The SmartSuite alternative for the process nobody templated
Switch if your process doesn't match a ready-made solution: describe it and Cheqq builds the records, the steps and the page as they really are, with AI in the steps that need judgment. Stay with SmartSuite for its governance, risk and IT solution suites, and SOC 2 and ISO 27001 on every plan.
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What SmartSuite is forA work-management platform with a database underneath. SmartSuite's strength is arriving with the shape already drawn: solutions per department, forms, dashboards and automations that a team can adopt on day one without designing anything.
A workspace with no shape until you describe one. You get the same records and automations, plus published apps, real document output and an agent per system — and the starting point is a sentence about your process rather than the nearest template to it.
Why people move from SmartSuite
Nothing here is a knock on SmartSuite. These are the points at which a tool stops being the right shape for the job, whichever tool it is.
The template is 80% right
Every process has the bit that is specific to you, and that bit is usually why the work is hard. Bending a pre-built solution around it costs more than building the thing you meant.
Automations that only go one way
Real operations branch, loop, retry, wait on a person and sometimes undo what they already did. A rule builder handles the simple half well and the other half not at all.
Everything happens inside the workspace
Work management assumes the people doing the work have accounts. Customers, suppliers and applicants do not — and they need a page, not a seat.
The output still gets made by hand
The system holds the numbers and someone still assembles the deck, the report and the spreadsheet that get sent out.
Cheqq vs SmartSuite, row by row
In plain terms. Where SmartSuite is the stronger answer, the row says so.
| Capability | Cheqq | SmartSuite |
|---|---|---|
| Getting startedSmartSuite | Cheqq Describe your process and it is built, or install a template and reshape it by asking. Nothing arrives assuming a department structure. | SmartSuite A large library of ready solutions by department, which is genuinely the fastest way to start if one of them matches you. |
| Structured recordsEven | Cheqq Records with typed fields, relations, formulas and rollups, with views and dashboards over them. | SmartSuite A rich field set with views, dashboards and reporting built for team work management. |
| Process logicCheqq | Cheqq Compiled workflows with branching, loops, sandboxed code, retries and approval steps that escalate. Runs keep their event history and can be resumed. | SmartSuite Automation rules with triggers, conditions and actions. |
| Columns that fill themselvesCheqq | Cheqq Any column can be given a job — research with citations, scoring, classification — priced before it runs, with your manual edits protected. | SmartSuite AI field agents and workflow agents that run on your own AI provider's key, after 100 free requests. |
| Apps for people without accountsCheqq | Cheqq Published to their own address, with a server-enforced binding listing exactly which fields the app may read or write. | SmartSuite Forms, and read-only shared views and solutions that need no account. |
| Documents and decksCheqq | Cheqq Decks, sheets and reports generated from your records as .pptx, .xlsx, .docx and .pdf, with direct editing, version history and published links. | SmartSuite Reporting and dashboards inside the platform. |
SmartSuite’s column checked against its own site on .
Both products move fast. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
What you would build instead
Sentences you could type on your first afternoon, and what comes back.
Describe the exception, not the average.
The approval that skips a step for repeat customers. The escalation that only fires outside business hours. Say it once and read it back as steps — including the branch that made it yours.
The monthly pack, assembled from the records.
Not a dashboard someone screenshots. A real document generated from the same rows the team has been updating all month, exported as .pdf or .docx and sent.
Moving from SmartSuite
Export each view
SmartSuite exports saved views as CSV or Excel. Upload them together and Cheqq turns them into records with the right kind of field for each column.
Describe what the solution did
Say how the process should run, including the exceptions, and read the steps before you switch them on.
Publish the part outsiders touch
Intake forms and status pages become pages at their own address, able to touch only the fields you list.
Once Cheqq has built it, you can ask someone on our team to check it.
When to stay with SmartSuite
You want it working on Monday
If one of SmartSuite's solutions is close to your process, adopting it is faster than describing yours from scratch. Speed to a working system counts.
The job is team work management
Assigning, tracking and reporting on work a team is doing is what SmartSuite is built around, and it is well built for it.
You need per-department structure out of the box
A mid-sized company standardising HR, projects and operations at once gets real value from a coherent pre-built set.
Switching from SmartSuite
Does Cheqq have pre-built solutions like SmartSuite?
It has templates that install as working systems — tables, automations and an agent already wired together. The difference is what happens next: you reshape a Cheqq template by describing the change rather than by reconfiguring it, so it stops being a template almost immediately.
Can it handle work management too?
Yes — tasks, assignees, statuses and boards are all records and views. What Cheqq adds is that the process around them can run itself rather than waiting for someone to move a card.
How do people outside my company take part?
Through a page at its own address. They never take a seat, a public page needs no sign-in, and the page can read or write only the fields you list, enforced by the server on every request.
Is there a free plan?
Yes, with no card: 500 AI credits and 1,000 step-runs a month. SmartSuite stopped offering a free plan to new sign-ups on January 1, 2026.
Sources
- SmartSuite — Pricing — checked
- SmartSuite Help — Free plan sunset guide — checked
- SmartSuite Help — Automation limits — checked
- SmartSuite Help — AI field agents — checked
- SmartSuite Help — Shared views — checked
Comparing something else?
vs NocoDB
vs Teable
vs Excel
vs Google SheetsBuild your process. Not the nearest one.
Describe how the work actually moves at your company, exception included. Free to start.