Basecamp vs Monday Comparison 2023: Features, Pricing & More

People describe Basecamp as "a lightweight software that you can set up overnight." Monday.com also gets plenty of praise from users, saying the platform is "as easy as a Sunday morning."

But which one is better? In this Basecamp vs Monday comparison post, we'll see how they compare in features and functionality and give you our two cents on which app works best for you.

What is the difference between Basecamp and Monday?

The main difference between Monday and Basecamp is that Monday is a more robust project management platform, while Basecamp is both a project management and team communication app. Monday has advanced project management tools like automated workflows and project views. Basecamp focuses on chat and message boards for finer communication. 

Another area where they differ is in the pricing model. Basecamp has only one paid plan where you’re charged a one-off fee, regardless of the number of users. Monday’s pricing model works on a per-user per-month basis. Basecamp’s reporting capabilities are more limited, while Monday’s is more capable in this regard, with capabilities like Chart and Workload view. 

If you want to explore more about Monday.com, dive deep into this extensive Monday review that discusses the software’s perks and limitations. We also have a detailed Basecamp review that can give you a complete overview of the platform. 

Basecamp vs Monday comparison chart

Here’s a basic overview table for Basecamp vs Monday:

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Basecamp vs Monday.com pricing

Comparing Basecamp vs Monday.com in terms of pricing, the two tools are entirely different. Basecamp has a flat monthly rate of $99, for unlimited users. You can have as few as two or as many as 50; the price stays the same. 

Monday.com works on a per-user basis. There are three paid plans, ranging from $8 per user per month to $16. There's also an Enterprise plan, but you must contact sales to get a custom quote.

Which is best for you?

Basecamp has a more straightforward pricing model, while Monday.com has more options. The former works in your favor if you have more than 10 people on your team. In this case, the monthly price per user would be ~$10, which is similar to what you would pay with Monday.com. Basecamp’s pricing model can be a downside if you’re a small business with only three or four people. The monthly rate would jump to ~$20 per user. 

Monday.com vs Basecamp free versions

The good news is that both tools have a free version of their software. When we put Monday.com vs Basecamp against each other regarding free plans, we see that both plans are more suitable for solopreneurs and freelancers and for personal use. 

Basecamp's free plan gives you only three projects and 1GB of storage space. The user limit is 20. The free plan lacks client access, unlimited projects, and templates. 

Monday.com's free plan is limited to two users. You get unlimited boards and docs, 200+ templates, and a Kanban board, but that's pretty much it.

Which is best for you?

Basecamp has a slight lead as its free plan supports up to 20 users, while Monday.com’s is limited to only two. 

Customer support

You can contact Basecamp's customer support by email or chat, but there's no phone support available. There's 24/7 customer support, Monday through Friday, for all users. You can reach out to customer support on weekends from 9 am to 6 pm Central Time. 

Monday.com also provides 24/7 customer support to users of all plans, including the free plan. Users of the Enterprise plan get a Dedicated customer success manager. 

Which is best for you?

Both apps offer the same level of customer support. 24/7 support is available to all users, even for those of the freemium version. 

Knowledgebase & learning

Basecamp's knowledge base contains how-to guides, podcasts, books, help articles, and video tutorials. There's also a FAQ section where you can find quick answers to the most common questions. 

Monday has an extensive self-service knowledge base with resources like tutorials, guides, and articles. All these resources can be useful when onboarding your team. Another perk is that Monday.com has live and on-demand webinars on various topics like platform demos, best practices, and advanced use cases.

Which is best for you?

Both tools have some great knowledge bases that contain useful resources. Monday.com has a slight lead in this category as it has live and on-demand webinars and a very active community forum. 

Basecamp or Monday for ease of use?

Basecamp has a gentle learning curve. Learning how everything works shouldn't take you more than a day or two. This is because Basecamp is a lightweight to a midweight project management system that doesn't overwhelm you with features. It offers just the right amount of functionality for project management and team collaboration and communication.

The interface is very user-friendly and intuitive. The Home page contains quick links to all your Projects and Teams so that you can quickly jump from one Space to another. Adding integrations and using the calendar feature is also a breeze.

Monday.com has a slight learning curve, meaning less time is spent onboarding your team. The interface is intuitive, and all the features are simple to learn and use. There's also an extensive knowledge base with hours of video and written content to speed up your onboarding process.

The interface features colorful designs and big buttons that make it easy to navigate the software. A panel on the left-hand side of the interface lets you quickly access all the core features like your message inbox, weekly tasks, and project boards.

Which is best for you?

The thing about project management tools is that they all have a learning curve. But the good news is that although Basecamp and Monday are not the easiest platforms, they’re far from the hardest. Playing with the software for a day or two should be more than enough to learn how everything works. 

Product limitations

No software is perfect, and Basecamp and Monday are no exception. They both come with their strengths and weaknesses. 

One of Basecamp's weaknesses is that it doesn't have native Kanban boards or Gantt charts. You might be disappointed if you prefer looking at your projects in a visual workspace. As a light-midweight project management software, Basecamp can fall short if your projects require more complex teamwork and many moving parts. You won't find any resource management, budgeting, time tracking, and invoicing either. 

Monday.com has Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and native time-tracking functionality, but it also has its downsides. One issue users have is that many advanced features like automation and integrations are reserved for the higher-priced plans. The time tracking functionality is available only to users of the Pro plan and up, starting at $16/user/month. 

Another critical feature, Dependencies, is only available on the two highest tiers. Monday is geared towards startups and small to medium-sized companies, so it might not be the best fit for massive enterprises. Its template library is also not so extensive and lacks bug tracking and issue resolution features. 

Which is best for you?

It depends on what you're looking for in a tool. If you prefer a tool with some project management capabilities and generous communication features but don't care about Kanban boards, Basecamp seems like a no-brainer. If you prefer working more visually and need time tracking functionality, go with Monday. 

Monday vs Basecamp features & functionality

Now that we've compared Monday vs Basecamp in terms of pricing, free plans, customer service, and ease of use, it's time to see how they stack up against each other in features and functionality.  

Integrations

Integrations in Basecamp are interestingly called Doors. The idea behind the name is that you’re “opening a Door” to another service. With this feature, you can integrate the software with 70+ third-party tools and add functionality the software lacks, like time tracking, invoicing, and accounting. The Zapier integration lets you connect the software with 4,000+ apps. 

Monday.com is also generous with its integration options, letting you connect the software with hundreds of third-party tools like Dropbox, Slack, Google Calendar, Gmail, Zoom, and more. 

Additionally, there are CRM integrations like Salesforce, software development integrations like Jira, and marketing integrations like Mailchimp. Monday.com has an API built with GraphQL to give developers more flexibility.

Which is best for you?

Monday.com comes with a myriad of integrations; however, the integration feature is not available with the free or the Basic plan. The platform reserves some of the more popular and powerful integrations for users of the higher plans.

For example, the Zoom integration is only available with the Standard plan, and you can access integrations like Salesforce and NetSuite only if you're a user of the Enterprise plan. 

A note on Basecamp Monday integration

You can easily integrate Basecamp with Monday and vice versa. In Basecamp, the integration works via the Zapier integration. Once you establish the Basecamp-Monday integration or vice versa, you'll be able to relay important info between the two platforms. 

You can select the elements of your To-Do list that you would like to appear in the corresponding columns on your Monday board and the other way around.

Mobile versions

Basecamp and Monday come with their own Android and Mac iOS apps for managing work on the go. The mobile apps are handy for managing simpler tasks but can't replace the desktop or web apps for performing more complex activities. The mobile apps have good offline capabilities.

Which is best for you?

There are no major differences between the two apps in terms of mobile apps. Both solutions have Android and iOS apps that are easy to use and convenient. 

Views

Basecamp lacks visual project views like Kanban boards or Gantt charts. Your to-do lists are presented in a more basic list view. The company recently introduced a new project view called Lineup, which visually shows your tasks. You'll be able to see what you worked on in the previous weeks, what you're working on now, and tasks that are due in the future. 

Monday, on the other hand, lets you see your tasks in various ways. There are Kanban boards, Timeline view, Calendar view, Chart view, and Map view so that you can look at your tasks from different perspectives. There's also an additional view, called Workload view, that lets you see which user is over capacity so that you can allocate upcoming tasks accordingly.

Which is best for you?

Monday.com has more project view options, if that’s what you’re seeking. One downside is that many of the Views are available with the higher-tier plans. Only the Kanban boards are available with the free plan. The Chart and Workload views, for instance, only come with the Pro plan and higher. 

Templates

Monday.com has a good deal of customizable templates for all kinds of use cases. You can use the premade templates as they are or customize them to fit your workflow. There are templates for campaign planning, customer onboarding, event planning, product roadmaps, social media content calendars, sprints management, and more. You can even transform your favorite boards into templates in just a few clicks.

Basecamp lacks pre-made templates, but it lets you create custom project templates from scratch and then start a new project using the templates you've created. 

Which is best for you?

Monday.com has a generous gallery of pre-made templates and lets you convert your favorite workflows into templates. If you’d prefer to make your own templates, Basecamp does that. 

Automated workflows

Monday.com has a list of already configured automations. You simply choose the ones you want to enable and customize them to fit your workflow. There’s also an automation builder that lets you create your own automated workflows. The builder is very intuitive to use, even if you’ve never created automations before. 

You can automate repetitive tasks like recurring tasks, notifications, status changes, moving a task from one board to another, and more. 

The automation feature is available with the Standard plan and higher. The Standard plan limits you to 250 actions per month, while the Pro plan lets you create up to 25,000 actions per month. 

Which is best for you?

Monday.com shines here, because Basecamp doesn’t come with a native automation feature.  However, automation can be added to the system via integration with a third-party app. 

Reporting 

Monday.com offers basic and advanced reporting, depending on your subscription level. With the basic reporting functionality, you get access to dashboards that are a great way to display what's important in one place. You can easily create reports using data from one or several boards. There are 15 widgets you can use to track project progress, budget spending, estimate team workload, and more. 

The Pro and Enterprise plans have more advanced reporting capabilities like stacked charts, Pivot Table, and Workload View. 

Basecamp's reporting feature is more basic than Monday.com. You can see basic data like overdue tasks, who's responsible for which tasks, tasks that are coming up, etc. A neat Calendar feature shows you all events, milestones, and to-dos in one view. You can also see what each employee has on their plate to know if they're getting overworked.

Which is best for you?

Monday.com has more advanced reporting capabilities. But if your reporting needs are more basic and you don’t need advanced reports, Basecamp can be a top choice. 

Task management

Monday.com has an abundance of task management features, like board views, dashboard, time-tracking, and automation. The software makes it very easy to set up tasks and subtasks. You can affix data to tasks like assignees with custom fields, permissions, due dates, and checklists. Monday also has task dependency tools, a feature Basecamp lacks.

In Basecamp, each Project and Team space has a to-do list inside. Task lists can have a name and description. Once you create a list, you can start adding tasks. Tasks can have assignees, due dates, descriptions, attachments, and more. You can assign a task to multiple users; you can even make tasks recurring.

Which is best for you?

While both Basecamp and Monday have task management features, Monday’s toolkit is probably a bit more robust. Basecamp, however, has more collaboration and communication features. 

Communication and collaboration

Basecamp comes with several built-in communication features that support remote teams. There's the Message Board, where you can share announcements, ask questions, or pitch ideas. The Campfire feature is a place to communicate with team members in real-time, and Pings lets you chat with one person or a few. 

Monday's communication and collaboration tools include a shared whiteboard feature where users can brainstorm ideas together. You can also collaborate on shared docs directly from within the software. There are also advanced account permissions. There's no built-in chat option, but people can comment on tasks. 

Both Monday and Basecamp have client access. With this functionality, you can invite external users to view your projects and tasks. This functionality eliminates the need for long meetings and email chains.

Which is best for you?

Both tools come with generous features in this category. Monday offers a great whiteboard functionality, while Basecamp has built-in chat capabilities. We’ll yield this round to Basecamp as we like its range of communication features, and we’re fans of the automatic check-ins option. Basically, this feature lets managers create custom questions for team members to answer in their own time.

Documents and file storage

Monday offers scaled file storage, depending on your subscription plan. The free plan gives you 50 MBs of storage space, and the Basic plan 5 GBs. The Standard plan is more generous, giving you 20GB of storage, and the Pro plan 100GB. 

Monday.com has recently introduced a new feature called Workdocs that acts as a document management system. You can create docs and collaborate with other team members inside the docs, without having to leave the software. You can also embed boards, dashboards, and videos inside your documents. Additionally, you can transform things on the docs into actionable tasks. 

Every Basecamp Project and Team has a space for file sharing. The storage space is limited to 1GB with the free plan, while the paid plan gives you 500GB of space. You can import files from your device or link to files in Airtable, Dropbox, Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, Notion, and more. 

Another great functionality is the option to create docs in real life, which can come in handy when you're in a meeting and have to take notes. You can then share your documents with your team members or keep them private. There’s also easy Microsoft Excel export.

Which is best for you?

Basecamp is more generous with its file storage, while Monday has more robust document management features. The best option for you would depend on whether you care more about storage or document management. 

Time tracking 

Monday offers a built-in time tracking feature, although it’s only available with the Pro plan and higher. Team members can track how much time they spend working on tasks. Managers can get a time report for individuals or the whole team to see the total amount of time that has been spent on tasks. They can even receive a notification when a person or a group reaches a certain number of hours.

Basecamp doesn’t come with a native time-tracking feature. But you can always add this functionality via an add-on like Toggl or EverHour. 

Which is best for you?

Monday wins this round simply because it has a native time-tracking feature with a range of customizable options. 

Which is better, Monday or Basecamp? Key takeaways

As it’s evident from the detailed review we just did, Basecamp and Monday.com come with pros and cons. Monday has many things going on in its favor, like time tracking functionality, various project views, and automated workflows. Basecamp shines in communication features, ease of use, and customer support. 

But which one is better?

That would depend on things like your budget, team size, and specific workflows. Basecamp might be a better pick if you're a medium-sized team of no less than 10 people and you need a platform that supports project management but also comes with some communication features. 

Monday.com seems like a reasonable choice if you need something for all-purpose project management. 

If you want to continue with your research, we have an article that lists the best project management CRM options, with notes on what kind of business each platform is good for. On this list, you’ll find other well-designed solutions that are on par with Basecamp and Monday.com like Wrike, Asana, and Trello.