A Smartsheet Alternative for People Who Need the Schedule to Be Real

Export the sheet as CSV or Excel and import the CSV. That brings the rows across — task names, dates, durations, owners — and you build the dependency network on top of them, which is usually fast because the structure is already in your head. One caveat worth knowing in advance: a CSV carries rows, not a scheduling model, so dependencies, constraints, calendars, and baselines that were never in the file cannot be recovered from it. If the schedule originally came out of Microsoft Project or Primavera P6, open that original .MPP, XML, or XER file instead — it carries far more.

A different kind of tool, and it is worth being clear about that before you switch. Smartsheet is a work-management platform built on the spreadsheet grid; Ingantt is a scheduling tool with a Critical Path Method engine. They overlap where both draw a Gantt chart. They do not overlap on the grid — Ingantt has no sheets, no cross-sheet formulas, and no general work surface. If what you need is a better schedule, this is the swap. If what you need is a better spreadsheet, it is not.

The scheduling engine underneath it. Critical Path Method with 4 dependency types, 8 constraint types, elapsed durations, custom calendars and work weeks, and multiple critical paths. Resource leveling by priority, slack, or ID, with rate tables A–E and time-varying availability. Tracking with 11 baselines, 10 interim plans, and 55 baseline plus 5 variance columns. Earned Value with 13 columns including BCWS, BCWP, CPI, SPI, EAC, VAC, and TCPI. And 10 views on the same plan, including Tracking Gantt, Network Diagram, Resource Usage, and Resource Graph.

Yes, and it is usually the better path. Ingantt reads Microsoft Project .MPP, MPT, MPX, and XML, plus Primavera P6 XER and PMXML, directly in the browser. If a plan was flattened into a grid at some point, the original project file still has the dependency network, the calendars, the resource assignments, and the baselines in it, and opening that gets all of them back rather than rebuilding them by hand.

Ingantt for Web is $7.99 per user per month billed monthly, or $71.88 per user per year billed annually, which works out at $5.99 per user per month. Smartsheet's published pricing starts at $9 per user per month. The two are close enough that price should not be the deciding factor — what should decide it is whether you need a grid or a schedule. The 7-day full-feature trial, no credit card required, is there so you can settle that against your own project.

Neither. Ingantt runs in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge, with nothing installed. Project files live in your own Google Drive, using Drive's permissions and version history, so sharing works the way sharing already works for your team and no project data sits on Ingantt's servers. Native apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS also exist and are sold separately in their stores.

Yes, in the two ways that usually matter. Export the plan to PDF or PNG for stakeholders who only need to read it, at any zoom level, which covers status reviews and printed programmes. Export to MS Project XML for anyone who works in Microsoft Project and needs the real file. Within your team, plans are shared through Google Drive permissions rather than through a separate seat-and-invite system.