# Smartsheet, Airtable, and Microsoft Project

> A practical comparison of Smartsheet, Airtable and Microsoft Project through the mental models they impose on work. Smartsheet begins with a familiar spreadsheet grid and layers project controls on top; Airtable starts with a relational database and lets teams surface that data through grids and interfaces; Microsoft's Project lineage, now partly consolidated into Planner, starts with schedules, dependencies and resources. The right choice follows the structure of the work, the cost of a missed dependency and the people who must keep the plan alive.

## Achievements

- Smartsheet combines grid, Gantt, card, calendar and timeline views with automation and portfolio reporting.
- Airtable makes linked relational records accessible through grids, views and no-code applications.
- Microsoft consolidated Project for the web, To Do and Planner experiences around the unified Planner product while retaining premium planning capabilities.

## Latest updates

- **2025-08** — Microsoft retired Project for the web and transitioned users and premium plans to Planner for the web and Planner in Teams.
- **2026-08** — Airtable documentation continues to describe its base layer as a database with one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many linked-record relationships.

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Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-25