The Basecamp Alternative for Teams That Outgrew the To-Do List
Basecamp is deliberately simple, and that is the point of it. If you have hit the edge of that simplicity and now need dates, dependencies, and what the work costs, this is what changes.
14 day trial. No credit card. Cloud or self-hosted.
The short answer
Basecamp is opinionated on purpose. It removed Gantt charts, dependencies, and time tracking because it believes most teams do not need them, and for a lot of teams it is right. Teams leave when a client asks for a delivery date they cannot produce, when they need to know whether a project made money, or when the per user bill starts mattering. If none of those apply and your team is happy, Basecamp is a good tool and you should keep it.
When Basecamp is the better choice
We would rather you find this out here than three weeks into a trial.
- It is genuinely simplerBasecamp has fewer features by design, so there is less to configure and less to explain to a new starter. If your team has ever abandoned a tool because it was too much, that simplicity is a real feature and we are more tool than they are.
- Chat is built inCampfire and message boards mean the conversation lives in the same product. We have comments on work items, but we do not ship a chat product, so you would keep Slack or Teams alongside us.
- Hill ChartsTheir Hill Chart shows whether a piece of work is still being figured out or is being executed. It is a genuinely useful idea and we have no equivalent.
- A more generous free plan for peopleBasecamp's free plan runs one project for up to 20 users. Our free cloud plan is one project for one user. Our free Community Edition has no user limit, but it is self-hosted, so you have to run it yourself.
Why teams move from Basecamp
Real dates and dependencies
A Gantt timeline with dependencies and critical path, so when something slips you can see exactly what moves behind it rather than finding out later.
Time tracking that feeds the invoice
Log hours against the task, mark them billable, approve them, and generate the client invoice from the same data. Basecamp has no built in time tracking.
Know whether a project made money
Budgets, actual cost built from logged hours, variance warnings, and per project profitability. This is usually the reason agencies move.
Agile if you need it
Backlogs, sprints, story points, burndown, and velocity for teams that work that way, plus defect tracking and test cases.
Flat pricing that stays flat
One monthly price for the whole team rather than a rate per person, and it is well below their flat tier too.
Run it on your own servers
A self-hosted edition for teams that cannot put client work in someone else's cloud. Basecamp is hosted only.
Orangescrum compared with Basecamp
| Orangescrum | Basecamp | |
|---|---|---|
| Price for a team of 25Basecamp Pro at $15 per user, billed monthly | $69 per month, flat | $375 per month |
| Flat price optionBasecamp Pro Unlimited, billed annually | $69 per month | $299 per month |
| Users included | Unlimited on every plan | Charged per user on Pro |
| Free plan | 1 project, 1 user | 1 project, 20 users, 1 GB |
| To-dos, messages, and file sharing | Yes | Yes |
| Gantt chart with dependencies | Yes | No |
| Critical path | Premium | No |
| Time tracking built in | Yes | No |
| Budget, cost, and invoicing | Yes | No |
| Scrum, backlogs, and burndown | Yes | No |
| Defect and test case management | Yes | No |
| Built in group chat | No | Yes |
| Hill Charts | No | Yes |
| Self-hosted edition | Yes | No |
| Free and open source edition | Yes | No |
What it costs as the team grows
Basecamp Pro at $15 per user per month on monthly billing, against Orangescrum Pro Unlimited at $69 per month for the whole team.
| Team size | Basecamp | Orangescrum | Difference per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 people | $150/mo | $69/mo | $972 less |
| 25 people | $375/mo | $69/mo | $3,672 less |
| 50 people | $750/mo | $69/mo | $8,172 less |
| 100 people | $1,500/mo | $69/mo | $17,172 less |
Figures use Basecamp's published monthly billing rate for its Pro plan and assume every person needs a seat. Annual billing is cheaper on most tools, including theirs. This compares list prices, not negotiated ones.
Moving from Basecamp
Basecamp data is straightforward to bring across because the structure is simple. We do the migration for you at no charge.
- Export or share accessTell us how many projects and roughly how many to-dos, and whether message history and files need to come.
- We map itProjects, to-do lists, to-dos, assignees, due dates, files, and comment history are mapped to Orangescrum projects and tasks.
- Check it in a sandboxWe import into a test workspace first so your team can confirm it landed the way they expected.
- CutoverThe real import runs and your team starts working. Keep Basecamp read-only for as long as you like.
Orangescrum vs Basecamp FAQ
Is Orangescrum a good alternative to Basecamp?
Does Basecamp have Gantt charts or time tracking?
How does the pricing compare?
What does Basecamp do better?
Can I migrate my Basecamp data?
Do you have message boards and group chat?
Can clients be involved without seeing everything?
Can I run it on my own servers?
Keep the simplicity, add the parts you now need
Free 14 day trial, no credit card. Free guided migration from Basecamp.