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Basecamp review

A flat bill and unlimited people, from the vendor that lists its own gaps.

BRecommended with a reservation

The verdict

The only vendor here that refuses the per-seat premise, and the only one that lists its own gaps.

Basecamp homepage, cropped to the headline "The refreshingly straightforward project management system that is rock-solid and easy to use." on a pale ground, with the edge of a project mock-up at the right.
The Basecamp homepage as it looked on 1 September 2026.

How the 7.1 is built

Score breakdown for basecamp, criteria set Software and apps
CriterionWeightScore
Capability

Message boards, to-dos, card tables, chat, schedules, docs and check-ins, and then it stops. No Gantt chart, no dependencies, no automation rules, no resource management and no workload view. The narrowest tool here, deliberately.

30%5.5
Usability

The least to learn of the seven and the least to maintain. There is one place for each kind of thing, no schema to design, and nothing to configure before the first message goes up.

20%9.0
Value

Seven hundred and eight dollars a year for ten people on Studio, and the same figure at twenty people or fifty, because the bill does not move when you hire. The cheapest number on this page, on the one plan that does not clear the anchor.

20%8.5
Integrations

A documented API and a small third-party ecosystem, on a product whose position is that you should need fewer tools rather than connect more of them. The thinnest here, deliberately.

10%5.0
Support

Clear, current, plainly written documentation, including the parts that are unflattering, and email support from a company that has been answering it for over two decades. No live channel and no SLA, and it says so.

10%7.5
Trust

No SOC 2 and no ISO 27001. Instead a self-assessed CSA CAIQ v4.1 covering all 283 questions, and a security page that volunteers that "Our application databases are generally not encrypted at rest". Set against the 27 profitable years the company claims, no debt and no investors, and the only cancellation policy in this comparison with a published deletion timetable.

10%7.0
Weighted total100%7.1

Pros and cons

What works

  • One flat price for unlimited people, so the bill does not move when the team grows
  • The clearest cancellation terms of the seven: 30 days to deletion, 60 from backups
  • HTML export of the whole account on every plan, including the free one
  • A vendor that publishes what it does not have, including no SSO and no SLA

What does not

  • No Gantt chart, no dependencies and no automation rules at any price
  • No SSO or SAML at any price, which the help centre states outright
  • No SOC 2 and no ISO 27001, only a self-assessed questionnaire
  • The cap that bites is active projects: ten on Studio, and there is no way to downgrade to free

What Basecamp costs

From $25 per month · free tier available

Basecamp pricing tiers
PlanMonthlyAnnual, per monthWhat you get
StudioUnlimited users, flat$59Fifty nine dollars a month for everybody, which is $708 for a year no matter how many people you hire · Up to 10 active projects and 25 GB of storage · Archived and deleted projects do not count against the total
FreelancerUp to 20 users$25Up to 3 active projects, 5 GB storage · Clients and contractors count toward the 20 · The only Basecamp tier with a user cap
ProUnlimited users, flat$99Up to 25 active projects, 100 GB storage · Still one price for everybody · The step you take when you run out of projects, not when you run out of seats
UnlimitedUnlimited users, flat$299Unlimited projects and 1 TB of storage · Billed annually, and no annual total is published · Extra storage is $100 a month for 5 TB
FreeUp to 5 users$0One project, 1 GB storage · Five users, clients included · Downgrading from a paid package to free is not allowed

The only vendor in this comparison that does not charge per person: "No per-user fees, everyone's included. Simple fixed prices", and the FAQ claims the model as its own, "one of the few products in the entire industry with an all-inclusive, unlimited users package for one fixed, capped price". So the number that decides a Basecamp plan is active projects, not headcount: 1 free, 3 on Freelancer at $25, 10 on Studio at $59, 25 on Pro at $99 and unlimited at $299 billed annually, with archived and deleted projects excluded from the count. Clients, contractors and guests are counted as users, which only bites on Freelancer, since Studio and above are unlimited. Only the monthly figure is printed on Freelancer, Studio and Pro even though annual billing is offered, and no annual total is published for the $299 tier.

Key specs

Basecamp key specifications
PlatformsWeb, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
API access
Team features
Data export
GDPR
SOC 2
Mobile app
Support channelsEmail, Help centre
Uptime SLANone, stated outright: the terms say Basecamp does not offer service-level agreements. The marketing claim of 99.99 percent is informational
What happens when you stop payingCancellation is immediate and permanent. The account becomes inaccessible at once, all data is permanently deleted after 30 days and removed from backups within 60. Export first
Cheapest working planNone. No Basecamp plan has a Gantt chart or automation rules at any price
Minimum seats and incrementsNot applicable. Flat pricing with no per-user fee, and the cap is on active projects
Free guestsNot free as such. Every person you add is counted, including clients and contractors, but Studio and above have unlimited users so it stops mattering
Automation allowanceNo automation rules of any kind. Automatic Check-ins ask recurring questions on a schedule and that is the whole feature
Timeline or Gantt fromNo Gantt chart at any price. The Lineup is a timeline of projects, the Schedule is a calendar, and Hill Charts show progress rather than dates
Storage1 GB free, 5 GB Freelancer, 25 GB Studio, 100 GB Pro, 1 TB Unlimited. Extra storage is $100 a month for 5 TB
Export formatsHTML only, for individual projects, a selection, or the whole account, on every plan including free
What the export containsA full HTML copy of the account. Pings are a separate opt-in export
SAML SSO fromNot offered at any price. The help centre states plainly that Basecamp does not support SSO or SAML authentication. Google sign-in is available

Who it is for

Best for

  • A growing team that wants the bill to stay still
  • Anyone who would rather have seven features that work than forty that need configuring

Not for

  • Work with dependencies, a critical path or resource scheduling
  • Any organisation whose procurement asks for SOC 2 or SAML

In more detail

One price for everybody

$59 a month. Ten people, fifty people, a hundred and fifty people. The invoice does not move.

Every other tool in our comparison charges per seat, so hiring somebody costs you twice: once in salary and once in software. Basecamp sells the opposite premise and claims it as its own: "one of the few products in the entire industry with an all-inclusive, unlimited users package for one fixed, capped price."

Studio is $708 for twelve months, which is the lowest figure on our page and would be the lowest at twenty people too. It scores 7.1 under how we rate and it holds our flat-bill pick.

What it does not have

Before anything else, because the vendor will not tell you and its competitors will.

No Gantt chart, at any price. Basecamp publishes nothing about Gantt charts either way. There is The Lineup, which is a timeline of projects rather than of tasks, a Schedule that is a calendar, and Hill Charts, which show how far along a piece of work is rather than when it lands.

No automation rules, at any price. The only thing in that shape is Automatic Check-ins, which ask recurring questions on a schedule. No triggers, no conditions, no rules engine.

No SSO and no SAML, at any price. The help centre says it in one line, updated in June 2026: Basecamp does not support SSO or SAML authentication. Google sign-in is available.

No SOC 2 and no ISO 27001. Instead a self-assessed CSA Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire covering all 283 questions, and a security page that volunteers this: "Our application databases are generally not encrypted at rest."

No SLA, in the terms, in those words: Basecamp does not offer service-level agreements.

That is the list, and it fails two of the three conditions our comparison anchors on. What is remarkable is that every item above comes from a Basecamp page. No other vendor here publishes its own absences.

The cap that bites is projects, not people

Free is one project. Freelancer at $25 is three active projects and twenty users, and it is the only paid tier with a headcount limit, which matters because clients and contractors count toward it. Studio is ten. Pro at $99 is twenty five. Unlimited is $299 a month billed annually, and no annual total is published for it.

Archived and deleted projects do not count, which is more generous than it sounds: a team that closes work properly will sit on Studio for years.

One clause to know before you start on a paid plan: you cannot go back. Basecamp does not allow downgrading from a paid package to the free package.

Cancelling, which is the clearest here

Every other vendor in this comparison is vague about what happens to your data when you leave. Asana, ClickUp and Trello publish no deletion timetable at all. monday.com reserves the right to delete an inactive account's data at any time.

Basecamp publishes the whole thing:

"We'll permanently delete the content in your account from our servers 30 days after cancellation, and from our backups within 60 days."

Cancellation is immediate. The account is inaccessible at once. Export first, and the export is an HTML copy of individual projects, a selection or the entire account, available on every plan including the free one. Wrike cannot manage that on the plan we price.

What you get instead of features

Message boards, to-dos, card tables, chat, schedules, docs and check-ins. One place for each kind of thing, nothing to configure, and a new person finds their way around in an afternoon. It is the least to learn of the seven and, more usefully, the least to maintain: nobody has to own the Basecamp setup the way somebody has to own the ClickUp hierarchy.

Behind it is a company that describes itself as having had "27 profitable, financially responsible years in business", with no debt and no investors, which is a different kind of reassurance from a SOC 2 report and not a substitute for one.

Who should buy it

Buy Studio if you are growing and you want the bill to stay still. At ten people $708 is cheap; at thirty it is remarkable.

Buy it if your team would rather have seven things that work than forty that need configuring, and if you would rather a vendor told you what it lacks.

Do not buy it if your work has dependencies, a critical path or people to schedule, because none of that exists here and no plan adds it. Do not buy it if procurement asks for SOC 2 or SAML. And take the export before you cancel, not after, because after is thirty days.

Prices, plan caps, the security posture and the cancellation timetable on this page were read from the vendor pricing page, features page, security page, terms of service and help centre on . We did not test the products in this comparison.

Alternatives to Basecamp

Where Basecamp appears

Basecamp questions

How much is Basecamp for a team of ten?
Studio is $59 a month flat, so $708 for twelve months, and the same for twenty people or a hundred because there are no per-user fees. The limit on Studio is ten active projects rather than headcount. Verified on 1 September 2026.
Does Basecamp have Gantt charts?
No, and it publishes nothing about them either way. There is The Lineup, a timeline of projects rather than tasks, a Schedule that is a calendar, and Hill Charts, which show how far along a piece of work is rather than when it lands.
Does Basecamp support SSO?
No. The help centre states that Basecamp does not support SSO or SAML authentication. Google sign-in is available. It is the only tool in our comparison that does not offer SAML at any price.
What happens to my data if I cancel Basecamp?
It goes, and Basecamp is unusually clear about the timetable. Cancellation is immediate and permanent, the account is inaccessible at once, data is permanently deleted after 30 days and removed from backups within 60. Export the HTML copy before you cancel, not after.

Ready to try Basecamp?

A flat bill and unlimited people, from the vendor that lists its own gaps.

Sources