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Home » ClickUp vs. SmartSuite: Detailed Review of the Best Features, Pricing, & Design

ClickUp vs. SmartSuite: Detailed Review of the Best Features, Pricing, & Design



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ClickUp vs. SmartSuite: which work management tool is better?

In this video, we’re comparing work management giant ClickUp to newcomer SmartSuite for an in-depth review of the best features, support options, accessibility, design, and pricing.

Here’s what we’ll cover:
00:00 Let’s compare SmartSuite vs. ClickUp
01:20 #1: Company Comparison
04:20 #2: Design Comparison
09:36 #3: Features Comparison
10:09 SmartSuite Feature #1: Records
11:05 SmartSuite Feature #2: Linked Records
13:24 SmartSuite Feature #3: Emphasis on Permissions & Documentation
17:13 ClickUp Feature #1: Fewer Mouse Clicks via Hotkeys & Command Bar
18:12 ClickUp Feature #2: Bulk Action Toolbar
19:03 ClickUp Feature #3: Quick Create Menu
20:10 ClickUp Feature #4: Powerful Recurring Tasks
23:38 #4: Ease of Use
27:01 #5: Language
28:46 #6: Pricing
31:04 Which is the winner for you?

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40 thoughts on “ClickUp vs. SmartSuite: Detailed Review of the Best Features, Pricing, & Design”

  1. Which tool is the winner in your eyes? Drop a comment below!

    Or, if you can't decide, just try both!

    🚀 Want to try SmartSuite for yourself? Use our affiliate link: https://processdriven.co/smartsuite?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=ep257

    ⭐ Want to try ClickUp for yourself? Use our affiliate link: https://processdriven.co/clickup/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=ep257

    For all their similarities, SmartSuite and ClickUp feels like they're both pioneering opposite ends of the work management arena. 😲 Here's to a friendly competition as both tools innovate their way to changing how teams work. The work management space just keeps getting more and more interesting, and it's amazing to see how quickly each player is innovating their way forward!

  2. Layla, great stuff here. For me, the timing is perfect. I am going to switch database and task management to SmartSuite, SmartSheet or Airtable. You, my go to ClickUp expert, are now comparing ClickUp to SmartSuite and Gareth from GAP Consulting, my go to Airtable expert, has just started a series comparing Airtable to SmartSuite. Now, to find someone to compare SmartSheet to SmartSuite…. Thank you for this video and continued success!

  3. I was waiting for this video. Thanks for the deep dive! Since your last video I am testing SmartSuite & till now I like it. The ease of use is the trigger which will most likely make me do the switch from ClickUp. I am using ClickUp for 2 years now and still from time to time I am really confused how to do some things – I am not talking about complicated stuff 🙂. I would appreciate an even deeper dive in the SmartSuite tips and tricks. Love your videos ♥

  4. Thanks Layla. This is a great and detailed video. We just renewed our ClickUp subscription, but as we mature our processes and approach, I’m fascinated to see how SmartSuite develops as it could well be a good fit once we’ve better understood our underlying process maps!

  5. We use both Airtable (for all our client info) and Clickup. Smartsuite is a very intriguing option for us to potentially consolidate down to 1 tool. My main concern would be losing the recurring task functionality in CU.

    It's early, but I would probably give Smartsuite the edge when it comes to the 'company' category. I say that because I think they have a much more thoughtful, mature approach to product development, whereas Clickup has always been about pumping out as many features as possible not caring what they break along the way.

  6. Layla, I'm watching and respecting what you're doing here. ClickUp is overwhelming from first impressions for most of our clients. (and you never want to burn the brain cells of your tribe)

  7. I have a very small firm and a heavy CU user with very few advanced features (very few automations, for example). Our primary use is communication. Because of our niche, we have a LOT of documents emailed to us and the ease of dropping them into a client folder directly through the email extension has been a huge plus of us – until it stops working properly. And that has been maddeningly frequent over the past few years.

    And as much as I loathe changing things that (mostly) work, it's gotten to the point that each time I use the extension I keep saying "Please work. Please work". Do you happen to know if SmartSuite has the ability to create tasks directly from emails and move the email attachments?

    Thanks Layla!

  8. Great video!

    I think I recall you saying at one point that ClickUp was eventually going to introduce a way to call "tasks" other things so its platform could be a bit more flexible. If so, is there any update on that?

    We're planning to move our operations team to ClickUp and are also starting to do more in Airtable, meaning that SmartSuite is kind of an interesting idea.

    Having said that, we already have some ClickUp power-users internally so would love to stick with it!

  9. Thanks for the comparison. Perfect timing too as my CU subscription is ending next month and I've just been aching to find a different app. Can't take the bugginess and unreliability of CU. But the boringness of Asana is hard to stomach…

    Just jumped on the trial for SS –using your link ofc–. Let's see how it stacks up!🤞🏻

  10. Great video Layla. As an existing ClickUp customer, was really interested to see how SmartSuite compares.

    Having had a brief play with the app, SmartSuite looks good on the surface, but doesn't quite cut it for us. It would work out far more expensive than ClickUp, as the concept of free 'guest' users with full/edit/comment access, doesn't seem to exist and it looks like there are some key features missing which we would need (apologies if any of the below is factually incorrect):

    – Cannot give clients access as a 'guest' to collaborate i.e. add comments to records etc, without paying at least $10 for each user account
    – Not enough levels available in the hierarchy to cope with a complex project that requires multiple 'lists' of records
    – Only 10Gb of file storage on the $10 per user per month plan, then only 50Gb on the more expensive plan above.
    – Only seem to be able to create doc's (SmartDoc) within a task
    – No ability to create sub-pages within a SmartDoc.
    – No ability to create multiple levels of sub-items
    – No ability to control who has access to a shared item directly within the app.
    – No ability to add pinned comments to record attachments for proofing/client review
    – No Gant charts with dependencies, no chat, mind maps or whiteboards

  11. A massive thing that you didn't compare was integrations and automation. I have Clickup paired with Integromat to interface with loads of other business platforms and services. Services that Clickup can pair with directly is also impressive. I have loads of automation running in the background saving me so much time. From what I have seen, Clickup wins this battle hands-down. I also have Clickup paired with Google Workplace meaning I can see my calendars within the app and email directly from tasks.

  12. As always Layla, a great video. I must confess that whilst I have been a Click p user for a few years now, I vaccinate between frustrated and impressed. I am beginning to explore SmartSuite. 3 things are going to inform me. Offline availability, document functionality and the naming conventions. So far the fact that Smarts item enables changes to area that are not tasks, is HUGE. (Wake up Clickup). So I am excited to see how this progress. Excited to lead n with you. I am happy to pay more for something that works for me. At this stage it is as a solopreneur who collaborates with others.

  13. Thanks for this! I was searching for an alternative to ClickUp since the team I work on won't use it. Basically I was told, "yeah, we're not going to use it but you can," which of course defeated the purpose of using it in my opinion. I've tried going back to spreadsheets to manage projects since I don't need all of the features in CU and I find the UI a little cluttered. But of course spreadsheets just don't cut it. I really like Airtable but some of the limitations were deal breakers for me. SmartSuite seems to address all of issues that made CU and Airtable not a great fit for me. Looking forward to learning more about SS.

  14. It's so hard. I can't see myself leaving Click up, even though we broke up several times. I usually find myself back. I seem to like smart suits. I will give it a spin.

    But I am really looking forward to getting Tana.

  15. Okay, so just watched it. Thanks so much, Layla; great job! A few things. Check out expanding the open task feature. Mind blown. One of the issues I have with Monday and ClickUp is the use of space on open windows. SmartSuite wins there. Another issue for me is some key bugs I'm having with ClickUp. For onboarding new users, they can't see content in the mobile app. At all. Over 2.5 months! It's still not fixed? One of the reasons I finally picked ClickUp was supported. Chat support. They fired all their staff; no support now but email?

    I can't get anything resolved by email. I will say CU features are great with board views vs. SS. I love the layout of SS. You mention it briefly, but I can't stress how important Accessibility is, one of the reasons why I like Monday's layout. Text, size, space, color. It matters, people. Everyone isn't 22 working, and spacing is key to great UI Design. My goal is to see how they compare to a small helpline setup. Access to guests, support, bugs, etc. Those are the things I will be looking at. I love the feature you stated about naming key fields. for example. Task/Item, or if I want Case, I can have it.

    Looking forward to more of your videos on this topic.

  16. Great video with clear explanations and insights – as always. Thank you! I would also like to see the comparison of the mobile apps of the two. In my opinion, CU mobile app is… crap. For me it's important to have similar functionalities on both, desktop and mobile.

  17. It is a nice video to start, but it will be appreciated to see a comparison in the mobile apps, and integration with outside tools, like Office365, Google workspace, and others. It is interesting to see that Smartsuit advertises on its website that the software can manage the entire organization, and I wonder how you can link so much data. For example, you close a deal in the CRM and want to transfer it to order processing, invoicing, etc. I'm still suspicious about Smartsuit. In your hands, everything looks easy, but for me, it can be different 🙂

  18. Hello Layla
    Artem from SmartSuite here.

    First of all, thanks for this great review! We were working really hard over these years to hit the market with a solid, feature packed, yet easy to use tool.

    Remark about the bulk actions. In fact, SmartSuite lets you update almost any field type in bulk (numbers, dates, statuses, assignees etc).
    Just select several records in Grid View and change a cell value in one of those selected records. We will bulk update all others too.
    In terms of Clickup, I assume, that means that you can bulk update any custom field.

    Before I drop the mic, here's another feature that you might find handy. Our Grid supports copy/paste. So when it comes to the ease of entering data, you can paste it either from external source (like Excel ot text file), or from one cell to another.

    Thanks for the video!

  19. Thanks Layla! You provide the best videos! I'm always interested in minimization features like toggle/collapsible lists, paragraphs, sections, etc. that allow the user to store a ton of well-organized content without so much scrolling or busyness, only seeing just what's needed. They're especially handy for docs, wiki's, etc. I used ClickUp and reported so many bugs (one time I sent 17 in one submission) that they actually had me work with one of their developers. I left due to stability concerns. Their toggle lists were loaded with problems and were only marginally better after fixes based on my feedback as they couldn't replicate many of the issues. (If you're users are having consistent issues with your software, at some point you just have to figure it out.)

    I appreciate your bringing awareness to SmartSuite. I've already reached out to them and so far they've been fantastic. You don't know how much your videos have helped me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

  20. Hi Layla, I would like to know if SmartSuite is built on a relational database structure or a hierarchical structure (like ClickUp is). Also, would love to see a video on migrating from CU to SmartSuite. Thank you!~

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