Basecamp

How I use Basecamp for projects, client communication, to-dos and decisions in one place — features, real limitations, current pricing and a verdict from someone who runs client work on it.

Overview

Basecamp is 37signals' project-management tool, built on the idea that a project is a small set of things — messages, to-dos, files, schedule, decisions — and that all of them should live in one place. It has deliberately resisted becoming a workflow engine: there are no Gantt charts, no custom fields, no sprint points. That restraint is the product.

In a modern product workflow it sits above the code (GitHub) and beside the docs (Notion): the place where the client, the brief and the work agree on what is happening this week.

How I use it

Every client engagement gets one Basecamp project. The message board carries the conversations that would otherwise be lost in email threads — proposals, scope changes, weekly updates — so a decision made in week two is still findable in month six. To-dos hold the actual work, grouped by phase, with due dates where a date matters and none where it doesn't.

Campfire handles the quick questions that don't deserve a message; Docs & Files hold the brief, assets and access details; the schedule has the two or three dates that matter — kickoff, review, launch. The client sees exactly what I see. That transparency removes most of the "where are we?" traffic, and it keeps the project's context in one organised place instead of spread across WhatsApp, email, a spreadsheet and a drive folder.

Internally I use the same structure for my own products, which is why Basecamp sits in the communication and project-management group of my stack next to HEY and Notion: HEY is where outside email arrives, Basecamp is where structured project communication happens, Notion is where specs and knowledge live.

Key features

Message boards — threaded, long-form project communication that stays attached to the project
To-dos with assignees, dates, groups and comments on every item
Campfire and Pings — real-time chat when a message is too heavy
Docs & Files with versioning, plus cloud-file links
Hill Charts — a visual sense of where work actually stands, not just a percentage
Client access with controlled visibility, so clients are in the project without seeing internal notes
Email forward-in, mobile apps and a calm notification model ("Hey!" menu, focus mode)

Best for

Small teams and consultancies that run several client projects at once and are tired of reconstructing decisions from chat history. It suits people who want less process, not more. If your team lives in sprints, story points and custom automations, it will feel too simple — and that is by design.

Where it fits in my stack

Basecamp → HEY for external email, GitHub for the code and pull requests the to-dos point at, Notion for specs and the knowledge base. I describe the full loop in How I build + work + deliver.

Pros

Everything about a project in one place, visible to the client
Flat pricing — no per-user fees on paid plans, so inviting a client costs nothing
Genuinely calm: notifications are opt-in and batched by design
Fast, stable, and unchanged enough that nobody needs training

Limitations

No Gantt charts, dependencies, custom fields or sprint tooling — deliberately
Reporting across projects is thin; it is a workspace, not a dashboard
Integrations are limited compared with Asana or Linear
Active-project caps on the lower plans mean archiving finished work to stay within limits

Pricing

Basecamp is priced per account, not per user. As listed on basecamp.com/pricing: a Free plan (1 project, 1 GB, up to 5 users); Freelancer at $25/month (3 active projects, 20 users); Studio at $59/month (10 active projects, unlimited users); Pro at $100/month (25 active projects, unlimited users); and the Unlimited Edition at $300/month billed annually (unlimited projects, 1 TB). Paid plans carry a 30-day trial (45 days on Unlimited). Prices change — check the official pricing page.

Verdict

I keep Basecamp because it makes a client project legible — to the client and to me — without anyone maintaining a process. The price is flat, the model is stable, and the restraint that frustrates power users is exactly what keeps project context in one place. My longer Basecamp review goes deeper on the trade-offs.