Overview
What is Basecamp?
Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool. Basecamp offers features standard to project management platforms, as well as mobile accessibility, unlimited users, and 3rd party integrations. Basecamp is priced by space requirements and concurrent projects.
Basecamp: Perfect for Confusing Clients and Losing Business
BaseCamp Review
Basecamp is a fine basic PM software, but there are better options out there
Basecamp Has All the Supplies You Need to Reach the Summit of Your Business
My Favourite Project Management Software
Basecamp Fan for Life
Basecamp - Simple and easy to use all-in-one project management tool for small teams
Basecamp works great for our simple, limited scope of needs
Based at Basecamp and loving it!
Set up your Basecamp and climb to new heights!
Basecamp is a perfect marketing project management tool for external agencies
Great tool for those who want visibility in projects, and need to organize work and docs
Better options out there (for us at least)
Best Project Management
Awards
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Popular Features
- Task Management (117)4.545%
- Team Collaboration (117)3.939%
- Resource Management (98)3.434%
- Document Management (109)3.333%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Basecamp Business
$99
Basecamp Personal
Free
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Starting price (does not include set up fee)
- $15 per month per user
Product Demos
Basecamp Demo
Garmin Basecamp demo - Part III
Garmin Basecamp demo - Part II
Basecamp - 2-minute Demo
Garmin Basecamp demo - Part I
Basecamp Project Management Review
Features
Project Management
Project management software provides capabilities to streamline management of complex projects through task management, team collaboration and workflow automation
- 4.5Task Management(117) Ratings
This includes the ability to plan, track, collaborate and report on tasks.
- 3.4Resource Management(98) Ratings
Resource management is workload planning to maximize resources.
- 2.5Gantt Charts(40) Ratings
Gantt charts are charts that show tasks or events along the y-axis displayed against time along the x-axis.
- 3.4Scheduling(93) Ratings
Scheduling capabilities allow users to set schedules on tasks, and create timelines and milestones.
- 2.5Workflow Automation(68) Ratings
Workflow automation is the ability to route work requests along an approval process automatically.
- 3.9Team Collaboration(117) Ratings
Team collaboration capabilities let team members work directly with each other and provide team updates.
- 3.3Support for Agile Methodology(49) Ratings
Agile is a time boxed, iterative approach to development that builds software incrementally instead of trying to deliver it all at once near the end.
- 2.8Support for Waterfall Methodology(45) Ratings
Waterfall methodology is a tradition development method that is linear and sequential.
- 3.3Document Management(109) Ratings
Document management provides for centralized management of all project documents.
- 3.4Email integration(96) Ratings
Email integration allows work requests to be made directly from email.
- 3.6Mobile Access(95) Ratings
Mobile access is the ability to access the software from a smartphone or tablet.
- 2.7Timesheet Tracking(44) Ratings
Timesheet tracking is the ability to track all billable and non-billable hours for each project.
- 2.9Change request and Case Management(55) Ratings
Change request and change management enables tracking of all customer requests including priority and timeframe.
- 7.1Budget and Expense Management(39) Ratings
Budget and expense management provides the capability to track all expenses by employee or department and link them back to department. It also enables hourly rates to be set.
Professional Services Automation
Features that support professional services organizations
- 8.3Quotes/estimates(29) Ratings
Ability to create, manage and send project fee proposals to customers
- 6.9Invoicing(25) Ratings
Ability to create, manage and send invoices to clients during or after completion of a project
- 8Project & financial reporting(34) Ratings
Ability to analyze project and financial data based on custom criteria to gather insights and improve business performance
- 7.9Integration with accounting software(27) Ratings
Real-time, two-way sync with accounting or financial software to facilitate project and financial reporting
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Basecamp?
Basecamp offers features standard to project management platforms, including to-do lists, wiki-style web-based text documents, milestone management, file sharing, time tracking and a calendar, and a messaging system. Mobile accessibility is supported. Notably, it supports unlimited users. It also offers integration with 37signals' own Campfire product, which expands the group messaging functionality of the core platform. Customization, accessibility, and functionality are extended further by the broad range of apps available for free from 3rd parties. A 2-month free trial is available. Pricing is dependent upon space requirements and the number of concurrent projects, not the number of users.
Basecamp Integrations
Basecamp Competitors
Basecamp Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(1265)Community Insights
- Recommendations
Based on user reviews, here are the three most common recommendations for Basecamp:
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Learn and Utilize Basecamp's Features: Users recommend taking the time to learn about all of Basecamp's features and functions. They suggest getting training or working with someone experienced in Basecamp to fully utilize the platform. This recommendation helps users make the most out of their Basecamp experience.
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Set Up a Standardized System: Many users suggest setting up a system or process that everyone can follow when using Basecamp. This recommendation helps to ensure consistency and streamline project management within teams.
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Consider Other Tools for Advanced Functionalities: While users find Basecamp handy for organizing projects, offering instructions and feedback, some reviewers suggest using a more advanced tool, like Monday.com, for large teams collaborating on projects. They advise evaluating additional functionalities and comparing prices before deciding on Basecamp.
Overall, users recommend considering Basecamp as a low-cost option for small teams with straightforward projects. It is recommended for organizing projects, managing workflows, facilitating team cooperation, linking departments, coordinating tasks, and storing data. However, users caution against using it for purposes other than its intended use and highlight that compared to more advanced tools, it might seem basic and limited in benefits. It is also suggested to stay updated with appropriate titles and efficiently organize projects while using Basecamp. Additionally, Google Drive is recommended for file management purposes.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-18 of 18)- Charge too much
- Fail to notify parties of new communications
- Confuse customers
- Functions are hard for clients to use and collaborate with
- Messages ( including important ones ) were not being received by other parties when we or they would ping each other. We would sit there waiting for each other, while we had often both already responded. Costs time, looks bad, annoying. Was nail in the coffin for us with Basecamp. We paid ahead for the year and I still axed it half way through for ClickUp, which is much much cleaner.
- In my experience, the interface is not intuitive, and is ugly.
- In my opinion, the price is way too high for failing basic proj mgmt app needs
Better options out there (for us at least)
- Easy to get started
- easy to add/onboard team members
- web/mobile access
- Horrible user experience
- Messy chat threads
- Was hard to find what the vendor was referencing at times--was the file I need in the messy thread, the files tab, or somewhere else?
- Task management - It is very easy to add, organize and discuss tasks within Basecamp's interface.
- The "Campfire" function is great for communicating when you just have a quick question for someone on the team.
- Notifications - Basecamp lets you decide how often and about what you'd like to be notified. The ability to respond to messages in Basecamp directly via email saves a lot of time.
- I wish Basecamp had more view options. For example, it'd be nice to have a built in gantt option like other task management tools have.
- Basecamp does not have the ability to add subtasks to tasks.
- Time tracking is not built into Basecamp. You have to use third-party integrations if you want to add a time tracking feature.
Cost-Effective and Feature-Rich
The primary role for Basecamp is our unified platform for tracking and progressing work across all our delivery programmes. We wanted to centralise this in a single toolset to ensure all stakeholders have full and clear visibility on all communications, progress and plans. A key driver for this choice of platform is to do away with multiple services that result in disjointed flow, such as email, document repositories and desktop documentation tools.
- Ease of use meaning that non-technical users can be onboarded with minimal training required
- Range of features meaning that you can use Basecamp as your core project management platform and don't need to rely on other tools in conjunction
- Good collaborative features to encourage adoption and management of end-to-end process on Basecamp
- Ability to create project & task list templates to speed up new project/task creation
- Reporting is limited; some export facilities to track task progression would help
- The ability to create recurring tasks
If you're looking for a solution for very complex practice management then you may find challenges with Basecamp (it doesn't support a full agile/scrum model, for example). However if you want a platform that can be provisioned within minutes and can be deployed across an organisation at speed then Basecamp is definitely the answer!
I love Basecamp
- Message board where people can share news or ideas.
- Creates a dashboard suited for your needs.
- Notifications may get a bit excessive if you don't set them right.
- I'm not sure if there's an ability to hold video meetings, that would be really good.
- It's great for collaboration. When we acquire a new property, we need to consolidate all of its digital assets into one space. Multiple departments need to be able to access these assets. We have teams in 12 states and various timezones. Basecamp allows us to work together even though we're hundreds of miles apart.
- We recently updated our website, turning it into a huge corporate site with several microsites. When building this out, Basecamp was an essential tool working with external agencies. They would upload new wireframes and we could make comments and suggestions.
- It's a great project management tool. When you're working with internal and external stakeholders on multiple projects, Basecamp allows all of us to stay on target and work together.
- Bulk download of files.
- Upload files larger than 10GB.
- Easier UX. The layout can be confusing, especially to those who are new to the platform.
Great organizational tool for a project management
- It organizes task in a project, by assigning a task to people involved
- Very simple and easy to use, no extended training is needed if you have basic computer skills
- It tracks dates, tasks and future assignments by reminding the person involved to complete or work on a task
- A great feature that helps a lot is the instant messaging
- Notifications are repetitive even when a task has been completed
- You cannot create an additional task to a sub task in a project
- Design might be a little updated in the area of the dashboard, could be more interactive
Basecamp is better when doing it with others.
- Ability to login without the use of a password, as in, input your email address and a link will be sent to your mailbox to access the site. This improves usability and lower resources needed to administer lost or forgotten passwords or user account management.
- Promotion of success within Basecamp through applauds really helps stimulate positive feedback when a milestone is met, or someone completes a minor task to a major task.
- Free use of messaging on the message board and daily feedback from the site on activity from the previous day to all participants which helps streamline the communication and reporting to all rather than one person collecting reports or reliance on a few to report back.
- Latest Activity gives a nice timeline view of the activities occurred throughout the lifespan of a campfire or within the Basecamp instance itself.
- Samepage really has a better collaboration messaging system with channels and integration with other systems.
- There is some functionality with linking google docs but would like to see better integration with a more wide range of applications or office suite products since we mostly use this for working with external vendors that use a vast range of products as well.
- To Do lists are great, but would like to see better linkage to the messages, schedules and files. Sort of an overly complex request to a very simple process.
Where Basecamp tends to fall through the cracks for us, is in regards to the lack of desktop or workstation integration or reliance on third party applications to contribute, read or manage documents. It would also be more useful if there was a desktop like app or phone app that can allow for users to interact with Basecamp without logging in through the webpage. For internal functions, it just doesn't suit our needs since we have our own messenger system, or our document management system for ensuring secure docs stay secure.
Basecamp Meets Higher Ed at UCF
We use Basecamp on projects and ongoing work at the Center for Distributed Learning for communication, collaboration, and to break down tasks into component To Do items. We find that the To Do lists provide a simple "eyeball" method for judging the completeness of tasks.
Our organization consists of various functional teams that are not required to Basecamp. Its use is completely optional but judging by the number of projects currently using it (43), our teams find it a valuable tool.
Some of the projects we are involved in tend to be long-term, slow progress efforts. It would be quite difficult to stay in touch with them without having a record of the goals, desired outcomes, and activity toward those goals. Basecamp solves this problem for us.
- For us the strength of Basecamp is the To Do list. To Do lists help us in three ways: 1) They help us document how work breaks down into component subtasks; 2) They provide a simple means of tracking work (eyeball method); 3) After the work is complete, the To Do list along with all the comments and notes attached to it provides a means to help predict the level of effort for similar tasks that may need to be done in the future.
- I personally use To Do lists frequently when reviewing media for online courses like software demonstrations, videos, stills, and any other content that might be included in the course. Each error, be it a typo, flaw, or design issue is documented a single line item. The To Do item is the assigned to a team member to be addressed. Basecamp notifies them via email. These completed lists provide us with a kind of measure of the initial quality of our alpha-level work.
- I like to refer to Basecamp as "Project Management Lite". Basecamp plays that role well and needs little improvement if used as a project accessory and not as a formal management tool. If I were to wish for one thing it would be that there be some sort of native reporting tool that would help in understanding the level of effort for tasks. I have investigated a few of the third party tools powered by the Basecamp API but have not been satisfied with any so far.
- For our needs here at the University of Central Florida it would be nice to have expanded options for managing user roles that include a wider range of "Super Powers" as Basecamp calls them.
- If you have certain projects that contain sensitive data or other information that must remain totally under your own control then you should probably avoid Basecamp since it is hosted entirely on their facilities.
Getting Organized and Keeping On Task with Basecamp
- I really enjoy the ability to pick and choose which participants of a particular Basecamp will get each conversation thread and reply.
- The To-Do list feature is one of the most useful that I've found anywhere, with the big plus that I can subscribe to the feed from my Google calendar.
- While this feature is only for Gmail users, I'm a big fan of the new "View on Basecamp" button that appears in the preview of every email from Basecamp. That way I don't even need to open the email, I can just click the link and reply directly on the thread itself.
- Many of my clients enjoy the ability to reply to threads via email, rather than needing to login to their Basecamp account just to send a quick response.
- Basecamp's search feature could use some filtering. For example, I should be able to just search files or to-do lists.
- I wish that the main projects page had more information about each project, specifically what date it started, how many people are in the project, and if there are any upcoming deadlines. While you can find this information currently, it's in several different areas. The start date in particular is a pain to find.
- For projects with a lot of files, I would appreciate a feature that allowed sorting them into categories or some sort of hierarchical grouping. Currently they are all together with the most recently-discussed files appearing first and older ones one another page.
- Provide a central location to provide feedback
- Notify team members of updates to a project
- Add new team members
- Add new comps
- I have none. For my simple use case it is more than enough
Basecamp - Online Project Management Colloboration
- Resource Management/Planning
- Mobile Device Support
- Team Communication & Task Assignments
- Ongoing Support & Training
- While there is an impressive list of third party integrations, some of the tools we use were not represented.
- Would like to see electronic document signing capabilities.
Basecamp all the way!
- Organizes projects into tickets for fast research
- The search option is great to look through all client projects
- Simple structure, very streamlined
- Very customizable
- I'd like to see an option where multiple people could have multiple dates assigned to them on the same to do ticket, one person assigned at a time on a ticket can slow down the process when multiple people need to touch the ticket.
- I don't like that there's not a central catalog of projects. You have to be invited to everything, I'll miss some projects because someone didn't invite me. Not sure if that's just my company setting or all Basecamp systems.
- Can there be a notice when a third party invited person is looking at ticket, be nice to have statuses of when someone has clicked on to the ticket.
I'm a huge fan of Basecamp
- It allows a "not email" place where a team can collaborate on to-do's, file sharing, and conversations. Threads can be archived to keep the conversation moving along.
- It integrates with email allowing non technical users to simply reply to a Basecamp notification to stay involved.
- Basecamp integrates with other third party services well. Embedding videos or sharing cloud files is easy and useful.
- While Basecamp is geared towards conversation, I'd like to see tools for converting conversations into actionable items (i.e. assigning tickets with priority).
Dominic's Basecamp Review
- Poject management - users are able to track the progress of smaller, critical tasks as opposed to just overall project progress. This added level of granularity helps to prevent timeline creep and helps to keep things on track, or at least lets users know when a project is starting to come off the rails.
- File storage - Users are able to store, edit, and share documents much like with Google Docs. Having a cloud storage solution such as base camp helps teammates be aware of each others work/progress and also eliminates the possibility of lost data due to team hardware failure.
- Facilitate team discussion - base camp provides teammates with the ability to discuss their project. Communication is often a key ingredient to project success so this is a very helpful feature.
- I would like to see seamless integration with Google docs. I personally use Google docs a lot and most of my colleagues and friends do the same. I think that Google's offerings are far superior to Basecamp's native Whiteboard.
- Better integration between calendar and base camp would help
- Some way to document optional or hazy start dates for milestones (Gantt charts maybe?)
Robust but a bit clunky compared to newer entrants.
- If you need a rather robust way to manage to-do lists that have multiple responsible parties, Basecamp is great.
- The conversation/commenting system (especially with attached documents) is fairly clunky and tends to create more confusion among teams who do not share the same physical office.
Excellent, intuitive product.
- Basecamp is excellent at delivering a lightweight and highly usable system for managing a variety of projects. It is intuitive, stable and optimized for web and email collaboration.
- It is very easy to include external customers/collaborators and they rarely required training or hand-holding to figure out how to jump in and participate in the project.
- Multiple connectors are available to integrate third party solutions into your Basecamp experience such as Freshbooks for invoicing.
- A well documented API allows more sophisticated organizations to write creative integrations.
- Basecamp's strength is also its weakness. The lack of a clear point of view on how you are "supposed" to use the system can leave project managers who prefer the rigidity of more sophisticated systems frustrated.
- You may find certain features that you "assume" should be part of a project management tool missing entirely. This is again, reflective of a strong sense that they are giving you only the tools and functionality which *they* consider absolutely necessary.
Reliable and affordable.
- We use Basecamp to support processes between our integrated marketing team and an in-house creative team, as well as internal end external freelancers.
- Because Basecamp is web based, the service is easy to access.
- Basecamp allows us to monitor progress on projects, manage assets and ensure only the right people are included on a project.
- The app could benefit from a better mobile interface. Certain components could also benefit from better integration with third party services like Box, Dropbox and Photoshop.