Basecamp is a comprehensive project management and collaboration tool. The programme bills itself as an “all-in-one toolbox for remote work.” Basecamp stands out among other remote working solutions due to its abundance of built-in communication capabilities, such as group chat, message boards, and team calendars. However, in comparison to other project management software, all of these added capabilities come at a high cost. Is an all-in-one tool worth the money? Let’s investigate!
Basecamp vs. the Best Project Management Software
In comparison to other PM tools, Basecamp isn’t a perfect fit. It goes beyond to-do lists and task management. However, it lacks key project management capabilities such as different project views and task priorities. Basecamp is more of a full-featured remote work solution than a traditional project management tool (though it can accomplish many of the same things). It’s too much for most people, which is why it didn’t make our top five.
Looking for project management software that doesn’t include all of the extra remote work bells and whistles, as well as a lower price tag? Something else would be a better choice.
The Good and the Bad of Basecamp
Basecamp is a fantastic tool for remote teams, despite not being one of our top five project management applications. That does not, however, imply that it is appropriate for you and your team. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? Let’s have a look.
The Good
While Basecamp is more than just a project management tool, it doesn’t scrimp on task management capabilities like to-do lists. To keep organised, you can quickly divide tasks into projects, phase projects, give due dates, assign one or more users, make comments, and notes, and even attach files to each to-do. If something is late, everyone concerned will be notified as soon as possible, so you’ll never have to worry about following up on late work again. Managers may use the activity view to receive a fast overview of what was completed today, what is overdue, and what is coming up, ensuring that they are constantly up to date. Individual users can utilise the “my stuff” option to view all of their tasks in one location, even if they are spread across several projects.
Basecamp comes with hundreds of collaboration capabilities, including real-time communication tools that eliminate the need for third-party applications because it’s a remote work platform. Other project management software restricts communication to task or card comments, whereas Basecamp incorporates group chat, message boards, and pings. Message boards are for larger-scale communications like announcements, presenting ideas, and providing progress updates, whereas group chats are for casual internal conversation. Ping may also be used for one-on-one or small group talks. As a result, you can keep all of your real-time conversations in one location rather than clogging up communication channels with information that no one cares about.
Client Access: Unlike other project management applications, Basecamp allows you to provide customers with personalised access settings so they may follow the progress of your current projects. You’ll be able to say goodbye to the never-ending back-and-forth with customers, giving yourself more time to focus on project execution. When you establish access settings, you have complete control over what customers can view, change, and what they can’t see. Unless you want to share information with a client, everything is private by default. To keep all of your communications in one place, you can exchange to-dos, messages, and even forward emails from customers directly to Basecamp. It may also be used to share information with stakeholders and management who do not require full access.
Integrated Calendar: Syncing calendar is a regular source of frustration for businesses of all sizes, but it’s especially difficult for remote workers. Users may sync their Google Calendars, iCals, and Outlook calendars with Basecamp’s integrated calendar tool to know who’s available and when. Users may also turn on or off jobs and due dates to get a full picture of what’s coming up and when they’re due. To condense your calendar down to the things that matter most, you may choose to display different sorts of events, to-dos, and activities linked to a given project. Furthermore, rather than conversing about what time works best, users may quickly arrange calls with one another.
As a remote team, we’re all too familiar with status meetings and jumping on calls to see how things are going, but Basecamp has a check-in function that eliminates status meetings entirely. Managers can develop bespoke questions that team members must respond to on a regular basis. You may check in with your team on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, depending on what works best for you. You may also poll your entire team, individual colleagues, departments, or special interest groups. Furthermore, you may react to check-in responses or provide comments without having to schedule a meeting. It’s one of Basecamp’s unique features that makes it ideal for remote teams—and Basecamp users adore it.
Every Basecamp project workspace offers a location for exchanging files, documents, and photos. Everyone involved in the project will have access to these files, making it simple to discover what they need. A complete version history is displayed for each file. To keep things organised, you may color-code and reorganise files. Drag and drop a local file to upload or add links to Google Docs.
Each user may define how they are alerted about messages, tasks, and other events. You may specify particular hours for when you wish to be alerted at any moment (such as 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday). You may enable a feature in Basecamp that shows you a summary of what you missed while you were away. So you won’t have to go through your to-dos and calendars manually to know what’s going on. A brief overview of everything may be found here.
Basecamp is incredibly economical because of its flat rate pricing. Businesses will benefit from unlimited users, unlimited projects, and more for a cheap monthly fee. When paying per user, other products on the market might be rather costly. With Basecamp, though, you’ll pay the same price whether you have ten or 100 users.
The Bad
Limited Project Views: Basecamp is essentially a strong to-do list for task management in terms of project management tools. The calendar view is useful, but it’s not the same as managing projects using a Kanban board or Gantt chart. You can always use a third-party integration or add-on with these types of tools. However, this is an additional step and cost. Many other project management software already has similar functionalities and don’t require an add-on.
Tasks can’t be prioritised: Tasks can’t be prioritised other than by modifying their due dates. If a person has a big to-do list, they may end up focusing on low-priority chores rather than high-priority ones if they aren’t careful. With smaller projects and simple jobs, this is usually not an issue because what’s most important is evident. However, at size, this may become an issue for some companies.
Limit Project Tracking: We previously discussed Hill Charts, Basecamp’s unique project tracking feature. The calendar and this are the only two ways to see the overall picture of a project. Hill charts are a great visual representation of development, but the real state is subjective. These graphs are solely dependent on how a particular user perceives their progress during a project. Someone might claim to be halfway done when they are actually only 20% done. This might lead to some misunderstandings and disinformation from one individual to the next.
Basecamp’s task: lists, calendars, and team communication features are ideal for short, linear projects. Basecamp, on the other hand, may be too limited for big projects and agile project management. Major project changes in real time are not supported by the programme. You can’t connect tasks to subtasks to evaluate how a delay would affect a project’s overall timeline. For many teams, this is perfectly acceptable. However, it would not always meet the requirements of a software development project or a similar option.
Pricing for basecamp
Basecamp’s price is quite transparent, unlike other project management systems on the market today. You may select between two packages: business and personal. it Business is available for $99 per month. The Personal plan has fewer features, but it is completely free.
Here’s how Basecamp stacks up against other business software with similar features:
For medium-sized teams, flat-rate pricing is ideal. When compared to comparable solutions on the market today, the per-user charge is a little pricey if you’re working with a small team. However, if your team has more than 20 members, the cost per person is less than $5 a month. Basecamp is a steal when compared to competing project management solutions that cost $20 or more per user. It is nevertheless jam-packed with features despite its low price.
Real-time communication is not available in many project management platforms. Those who do charge a premium for an add-on module are usually the most expensive. However, It includes texting and real-time chat. Is that chat as feature-rich and intuitive as Slack? Certainly not. However, it completes the task.
For corporate use, the Basecamp Personal plan is not an option. We’ll go through this complimentary bundle in more depth later.
Basecamp is a fantastic deal in general. It comes with more functions out of the box than other project management software. The fact that they do not charge a per-user fee is also a significant plus. If you’re on the fence, a 30-day trial of Basecamp is available for free.
Business Basecamp
Basecamp Business costs $99 per month, regardless of the size of your team. There are no additional fees or charges. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s included in that package:
All of Basecamp’s features are included in the bundle. As illustrated above, you’ll also profit from a lot of “unlimiteds.” In comparison to other project management software, this is unique. To acquire limitless users, you’d usually have to upgrade to an enterprise package. Those packages are often geared toward larger businesses and might cost thousands of dollars each month.
Basecamp’s $99 monthly subscription includes unlimited users and projects. When you include the team communication tools, the package becomes even more enticing in terms of value.
However, price and quality are not necessarily synonymous. Although Basecamp offers a lot of features and functionalities, it doesn’t always surpass other solutions in this area.
Is there any project management functionality? Yes. It does not, however, include Kanban boards or Gantt charts. Is there a team chat feature? Yes. However, chat isn’t the finest team communication option available.
Basecamp Business will still be beneficial to your team if you accept these few constraints. It’s difficult to resist the low, flat-rate cost.
Personal Basecamp:
For commercial usage, we cannot recommend the Basecamp Personal plan. You could use it as an extended free trial to obtain a basic understanding of how the programme works, but it’s just too limited beyond that.
Up to 20 users may appear sufficient for small teams at first sight. However, you can only handle three projects with this strategy. More will be required by the majority of teams. One GB of storage capacity is also somewhat small. When you have several team members uploading files and documents, you’ll rapidly run out of storage.
With that stated, Basecamp Personal may absolutely be used for a tiny side project. It might be used by freelancers or students as a different approach to prioritizing activities and managing their calendars. But, other than that, it has no place in the commercial world. There are currently better free project management software options on the market. Stick with Business if you need a comprehensive project management and team collaboration platform.