerful sort, filter, group, and inline edit capabilities that make it easier to display data than a solution like Excel.

You and your team can easily drag and drop items to reorder rows and apply groupings on the go.

What’s more is that you can adjust columns in real-time, including re-ordering, re-sizing, or freezing columns, which are then being saved for consistent viewing for your co-workers.

The reason why SmartSuite’s grid view is superior to other spreadsheet-like interfaces is due to our 40 field types that you can add via the plus button, including:

  • Adding a SmartDoc.
  • Adding a data range.
  • Adding a timeframe.

And for collaboration’s sake, you can see open discussion threads for any record in a project or process so you can jump into the conversation and keep the project running smoothly.

In our team, we have ditched communication platforms like Slack for communicating about projects because our team can see the comments right there on the grid view.

Visual thinking: The psychology behind why visual project management works

The reason why the 10 project management examples of visual project management work in the current digital age is because of what scientists call ‘’visual thinking.’’

Visual thinking leverages the brain’s innate preferences for visual processing, as nearly half of the neural capacity is devoted to interpreting visual cues.

Put simply, visual project management helps us better understand the data and retain it in our brains compared to text-based documentation.

For example, when you see a sign on the road, you can quickly understand its meaning because it is designed to be visually clear and concise.

Image and data from Explain Visually.

By translating abstract concepts into diagrams, charts, or even maps, we reduce the cognitive load of the brain and allow our team members to identify patterns, dependencies, and bottlenecks more intuitively.

And it also makes for better co-operation with your team, since you can all look at the data and make decisions on the go, such as who should we chase for approval on this deliverable? Consulting teams will understand the struggle.

What are the benefits of visual project management?

The core benefits of visual project management include:

  • Better communication with your team: Visual project management facilitates a shared understanding among your team members by presenting complex information in a clear and accessible format (e.g., Kanban boards make it easy to allocate tasks).
  • Improved clarity and focus: Visual tools like Gantt charts simplify project information, helping your co-workers focus on key elements and reduce cognitive load.
  • Increased efficiency and time savings: By automating tasks, such as scheduling and updates, visual project management tools save time and enhance efficiency. Your team would also not have to sit down and read through dozens of pages in Word about the project.
  • Faster project completion and better resource management: Visual project management tools provide a clear timeline and layout, helping your team make informed decisions about resource allocation.
  • Adaptability: Visual tools like Kanban boards offer flexibility for agile teams, allowing them to quickly adapt to new information or changing project circumstances.

Get Started with SmartSuite & Our Visual Project Management Templates For Free

Well, that was it – our examples, templates, and video guides of adopting visual project management in your organization.

SmartSuite’s platform offers just the right customization, native collaboration capabilities and a library of 200+ project management templates.

Here’s what’s in it for your team when you try SmartSuite:

  • Access to a generous free plan with features including multi-board views (Kanban, Chart, Map, Timeline, Card, and Calendar), 100 automations/month, and 40+ field types, including formula and linked record fields.
  • No-code automation builder to set up to 500,000 trigger/action workflows.
  • Built-in productivity tools, including time tracking, status tracking, and checklists.
  • Team collaboration and planning tools such as whiteboards and SmartSuite docs.
  • Resource management across projects and teams.
  • 40+ field types, including the option to add your custom fields.

Sign up for a free plan to test the water or get a 14-day free trial to explore all its amazing features.

Or, if you’d like to talk to our team of experts, schedule a demo.

Read More

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If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

10 Best ServiceNow Alternatives and Competitors in 2025 [Updated April]

· ·

Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

After evaluating numerous ServiceNow alternatives for organizations worldwide, I’ve identified superior options for teams finding ServiceNow too complex or expensive. These ServiceNow alternatives deliver comparable ITSM functionality without requiring specialized support resources.

When implementing ServiceNow alternatives in 2025, I’ve documented how the right ServiceNow alternative transforms service delivery while significantly reducing costs. Organizations consistently report that these ServiceNow alternatives offer more intuitive interfaces and faster deployment than ServiceNow’s lengthy implementation process.

Why Look for ServiceNow Alternatives? 

ServiceNow undoubtedly helps you create smooth and organized workflows for managing your data, IT systems, and services.

The platform, however, isn’t suitable for every team. Let’s go over some of the drawbacks of the solution. 

Below are the top three reasons (according to verified reviews) to consider ServiceNow alternatives and competitors in 2025:

ServiceNow’s costs will sneak up on you

ServiceNow requires regular maintenance, updates, and support to run smoothly and securely. And these ongoing services often attract extra fees, adding to the total cost.

Setting up and integrating ServiceNow into a company’s existing systems can be expensive and time-consuming. Often, companies hire specialized consultants to ensure everything goes smoothly, which adds even more to the overall cost.

The learning curve is too steep for teams with limited IT support

Customizing ServiceNow to fit your unique workflows and processes can be tough, especially if you run a small IT team with limited resources. 

Furthermore, the platform’s learning curve is steep. This means you’ll need to train your employees to use the platform effectively, which can be time-consuming and expensive. 

ServiceNow lacks low-code UI/UX flexibility

ServiceNow is quite rigid and tough to customize. 

Often, users tailor their workflows to suit the tool, which can result in inefficiencies and a decrease in overall productivity.

This tool isn’t your best option if you value customizing workflows to suit specific processes.

What Are the Best ServiceNow Alternatives & Competitors in 2025?

After extensively testing dozens of ITSM platforms, I’ve identified these 10 ServiceNow alternatives as the most effective replacements for organizations seeking better value. These top ServiceNow alternatives deliver comparable functionality at lower price points, with many ServiceNow competitors offering more intuitive interfaces and faster implementation.

My evaluation of ServiceNow alternatives focused specifically on workflow automation capabilities, user experience, customization options, and total cost of ownership—the key factors organizations consider when selecting ServiceNow alternatives in 2025.

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Top Solutions What They Do
SmartSuite All-in-one work management platform that integrates project management, task tracking, and collaboration tools into a single, customizable workspace.
Freshservice Ticketing system for streamlining customer support.
Jira Service Management ITSM with an extensive library of pre-built workflows.
ClickUp Unified platform for task management, project management, and collaboration.
Zendesk Customer support and engagement across multiple channels (social media, emails, chat, and others).
Freshdesk Comprehensive features for ticketing, automation, and customer support.
HelpScout Personalized and human-centric customer support experience.
SysAid Integrates AI in IT service management for seamless service management.
Atera Integrates remote monitoring and management, ticketing, and billing into a single, user-friendly solution.
SolarWinds Service Desk An AI-powered IT service management platform that streamlines service delivery.

SmartSuite is an easy to use, no-code platform that allows you to organize your workflows with ease. It’s well-suited for businesses looking to tailor their work management software to a centralized platform. 

Full disclosure: While SmartSuite is our platform, we’ll share an unbiased view of the tool’s abilities and why it stands out from other ServiceNow alternatives. 

SmartSuite offers a flexible platform for managing business processes and collaborating on projects. This helps address some of ServiceNow’s shortcomings while also allowing .

Let’s dig into some of its features.

Features #1: Workflow Automation

SmartSuite’s workflow automation saves you time on routine and manual tasks. Set up automations without any code. All you need to do is create custom automation rules that trigger specific actions based on trigger requirements. 

Here’s how it works:

  • Set up workflows: You can create workflows using a simple drag-and-drop interface. For example, you can design a workflow that sends a notification once a task is completed.
  • Automatic execution: These workflows run automatically when triggered by a specific action. For example, if you complete a task, its status changes automatically to show the task is completed. 
  • Keep everyone informed: You can set workflows to update records and send notifications when deadlines for critical tasks are near. This ensures that everyone involved receives updates without needing to constantly check in manually.

Try it out for yourself ⤵️

Feature #2: Real-time collaboration and communication

SmartSuite lets you collaborate with your team directly on the platform. Team members won’t need to switch applications to communicate while working on a project. 

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This means each conversation is organized within the context of specific tasks.

Some of its key functionalities include:

  • Comments and @Mentions: Team members can leave comments directly on tasks or documents and tag each other for instant feedback and discussion.
  • Live Updates and Notifications: Changes made in the project are updated in real time, and automated notifications keep everyone informed about updates, deadlines, and changes.
  • Shared Workspaces and Document Editing: Multiple users can work on the same document or task simultaneously, with changes visible to all in real time. This way, you’re sure of seamless teamwork and productivity.
  • Guest Role: This role is specifically designed for external users such as contractors. 

For IT teams, the ability to set up custom dashboard while enabling real-time communication is a game-changer. 

Here’s an example

Feature #3: Project Management

With SmartSuite, you can plan, track, and manage projects of different sizes. 

The platform presents a dashboard that provides you with a real time overview of your projects, tasks, and team performance in a visual format. 

[embedded content]

 Below are its key functionalities:

  • Dependency Fields: This feature helps you to establish task sequences for an enhanced project workflow. This way, you can define task relationships like predecessors and successors to ensure your tasks are completed logically. 
  • Gantt View: With this view, you can have a visual timeline of project tasks, showing their start and end dates, as well as dependencies between them. This helps track project progress and ensure tasks are completed on schedule. 
  • Team-Based Dashboards: With this views, managers can plan their whole team’s priorities and next steps, along with getting a centralized repository for files and assets.
  • Files and Deliverables: Attach key deliverables, provide feedback, and manage versions – all right in the context of your project work.
  • Assign and Track Projects: See your team’s time entries and filter them in any number of ways to build customized reports. 

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Additionally, SmartSuite’s Gantt view allows for customization of project templates and integration with other views like Kanban and Calendar for comprehensive task management.

SmartSuite pricing plans

SmartSuite offers a 14-day free trial and a forever-free plan with access to automation, team collaboration, authentication, and much more. 

As for the paid plans, choose from four options:

  • Team: Starts at $12/user per month
  • Professional: Starts at $28/user per month
  • Enterprise: Starts at $35/user per month
  • Signature: Customized plan tailored to your organization’s needs and team size.

Why do we think SmartSuite is the best alternative to ServiceNow?

Unlike Servicenow, SmartSuite offers countless work templates that help you get started without needing to tap into technical teams or consultants. 

Furthermore, the platform lets every department manage and automate processes within SmartSuite, whereas ServiceNow cannot easily support non-IT processes. 

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Below is how SmartSuite compares to ServiceNow:

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Ready to try out the tool? Click here to get started. 

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SmartSuite’s Pros and Cons

✅ Modern / Intuitive interface

✅ Supports both Process and Projecy Managemntworkflow automation and work management

✅ Enterprise-grade Security and ComplianceExtremely generous free plan with access to advanced features

✅ 200+ templates across 35 business process categoriesfor different use cases

✅ Comprehensive IT / GRC CapabilitiesNo-code automation to streamline your workflows

❌ Only 25 native integrations Limited native integrations

2. Freshservice & Freshdesk

Best for: Helping IT teams automate and streamline service desk operations.

Similar to: Jira and Zendesk.

Freshservice helps organizations streamline their IT operations and service delivery. 

The cloud-based platform provides features like a ticketing system, self-service portal, knowledge base, asset management, and more.

Unlike Servicenow, Freshservice offers IT and business teams a less technical and cost-effective platform for improved productivity, operational transparency, and increased ROI. 

Combined with Freshdesk, it can be a solid option for IT management and technical support.

Key Features

  • Ticketing System: A centralized platform to track and manage IT support requests efficiently, ensuring timely resolutions.
  • Self-Service Portal: Enables users to independently find solutions and submit requests, reducing the workload on IT teams.
  • Asset Management: Monitors and manages IT assets, including hardware and software, to optimize utilization and maintenance.
  • Omnichannel support: Freshdesk allows customers to reach out via multiple channels like email, phone, chat, social media, and more.
  • Automation: Freshdesk automates tasks like ticket assignments, repetitive responses, and workflow management to improve efficiency.

Pricing plans 

As with every Freshworks products, pricing is affordable and varies based on the number of agents you have on the platform, along with which features you’d like included. 

Note that advanced support capabilities like custom roles and customer segmens are only available on premium plans. Freshdesk and Freshsuite both have the same price per agent.

Choose from 4 plans, all of which have a free trial: 

  • Starts at $19 per month billed annually, or $29 billed monthly.
  • Growth: $49 per month billed annually or $59 billed monthly.
  • Pro: $95 per month billed annually, or $115 billed monthly.
  • Enterprise: $119 per month billed annually, or $145 billed monthly.

Pros and Cons 

✅ The platform’s interface is simple to set up and customize.

✅ Strong automation capabilities.

✅ Seamless integration with other Freshworks products and third-party tools.

❌ Lack of direct integration with HR and recruiting software.

❌ Outdated support resources.

❌ Slow customer support.

3. Jira Service Management 

Best for: IT service management (ITSM) and enterprise service management (ESM). 

Similar to: Freshservice and Zendesk.

Jira Service Management solution enables teams to easily receive, track, manage, and resolve customer requests.

The platform is designed to bring together IT, development, operations, and business teams to collaborate.

Contrary to ServiceNow, Jira is easy to implement, integrate, and scale in the long run.

Key features

  • Request Management: Allows teams to manage work across various channels, this way, your employees and customers will receive the help they need quickly.
  • Incident Management: Enables development and IT operations teams to respond rapidly to incidents, resolve them, and continuously learn from them.
  • Plugins: Offers a wide variety of plugins for additional integrations, workflow enhancements, reporting, and automation.

Pricing 

Jira Service Management offers four pricing plans:

  1. Free: $0, for up to 3 agents, basic features.
  2. Standard: $17.65 per agent/month, includes custom-branded help center, alerts, on-call schedules, unlimited email notifications, and 9/5 support.
  3. Premium: $44.27 per agent/month, adds AI-powered services, virtual agent, asset and configuration management, advanced alert integrations, and 24/7 support.
  4. Enterprise: Custom pricing, adds advanced analytics, security, and unlimited automations, with up to 150 instances and 24/7 dedicated support.

Pros and Cons 

✅ Centralized incident ticketing system that provides full visibility into ongoing issues.

✅ Robust automation features to establish predefined workflows and triggers.

❌ Dependence on plugins for certain features, which some users find inconvenient.

❌ Non-technical users don’t tend to enjoy Jira’s interface.

4. ClickUp

Best for: Project management, team collaboration, and task organization.

Similar to: Asana, Monday.com and Basecamp.

ClickUp provides an all-in-one platform that combines features like tasks, documents, goals, and chat in one place for increased productivity. 

In comparison to ServiceNow, Clickup has a highly customizable and flexible interface that you can tweak to suit the needs of your team. 

It’s not purpose-built for IT, and may lack some of ServiceNow’s automation and code-generating capabilities, but many IT teams prefer it’s simple interface with lots of features. 

Key features

  • Task and project management: ClickUp provides a range of task management features like Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and custom automation to help teams plan, track, and deliver projects effectively. 
  • Collaboration: ClickUp provides tools like real-time editing, comments, and mentions.
  • Reporting and visibility: ClickUp offers dashboards, workload views, and goal tracking to provide teams with better visibility of project progress. 

Pricing

ClickUp offers the following pricing plans:

  1. Free Forever: $0, suitable for personal use, includes 100MB storage and essential features.
  2. Unlimited: $7 per user/month, ideal for small teams, offers unlimited storage, integrations, dashboards, and more.
  3. Business: $12 per user/month, best for mid-sized teams, adds advanced time tracking, automations, and more.
  4. Enterprise: Custom pricing, designed for large teams, includes white labeling, advanced permissions, and dedicated support.

Pros and Cons

✅ Offers excellent flexibility and customization options to fit different team needs.

✅ Effective for monitoring jobs and projects, especially for smaller teams.

✅ Affordable.

❌ Some users have reported challenges with the desktop app and integrations.

❌ Doesn’t support complex process automation.

5. Zendesk

Best for: Customer service management for handling support tickets across multiple channels. 

Similar to: Freshdesk, Zoho Desk.

Zendesk is a customer service tool that helps organizations deliver better customer experiences. 

In comparison to ServiceNow, Zendesk focuses on providing a centralized ticketing system to organize customer inquiries and support requests across multiple channels like email, chat, phone, and social media.

Key Features

  • Multi-channel support: This allows customers to reach out via email, chat, phone, social media, and more.
  • Live chat: For effective customer support and engagement.
  • Automation: To streamline workflows, route tickets, and provide quick resolutions.

Pricing plans

Zendesk offers four main basic pricing plans:

  1. Suite Team: $55 per agent/month, includes basic support features.
  2. Suite Growth: $89 per agent/month, adds advanced tools like multiple ticket forms and SLAs.
  3. Suite Professional: $115 per agent/month, includes custom analytics and skills-based routing.
  4. Suite Enterprise: $169 per agent/month, offers advanced customization and compliance features.

💡 Note that Zendesk’s cost is sneaky, as some of the IT support capabilities will need to purchased as add-ons. 

Pros and Cons

✅ Offers features like live chat, ticketing, knowledge base, automation and analytics.

✅ Customizable to meet specific business needs.

❌ Ticket management could be improved, with users wanting more filters and the ability to create folders.

❌ Extra costs can scale quickly. 

6. HelpScout

Best for: Personalized services for customers.

Similar to: Zendesk and Freshdesk. 

HelpScout helps organizations deliver efficient, personal support to their customers through shared inbox platform that leverages AI to help support reps handle more tickets.

It’s a good ServiceNow alternatives for teams that want to handle simple support tickets without getting too technical.

Key features 

  • Automation: Freshdesk automates tasks like ticket assignments, repetitive responses, and workflow management to improve efficiency.
  • Self-service: The tool provides a knowledge base and community forums to enable customers to find answers independently.
  • Customization: Freshdesk can be customized to fit the specific needs of a business.   

Pricing plans

Help Scout offers three pricing plans:

  1. Standard: $22 per user/month, includes 2 shared inboxes, 1 knowledge base, automated workflows, and basic reporting.
  2. Plus: $44 per user/month, adds 5 shared inboxes, 2 knowledge bases, 25 light users, advanced permissions, and custom reporting.
  3. Pro: $65 per user/month, offers 25 shared inboxes, 10 knowledge bases, 50 light users, enterprise security, HIPAA compliance, and dedicated support.

Unlike ServiceNow, which targets large enterprises with extensive ITSM capabilities and complex workflows, Help Scout focuses on providing simpler, more affordable customer support tools suitable for smaller teams.

Pros and Cons 

✅ Extremely easy to learn and use, with a simple and intuitive interface.

✅ Offers useful workflows to automate actions like sending notifications for bad customer ratings.

❌ The user interface could be improved for tracking open, in-progress, and resolved tickets.

❌ Does not support live tehnical support features like screen control and risk identification. 

7. SysAid

Best for: ITSM for automated ticketing, asset management, and workflow automation.

Similar to: Atera, SolarWinds Service Desk.

SysAid is an IT service management (ITSM) solution that helps organizations deliver exceptional automated service. 

The tool delivers a knowledge base to help customers find answers to common questions and a conversational AI chatbot to provide instant support. 

SysAid is a better alternative to ServiceNow for teams looking for a flexible solution with a drag-and-drop workflow builder. 

Key features 

  • Automated help desk and ticketing system: SysAid allows users to create and monitor support tickets, with features like automatic ticket creation from emails and self-service portals for users to report issues.
  • Asset management: SysAid enables tracking and management of hardware, software, and other IT assets across the organization.
  • Workflow automation: SysAid can automate various IT processes like employee onboarding, patch management, and more.

Pricing plans

SysAid doesn’t disclose pricing on its website. You must contact their sales team to get a quote. Unlike ServiceNow, however, it offers more flexible and customizable plans and has free trials.

SysAid offers three main pricing plans:

  1. Help Desk: Designed for lean teams, includes incident management, self-service portal, service catalog, asset management, and basic reporting.
  2. ITSM: For mid-sized organizations, includes all Help Desk features plus ITIL package, workflow automation, third-party integrations, and advanced SLA management.
  3. Enterprise: For large teams, includes all ITSM features with unlimited agents, automation rules, and custom columns, plus premium service.

Pros and Cons

✅ Robust help desk functionality for managing incidents, requests, and problems.

✅ Customize workflows and reports to meet company needs.

✅ Effective search function.

❌ Workflows can be difficult to create and modify.

❌ Outdated user interface. 

❌ Long implementation process.

8. Atera 

Best for: Remote monitoring and management (RMM), and IT automation for IT departments.

Similar to: SolarWinds Service Desk, SysAid.

Atera is an all-in-one IT management platform that offers remote monitoring and management, professional services automation, and remote access abilities for IT professionals and managed service providers.  

Atera is a better alternative to ServiceNow for teams without excessive training. The platform provides an intuitive interface that enables IT teams to easily navigate and manage tasks, and has recently gotten an AI upgrade that customers love. 

Key features 

  • Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM): Atera’s RMM software offers full visibility and control over IT infrastructure to allow users monitor and manage devices, servers, and networks proactively.
  • Patch Management: Atera automates software patching and updates for Windows, Mac, and various applications to keep systems secure and up-to-date.
  • Helpdesk and Ticketing: Atera’s integrated helpdesk and ticketing system enables IT teams to manage support requests and incidents efficiently. 

Pricing plans

Atera offers two main pricing plans for IT departments:

  1. Professional: $149 per technician/month (billed annually) or $169 (billed monthly). This plan includes unlimited devices, remote monitoring, patch management, helpdesk, ticketing, and automation tools.
  2. Power: $169 per technician/month (billed annually) or $199 (billed monthly), which adds advanced security features, network discovery, and more customization options.

Compared to ServiceNow, which provides comprehensive ITSM solutions for large enterprises, Atera focuses on a pay-per-technician model, making it more cost-effective for smaller IT teams.

Pros and cons 

✅ Effective patch management and security scanning.

✅ Intuitive user interface and easy deployment.

✅ Action AI flags issues to IT support representatives.

❌ Limited mobile app functionality.

❌ Basic reporting capabilities.

9. SolarWinds Service Desk 

Best for: ITSM focusing on incident, asset management, and ticketing. 

Similar to: Freshservice and Zendesk.

SolarWinds Service Desk provides an AI-powered knowledge base to help your team with the resources they need to solve problems efficiently. 

Plus, the tool provides a cheaper alternative to help you cut costs while improving your team’s productivity. 

Unlike ServiceNow, you can set up the solution in a few days and fit it seamlessly into your existing workflows, but the interface is outdated and clunky.

Key Features 

  • Incident Management: Automates ticket routing, prioritization, and reporting to efficiently track and resolve IT incidents.
  • Change Management: Implements a structured approach to managing changes, ensuring compliance with organizational policies and industry standards.
  • IT Asset Management: Provides comprehensive visibility into IT assets, including hardware, software, and licenses, enabling effective lifecycle management and cost optimization. 

Pricing plans 

SolarWinds Service Desk offers three pricing plans:

  1. Essentials: $39 per technician/month, includes incident management, knowledge base, service portal, asset management, and SLA management.
  2. Advanced: $79 per technician/month, adds custom fields, advanced automations, virtual agent, network discovery, and API access.
  3. Premier: $99 per technician/month, includes visual CMDB, advanced support, and up to 1,500 API calls per user per minute.

All plans support unlimited users and provide 24/7 live chat support.

Pros and Cons

✅ Easy implementation. 

✅ Vast automation options. 

❌ Navigation can sometimes be confusing.

❌ Outdated interface.

Conclusion

We’ve examined both the strengths and limitations of the ServiceNow platform alongside the best ServiceNow alternatives available in 2025.

By now, you should have identified which ServiceNow alternative best addresses your specific needs. Many organizations find that SmartSuite stands out among ServiceNow alternatives for its ability to consolidate multiple workflows into a single platform.

Unlike other ServiceNow alternatives that focus solely on ITSM, SmartSuite enables teams to collaborate in one unified environment rather than managing work across disconnected systems.

Sign up for SmartSuite and make your dream of an all-inclusive workspace a reality.

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If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

How to Use SmartSuite’s Time Tracking Log Field Effectively

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Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

Mastering Time Tracking in SmartSuite

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If you’re looking to start using SmartSuite’s Time Tracking Log field, whether it’s for measuring time on tasks, building project-level rollups, or creating timesheets, this SmartTips guide has you covered.

Hi, I’m Gavin Brennen, a Product Specialist here at SmartSuite. In this episode, we’ll walk through everything you need to know to get the most out of this powerful field type — so you can track time efficiently and streamline your workflows.

Getting Started: Where to Find It

We’ll be working in a Project Management template, which you can find in the SmartSuite’s Solution Template Library from the SmartSuite Workspace homepage.

Step 1: Navigate to the Tasks Table

Once you’re in the solution, head over to the Tasks table. Here you’ll find the Time Tracking Log field. This is a unique field type that lets users:

  • Start a timer to automatically track time
  • Manually log time retroactively

To add this field to your own solution:

  1. Create a new field by clicking the “+” button to add a new field.
  2. Type in “Time Tracking” and select the Time Tracking Log field from the Project Essentials category.
  3. Choose your display format:
    • Pill style with color
    • Clear style (no background color)
  4. For this example, let’s use the pill style with teal as the color.

Just like that, you’ve added a Time Tracking Log field to your table.

How to Use the Time Tracking Log

Now that your field is ready, let’s look at how to log time.

Option 1: Start the Timer

  1. Click the Start Timer button.
  2. The timer begins tracking time globally for that specific task.
  3. Click Stop Timer when you’re done.

Option 2: Manually Add Time

  1. Click the dropdown on the field.
  2. Hit the plus (+) icon to log time manually.
  3. Enter a duration like 3h 30m, select the date, and add notes.

You can also add time via:

  • Duration Input: Enter time like 2h 15m.
  • Date Selector: Mark when the time was spent.
  • Note: Add a quick description of the work.
  • Start-End Time Range: Log time using specific start and end points.

The field automatically sums all entries for a record, making it perfect for tracking total time spent on a task.

Tracking Time at the Project Level

So, what if you want to calculate total time spent across all tasks in a project?

Important Note:

SmartSuite’s Rollup field does not support the Time Tracking Log field. But don’t worry — we’ve got a workaround!

Step-by-Step: Create a Formula Field

  1. Go to the Projects table.
  2. Add a new Formula field.
  3. Click Advanced Editor.

We’re going to pull time from linked records using dot notation and sum it up:

SUM([Project Tasks].[Task Time])

This formula pulls the time value from each linked task and totals it. But there’s a catch – the result is shown in seconds.

Convert Seconds to Hours

To make it readable, divide the total by 3,600 (the number of seconds in an hour):

SUM([Project Tasks].[Task Time]) / 3600

Now you’ll see time in hours! Rename this field to something like “Total Project Hours”.

Example:

If your tasks have the following time entries:

  • Task 1: 3.5 hours
  • Task 2: 2 hours
  • Task 3: 1.5 hours

Your Total Project Hours formula will now correctly display 7 hours.

Expand to Timesheets and More

The real power of this feature comes when you link your time-tracked records to other tables — like:

  • Projects
  • Clients
  • Team Members (Staffing Tables)

This opens the door to creating:

  • Timesheets
  • Client billing summaries
  • Project efficiency reports

All using just the Time Tracking Log and a bit of formula magic.

Wrapping Up

That’s a wrap on SmartSuite’s Time Tracking Log field! Whether you’re logging individual task time or rolling it up to a project summary, this tool helps you keep a tight handle on your workflows.

Got questions? We’re always happy to help. And until next week, keep on enjoying SmartSuite!

‍

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Streamlining Your Onboarding With A Learning Dashboard, Read more

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Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

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Welcome back to another episode of SmartTips. I’m Gavin Brennen, Product Specialist here at SmartSuite, and today we’re diving into how to build a Learning Management System (LMS) using SmartSuite.

This LMS setup will house your Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)—a single, centralized place where every department can find exactly what they need to do their jobs correctly and consistently. Whether you’re onboarding new team members or outlining critical workflows, this system becomes your internal source of truth.

Let’s walk through how to build it step by step.

What Is a Learning Management System in SmartSuite?

A Learning Management System in SmartSuite is a digital workspace designed to:

  • Store and organize all SOPs
  • Simplify onboarding for new hires
  • Standardize task execution across departments
  • Scale with your team as your organization grows

No matter your industry, having one centralized SOP hub boosts clarity and productivity.

Step 1: Set Up the SOPs Table

Start by creating a table to store all of your SOPs. This will serve as the foundation of your LMS.

Key Fields to Include:

  • SmartDoc: This is where the actual SOP content lives. Use formatting tools to add charts, images, checklists, or structured documentation.
  • Video Link: Add a Loom or YouTube URL if your SOPs are in video format.
  • Image Field: Useful for displaying thumbnails or visuals in card views.
  • Linked Departments: Connect each SOP to relevant departments using a linked record field that connects to your Onboarding Tracks table.
  • Status: Track the SOP review or approval process.
  • Global Rank (Number Field): Determines the learning order across all departments.

You can also create a form view for team members to submit SOPs as they document processes. This encourages a culture of shared knowledge.

Step 2: Create the Onboarding Tracks Table

This table defines department-specific learning tracks by linking SOPs to the relevant departments.

Include the following:

  • Department Name or Track Title
  • Linked SOPs Field to show all SOPs related to that track

This linkage becomes powerful when you build a dashboard that automatically filters SOPs based on selected departments.

Step 3: Build the Interactive LMS Dashboard

The dashboard brings your LMS to life with an easy-to-navigate interface. Here’s how to set it up.

How to Build the Dashboard:

  1. Create a New Dashboard View
    Go to “Create New View” and select “Dashboard.”
  2. Enable Edit Mode
    Click the Edit toggle to begin customizing.
  3. Add a Record Selector Widget (Department Selector)
    • Source: Onboarding Tracks Table
    • Use this to choose the department or track you’re viewing.‍
  4. ‍Add a Second Record Selector Widget (Filtered SOP List)This only works if the first record selector is linked to a table that has a connection to the SOPs table.
  1. Source: Instead of selecting the SOPs table directly, select the linked SOPs from the first widget.
  2. This allows you to filter SOPs dynamically based on the selected department.
  3. Add a Record Details Widget
    • Source: The filtered SOP list
    • Display: SmartDoc, Video Link, Owner, and any other key SOP details

This setup allows users to select a department, view all relevant SOPs in order, and access full SOP details in one clean dashboard.

How the SOP Learning Order Works

To define the order in which SOPs should be learned, use the Global Rank field in the SOPs table.

  • Rank 1: First SOP to complete
  • Rank 2–15: Subsequent SOPs in order

This provides a linear learning path across all departments or can be filtered by department-specific tracks.

Final Thoughts

Building a Learning Management System in SmartSuite is a powerful way to:

  • Accelerate onboarding
  • Improve process consistency
  • Centralize institutional knowledge

The more SOPs you document, the more value your LMS will provide. It’s an investment in clarity, accountability, and team enablement.

If your team is scaling or you’re looking to formalize your operations, this is a great place to start. Until next week, keep enjoying SmartSuite.

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Honoring Tara Darbyshire: A Trailblazer in GRC and a True Leader

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Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

I couldn’t be more excited to share that my wife, business partner, and SmartSuite co-founder, Tara Darbyshire, has been named to Michael Rasmussen’s GRC All-Star Dream Team—an honor that highlights the very best in the governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) space.

Michael, one of the most respected voices in GRC, recognizes top professionals who have shaped the industry, and Tara’s selection as Chief Revenue Officer of his Dream Team is a testament to her legacy and influence.

A Legacy in GRC: From Archer to SmartSuite

Tara’s journey in GRC started 25 years ago when we co-founded Archer Integrated Risk Management. At a time when risk and compliance were managed through spreadsheets and fragmented systems, we saw an opportunity to redefine how organizations approached risk, governance, and compliance. 

Together, we built Archer into the leading GRC platform, which was later acquired by RSA Security and eventually became an independent company once again.

But her impact didn’t stop there. Tara has always had an unmatched ability to understand customer challenges, build lasting relationships, and drive growth in a way that fosters true partnerships. These qualities made her instrumental in Archer’s success—and now, she’s doing the same at SmartSuite.

As co-founder of SmartSuite, Tara is bringing innovation and modern technology to businesses looking to streamline processes, including GRC workflows. She’s helping companies rethink how they manage governance, risk, and compliance, making it more intuitive, collaborative, and accessible than ever before.

A Champion for Women in GRC

Tara has also been a pioneer for women in the GRC space—a field historically dominated by men. She has led by example, proving that strong leadership, industry expertise, and an ability to build deep client relationships are what truly define success.

Throughout her career, she has mentored and supported other women in the field, ensuring that the next generation of women leaders in GRC have the guidance, encouragement, and opportunities they need to thrive. Her selection as a GRC All-Star is more than just an individual honor—it’s a recognition of the growing influence of women in leadership roles within the GRC industry.

Congratulations, Tara—A Well-Deserved Honor!

Seeing Tara recognized for her contributions to GRC is incredibly special—not just as her husband and business partner, but as someone who has witnessed firsthand the dedication, passion, and impact she brings to every challenge she takes on.

Michael Rasmussen’s words say it best:

 “Tara is a powerhouse in leadership, sales, and engagement. I have always been impressed with her ability to network and build long-lasting client relationships.”

Tara, I couldn’t be prouder of you. You’ve shaped the GRC space in ways that will have a lasting impact, and this recognition is so well deserved.

If you’d like to read Michael’s full post, check it out here.

Let’s celebrate Tara and all the incredible women in GRC who are shaping the future of this industry!

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

How to Track Form Submission Sources Automatically in SmartSuite

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Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

How to Automatically Track Submission Sources with Forms in SmartSuite

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Tracking where your form submissions come from is essential for event planning, sales CRMs, and lead tracking. Without it, you won’t know whether a user accessed your form from an email, website, QR code, or social media.

Fortunately, SmartSuite’s prefilled forms make it easy to track submission sources—automatically! In this guide, we’ll walk through how to set this up, ensuring you always know where each form submission originated.

Why Track Form Submission Sources?

When you send out a form, SmartSuite tracks that a submission was made but doesn’t specify how the form was accessed. With this method, you can:

  • Identify which marketing channels drive the most engagement.
  • Improve your event planning strategies by knowing how attendees register.
  • Streamline lead tracking in Sales CRMs.

Step-by-Step Guide to Tracking Form Sources

1. Add a Registration Source Field

First, you’ll need a field to store the submission source:

  • Navigate to your Attendees Table (or relevant database).
  • Add a Single Select field.
  • Name it Registration Source.
  • List all possible form sources (e.g., Website, Email, QR Code, Social Media).

2. Hide the Registration Source Field in the Form

Since we don’t want users selecting their own registration source, we’ll hide this field:

  • Open your form settings.
  • Find the Registration Source field.
  • Select Hide Field from Users.

Now, the field remains in the form but is invisible to users.

3. Use a Prefilled Form URL

Now, let’s ensure SmartSuite automatically fills in the Registration Source field based on how users access the form.

How to Modify the Form URL:
  1. Get your SmartSuite form link (via the Share View option).
  2. Append ?Prefill_Registration+Source= followed by the source name.

For example:

  • Website Link: https://yourform.com?Prefill_Registration+Source=Website
  • Email Link: https://yourform.com?Prefill_Registration+Source=Email
  • QR Code Link: https://yourform.com?Prefill_Registration+Source=QR+Code

Important: Ensure Prefill_ is capitalized, and replaces spaces with the + in the field names.

4. Test the Prefilled Form

To verify that the tracking works:

  • Copy your modified URL into a browser.
  • Check if the Registration Source field is prefilled correctly.
  • Submit the form.
  • In SmartSuite, confirm that the Registration Source is recorded in the new submission.

Real-World Applications

This technique isn’t just for event registration! You can also use it to:

  • Track lead sources in Sales CRMs.
  • Monitor survey responses by distribution channel.
  • Evaluate marketing campaign effectiveness.

Final Thoughts

By using SmartSuite’s prefilled form feature, you gain valuable insights into where your submissions come from—without extra coding or formulas!

Try this out in your own solutions, and let us know in the comments how you’re using prefilled forms. Got other creative use cases? Share them below!

Until next time, keep on enjoying SmartSuite! 🚀

‍

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

How to Use SmartSuite’s Asset Library for Dashboard Customizati

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Smart Tips: Use SmartSuite’s Asset Library for Dashboard Customization

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Hello, and welcome back to another SmartTips blog! I’m Gavin Brennen, a Product Specialist at SmartSuite, and today, we’re diving into how you can enhance your dashboards with brand assets using SmartSuite’s newest feature: The Asset Library.

Why Customize Your Dashboard?

Traditionally, SmartSuite dashboards have been all about functionality—comparison metrics at the top, charts at the bottom, and little to no aesthetic customization. But a well-designed dashboard can improve readability, reinforce branding, and create a more engaging user experience.

Before the Asset Library, every time you wanted to add an image, you had to upload it manually. Now, SmartSuite allows you to store and reuse brand assets, streamlining the process and saving time.

Step-by-Step Guide to Using the Asset Library

1. Adding a Banner Widget

The first step to personalizing your dashboard is adding a banner widget.

  • Click Style
  • Select Color
  • Click Upload Image

Previously, clicking this button would open your computer’s file finder, requiring you to select an image manually. Now, you’ll be taken to the Image Library, where you have access to:

  • Solution Images – Images used elsewhere in your solution
  • Brand Images – Global images available for consistent branding (e.g., logos, banners)
  • Unsplash Search – Find high-quality stock images directly from Unsplash

For example, if you need a background image related to stone textures, you can search “granite” and choose from the available images.

2. Uploading Brand-Specific Images

Brand images ensure consistency across multiple dashboards and solutions. Only Workspace Admins can upload to Brand Images, keeping the library clean and organized.

To upload:

  • Click Upload Image
  • Drag and drop your file
  • Click Upload

Once uploaded, the image remains in the Brand Images tab for easy future access. Now, when creating multiple dashboard tabs, you can simply select an existing image instead of uploading it repeatedly.

3. Adding a Navigation Header & Logo

To further enhance branding, you can add a navigation header with your logo.

  • Navigate to Navigation
  • Click Enabled
  • Center the tabs and name them accordingly (e.g., “Overview”)
  • Click Upload Image and select the SmartSuite logo from the Image Library

Once uploaded, your logo is globally available across all SmartSuite forms, dashboards, and anywhere else images are used.

The Benefits of Using the Asset Library

1. Saves Time

No more searching for images every time you create a new dashboard. Your brand assets are stored in one place and can be accessed instantly.

2. Consistent Branding

By keeping all brand images within SmartSuite, you ensure that your dashboards always align with company branding.

3. Centralized Asset Management

If you delete a local file, there’s no need to hunt it down online—your images are safely stored within SmartSuite.

Final Thoughts

The new Asset Library is a game-changer for dashboard customization. By storing all your brand assets directly within SmartSuite, you streamline your workflow, maintain consistency, and save valuable time.

Start leveraging the Asset Library today to make your dashboards more engaging and efficient!

Until next time, happy SmartSuiting!

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If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

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