Asana Vs. Basecamp (2023 Comparison) – Forbes Advisor INDIA

Asana and Basecamp are reasonably priced project management software with plenty of tools to make project management easy and efficient. Both have unique use cases. Asana, often better suits projects that span company functions while Basecamp’s tools and pricing model are best for freelancers or startups needing an all-in-one solution. In this guide, we take an in-depth look at both, equipping you to make the best decision for your project needs.

Asana vs Basecamp: At a Glance

Both Asana and Basecamp are project management software. They are used by project managers to build and maintain project workflows, track the project’s status, assign tasks to team members and automate tasks to create the most efficient project management processes. To this end, both offer standard project management tools, such as workspaces, time tracking, collaboration tools, reports, charts and integration options, among others.

Although both are project management software, each has its own advantages, disadvantages and ideal use cases. While we will explore their differences in-depth in this article, to give you a quick idea of their differences and so, unique use cases, here’s a high-overview at only some of their differences and how those differences play into the best use cases for each software:

• Pricing model: While Asana offers a per user, per month, pricing model starting at INR 912.87 ($10.99) per user, per month (when billed annually) and a free plan for up to 15 users, Basecamp offers a monthly rate of INR 24,836.08 ($299) per month (billed annually) for unlimited users. This makes Asana a better deal for midsized or large companies with lots of users and Basecamp a better deal for startup teams or freelancers.
• Integration options: Asana offers over 200 integration options while Basecamp offers around 75 integration options. As such, Asana is a better deal for already-established companies with an existing technology stack that must be integrated into a chosen project management software. However, Basecamp offers a well-rounded suite of built-in tools, making it ideal for small companies needing a turnkey solution.
• Automation capabilities: Asana offers over 70 rules you can choose from to automate tasks within your project management workflow. Basecamp, in contrast, relies more on integrations to handle automation needs. As such, since Asana offers a more intuitive automation process, it is best for midsized or large companies with complex projects that need lots of automations to streamline large volumes of tasks.
• Templates: Asana’s templates align with large-company functions, including sales, marketing, operations, product, information technology (IT) and human resources (HR) templates. Basecamp offers templates that suit small project needs, such as a marketing plan, a project plan and creative requests. As such, Asana is ideal for companies with large projects that span company functions while Basecamp’s templates help to manage small and siloed projects.

While each software offers a large plethora of tools and capabilities, from these few tools, we can see that Asana is better suited for midsized or large companies with cross-functional projects. In contrast, Basecamp better suits small project teams, such as those found in startup or freelance companies.

FEATURED PARTNER OFFER

Basecamp

Starting price

INR 1,245.96 ($15) per user per month or INR 24,836.08 ($299) per month for unlimited users

(billed annually)

Views

Card table, hill charts, Kanban, calendars and timeline

Starting price

INR 1,245.96 ($15) per user per month or INR 24,836.08 ($299) per month for unlimited users

(billed annually)

Views

Card table, hill charts, Kanban, calendars and timeline

Why We Picked It

With plans starting at INR 1245.96 ($15) per month, Basecamp’s project management software creates efficiency and cuts down on project management complexities. By centralizing workspaces, it aims to help project practitioners centralize work, then work together to complete and make decisions on project tasks. For example, instead of only giving the option to integrate an app, such as Slack, Basecamp offers Campfire so practitioners can chat within each project.

Within this centralized workspace, in addition to chatting about projects, you can create task lists, share and store files, schedule deadlines or meetings, check in with your team via polls, arrange workflows, view progress via a card table, view updates and discussions via a message board and view the big picture of your project status. Hill charts, boards and dashboards make it easy to view your project status quickly and easily.

Basecamp pricing

Basecamp offers a limited plan geared towards freelancers for INR 1,245.96 ($15) per user per month. Its Pro Unlimited plan, which is geared towards business use, for example, starts at INR 24,836.08 ($299) per month for unlimited users when billed annually). Basecamp offers a free 30-day trial.

All of Basecamp’s plans offer unlimited projects, all of the features we discussed above, at least 5TB of storage on the Pro Unlimited plan, at least a 99.98% uptime (uptime can vary depending on the Basecamp tool used), the ability to invite guests for free and the ability to manage an unlimited number of projects. Basecamp also offers 24/7/365 customer support on its Pro Unlimited plan and promises to get back to you within one hour of filling out a support request. It also offers tutorials and help guides.

Pros & Cons

• More affordable than Asana for teams of 10 or more
• Centralized workspaces
• Built-in communication channels
• Unlimited projects in all plans
• Nonprofit discounts
• Free for teachers and students

• More expensive per user pricing than Asana
• Does not offer a free plan like Asana
• No client access in first-tier plan
• Few integrations compared to some competitors

FEATURED PARTNER OFFER

Asana

Starting price

Free; INR 912.87 ($10.99) per user, per month

(billed annually)

Views

Lists, boards, calendars, timelines and Kanban boards

Starting price

Free; INR 912.87 ($10.99) per user, per month

(billed annually)

Views

Lists, boards, calendars, timelines and Kanban boards

Why We Picked It

With plans ranging from free to INR 2075.76 ($24.99) per month (billed annually), Asana is a project management software that helps cross-functional teams work together easily and efficiently. It does so by allowing project managers to identify who is responsible for different parts of project completion easily as well as lay out project workflows and assign tasks via various easy-to-follow views. Views include timelines, boards, to-do lists and customizable workflows.

Asana also allows for the ability to customize the software to cross-functional team needs. It offers an impressive 200-plus integrations to help teams collaborate on projects based on their work styles and other requirements. Integration examples include Microsoft Teams, Google Sheets, Zoom and Adobe Creative Cloud. Its Workflow Builder, custom rules builder and automations also allow for custom workflows that connect teams in efficient and unique ways.

Asana pricing

Asana offers three plans, including a free plan. Its Basic plan is free and offers unlimited tasks, activity logging, messages and projects, the ability to add up to 15 users, a project brief and overview, mobile app, over 100 free integrations and list and board views.

It offers two prepackaged paid plans. Its Premium plan is INR 912.87 ($10.99) per user, per month (billed annually) and adds custom fields, advanced search, reporting across unlimited projects, unlimited free guests, rules, templates, milestones, a timeline and Workflow Builder. Finally, its $24 per user, per month, Business plan (billed annually) adds advanced reporting, time tracking, goals, portfolios, advanced integrations, a custom rules builder and approvals.

Pros & Cons

• Offers a free plan
• Paid plans start at INr 912.87 ($10.99) per user, per month
• Automations
• Customizable Workflow Builder
• Kanban boards and Gantt charts

• Gantt charts available via integrations only
• Custom quote required for enterprises
• No Workflow Builder in free plan
• More expensive than Basecamp with more than nine users

How Asana and Basecamp Stack Up

Price and discounts

While both Asana and Basecamp offer pricing small businesses are likely to be able to afford, their pricing models are different and so best for different types of companies. Asana’s Basic plan is free, offering the ability for 15 team members to collaborate on a project. Basecamp, however, charges INR 1245.96 ($15) per user per month or INR 24,836.08 ($299) for up to unlimited users. For this reason, from a pricing perspective, Asana is generally more affordable for individuals and very small teams.

However, for businesses with more than 15 users, from a pricing perspective, Basecamp is often the better deal. While Asana charges between INR 912.87 ($10.99) and INR 1993.53 ($24) per user, per month (when billed annually), Basecamp offers a set price of INR 24,836.08 ($299) per month (billed annually) for unlimited users. However, depending on the number of users, Asana can be better for small nonprofits, offering them a 50% discount compared to Basecamp’s 10% nonprofit discount.

Views

Both Basecamp and Asana have a variety of views you can use to manage projects. For example, both offer to-do lists, boards, timelines and calendars. Still, they both also offer proprietary views with unique advantages. Asana, for example, offers its listview while Basecamp offers The Lineup view of projects.

Asana’s list view is unique in that it does not list to-dos under each person who is responsible for it. If it did, tasks may be duplicated under different team members who are working on them together. Instead, it lists tasks needed for each step of project completion, then the people who are assigned to each task, the date in which tasks must be completed and color-coded cells that tell the viewer each task’s priority and status.

Basecamp’s The Lineup view shows where projects stand on a timeline of the project’s start and end dates. Project phases are placed on a timeline, along with a list of the tasks that must be completed within that phase and the people responsible for executing them. In this way, project participants can always know if they are on track to complete the project on time or if they need to readjust phases to make an on-time completion possible.

Automations

Basecamp and Asana both offer the capability to automate workflows and repetitive tasks. However, each offers a different approach to doing so. Asana offers prebuilt rules to automate tasks and workflows. In contrast, Basecamp offers automation capabilities via its integration library.

Asana offers the ability to build automation rules by selecting from over 70 rules in its rules gallery. In doing so, you can assign or route tasks, update dependencies and autoshift due dates to templates automatically, for example.

In contrast, Basecamp offers integration tools that allow you to integrate processes and tasks within the Basecamp software. For example, you can integrate Basecamp with Zapier, which allows you to integrate Basecamp with other automation tools to, for example, post new Basecamp activity automatically to a designated Slack channel or add inbound emails to Basecamp to-do lists. For this to work, however, you must be using Basecamp 3.

Templates

Both Asana and Basecamp offer templates that help project managers set up their projects easily. In doing so, project managers save time they could be using to invest in completing their projects on time. However, each software offers a different approach to templates. While both offer a library of prebuilt templates, Basecamp also offers the option to build your own templates.

Asana offers a Template Library with template categories, such as marketing, operations, design, product, cross-functional, sales, customer success, HR and IT. Once you select a template category, you access a list of relevant templates instantly. If you select the marketing category, for example, you are offered event planning, editorial calendar and marketing project plan templates, among others.

In contrast, Basecamp offers a library of prebuilt templates and the option to build your own. To build your own, once you have added a new template, edit it to add tools such as a message board, a to-do list or an integrated tool. Then, save your template. When you want to use your custom-built template again, you can further edit it to customize it to your new project by toggling tools off and on and renaming the template.

Charts

Both Asana and Basecamp offer access to Gantt charts via integrations. Both also offer Kanban charts. These charts are in board form with card stacks labeled, for example, with “In Progress,” “In Review” and “Completed.” You can customize the card row labels to your project needs. This setup allows you to record dependencies and get a bird’s-eye view on where the project stands and what tasks may not be progressing.

Basecamp’s Hill Chart is a unique view not offered by Asana. Like Asana’s list view, this view allows you to track your project’s progress. The uphill portion of the Hill Chart shows the problems the team must resolve before execution. The downhill portion of the chart shows the team what steps must be taken to execute the project. It offers a big-picture view of project planning through execution.

Time Tracking

Both Asana and Basecamp offer the ability to track the time spent on projects or their tasks. However, Asana offers options that make time tracking more intuitive and automatic while Basecamp’s native time tracking capabilities are clunky.

Using Basecamp, you must enter the time spent on a project task manually as well as who utilized that time. You must also record time that is less than an hour in decimal increments, such as .25 for 15 minutes, instead of just entering 15 minutes. Its time tracking reports also do not extend beyond a six-month range.

Asana, however, offers both the option to enter time spent manually or calculate it automatically across all occasions in which the task was worked on by one or more people. To do so, it offers a start and stop live timer. You can then filter reports by time spent on each task or time spent by group of assignees. Furthermore, you can estimate the time allotted to the task and record it so that comparisons can be made between time allotted and actual time spent.

Integrations

Both Asana and Basecamp offer the ability to integrate their software with other tools. However, in terms of number of integrations, Asana is the clear winner here, offering over 200 integrations compared to Basecamp’s approximately 75 integration options.

However, while Asana offers more direct integrations, both offer tools to help you integrate more options than are natively offered in their integration libraries. For example, you can integrate both Asana and Basecamp with Zapier, which then offers the ability to tap into over 750 third-party tools to automate your project tasks, such as Google Sheets, Slack and Airtable.

Bottom Line

Basecamp and Asana offer standard features to infuse efficiency into project management processes. Asana offers a scalable and customizable solution, with a plethora of automations and integrations and an unlimited user pricing option. In contrast, Basecamp offers a turnkey solution with free and low per-user monthly plans. As such, Asana best suits midsized to large companies while Basecamp is a better fit for freelancers, startups or small businesses.

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