That is what it says atop the Basecamp web site: Project Management Utopia. And they are not kidding.
I tried the free trial and bought a plan within the same day. Not only is this the cheapest web based project management app I have seen, it is also the easiest to use. The interface the 37signals created for Basecamp is down right elegant.
I have been using Basecamp for my Meancode Media Client Extranet now for four months. I keep finding more and more reasons to like this application.
As I said, they have a free trial. So there is no reason you should not try it out. For me it has kept me more organized with my projects, both business and personal.
The feature set of Basecamp is amazing. The setup is simple, and the benefits outweigh the minimal cost.
You use Basecamp to manage to-do's and milestones, as well as post and receive feedback in a 'messages' area that is rather blog like - not a bad thing.
Setup consists of uploading a logo, setting a name, and a couple optional settings such as message categories and to-do list templates. They have seven default skins for your site, plus you can make a custom skin if you really want to. Setting up FTP settings (so you can add attachments to your posts) was also simple and painless.
The next thing to do is setup the people that will use your site. There are three types of 'people,' you (and employees), contractors, and clients.
Next is to add a project to start managing. This, again, is presented in a clean and easy to understand form.
Setting permissions per project is really easy. You can set which clients have privileges to messages, to-do's and milestones.
I found that the contractors and clients that use my extranet needed minimal instruction on how to use it. Everything is pretty self explanatory.
One of my favorite features is the personal RSS feed. For those of us who love to use RSS, it is wonderful.
I could gush for pages about how much I love using Basecamp. The bottom line is that it has forced me to become more organized. And it has done it in a way that makes me happy at the end of the day.
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Article comments
1 - Anonymous
I'm posting under "Anonymous" because I am a BaseCamp customer but don't want them to retaliate if they see this comment.
BaseCamp is nice, but has been way overhyped. It looks and feel really great at first, but when you get deep into it you realize you are painted into a corner. You can't backup/export data, and you can't move tasks, milestones, or people around.
The worst part is the people running BaseCamp are very dissmissive to customers about their needs. On their forums they tell customers: "We want to keep BaseCamp simple, so we are not going to address your need. If you don't like that, there are plenty of other options; why don't you go find one?" This of course after many months of my data is now held hostage by their system with no way to get it out!!!
BUYER BEWARE. Check out Jason Fried's answers to customer questions on their forums if you want to see for yourself.
2 - Aaman
How does it compare to MS Project, the gold-standard for project management? Is the format supported by MS Project?
Abt BaseCamp licensing, doesn't seem very different from any software vendor's licensing, methinks
3 - Jochen
check out the open source alternative: activecollab is free and simple ;-)
4 - Joe Pringle
I understand where the Basecamp folks are coming from with respect to trying to balance the desire from every customer to add specific features or functionality while at the same time preserving simplicity and ease of use.
We struggle with the same thing at ProjectSpaces. We constantly hear from customers who want us to add more features but we often push back a little to keep things as simple and user friendly as possible. Often it's a matter of meeting an individual customer halfway but making sure you deliver new functionality in a very usable and simple way that serves your entire customer base.
5 - Bryan
I agree with the anonymous comment above: basecamp users beware. I switched to OnStage a year ago for the simple fact that they were responsive to my company's needs. We didn't get the same old "Sorry, but no." answer that you so often see from 37s.
6 - Ken Edwards
It is worth noting that I wrote this in 2005. I have been Basecamp free for over a year, I now use dotProject. Basecamp just got too expensive to justify their costs.
7 - Jarry Porter
Basecamp does not compare with MS Project. It's absolutely different from it. In fact this is what people love about it. Basecamp was the first web-based project management software that I've tried. I fell in love with it at first, but then I found many drawbacks. Some of them, such as lack of Gantt charts or innability to move people and data made me look for something else. I've tried Central Desktop and ActiveCollab, and a couple of other tools. I chose Wrike after all. It suits my project needs better.
8 - Rohan
Products and projects can be complex, project management tools do not need to be. For most projects, something simple like Statuswiz works.
9 - Johanna Lake
On simple and complex software see this.
10 - john
Another alternative to Basecamp is a web-based time tracking and task management service called Intervals. It is ideal for those looking to take Basecamp to the next level, as it has more features ideal for small business.
11 - Sal
Its inevitable that customers will want new features and add-ons. The company needs to be responsive and gentle. We use DeskAway for our pm needs. Its got a free account to try out. We did, and it fit our organization like a nice pair of shoes! :-)
12 - Angela
this is the first time i've seen negative comments about basecamp! thanks for the insight. another alternative is SantexQ. It's free.
13 - Steve
You can also try Manymoon, it's free. With Manymoon you can:
* Managed private and shared To Do Lists and Projects.
* Upload documents and add them to tasks and projects.
* Integrate with Google Docs and Google Calendar.
* Automatically convert emails into tasks.
* Twitter-like feature to let people know what you are working on.
14 - managementcourse02
Project management courses are most beneficial when there is a clear intent to address specific relevant and pressing issues.
15 - zane walter
I have something better and advanced named ProofHub which works centrally. In 24$ ProofHub software provides user friendly features. I recently switch Basecamp to ProofHub and it is working better than Basecamp.