OpenProject vs SmartSuite Comparison
Compare OpenProject vs SmartSuite features, pricing, and more.
Last updated: November 2026
OpenProject
6.7/10
Open source project management software for classic, agile and hybrid teams, available self-hosted for free or as an EU-hosted paid cloud.
SmartSuite
7.3/10
SmartSuite is a no-code work management platform that teams use to build project, process and operations solutions with views, automations and AI agents.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.7/10 | 7.3/10 |
| Analytics | 6/10 | 7/10 |
| Cost | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Customization | 8/10 | 9/10 |
| Ease of Use | 5/10 | 7/10 |
| Integration | 5/10 | 7/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 9/10 | 9/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 7/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | €6/user/mo Basic | $20/user/mo Team |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Free Community | $200/mo Team |
| Features | ||
| App integrations | ||
| Collaboration tools | ||
| Dashboards | ||
| Docs | ||
| File sharing | ||
| Gantt charts | ||
| Kanban boards | ||
| Reporting | ||
| Task lists | ||
| Task management | ||
| Time tracking | ||
| Timeline view | ||
| Client collaboration | Not listed | |
| Databases | Not listed | |
| Knowledge base | Not listed | |
| Scheduling | Not listed | |
| Spreadsheet interface | Not listed | |
| Team messaging | Not listed | |
| Whiteboards | Not listed | |
| Workflow automation | Not listed | |
OpenProject vs SmartSuite cost by team size
| Team size | OpenProject | SmartSuite |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeCommunity | Contact for pricing |
| 5 users | FreeCommunity | $100/moTeam |
| 10 users | FreeCommunity | $200/moTeam |
| 25 users | FreeCommunity | $500/moTeam |
| 50 users | FreeCommunity | $1,000/moTeam |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose OpenProject
- Has a free plan (SmartSuite does not)
- Higher Cost score (8/10 vs 6/10)
Why choose SmartSuite
- Higher Ease of Use score (7/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Integration score (7/10 vs 5/10)
Pros & Cons
OpenProject
Pros
- The free self-hosted Community edition is GPLv3 open source and shares one codebase with the paid editions.
- It hosts cloud data in the EU, encrypts it with AES-256 at rest, and offers a signable GDPR data processing agreement.
- It supports classic Gantt planning and agile boards and backlogs in the same tool.
- Time and cost tracking with budget reports is built in.
- Long contract terms carry large discounts, for example fifteen months free on a five-year term.
Cons
- Paid plans require at least 25 users, and Premium requires 100.
- Several Reddit users report that self-hosted installation is hard, and some find the tool too elaborate for simple needs.
- Slack, Toggl and Mattermost connections are unsupported community plugins.
- Reviewers say the interface is less polished than tools like Asana, and that resource and workload management is weak.
- Many features, including SSO and portfolio management, require paid Enterprise tiers.
SmartSuite
Pros
- The same records can be shown as grid, Kanban, Gantt, timeline, calendar, map and dashboard views without duplicating data.
- Its compliance coverage is unusually strong for the category, with ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR audits plus a choice of US or EU data residency.
- Read-only users, commenters and form submitters are free, which lowers the cost of involving stakeholders.
- It ships more than 200 templates and an AI solution builder to speed up setup.
- Reviewers describe the support team as responsive.
Cons
- Team, Professional and Enterprise carry 3-, 5- and 25-seat minimums, and there is no free plan.
- The Team plan allows only 5,000 records per solution, and automation runs plus API calls are hard-capped each month.
- SAML SSO and SCIM are available only on Enterprise and Signature plans.
- There is no team chat or whiteboard, and external access is limited to read-only shared views.
- Reviewers say complex workflows and large data imports take real setup effort, and there are no native desktop apps.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
SmartSuite scores higher on our Project Management criteria: 7.3/10 against 6.7/10 for OpenProject. The largest gap is in Cost: 8/10 for OpenProject and 6/10 for SmartSuite.
OpenProject has a free plan; SmartSuite does not list one.
