Collections versus Workapps .... really Smartsheet?

Jason Hidek
Jason Hidek ✭✭✭✭
edited 01/28/25 in Smartsheet Basics

Who voted for Collections?

Collections is ANOTHER step back for Smartsheet. Workapps are awesome. They have their own unique UI and URL that is role based and easy to maintain. Basically instead of sending any user to the Smartsheet home pages of hundreds of boxes or workspaces or have them save tons of bookmarks.

You simply just give them the URL to the Workapp.

I do not understand the changes of Smartsheet. Its like they are rolling back features trying to funnel everything to the workspace and directly to the underlying assets, in hopes to have more provisional memberships created to the underlying assets.

Collections is just a poor mans version of workapps. You basically have to create a collection within a workspace and only after an asset is created so you can be inside the workspace to that view, then collection link is shows. There is no home for collections, no way for a user to see all the processes they are involved in one space, like they do when they log into workapps.smartsheet.com

We took our top workflows and processes that have multiple roles and access to assets to Workapps and built them in Collections and asked the users to give their feedback on working in the Workapp versus Collections and nobody liked collections.

  1. It takes longer to build through Collections
  2. Users dont like going to their file manager workspace to "find" their collections, they liked logging into workapps.smartsheet.com and see all their process workapps at their fingertips. Collections need to be above Workspaces and not hidden inside each one.
  3. You cant see who is in each role, you just hope whoever you gave the collection link to is shred to your assets in that collections. There is no "list" like you can see in Workapps → Roles.
  4. In a workapp, you can have a report as a page and make a role editor on that report and they can edit the report AND NOT be editor on the underlying asset (those no provisional membership). not in collections, they HAVE to be Editor on the underlying report (thus drive up provisional memberships)

I could go on, but I really dont see how ANYONE thought collections would be a better option instead of a workapp. The new user model, the thought of eliminating their coolest feature in Workapps, all just seems like a ploy to drive users back to sharing the core assets and thus drive up provisional members to increase revenue.

And this doesnt even get into using Workapps for portfolio or projects which is awesome. Through Collections, its seems to be a step back.

Sorry, my two cents. Something just doesnt smell right.