Powerapps vs Smartsheet vs Quickbase

Power apps is from Microsoft.  I had the opportunity to be presented with a comparison of QuickBase versus Power apps and the conclusion that Quickbase came to when they did a controlled test giving sample problems to power users to solve was that the power users were unable to solve problems with Power Apps. Power Apps is much more oriented to hard-core programmers and not what we in the QuickBase world would call empowered knowledge workers.  In other words regular people - maybe a little bit smarter than the average :) ....  but most of us who use QuickBase are not real programmers. 

I don't know much about Smart Sheets.

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Mark Shnier (YQC)
mark.shnier@gmail.com
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I know this is an older thread, but thought I'd post in case someone else comes across it and is curious.

I am a relatively new Quickbase user; we have also been using Smartsheet for a little over a year.  The biggest difference for me is that QB is a relational database; Smartsheet is not.  You can do cross-sheet lookups (via a formula), but no record picker functionality.  Also, the Smartsheet forms are somewhat limited.

There are definitely some things I like about Smartsheet; for certain things it is easier to accomplish than in QB.  I'd say for the average non-technical user, Smartsheet is easier to pick up on.  It is much more like Excel, although with much enhanced capabilities in certain areas.  Sounds like Power Apps is on one end of the spectrum, Smartsheet on the other, and QB in the middle.  We are going to continue to use SS for some functions.

I come from a database development/programming background; I am working on an app now that definitely needs the relational database capabilities of QB.  I had originally hoped to develop it in Smartsheet but quickly realized it wasn't going to work.

One advantage of Smartsheet is that you don't need a paid license for users to access your "apps"; they can add data and make changes with just a free license.  You only need a paid license for anyone who is going to create workspaces/sheets (the SS version of apps & tables).

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Jennifer Marquette
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I was in the same position as Mike about a year and a half ago.  Jennifer is spot on about Smartsheet and I actually have an end user that uses it.  It fits a specific niche and it was easy for them to learn and distribute it to a couple other users.  I would recommend it for a specific use case but would have a hard time recommending it for any large or "real" database needs.

PowerApps has a great marketing team so it is easy to fall into their worm hole and think that it can easily do everything they say it can.  In reality we went with QuickBase for a few reasons.  The first is the lower cost entry point.  I'm able to purchase a license from QB and quickly add 20 users for one price.  This made it much easier to present during my annual budget meeting.  PowerApps is an add on and requires a license for each user which can quickly become expensive.

I am also not a programmer and learn code as I go.  In my opinion PowerApps has a steep learning curve and requires a lot more programming knowledge that I was comfortable with.  Microsoft bills it as "low code" but I think that is a huge stretch.  It is also difficult to implement if you are trying to do something that isn't part of Microsoft's vision, so to speak.  A lot of solutions that they market, and even train with, seem to fit too perfectly.

QB on the other hand is a little easier to learn from scratch.  However, I recommend that you have a very good understanding of database design because QB is a relational database program which means key fields, relationships, and tables.  The community though is fantastic to learn from and it seems like the QB community is much more willing to share knowledge but also share it so everyone can understand what they did.

The one short coming with QB is its "fit and finish".  It doesn't have a fancy interface that we see with other companies today, and reports are difficult to customize.  I always say it is very plain but it works.  Once you get started and comfortable though you can learn some great tricks on customizing the forms but the dashboards and homepage will always be lacking.

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David Semitekol
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I have experience developing in all three. 

• Power Apps is one piece of the collection of tools required to build an app. You build the user interface in Power Apps, the data source is separate (maybe SharePoint or SQL Server (requires premium license), automations are created using Power Automate, reporting using Power BI or another tool that draws from the data source. Because you can choose your tools and you are starting from a clean slate, there is a lot more flexibility. It's also much harder to develop - because you are starting from a clean slate.
• SmartSheet is great if you are working with flat files but it's not a relational database so if your data has a structure, its going to have limited utility. It's easy to set up sheets but relating them to each other and developing pretty dashboards takes time to learn how to do.
• QuickBase doesn't require you to build a user interface from scratch so that makes it easier to develop apps. It's the only relational database among the three so you can design whatever data structure you need. I'll assume the audience here knows all of QBs other great features...

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Alison Fisher
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Well, I've experience of using 2 (PowerApps and QB) and here's what I think:

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Mohit Chawla
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