Which Basecamp Alternatives Fit Your Team’s Needs?

Accessibility. It’s become so standard that many of us have forgotten what it’s like to be without mobile and internet access at our fingertips. Accessing project tools, tasks, and calendar management systems from any location has become the norm. However, not all collaboration platforms are created the same.

While one tool, Basecamp, has been around for nearly two decades, there are other alternatives in the industry like Wrike, Asana, Monday.com, Teamwork, and Flow. If you’ve been using Basecamp and are looking for options with stronger customization capabilities and more feature-rich team collaboration options, here are some Basecamp alternatives to help you make a decision about which platform best meets your team’s needs.

A Basecamp Overview

Basecamp is a collaborative tool that includes a variety of project management options. It’s one of the earliest project management platforms and has a number of capabilities, but its features, app integration, and customization are limited. 

The essentials of Basecamp’s offerings include:

• Collaboration and conversation. Private and group messaging available, including notification preferences that can be scheduled or muted. 

• Scheduling. Agenda and calendar viewing capabilities working in conjunction with Google Calendar, iCal, and Outlook. 

• Task management. To-do lists that act as tasks and can be assigned to individuals or multiple project members with the ability to add comments, attach files, and set due dates.

• Resource management. Ability to use Hill charts to visually track progress on a project.

• Pricing. $99/month 

• Limitations of the platform include:
  • Minimal app integration capabilities
  • Overly-simplified system
  • Minimal calendar functionality
  • Limited access controls
  • Basic asset sharing only

If you need a basic platform for managing projects, then Basecamp will certainly fit the bill, but if you need more, it’s worth exploring alternative platforms.

The Basics of Basecamp Alternatives

When it comes to collaboration, conversation, scheduling, task management, resource management, and pricing for each of the alternative platforms, here’s what you need to know, as well as any limitations you will want to be aware of. 

Wrike

Wrike is an effective workplace management tool for basic team communication. 

• Collaboration and conversation. Wrike offers a chat add-on and the ability to create tasks for project teamwork.

• Scheduling. With Wrike, you can link calendars for individual and team viewing.

• Task management. With the ability to create to-do lists, individuals and project teams can manage task lists collaboratively.

• Resource management. Shareable time tracking enables the ability to track project time logs, as well as to measure and report on team progress.

• Pricing.  Professional for 5-15 users, $9.80 per user/month; Business for 5–200 users, $24.80 per user/month.

• Limitations. With limited mobile app integration and an interface that can be difficult to navigate, onboarding your project team members on this platform can be frustrating. 

While Wrike offers basic functionality, it lacks built-in project management features and limits project tracking features. It can also become quite expensive for teams that are growing and scaling.

Asana

Asana is a project management tool known for its integration capabilities. The system is complex, requiring comprehensive front-end training for project teams and individuals.

• Collaboration and conversation. Team and project conversation capabilities, as well as notifications for team members or non-team members via an @ mention.

• Scheduling. Calendar syncing capabilities with the ability to add tasks and subtasks with due dates for a project. Subtasks, however, must be added manually to a project to appear on the calendar.

• Task management. Individual and project to-do-list functions are available, as well as the option to add “today, upcoming, or later” to prioritize tasks. 

• Resource management. Project view capabilities and scheduling resources available via Asana’s software integration, called “Float.” 

• Pricing. Billed annually; Premium: @ $10.99 per user/month; Business: $24.99 per user/month.

• Limitations. No real-time built-in chat options. You’ll have to use Slack or another external chat tool in order to real-time message your team members within Asana.

While Asana offers feature-rich integrations for projects, the interface requires a steep learning curve and can be time-consuming for users.  

Monday.com

Monday.com is known for its simple project management capabilities. Although the platform is basic, using the tool can be frustrating to learn, and an outside chat provider will be required.

• Collaboration and conversation. There’s no internal, built-in messaging platform. In order to send chat messages, you have to use another tool, like Slack. 

• Scheduling. Basic calendar and timeline view opportunities.

• Task management. Centralized task creation and management with templates available.

• Resource management including time tracking and automated notifications.

• Pricing. Basic: $8 per user/month, Standard: $10 per user/month, or Pro: $16 per user/month. Enterprise: Tiered pricing. For example, a team of 20 starts @ $199/month for standard functionality.

• Limitations: Okay for basic project teams but not the best for teams requiring feature-rich capabilities, has minimal reporting customization, and no built-in chat functions.

Monday.com is a basic project management platform with limited integrations and no built-in chat functionality, limiting accessibility. Tiered pricing can be expensive as businesses scale.

Teamwork

Teamwork offers a project management software tool for basic project communication.

• Collaboration and conversation. Teamwork integrates with Slack and Gmail.

• Scheduling. You can track meetings, holidays, project deadlines, and coordinate with teams online.  

• Task management. Assign individual and team tasks for projects and:
  • @mention teams in comments and messages
  • Use project templates
  • Filter tasks assigned by team

• Resource management. Teamwork offers a built-in time tracker to help with project time and resource management.

• Pricing.  Pro: $10 per month/user; Premium: $18 per month/user.

• Limitations: Limited document and file-sharing options and a time-consuming setup process.

While Teamwork is good for basic project management needs, it has a confusing interface for users who wish for a more streamlined, simple-to-use, intuitive system.

Flow

Flow offers centralized dashboards focused on individual, team, and project member needs that have been thoughtfully incorporated into an all-in-one, intuitive and customizable platform.

Whether your team needs to organize project tasks, stay in the loop on updates, manage calendars, or share important files, Flow provides a modern, scalable project management solution.

• Collaboration and conversation. Powerful built-in chat feature for direct, group, team- and project-messaging, as well as integrations with many of your favorite apps.

• Scheduling. Calendars display timelines and workload for all projects and team members’ tasks, as well as individuals’ schedules. 

• Task management. Comprehensive task management features for organizing project tasks, notes, files, and communication in one central location. You can:
  • Track due dates
  • Set recurring tasks
  • Attach files
  • Add comments
  • Set Tags and Priorities

• Resource management. Team members can be tagged by due date or project. 

• Pricing. Basic: $6 per user/month; Plus: $8 per user/month; Pro: $10 per user/month

• Limitations. Until recently, Flow did not have built-in chat, but that’s no longer the case. Flow has added a robust, built-in messaging platform so users no longer have to rely on an outside chat tool. 

Flow is scalable and offers a cost-efficient pricing model for growing teams. You can also integrate your favourite apps including Dropbox, Slack, Google Drive and Harvest to streamline your project management efforts. 

If you’re a growing team that requires accessibility for all of your team members, you’ll need a scalable solution. It’s also handy to have a collaborative tool that provides built-in chat and cloud-based storage so that you don’t have to go outside of your platform to complete a project.

When you utilize an all-in-one tool for collaboration, your team members can access work from anywhere, anytime. And you’ll have the tools your team needs to integrate into a single, intuitive, and effective workflow management system.

Flow provides a flexible, feature-rich platform that can be learned in minutes and customized as your team grows. Try it free today!