Is Smartsheet cost vs self-hosted OpenProject cheaper for your team?
For most teams, self-hosted OpenProject is cheaper only when the Enterprise features are not required or the user count is high enough to spread the infrastructure and staff time. OpenProject Community has no license fee at any team size, but it omits single sign-on, LDAP group synchronization and SCIM provisioning, which sit in paid Enterprise plans. Once those controls are part of your requirements, the comparison becomes a recurring subscription against your own hosting, migration and administration effort, and the outcome depends on your own figures, so model both sides before you decide.
Enterprise on-premises is priced per named user per month, as listed on the OpenProject pricing page: Basic at 5.95 euros, Professional at 10.95 euros with a 25-user minimum, Premium at 15.95 euros with a 100-user minimum, and Corporate on request for 250 or more users. Illustrative only: 120 named users on Professional would be 120 times 10.95 euros, or 1,314 euros per month before tax. Infrastructure is the second recurring cost. OpenProject's sizing guide suggests 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users, and 8 cores and 8 GB for about 500 users, plus PostgreSQL 16 or later with the required extensions, storage and backups. One-time costs include installation, configuration and migration, while upgrades, patching, backup restore tests and monitoring recur.
Start by counting named users who need write access, since that is the figure the subscription bills on, and separate them from read-only stakeholders. Confirm with your cloud or data center team what the compute, storage and backup services cost in your environment, and ask who on your staff will own upgrades. Plan the migration as a one-time cost, because Smartsheet's backups exclude formulas, reports, dashboards and workflows, so those must be rebuilt. If you want outside help, request a written quote from DeployOpen based on a fixed scope, which should list deliverables, timelines and what the client team must provide. Compare that total against your current renewal across three years, not a single year.
Which cost components change when you move from Smartsheet to OpenProject
This table sets each cost component of a Smartsheet subscription against the matching component of a self-hosted OpenProject deployment, and marks whether it is paid once or recurs. Read it as a list of line items to price in your own environment, not as a total. The main takeaway is that the license line is only one part of the comparison, and that Smartsheet's backups leave out reports, dashboards, formulas, workflows, cross-sheet references and formatting, so that rebuild work sits in the migration row.
| Cost component | Smartsheet side | Self-hosted OpenProject side | One-time or recurring |
|---|---|---|---|
| License or subscription | Per-member subscription on the plan you buy, with vendor-managed hosting included | Community edition has no license fee. Enterprise on-premises is priced per named user per month, with minimums on some tiers | Recurring for both if you buy Enterprise. Community carries no license cost |
| Infrastructure | None on your side. Smartsheet runs the hosting | Servers or VMs, PostgreSQL, storage, load balancing and network in your data center or cloud account. Sizing depends on user count | Mostly recurring (hardware refresh or cloud fees), with a one-time setup |
| Implementation | 配置 of sheets, templates and sharing is internal work only | Installation, SSO and LDAP setup, branding, project structure and access model, usually by your staff or a partner under a written scope | One-time, with ongoing changes as the organization grows |
| Data migration | Excel backups on Business and Enterprise plans include sheet rows, comments and attachments | Rows, dates and dependencies are mapped into work packages and Gantt charts. The OpenProject Jira Migrator does not apply to Smartsheet | One-time, driven by the number of sheets and the cleanup needed |
| Rebuilding formulas, reports and dashboards | Formulas, reports, dashboards, workflows, cross-sheet references and formatting sit in the platform and are not in the backup | Each report, dashboard and automation is rebuilt with work package queries, boards, Gantt views and workflows, and any gaps are covered by other tools | One-time, and it often takes the largest share of effort for sheet-heavy teams |
| Support | Included in the plan, with vendor support channels | Community support is free but has no response commitment. Enterprise plans include vendor support, and an implementation partner can be contracted separately | Recurring if you buy Enterprise or a retainer |
| Upgrades and patching | Handled by the vendor | Your team or partner applies OpenProject releases, database changes and OS patches, with test environments | Recurring, through staff time or a retainer |
| Backups and recovery | Business and Enterprise plans provide backups as Excel files, which are not a full restore of the platform | Database, attachments and configuration backups must be designed, tested and stored by you | Recurring for storage and testing, one-time for design |
| Internal skills | Sheet administration by power users, with no server skills needed | Linux, container, database and identity administration skills, or a contracted team to cover them | Recurring staff time or contract cost |
What moves the Smartsheet and OpenProject comparison
Smartsheet's bill follows seats and plan tier, while a self-hosted OpenProject bill follows named users on Enterprise plans, the servers you run and the people who run them. The six drivers below decide which side of that comparison wins for your organization, and most of them are easier to measure before you ask for a quote.
Named user count and minimums
OpenProject Enterprise on-premises is priced per named user per month, and the Professional and Premium tiers carry minimums of 25 and 100 users. Count the people who will hold a work package login, not the people who only receive notifications, and check whether your count falls just under a tier boundary. Community edition has no per-user fee, so a small team that does not need Enterprise features may pay nothing for the software itself. Ask the vendor how seats are counted before you model the cost.
Enterprise feature requirements
SSO, LDAP group synchronization, SCIM provisioning and portfolio and resource management sit in paid Enterprise plans. If your identity provider already drives access to Smartsheet, list which of these features your joiner, mover and leaver process depends on. A team that only needs projects and Gantt charts can stay on Community, while a team that needs automated provisioning will pay for Enterprise from the start.
Data volume and sizing
Hosting cost scales with users, concurrent activity and database growth. OpenProject's sizing guide suggests 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users, 8 cores and 8 GB for about 500 users, and 16 cores and 16 GB for about 1,500 users. Treat these figures as a starting point, then test with your own attachment volume and project count. Attachments and history grow faster than most teams expect, so storage needs its own line in the estimate.
Availability and backup obligations
Smartsheet's backup covers sheet data, comments and attachments on Business and Enterprise plans, so your recovery design depends on what you add yourself. A self-hosted deployment needs a tested database backup, a restore procedure, and a decision on whether you run high availability or accept a maintenance window. Each of these adds server, storage and staff time. Ask what recovery time and recovery point your business owners require, because those answers set the hosting bill more than the license does.
Formulas and reports to rebuild
Smartsheet backups exclude reports, dashboards, formulas, workflows, cross-sheet references and formatting, so every one of these is manual rebuild work during migration. Inventory each sheet's formulas, each report and each automation before you estimate effort. Counting these items often produces the largest one-time cost in the move, and it is the item most likely to be underestimated in a quote. Ask the implementation partner to price rebuild work by item, not by sheet.
Linux, PostgreSQL and Kubernetes skills
OpenProject runs on Docker, on packaged installs for supported Linux distributions, or on Kubernetes with Helm charts for horizontal scaling. It also requires PostgreSQL 16 or later with the pg_trgm, btree_gist and unaccent extensions. Your team's existing skills decide whether you pay for internal operations time, an operations retainer, or both. Confirm who will patch the operating system, upgrade the database and apply OpenProject releases before the platform goes live.
How to build your own Smartsheet vs OpenProject cost model
This sequence turns your Smartsheet contract and workspace inventory into a three to five year comparison with OpenProject, with one-time and recurring costs kept apart so the figures can be checked against written quotes.
Pull seat counts and plan tier from the contract
Finance or the Smartsheet account owner records the current plan tier, the number of licensed seats, any add-ons, the renewal date and the billing currency from the signed order form, not from memory or the sales portal summary. Separate named editors, viewers and any guest or service accounts, because they may be priced differently. The step is done when you have one table with plan, seat count by role, term length and renewal date, and each figure has a contract reference beside it.
Inventory sheets, reports, dashboards and formulas
Program owners and a platform administrator count the sheets in active use, the reports, dashboards, automated workflows, cross-sheet references and the number of formula columns, and mark which items are used by which team. Sheets that have not been opened in a long period should be flagged for archive rather than migration. Because Smartsheet backups do not carry reports, dashboards, formulas, workflows or cross-sheet references, this inventory is the only reliable record of what must be rebuilt. The step is done when every active sheet has an owner and a complexity note.
Select the OpenProject edition by feature need
Decide which features your inventory requires. Community is free and covers work packages, Gantt charts, agile boards, time tracking and dashboards with community support. If you need single sign-on, LDAP group synchronization, the Jira Migrator or portfolio and resource management, those sit in Enterprise plans, so the evaluation should name each required feature and map it to a tier on the OpenProject pricing page. Confirm with OpenProject whether a feature you rely on is included in the tier you choose. The step is done when each requirement has an edition and a documented reason.
Price Enterprise seats per named user
If Enterprise is needed, multiply the number of named users in each band by the per-user monthly price for the tier. OpenProject lists Enterprise on-premises prices per named user per month, with minimum user counts for Professional and Premium and a quote for Corporate at 250 or more users, so the minimums may change your totals for small teams. Ask whether the figures are list prices, what discounts apply, whether taxes are included, and whether the minimum applies per instance. The step is done when you have a monthly and annual license figure with its quote reference.
Size the server from the sizing guide
Use the user count and the sizing guide in the OpenProject system requirements to choose a server class, then check the required PostgreSQL version and extensions. Your infrastructure team should price compute, storage, backups, a staging copy and a load balancer in your own cloud account or data center, using their own rates. Ask whether a Kubernetes deployment with Helm charts is needed for horizontal scaling or whether a single Docker host is sufficient. The step is done when you have a sized environment list with a recurring infrastructure estimate from your own pricing.
Estimate migration and rebuild effort
Using the inventory from the earlier step, estimate the work to move rows, dates, dependencies and attachments, and to rebuild each formula, report and dashboard as OpenProject work packages, queries, Gantt views or dashboards. Note that the Jira Migrator is a Jira-only tool in beta and does not apply to Smartsheet, so the Smartsheet move is a manual or scripted import from exports. Ask any implementation partner for a written, fixed-scope proposal that lists deliverables and the assumptions behind the effort. The step is done when each sheet has a rebuild estimate and a responsible party.
Add administration and upgrade time
Account for recurring operations: patching the operating system and PostgreSQL, applying OpenProject releases, monitoring, backups and restore tests, user provisioning, and support. Community users rely on community support, while Enterprise plans include the vendor support you are buying. Record who performs each task, whether that is an internal platform team, a managed service or a partner retainer, and what each one costs per month. The step is done when operations has a recurring monthly effort and cost line with a named owner.
Compare totals over three to five years
Build one model with separate one-time lines (migration, rebuild, training, initial setup and hardening) and recurring lines (Smartsheet renewals, OpenProject Enterprise licenses, infrastructure and administration). Run the comparison over three and five years and show both the current Smartsheet trajectory and a scenario with your own seat growth. Test sensitivity to the user count, because per-user pricing and the Enterprise minimums change the result sharply near tier boundaries. Request written quotes from Smartsheet, OpenProject and any partner before deciding, and do not rely on list figures alone. The step is done when the model has documented sources for every line and a signed-off comparison.
Why the OpenProject license line can be zero or a per-user fee
The OpenProject license line can be zero, or it can be a per-user monthly fee, and the difference depends entirely on which features your Smartsheet use depends on. OpenProject is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPL-3.0) and developed by OpenProject GmbH. Its free Community edition includes work packages, Gantt charts, agile boards, time tracking and dashboards, so a team whose Smartsheet work is mainly task lists, schedules and dependencies can often run on it without a license fee. The trade-off is that Community support is the only support included, so your team carries the operational load for upgrades, incidents and user questions.
Several controls that large or regulated organizations often expect sit in paid Enterprise plans. The pricing page lists single sign-on through SAML, OIDC, CAS, Kerberos and Okta, LDAP group synchronization, SCIM provisioning, custom branding, and portfolio and resource management. The Jira Migrator is also listed under Enterprise plans from Basic upward, which matters if you plan to bring in data from an Atlassian product as well. Before choosing an edition, list how your Smartsheet tenant authenticates users, how group membership is managed, whether anyone relies on resource views or portfolio roll-ups, and whether you need provisioning from your directory. Each answer that is yes points toward an Enterprise tier. Confirm current plan contents on the OpenProject pricing page before you write the requirement into a budget.
What rebuilding formulas and reports costs in a migration
The part of a Smartsheet move that is not covered by a backup is usually the largest unplanned cost. Smartsheet's backup on Business and Enterprise plans returns a zip of Excel files with comments and attachments, but it excludes reports, dashboards, formulas, workflows, cross-sheet references and formatting. Each of those must be rebuilt by hand in OpenProject or regenerated by a script from an export of the source data. Before you request a quote, inventory every sheet for formula columns, cross-sheet references, summary rows, reports and dashboards, and automated workflows, since these are the items that will not arrive with the data.
OpenProject's Jira Migrator does not help with this. It is a beta tool that imports from Jira Data Center 10.x and 11.x only, and the documentation advises using it in test setups. A Smartsheet move is therefore a custom import, built from the Excel files and, where needed, from the Smartsheet API. The effort for that import is driven mainly by the number of formulas and reports, the number of cross-sheet dependencies that have to be mapped to work package relationships, and how many workflows must be redesigned as OpenProject notifications or automations. Two sheets with simple columns are a small task. Thirty sheets with nested formulas and a set of executive dashboards are a separate project.
Ask any implementation partner to price these items separately, and to state which ones they plan to rebuild, which they plan to replace with OpenProject's built-in views and which they will drop with your sign-off. The one-time rebuild is the main variable, while hosting and OpenProject licensing recur. For the step-by-step import sequence, see the migration guide for Smartsheet to OpenProject.
Smartsheet and OpenProject cost questions buyers ask
How much effort does a self-hosted OpenProject move from Smartsheet take?
The effort depends mainly on how many sheets, users and linked dependencies you have, and on how much of the plan must survive the move. Smartsheet's Business and Enterprise backup gives you Excel files with comments and attachments, but it excludes reports, dashboards, formulas, workflows, cross-sheet references and formatting. Each of those excluded items has to be rebuilt by hand or rethought in OpenProject's work packages, Gantt charts and queries. A simple task list with few formulas is a small job. A portfolio of linked sheets with status roll-ups and executive dashboards is a large one. Ask any provider to inventory these items before quoting, because that inventory sets most of the effort.
Can our team move from Smartsheet to OpenProject without outside help?
Yes, a capable internal team can do it, provided it has the skills and time for installation, data mapping and testing. OpenProject installs through Docker (recommended), .deb and .rpm packages for 64-bit Linux, or Kubernetes with Helm charts. The team must also handle a PostgreSQL 16 or later database with the pg_trgm, btree_gist and unaccent extensions, backups, upgrades and user management. Smartsheet's Excel export is a workable starting point, but mapping rows, dates and dependencies into work packages takes careful checking. Teams without Linux, database or project management migration experience usually find the rebuild of formulas and reports is the part that slows them down.
What does a self-hosted OpenProject project need from our internal staff?
It needs a named project owner who decides which sheets, reports and dashboards must be rebuilt, an administrator who runs the servers, and a few power users who validate migrated plans. The administrator's workload includes patching, backups, monitoring and user provisioning. If you need single sign-on, LDAP group synchronization or SCIM provisioning, plan for Enterprise features and for someone who knows your identity provider. Staff time is a recurring cost, so ask who on your side will own the platform after the migration and how many hours a month you expect that role to take. Your quote should separate these internal roles from any external work.
How long does a Smartsheet to OpenProject migration take?
The duration depends on scope, and no reliable figure applies to every organization. The main drivers are the number of sheets and linked dependencies, how many reports and dashboards must be rebuilt, the sizing of the server, whether you connect identity services, and how many users need training and sign-off. Testing with a parallel run of real plans usually takes longer than the data move itself. Ask for a timeline tied to a written scope with named deliverables, and check whether it covers installation, migration, testing, user onboarding and a handover of administration.
Is OpenProject Community enough to replace Smartsheet?
Community may be enough for teams that need work packages, Gantt charts, agile boards, time tracking and dashboards, and that can accept community support. It is free under GPL-3.0, so licensing cost is zero, but you still pay for hosting, administration and any migration work. Community does not include single sign-on, LDAP group synchronization, SCIM provisioning, custom branding or portfolio and resource management. Those sit in Enterprise plans. If your Smartsheet use depends on those features, or if you need formal vendor support, price Enterprise on-premises before deciding. Enterprise on-premises is priced per named user per month, with Basic at 5.95 euros, Professional at 10.95 euros and Premium at 15.95 euros, subject to the minimums listed on the OpenProject pricing page.
How should we compare quotes for a Smartsheet to OpenProject move?
Compare quotes on the same written scope, not on the total price alone. Each quote should list the inventory of sheets, reports, dashboards, formulas and integrations it covers, the hosting design, the migration method, testing, training and handover, and what is excluded. Ask whether the price is one-time or recurring, and whether support and upgrades are a separate retainer. Confirm who pays for server capacity, backups and Enterprise licenses, since those are separate from services. Fixed-scope engagements agree deliverables and timelines in writing before work starts, which makes quotes easier to compare. DeployOpen does not publish a price list, so a quote follows from the written scope.
How DeployOpen scopes a fixed-price OpenProject implementation
DeployOpen plans, implements, integrates, hardens, backs up and documents self-hosted OpenProject inside your own cloud account, data center or air-gapped network. For a Smartsheet move, the work starts with a written scope that separates the OpenProject license decision from the hosting, migration and administration work that it triggers.
How we scope
- Inventory the Smartsheet sheets, users, plan tier and which data your backups would actually contain
- Agree which formulas, reports, dashboards and workflows must be rebuilt by hand in OpenProject
- Confirm the OpenProject edition needed, including whether SSO, LDAP sync or SCIM are required
- Size hosting for your named user count and document the assumptions in the written scope
How we build
- Deploy OpenProject with Docker or packaged installs on the Linux distribution your standards allow
- Configure PostgreSQL with the extensions OpenProject requires and set up backup and restore routines
- Connect identity, email and any file storage integration to the existing environment
- Test migrated work packages, dates, dependencies and rebuilt reporting against the Smartsheet source
How we hand over
- Document the architecture, upgrade path, backup schedule and administrator procedures for your team
- Record the mapping of Smartsheet columns, sheets and formulas to OpenProject fields and views
- Walk administrators through user provisioning, project templates and day-to-day operations
- Deliver the agreed scope with a clear list of what was rebuilt and what remains a manual decision
How we support
- Engagements are fixed-scope, with scope, deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before work starts
- Ongoing support, OpenProject upgrades and continuous testing are available as a retainer
- Ask for the quote to itemize implementation, hosting setup, migration, testing and handover separately
- Confirm the support terms and upgrade responsibilities in writing before signing
