Looking to speak with a customer using the New User Subscription Model

Hello Community!

I work for Connecticut Children's Medical Center. We are currently using the legacy subscription model but our contract is due for renewal later this year and so we're trying to prepare for the transition to the new user subscription model. Last week, a few of our Sys Admins met with our Smartsheet representatives to better understand the new model and its pricing.

While the conversation was helpful, they are now hoping to connect with a fellow Smartsheet customer who has already transitioned to the new model. We’d like to learn more about what the experience transitioning to the new model has been like for them, particularly related to their finances/Smartsheet budget.

It would be ideal if we could speak with another organization who is similar to ourselves. We have about 3,000 employees and are a non-profit healthcare system.

Anyone out there similar in size who might be interested in speaking with us?

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Comments

Rebecca_Kolker

We too are in the same boat! I would love to be involved in this conversation. I work for a large non-profit with about 5000 employees.

Darren Mullen

I'm keeping an eye on this too as I don't have any clients on the new model yet, but that transition will be coming up.

With one of our clients, we've started putting more into Workapps for users that don't really need access to core assets so we can reduce license counts and limit memberships under the new model.

jtordik

My company signed up in November under the "Licensed User" model. We signed up for 3 as we did not plan to have everyone with the owner permissions. Now, 3 months later, we are asked to true up all users on the platform. Any user above viewer will be charged as a Licensed User (which they are now calling Managed User). I have the business plan at $19 / month. So my cost when from <$1000 year to >$2500 year. They will send a request for me to true up every 3 months. I was quoted an enterprise plan at >$10,000, annually for <20 users. It is almost cost prohibitive for my small company. We will have to make a decision to move forward, or go back to Spreadsheets and SharePoint or use another, less expensive, project planner.

tzaczyk

We have an enterprise account, with previously 35 licensed users. We spent a lot of money for a developer to create a solution based on templates to help control our need for additional licenses. Unfortunately, with the new user license model, that effort has no value. Our initial true-up has been estimated at a cost of over $130K to enable users at the same level of access that they have always had in our Smartsheet solution. In addition, we have no control over the expended use of the system since any 'Member' can now create new sheets and tools and invite non-members to use those tools (with a default invitation level of Member). I'm sure you can all do the math, but this is exponential growth of member numbers. The burden is on our System Admins to reduce user access-levels AFTER THE FACT. This maintenance burden and the fact that users default to the higher access-level (Member) rather than the lower access-level (Viewer) is more additional expense with which we did not expect to be burdened.

Darren Mullen

@Rebecca_Kolker @jtordik @tzaczyk As more Smartsheet customers go to this new model, I'm working to figure out how to best address this with them.

I have some ideas, if ya'll are open to talking it over, drop me a line here:

https://smartsheetguru.com/contact/

jtordik

@Darren Mullen @tzaczyk. Great point. The expanded user allowance challenges our efforts to control Smartsheet in a cGMP environment and lock down permissions.

Darren Mullen

@jtordik Yes, granual permissions are definitely a challenge! I'm curious what would be your "idea" scenario for locking down permissions?

Erin Horiuchi Green

My company already transitioned to the new model which is the full suite of bells and whistles. We just stood up the Council of Champions. I will see what I can dig up from our PM and TPM.

There is noticeable activity like the "Wild Wild West" being corralled as of now.

Access Gating
1) Smartsheet Access Request Submission Form including justification
2) Smartsheet Approval Workflow Automation
3) If Declined, explanation triggered automation notificaiton
4) If Approved, explanation triggered automation notification

Why access gating? We are in the Pharma industry which is heavily regulated and constantly shifting with local and global environment impacts. Conscious designing, testing, rollout and succession planning needs to remain top of mind.

Smartsheet Adoption Strategy
1) Biweekly Smartsheet Office Hours with Smartsheet CSM and Council of Champions
2) Proofs of Concepts built by Council of Champions
3) Identify team roles to reduce licenses (i.e., Visionary, Architect, End User)
4) Optimize usage of Dynamic Views, Dashboards, and WorkApps.

API Adoption
1) Download audit trail of assets.
2) Download audit trail of asset assignment.
3) Quarterly Access Reviews
4)…

Why API adoption? Get full list of Smartsheet Groups and Group assignments to Assets.

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/472929#Comment_472929

Hi @Rebecca_Kolker @jtordik @tzaczyk,

I hope you're well and safe!

Please elaborate on what you had set up and how you're using it, and we can provide recommendations for possible workarounds like Update Requests, Forms, or the Premium App, Dynamic VIew, which doesn't require a license.

How many employees do you have in total?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅ Did my comment(s) help/answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community and me by marking it - Insightful 💡- Vote Up ⬆️ - Awesome ❤️ - or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer! I appreciate it, thanks!

Rebecca_Kolker

@Erin Horiuchi Green Would you be willing to meet with me? Your above post is super helpful. I have some additional questions that I would like to take offline if you are willing.

Erin Horiuchi Green

Hello @Rebecca_Kolker,

I can be reached at erin.horiuchi@syneoshealth.com.

I just started a project for the next 3 years of our department's resourcing, uplifting and project allocation strategies.

The market competition truly requires us to innovate our learning opportunities overlayed with technological enhancements for retention purposes.

Obed Colli

We’ve been using Smartsheet for the past 4 years.

For the first 3 years, we were on the Licensed User model paying around $19/month per user for 3 licensed. It was simple, predictable, and manageable.

Early this year 2025, we made a strategic move to the Business Plan, paying $902/year for 6 licensed users, and expanded access using the Editor role for an additional 3 colleagues. This allowed us to scale up collaboration without breaking our budget — something Smartsheet was previously great at supporting.

But now?

Smartsheet has quietly forced us into the new User Subscription Model and it’s a complete shift in cost and control.

We’re now being told we have to pay $304 per user per year — even for users who simply edit a cell or respond to a comment. That is 9 users × $304 = $2,736/year — triple what we paid just months ago.

What's Worse?

This change is happening MIDWAY through our current billing cycle. Our per-user cost has doubled with no warning.

True-up billing means we now need to manually monitor every person we share with or risk surprise charges every 90 days.

Anyone with Member access can now:
- Create sheets and dashboards
- Invite others as Members by default
- Add to our license count without admin oversight

So we’ve essentially lost control over our own billing and we're expected to babysit the system to avoid getting charged for “Provisional” users who don’t even know they’re costing us money.

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/491005#Comment_491005

Hi,

I hope you're well and safe!

The pricing seems to be ok, and maybe you had a special deal in place before the transition to USM.

The control of your provisional users is now much simpler, and you only need to check it once every True-up period. However, you'll receive notifications to ensure you have enough time to make any necessary changes.

Did your pricing change in the middle of your contract?

Feel free to share the contract with me; I'd be happy to review it. (share too, andree@workbold.com)
I'm a Smartsheet Expert Consultant & Partner.

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Smartsheet Expert Consultant & Partner / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅ Did I help answer your question/solve the problem? Please support with💡 ⬆️ ❤️, and/or ✅ Answer. This will make it easier for others to find a solution or help answer. I appreciate it, thank you! 🙏

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