Do you need a good alternative to Basecamp? Well, if that’s the case, then you’ve come to the right place.
Basecamp has been one of the most popular project management software since its inception. From more than thirteen years people have been vouching for Basecamp’s simplicity and collaborative approach for managing projects.
However, with the changing times and needs of the customers, many new project management software have entered the management landscape and made a name for themselves. Most of these software and tools are similar to Basecamp but have more features and benefits to offer. You can call them the best Basecamp alternatives.
A lot of people try Basecamp for project management and collaboration, but then most of them come back looking for alternative tools that work better for their needs. There’s a reason for that.
The reason is, Basecamp is far from perfect. It didn’t do anything different. It just picked and offered features that every other project management tool was offering. As a result, organizations soon realized the many limitations of Basecamp, including:
Limitations of Basecamp
1. Limited insight
With Basecamp, information is not only scattered all around the project dashboard, but it’s also limited. Project start date, budget allocation, task dependencies, etc—there are a lot of project details that you won’t be able to find in Basecamp.
2. No recurring tasks
There are tasks and deliverables in your to-do list that are often repeated daily. Sadly, Basecamp does not allow to set recurring tasks.
3. No time tracking
A major part of the project and task management depends on time management. However, the option of time tracking is available in Basecamp only through third-party integrations.
4. Lack of customization
No templates, no color schemes, no personal interface—Basecamp has little to no customization features available.
5. No instant messaging
A team can never deliver projects without effective collaboration. But Basecamp does not offer any in-built chat or discussion feature for instant conversations. It requires you to sign up for Campfire to avail chat services.
Luckily, there’s still hope. There are Basecamp project management alternatives (free and paid) that offer far more compelling features and really meet your needs.
In this article, we detail some of these alternatives to Basecamp—and why you may want to consider them. Read on if you want to check out some of the best Basecamp alternatives for your business/team in 2019.
All the project management tools listed below are absolutely worth a look if you are looking for an alternative to Basecamp. They come with a bouquet of powerful features and an easy-to-use interface. Without much ado, let’s take a look at these Basecamp alternatives and competitors for project management.
The first tool in the list basecamp alternatives is ProofHub, leading project management and the best basecamp alternative for professionals who want all their project management miseries to end. Remember the time when you needed too many tools and apps to run a business or a project successfully – well, ProofHub is the kind of advanced tool that is designed to put an end to such traditional business practices.
It’s an all-in-one project management software that comes packed with many scalable features to match your growing business needs. The idea behind this tool is pretty straightforward and intuitive – it aims to help project managers, decision makers, and remote teams communicate better and manage every aspect of the project with greater efficiency. So far, the tool is successfully accomplishing what it aimed for by powering 85000+ small groups and large businesses across the globe, including some big names like Netflix, Google, Disney, NASA, Nike, Pinterest, TripAdvisor, and Taco Bell.
In addition to a long list of intuitive features, ProofHub also provides integration popular team collaboration and business productivity tools like Google Calendar, iCal, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Plus, the platform shows compatibility with any devices and operating systems, including iOS, Android, and Windows. That means ProofHub makes it incredibly easy for you (and your team) to effectively manage multiple projects/tasks simultaneously – no matter whether you’re sitting together in the same office or a thousand miles away from each other.
Why is ProofHub one of the best alternatives to Basecamp? Let’s find out.
Basecamp has a major drawback in regard to collaborative capabilities. In contrast, ProofHub offers an array of features that make workplace collaboration smart and easy. It makes team and client conversations quicker with one-on-one and Group Chats. Plus, it allows you to create discussion topics and have all your discussions at one place instead of having to go back and forth in lengthy email threads.
ProofHub’s Gantt Chart Software allows project teams to plan and visualize the many aspects of a project in a timeline view. In ProofHub, teams can add tasks, assign them to one or multiple people, set task dependencies, and even adjust schedules as work changes. While on the contrary, Basecamp doesn’t even offer Gantt charts.
In ProofHub, project managers get the ultimate advantage. They can decide who does, sees, and manages what with ProofHub’s Custom Roles functionality. It makes it a lot easier for managers to control what actions members (team and client) of that project can perform and what sections or files they can access as per their work and responsibilities – which Basecamp doesn’t.
Unlike Basecamp, Proofhub allows its users to schedule events, tasks, and milestones at one place using ProofHub Calendar. They can set reminders for important dates, see recurring events and tasks, check the project milestones set for a month, or the tasks for the same day with just a few clicks.
ProofHub enables you to track time and maintain Timesheets while you work on task/tasks while Basecamp fails to provide this basic functionality. It does offer 3rd party extensions to fill the gap but it’s no good.
Just like time tracking, Basecamp also offers 3rd party extensions for proofing files and sharing feedback online. ProofHub, on the other hand has a dedicated inbuild Online Proofing tool. ProofHub streamlines the review/approval process by bringing everyone in one place to collaborate and share feedback on files in real-time.
Price: ProofHub’s Essential plan starts at $45/month (if billed annually) and Its Ultimate Control plan starts at $89 /month (billed annually) – Heavy discounts on subscriptions for non-profits!
Price: Scoro’s Premium plan is for $33/user/month.
3. Trello
Trello’s boards, lists, and cards enable you to organize and prioritize your projects in a fun, flexible way and that’s what make Trello a great competitor to Basecamp. It lets you work more collaboratively and get more done.
Main features:
Follows visual approach to represent projects
Add comments, attachments, and more directly to Trello cards
Trello stays in sync across all of your devices
Price: Free. Business plan available for $9.99/user/month
GanttPRO is an online project planning tool based on Gantt charts. It helps single users and teams from a wide range of industries to make project management processes easier, team collaboration – more efficient, and clients and stakeholders – more engaged. The tool has an unbelievably short learning curve. It already can boast of more than 500K registered users. Among their big clients, you will find Salesforce, NASA, Vodafone, DHL, and Sony.
Main features:
All the information is kept in one place, right in front of you
Team collaboration
Resource and cost management
A great number of ready-made templates
Time tracking
Price: It offers Individual (starts at $15 per user per month) and Team plans (starts at $5.90 per user per month).
5. Workzone
#3 in the list of tools like Basecamp is Workzone. Workzone is a reliable web-based project management tool that has made a name for itself as one of the most powerful and easy-to-use online project management software. It is trusted by popular brands like Adidas, Verizon, Wells Fargo to name a few.
Main features:
Project dashboards give visibility across the organization
Share files securely in the cloud
Advanced reporting features
World-class customer support
Price: It offers three plans: Team, Professional, Enterprise. You can request pricing on the website.
6. Huddle
The next one in the list of apps like Basecamp is Huddle. Huddle is an industry-leading collaboration software that offers secure collaboration for teams, enterprises, and various government organizations. What distinguishes it from Basecamp is whether you’re working on an internal project or collaborating with clients, Huddle can be easily customized for an ‘on-brand’ experience.
Main features:
Simple and secure document collaboration
Create, control, and manage work
Track progress easily
Integrates with many third-party applications
Price: Huddle plans start from $10/user/month.
7. JIRA
JIRA is a strong Basecamp competitor developed by Atlassian. Various software development, project management, and agile teams use this tool to plan and track projects.
Main features:
Prioritize and discuss work with full visibility
Choose a workflow or create your own
Fosters real-time collaboration
Price: Small Teams plan is available for $10/month.
8. ClickUp
It won’t be wrong to say that ClickUp is the most beautiful alternative to Basecamp that provides an intuitive way to get more done. Whether you are a developer, manager, or anyone getting things done, there is a perfect view for you in the tool.
Main features:
Create custom statuses
Beautiful multitask toolbar
Offers 500+ integrations
Price: Available for free (100 MB storage and unlimited projects) and $5/user/month (unlimited storage and projects).
9. Mavenlink
Mavenlink is a modern software platform designed for service professionals. It helps you deliver effortlessly by offering more connectivity, transparency, and a boost in your performance with its advanced features.
Main features:
Gain visibility of all projects across your portfolio
Advanced analytics and a powerful business intelligence engine
Simple and intuitive interface
Price: Teams plan for $19/user/month
10. LiquidPlanner
LiquidPlanner is one of those tools like Basecamp that are known to provide a better way to plan and execute work. Interestingly, it offers a responsive approach to project management by treating projects as living and evolving constructs.
Instantly visualize the impact of resource availability
Price: Professional plan is available for $45/user/month
11. Workfront
#10 in the list of Basecamp alternatives in Workfront. It is a cloud-based work management tool widely used by marketing and IT teams to manage projects in one place. This web platform combines project management software, intelligent work automation, and in-context collaboration to empower teams to do their best work.
Main features:
Manage projects in one collaborative system
Customized dashboards and advanced reporting
Focuses on real-time visibility
Easily integrable with other apps
Price: Pricing not listed but reviewers say plans start from $480/year.
12. TeamGantt
For all those who live and swear by Gantt charts, TeamGantt is the best alternative to Basecamp in the market. You can plan and manage projects with this super-easy software. Inviting team members, co-workers, clients to view and edit your Gantt chart is simple and fun!
Main features:
Fast drag-and-drop scheduling
Intuitive, beautiful, and easy-to-use interface
Effective resource-management
Smart time-tracking and reporting
Price: Standard plan for $7.90/user/month
13. Podio
Podio is a cloud-based collaboration service that was founded in 2009 and acquired by Citrix in 2012. Podio supplies a web-based platform for organizing team communication, business processes, data in project management. It boasts clients like that of Volvo, Deloitte, Sony, NFL to name a few.
Main features:
Intuitive interface
Automated workflows and personal dashboards
Rigorous security standards
Full customization and integrated chat
Price: Basic plan starts from $9/user/month.
14. FunctionFox
If you are a creative professional and looking for an amazing Basecamp alternative then FunctionFox is the tool for you. It is a project management and time-tracking software that is simple to set up, easy-to-use, and trusted by creative professionals around the world.
Main features:
Customizable dashboards
Connect to real-time data with interactive charts
Estimated budgets with actual figures to keep projects on track
Price: Classic plan starts from $35/month.
15. Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project is an effective project management software and Basecamp competitor that helps you get started quickly and execute projects with an absolute ease. Streamline project, resource, and portfolio management with Microsoft Project & Portfolio Management. Integrated planning tools help you keep track of projects and stay organized.
Main features:
Easy project planning
Streamlined projects and resources
Track status and collaborate from virtually anywhere
Price: Project Online Essentials starts at $7.15/user/month.
Teamwork is an effective Basecamp project management alternative that provides world-class solutions to streamline your business. Believe it or not, Teamwork is loved by 40,000 creative teams, agencies, and enterprise businesses.
Main features:
Real-time status updates
Impressive invoice-tracking
Advanced privacy and permission options
Available on the iOS, Android, Google Chrome, and the Web
Price: Premium plan starts at $15/user/month.
17. Clarizen
It is a project management software that lets you manage work, automate processes and collaborate across the enterprise—all from a single, intuitive solution. All in all, it is a great Basecamp competitor that gets everyone connected.
Main features:
Configurable workflows
Real-time visibility
Dynamic reports and dashboards
Flexible interface
Price: Enterprise and unlimited edition both require quotes for your organization.
18. Zoho projects
Zoho projects seem like a nice option if you’re looking for a free online project management software that lets you create and manage your projects effectively. By allowing you to plan, track, and collaborate, it makes project management as easy as it can be.
Main features:
Plan projects with ease
Get in-depth insights with Gantt charts
Promotes seamless collaboration
Integrate with apps such as Zapier, Slack, Dropbox etc
Asana is free, simple to get started, and powerful enough to run your entire business. It promotes collaboration by allowing teams to create and move projects forward to help to know who is doing what. Companies like Airbnb, Red Bull, Allstate and NASA use Asana for their project management.
Main features:
Track projects from start to finish
Simple to use and intuitive
Effective task management
Price: Basic version free. Premium starts at $9.99/member/month.
If you’re looking for a simple yet powerful project management tool that helps your teams to stay organized, this is the tool for you. ActiveCollab comes with plenty of neat add-ons that makes it a one-stop solution for all your business needs.
Main features:
Stay organized with advanced to-do lists
Track every minute and bill clients accordingly
Easily issue invoices and save time
Price: Paid plans start from $25/month (5 members).
21. Smartsheet
If you and your team use spreadsheets to manage work, you would love the sheet-based interface of this Basecamp alternative. It provides a powerful platform for the way you work today and take real action on ideas, not just talk about them.
Main features:
Manage complex projects and visualize tasks
Streamline work by setting up automatic update requests
Smart dashboards provide real-time visibility into critical KPIs
Price: Business plan starts from $25/user/month.
22. Hive
What makes Hive a worthy alternative to Basecamp is how effortlessly it puts the needs of a team at a single place. Apart from providing a Kanban-style status view, you can also track the progress of your projects with Gantt charts in Hive.
Main features:
Provides a central platform for everything
Move seamlessly between projects, messages, and files
Access anywhere from a desktop or mobile apps
Price: $12/user/month.
23. GoodDay
The next on our list of Basecamp alternatives is GoodDay which is a modern work management platform. It brings together the best tools for high-level planning, task organization, and project management. It lets you visualize work like no other Basecamp alternative as you can understand current priorities and see your overall workload easily at any time.
Main features:
Plan, schedule, prioritize, and execute tasks
Updated Kanban boards that offer a visual at-a-glance view of all workflows
Provides data required to optimize work distribution and to boost team productivity
Extremely user-friendly and powerful Gantt Chart module that visualizes project schedules with all key dates and milestones
Price: Professional plan starts at $5 per user per month.
24. Freedcamp
Whether it’s about leading a complex task or planning an event, Freedcamp can easily help you get everything done. It is loaded with amazing features – project templates, white-labeling, task boards, CRM to name a few. Freedcamp offers everything your team needs to successfully complete any project. It is a true-blue collaboration and collaborative tool that makes life more productive and enjoyable. Main features:
See an overview of your due items from one place
Discuss ideas with your team from one centralized place
Bill your clients easily from your time tracking entries or create new list items
Manage tasks outside the office with its mobile app
Price: Starts from $3.49 per user per month.
25. Monday
Monday was formerly known as Dapulse. The collaborative software is visual and quite intuitive in nature. It is used to create tasks that can be assigned to team members. Further, you can attach files, mark deadlines, and track along the way to see if things are on track or not. Plus, it can be customized to fit your exact workflow. It comes with many templates, so you can use it the way you want.
Main features:
Keep all your conversations, files, briefs, checklists, and sheets in one place
Enables project scheduling and file sharing
Powerful reporting and analytics features
Price: Pro plan starts at $59/month
26. Backlog
Backlog is an online project management tool designed for developers that could help them deliver high-quality web projects faster. It has everything you might need for a development workflow – project management, bug tracking, task management and version control. Backlog’s visual approach to project management offers greater visibility, higher productivity, and easier tracking.
Main features:
View, prioritize, and discuss all your tasks in one place.
Turns reported issues into clear, easy-to-follow outlines so you can dive into details faster
Set due dates to keep work on schedule
Provides a mobile app on both iOS and Android for collaborating on-the-go
Price: Get Standard Plan for $100/month
27. Airtable
Airtable is one of those Basecamp alternatives that are known as great task management tools. It offers multiple views for tasks at hand – Grid, Calendar, Kanban, Gallery, and Form to view project boards and schedules. It easily integrates with third-party applications like Dropbox, Google Drive in addition to different project management tools like Asana, Basecamp, GitHub and more. Main features:
Capture and share new insights with powerful visualization and formatting tools.
Collaborate in context and keep your team on the same page
Backup is done automatically and it doesn’t even eat server space
Option to turn task cards into forms (something that Basecamp doesn’t offer)
Price: Pro comprehensive collaboration plan is available for $20 user/month
28. nTask
If you’re looking for a Basecamp alternative that is built around your needs, nTask might come to your rescue. It is a smart project management tool that comes with a simple and easy-to-use taskboard. It also offers meeting management module to help teams stay on the same page.
Main features:
Create, assign, organize, share tasks and projects
Powerful search and filter tools that help you search for tasks, projects, meetings, issues, and risks
Gantt charts, multiple board views, and time tracking features
Price: It charges $2.99 per month per user with an annual billing plan
29. Allthings
For starters, Allthings is used by names like that of North Arizona University, Logicnow, Harper Macleod LLP among other. It helps you take control of all your tasks, teams, and time by helping you quickly plan, organize, and share work and visualize overall progress and performance. If that’s not enough, it enables you to manage work from anywhere at any time on any device.
Main features:
Create and share plans, projects, and tasks
Centralize communication about tasks
Easily share documents and reports
See at a glance what your priorities are
Can be easily customized and personalized
Price: Team plan starts at $9.95 per team member/ month
30. Avaza
Avaza is project management, task tracking, and time tracking in one software. Also, it is a seamless, productive platform teams use to collaborate on projects, schedule resources, track time, manage expenses & invoice customers. It can do everything – from resource scheduling to time and expense management to quoting and invoicing.
Main features:
Easily manage resources allocated to each project
Schedule and edit assignments with simple drag and drop
Understand project progress and profitability
Takes care of unvoiced time, expenses, and fixed amounts
Price: Business plan starts at $39.95/month
31. Quire
Quire is a visual collaborative platform that works best for creative teams. The software for task management helps you break big goals in hierarchical lists by letting you map out your thoughts, and tackle them with small steps. In Quire, you can also streamline your to-dos visually letting you arrange, prioritize, and focus on what is most important each day. Unlike other tools. It is up and running from the first moment you’ve set it up. Main features:
Status tracking and task filtering
Measure the progress of tasks and projects
Top-notch task management
Integrates with many third-party applications
Intuitive and easy-to-use
Price: Pricing can be requested on their website
32. Paymo
Paymo is the last Basecamp alternative on our list that is a full-featured online project management app. The long list of features include time tracking, resource planning, Gantt charts, reports, Kanban boards, invoices and expenses. Paymo helps your team work better by getting everyone on the same page. It is catering to the needs of over 100,000 small business and freelancers with their project management needs.
Main features:
Real-time comments on tasks allow you to stay on the same page
Enables you to accurately track their work time and task progress
Generate customizable time and work reports
Switch to an advanced task view with filters to see all details
Price: Business plan $15.16/user/month
33. WorkBook
WorkBook is an agency management software for agencies and in-house teams to boost productivity. It is designed to help teams with project management, resource management, customer relationship management, team collaboration and file sharing, and accounting. The software clearly understands the fact that not every business/team has the same needs. Therefore, it lets you select modules that suit your needs and only pay for what you use.
Pricing: WorkBook’s Basic plan starts from $19 user/month.
34. WorkflowMax
WorkflowMax is an all-in-one project management software with a variety of useful features such as project tracking, timesheets, reporting, invoicing, job monitoring, just to name a few. Since WorkflowMax is a Xero-owned software solution, it flaunts seamless integration with Xero’s long line of accounting and business software – a key reason to call it one of the best Basecamp alternatives available out there.
Pricing: Individual plans starting from $15 month/user and it also offers optional upgrades as per business needs.
35. Output Time
Output Time is the type of project management software that puts emphasis on effective team collaboration. In addition to key project management features like time tracking, invoicing and expense tracking, the software also has an instant messenger feature. Moreover, it provides instant notification on each action of Projects/Tasks in real-time, thereby keeping everyone up-to-date and avoiding any kind of unnecessary confusion.
Pricing: Free, paid plans starting from $4 user/month.
36. WORK[etc]
WORK[etc] is a business management platform that includes features for CRM, billing, help desk, project management, customer portal, social media and much more. It serves as one place for the entire team to collaborate, sell, support, and deliver.
Pricing: Starter plan starting from $78 user/month, team plan starts from $195 user/month, and foundations plan starts from $395 user/month.
37. Copper Project
Another one in the list of Basecamp alternatives is Copper Project. This is a state-of-the-art software solution for collaboration, communication, and knowledge management. It allows teams to simplify and optimize their workflow so that they can manage projects seamlessly from start to finish. Project templates, task timers, task views, and file sharing are the key highlights of this all-in-one project management tool.
Pricing: Studio plan available for $49 per month, Corporate plan for $69 per month, and Premium plan for $99 per month
38. Tom’s Planner
Tom’s Planner is an online project planning software that allows you to create, collaborate and share Gantt charts with drag and drop simplicity. People often get overwhelmed by the term “Gantt chart”, but with Tom’s Planner, Gantt charts can become the easiest part of your job. With Tom’s Planner, you can create project schedules online, share them or collaborate on them with the team, and then publish them without any hassle.
Pricing: Professional plan for $7.50 per month and Unlimited plan for $15 per month
39. TeamWave
TeamWave is a web-based software solution and one of the best Basecamp alternatives for CRM, project management and HR management. This Basecamp alternative provides a comprehensive set of tools that help you, your team, and your business move forward. From collaboration, sales, marketing, as well as time tracking, TeamWave help businesses handle every known business process there is
Pricing: Starting price $3.00 per month per user.
40. Taiga.io
Taiga.io is a simple and intuitive project management software which is a good alternative to Basecamp. It offers both Kanban and scrum templates for task management. It is easily customizable and very easy to operate.
Pros:
Supported on all platforms like Mac, Linux or Windows.
It has a beautiful design.
Good for tracking progress and issues.
Scales well from tiny projects to massive ones.
Price:
$1/ per user per month with a minimum of 50 potential users per month.
How To Choose The Best Alternative To Basecamp For Your Team?
Before you bite the bullet and choose an alternative tool from this list, we would like to make one thing very clear – there is no such thing as ‘perfect tool’. There are more than a dozen project management solutions out there – each of them have a unique set of strengths and weaknesses. The question is – Which tool will meet the needs of your projects and teams?
You need to find criteria for selecting the right project management tool. Understand that there are many Basecamp project management alternatives and you get to choose only one. Try focusing head on the basics i.e. “What does Basecamp lack?”.
We’ve created a small checklist that will make it easier for you to choose the best alternative to Basecamp for your team.
Here, when you choose a tool to replace Basecamp, you must expect:
Task management
Shared calendaring
Inbuilt Gantt charts tool (Interactive with task dependencies and critical path)
Document management
Inbuilt browser chat
Email integration
Time tracking and invoicing
Visual customization
Better support
Note: This checklist doesn’t include all the features of project management software. It is a list of features that leads you to apps and tools like Basecamp for project management.
Conclusion
It’s easier to spot the right kind of Basecamp alternatives or project management software when you’re clear about your requirement. We hope this post helps to put an end to your search.
What is Basecamp?
Basecamp is a project management software. It helps teams plan, schedule and execute work effectively. All files, discussions, tasks, status reports can be found at this one central location.
What are the drawbacks of basecamp?
Lack of customization, no time tracking facility, no inbuilt chat or discussion feature and inability to create recurring tasks are some of the drawbacks of basecamp.
What are some of the best basecamp alternatives and competitors?
The best Basecamp alternatives and competitors include tools like ProofHub, Scoro, WorkZone, Jira, Teamwork, ClickUp, Asana, etc. Read our article here to explore more basecamp competitors with reasons.
Vartika Kashyap is the Chief Marketing Officer at ProofHub and has been one of the LinkedIn Top Voices in 2018. Her articles are inspired by office situations and work-related events. She likes to write about productivity, team building, work culture, leadership, entrepreneurship among others and contributing to a better workplace is what makes her click.
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