For years, Basecamp (starting at $20 per month) was a benchmark of free project management suites. These days, it no longer offers a free level of service, unless you're a Basecamp Classic account holder (from before 2012) or a teacher. The modern incarnation of Basecamp isn't especially interesting, though. While Basecamp remains a reliable service that lets you quickly set up an account and jump right into project management, it doesn't offer the collaboration and communication functionality found in other similar services. Zoho Projects, for example, does a better job fostering communication among employees, in part because it includes a built-in chat app. Teamwork Projects has excellent low-cost options for small teams. Both Zoho Projects and Teamwork Projects offer free accounts, too, and for all those reasons, they are PCMag's Editors' Choices.

Price and Plans

As mentioned, Basecamp offers free accounts for verified teachers, as well as anyone with a Basecamp Classic account. Paid accounts start at $20 per month for an unlimited number of users. That's better than Easy Projects, which charges $21 per user per month, or $15.75 per user per month when paid annually. Comindware Project also charges per user, at a rate of $29 per license per month.

If your budget for trying project management tops out at free, turn to Zoho Projects and Teamwork Projects. A free account with Zoho Projects limits you to one project with a free account, and Teamwork Projects caps you at two.

For $20 per month, Basecamp lets you manage 10 active projects and use 3GB of storage space. For $50 per month, Basecamp lets you manage 40 active projects and gives you 15GB of space. That deal is similar to Teamwork Projects's $49 per month plan, which comes with support for up to 40 projects and 20GB of space (a slightly better bargain). A similar level of service with Zoho Projects costs less (only $40 per month) for 50 projects and just as much space as what Basecamp allots (15GB).

Basecamp has a few more plans: $100 per month for 100 projects and 40GB of space; $150 per month for unlimited projects and 100GB of space; and $3,000 per year for unlimited projects, 500GB storage, and priority support.

Features and Interface

Between my testing Basecamp for PCMag and using it for real projects in the past, I have a lot of experience with the tool. In practice, I've found that it was especially useful in communicating with teams who were physically distant, particularly those working in different time zones (since it doesn't offer real-time status updates). It's also very adept at handling images and artwork. If you add image URLs to a project discussion, Basecamp displays the image rather than just the link. That's really helpful and convenient when working with art directors and other visual creatives.

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But trends in the interface, layout, and included features of online project management software have changed dramatically in the last few years, with many platforms gravitating toward a look and feel that mimics social networks. A feed of information is front and center, with plenty of detail about each item in the feed. Team members can chat in real time and update their statuses throughout the day to let others know what they're doing. Basecamp, however, hasn't followed in this direction.

Basecamp feels more broken into component parts. It's piece-y. A dashboard showing an overview of one of your projects breaks updates into various sections, like Latest Updates, Discussions, and To-Do Lists. You see a preview of each listed item, but there isn't much cohesion among the different sections.

When you compare Basecamp's main project view to that of Zoho Projects, you quickly realize how much more contextual information Zoho Projects provides. Along the right side of the page is a Project Progress bar, description of the project, a Task Progress pie chart, a list of people in the project, and more, depending on how you customize this informational rail. Basecamp, meanwhile, doesn't have a similar bird's-eye view. Everything's in sections, and you have to bounce around and open each section's page to get a full report.

One special little feature in Basecamp is the Catchup button, which takes you to a page summarizing the day's activity. It's a great way to quickly see what you might have missed while you were out of the office, or if you are pulled into a project midway through its development.

Along the top of Basecamp's interface are tabs for Projects, Calendar, Everything, Progress, Everyone, and Me. Projects lets you see a tile for each project of which you are a member. Calendar, as its name implies, shows a calendar view of upcoming due dates and milestones. The Everything tab shows a page of additional choices ("browse every discussion," "review all open to-dos," "see every single file," and so forth, which are handy tools when you need to search for something). Progress turns the project's activities into a visual, vertical timeline, not too unlike the Activity Overview in Teamwork Projects. The Everyone tab in Basecamp shows a page of user profile photos and a snapshot of their bios, and the Me tab lets you dive into your own profile.

I like having user information centralized, and it shouldn't be overlooked. Employees like to be able to see faces of the people with whom they collaborate, as well as to be able to quickly look up their contact information and time zone. But Basecamp hasn't kept pace with the times with regards to how much information people want about one another. For example, in several project management platforms, people can leave a status update, usually to indicate which task is currently eating up their attention. Live chat is another feature that truly collaborative teams like to use, and while it's available in Basecamp as an add-on, it doesn't come included, like it does in Zoho Projects. Another online project management solution, ProofHub, also includes chat, but only if you pay for a plan that costs $99 per month or more. It's absent from cheaper plans.

Apps and Integrations

Several features you might want from an online project management solution aren't included in Basecamp out of the box, as it were, though many are available as third-party add-ons. You can get Gantt charts, for example, by connecting your Basecamp account to one of five or so different services that offer them. The same goes for time-tracking and invoicing. Deciding which add-on to use could be a time-sucking hassle, and project management is complicated enough already. I'd rather have a project management tool that already includes these important features, and that perhaps gives me the choice to use a third-party solution instead if I have something else already queued up that I prefer.

I don't want to downplay the flexibility that's inherent in cobbling together a project management solution built on third-party apps, though. If your project manager is picky about apps and features, Basecamp might be an ideal solution because it'll let him or her patch together exactly the kind of platform the team needs.

Speaking of Gantt charts, if they are your thing, be sure to check out LiquidPlanner. It's a project management tool that's especially focused on time management and will delight anyone with an affinity for Gantt charts.

In addition to supporting a long list of third-party apps, Basecamp also works with Zapier, a sort of IFTTT for businesses. Zapier lets you set up "if this, then that" relationships between business services, letting you get more value from apps that can't technically talk to one another directly.

Cobbling Your Way to Project Management
Basecamp hasn't changed a whole lot in the last few years, but approaches to project management and team collaboration have. If your team needs to create a patchwork project management tool using a very specific list of apps and services, Basecamp could be a good fit. But it doesn't come with a lot of features most project managers need and want, such as Gantt Charts, a prominent bird's-eye view of project status, or ways for team members to communicate smoothly. To get that kind of online project management solution, try one of our Editors' Choices, Zoho Projects and Teamwork Projects.