Basecamp Expert Review, Pricing, Alternatives - 2023
Contributing Experts
Basecamp is one of the best project management software options for communication between coworkers. Aside from the typical features, such as message boards and comments on projects, Basecamp includes “pings” for direct messages with others.
- Basecamp’s claim to fame is simplicity. All the tools are intuitive and every field is clearly labeled. The visual interface makes your tasks clear and there’s a bird’s-eye view option called Lineup to show you a timeline-like view of all tasks.
- Two pricing models are available: You can either opt for a per-user monthly fee or a flat annual fee for unlimited users. Both plans give you all the features you need — the Pro plan simply gives you a few extras, including additional storage space and priority support.
- You can invite as many clients and outside collaborators as you need to your account at no added charge, regardless of which plan you choose. You also get to choose what clients see and what they don’t.
- There are multiple ways to keep in contact with your colleagues or staff in Basecamp. You can use the message board for announcements, the campfire for ongoing conversation on a project, or pings to have direct messaging with one or more people.
- There is minor automation built into Basecamp. Add yourself or someone else to a task to receive a notification when it’s marked complete. You can also set up to-dos on a schedule for repetitive to-do list building.
- Basecamp’s project management software isn’t built to handle granular and complex projects. You can’t easily create workflow automations, there’s no time tracker, and there’s no priority status or task dependency feature.
- Although $15 per user each month isn’t much, it adds up quickly. Compared to the industry standard, you’ll be paying about $5 more per person monthly for a stripped-down project management tool.
- For important features many teams need in a project management tool, such as time-tracking, forms, workflow automation, task priority, and advanced reporting, you’ll need to accept that you can’t do these things or find an integration. This likely means you have to pay for more software in order to get project management software that works the way you need.
- Basecamp used to offer a generous free plan, but those days are gone. You can get a free 30-day trial of Basecamp, but once that’s gone, you have to subscribe to a plan.
What's Inside
Basecamp is one of the simplest project management software options available on the market. Everything about it is easy: Sign up for an account with just your name and email; follow a quick setup guide to start your first project; add users and collaborators by providing an email address. Not only is it easy to learn and use, it’s easy to master, but that’s because Basecamp has streamlined its platform to include only the features necessary to organize tasks within a project.
Although Basecamp’s interface is visual, it doesn’t strictly follow a traditional Kanban, Gantt, or timeline view. You can view tasks within a list as cards or as a list, but that’s about all the customization you’ll get. Projects on your dashboard show at the top and you can reorder them by dragging and dropping or pin them as you need, but the calendar and your assignment list are locked below.
What Basecamp does exceptionally well is help you keep all conversations, tasks, and files related to a project in one spot. And it’s easy to access all the components. You can see the schedule (if you have due dates), messages, to-do lists, and tasks at a glance on the project home page.
Basecamp is a cloud-based app, so you can access it from any browser. You also have the option to download an app for a Windows-based, iOS, or Android device. Admins can require two-factor authentication (2FA), which adds security to your account. Plus, as an admin you can see anything that’s been thrown in the trash for up to 25 days.
Overall, Basecamp is an easy-to-use project management solution that’s most affordable for a very large company (the flat $299 monthly fee allows unlimited users). It might not have enough features to manage complex projects, however.
Product and software developers won’t find Basecamp flexible or feature-rich enough to create and manage complex projects.
Basecamp is a popular choice of project management software for The North Face, NetSuite, California State University-Stanislaus, and Groupon.
Project dashboard: See all projects in your account on one dashboard. Basecamp lets you drag and drop them to reorder based on priority or even pin them to keep the most important at the top.
Direct messaging: Send a “ping” to one or multiple people for a conversation about anything (not just project-specific conversations).
To-do lists: Create a series of to-do lists within one project; and then set up tasks on each to-do list and assign them to employees. You can even set up an automation to create the same to-do list on a schedule, which can help reduce repetitive work.
Real-time group chat: The Campfire is a group chat feature in each project that allows all those following or working on a project to converse with each other. Stay on topic or make it a water cooler chat — either way, it all stays linked to that one project.
Card and timeline views: New for Basecamp are its Kanban- and timeline-like views. You can turn your to-do list of tasks into cards for a more visual board. And use its Lineup feature to view projects with project start and end dates visually represented on a calendar.
Unlimited viewers: Invite as many clients or collaborators as you’d like with no added fee. These users can only view or comment and you can restrict access to specific files, conversations, or to-do lists as needed.
The great thing about Basecamp is that it offers a variety of app integrations to extend the functionality of its platform. You can use Zapier for automation, more than a dozen time trackers (Timely, Clockify, etc.), chart software like GanttWork, and software development tools, such as Ybug and ScrumDo.
Basecamp offers two plans from which you can choose:
- Basecamp: The lowest priced plan for Basecamp costs $15 per person, per month. The plan includes every feature, but your storage is limited to 500 GB. You can invite as many viewer-only clients as you want to projects, though. This plan would work for an individual or a small business.
- Basecamp Pro: To get an increase in storage and access to priority support, you may want to consider the Basecamp Pro plan. It costs $299 per month, but there are no limits to users or viewers. Plus, you get a one-on-one onboarding session and you can pay annually. This is a better fit for larger companies with 20+ employees.
Basecamp is best for mid sized or large companies that require simple project management software for 20 or more users.
Basecamp is on its fourth iteration of the platform, which was announced in August 2021 and launched in early 2023. The way the company prefers to roll out new features is a few at a time each month, until the new platform is fully designed.
What changed from Basecamp 3 to Basecamp 4 includes new views, a redesigned home page, or dashboard, and status for who’s working on a project and who’s just following. The team also added an “out of office” feature that will update your avatar on all projects when you’re taking a day (or several) off.
In February 2023, Basecamp added an undo send feature so you can quickly unsend an email (ex. If you left out an attachment), forward emails to your preferred email address automatically, and send emails with a preferred email address (choose from a drop-down list).
You can start using Basecamp right away when you sign up for a free trial. You only need to provide your name and an email address. You can create a project and get access to all features from the beginning. You have the option to follow a setup guide or you can skip it and start adding to-do lists and tasks to a project. The Basecamp free trial only lasts 30 days, but you can upgrade directly from your account profile.
Basecamp offers 24/7 support to all of its customers, but only via email or a ticket system. There are also tutorials and help guides in the help center if you prefer self-service support.
Basecamp was founded in 1999, by Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim. In 2003, the company started work on the project management software which was released as an open-source program initially. The platform has gone through multiple changes over the years and is currently on its fourth iteration.
What is Basecamp used for?
Basecamp is used for collaboration, organization, and management of projects and tasks. It’s a simple-to-use cloud-based application that individuals and teams can use for communication and tracking of documents, files, and conversations.
What happened to Basecamp?
In 2021, about one-third of employees that disagreed with Basecamp’s new policies regarding political discussions either accepted a severance package or resigned. Despite the loss, Basecamp ushered in Basecamp 4 with new features and a new pricing structure.
Is Basecamp a CRM?
No, Basecamp is not a customer relationship management (CRM) software, though you can use it with Zapier to create a leap-frog integration with other CRMs that are supported.
Table of Contents
Review Methodology
Advice on buying HR Tech
Join 20,000 HR Tech Nerds who get our weekly insights