TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Basecamp

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/ABasecamp is a web-based project-management tool. Basecamp offers features standard to project management platforms, as well as mobile accessibility, unlimited users, and 3rd party integrations. Basecamp is priced by space requirements and concurrent projects.

    $15

    per month per user

    BQE CORE

    Score8.8 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    BQE CORE is a business management solution built specifically for professional service firms. BQE CORE is a combination of a billing assistant, project management, and accounting solution. CORE is designed to do the hard work of delivering actionable insights directly to the user's dashboards or inbox. BQE CORE replaces the products Engineeroffice, Archioffice, and BillQuick; the functionality of these applications is now found in BQE CORE.N/A
    Pricing
    BasecampBQE CORE
    Editions & Modules
    Basecamp Plus
    $15
    per month per user
    Basecamp Pro Unlimited
    $299
    per month (billed annually)
    Basecamp Free
    Free
    Limited Capabilities
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BasecampBQE CORE
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    BasecampBQE CORE
    Considered Both Products
    37signals
    No answer on this topic
    BQE Software Inc.
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    89%
    Would buy again
    50 Answers
    94%
    Would buy again
    144 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    45 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    106 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    86%
    Happy with the feature set
    48 Answers
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    150 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    36 Answers
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    70 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    42 Answers
    82%
    Implementation went as expected
    81 Answers
    Features
    BasecampBQE CORE
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Basecamp and BQE CORE
    Feature
    Basecamp
    8.9
    124 Ratings
    15% above category average
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Task Management9.0123 Ratings00 Ratings
    Resource Management9.3103 Ratings00 Ratings
    Gantt Charts7.343 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scheduling8.999 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow Automation9.472 Ratings00 Ratings
    Team Collaboration9.5123 Ratings00 Ratings
    Support for Agile Methodology9.851 Ratings00 Ratings
    Support for Waterfall Methodology8.648 Ratings00 Ratings
    Document Management9.5115 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email integration8.0101 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Access8.6100 Ratings00 Ratings
    Timesheet Tracking9.148 Ratings00 Ratings
    Change request and Case Management9.558 Ratings00 Ratings
    Budget and Expense Management8.442 Ratings00 Ratings
    Professional Services Automation
    Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Basecamp and BQE CORE
    Feature
    Basecamp
    8.0
    42 Ratings
    4% above category average
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Quotes/estimates10.030 Ratings00 Ratings
    Invoicing10.026 Ratings00 Ratings
    Project & financial reporting8.034 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with accounting software4.028 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BasecampBQE CORE
    Small Businesses
    Any.do
    Score8 out of 10
    Autotask PSA
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    KanbanFlow
    Score7.3 out of 10
    Workday Professional Services Automation
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Microsoft To Do
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Planview AdaptiveWork
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BasecampBQE CORE
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (150 ratings)
    9.4
    (167 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (26 ratings)
    7.0
    (8 ratings)
    Usability
    9.2
    (20 ratings)
    9.7
    (117 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (4 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.8
    (28 ratings)
    7.4
    (90 ratings)
    Online Training
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.7
    (4 ratings)
    2.3
    (6 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BasecampBQE CORE
    Likelihood to Recommend
    37signals
    Basecamp is a wonderful tool for teams of varying degrees of technical knowledge, teams managing lots of different types of "agifall" and waterfall projects, and teams that are remotely distributed. It's probably less useful for more strictly agile-focused development teams, compared to other more flexible software applications like Jira and Asana.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    BQE Software Inc.
    I would recommend this for our industry: architecture, engineering, or construction. I would recommend this for any larger firm with many employees or high number of projects. I would particularly recommend this for a company with projects that have budget constraints and where time tracking and expense tracking is very important. I would not recommend this complicated software for a small firm with a small amount of income or number of projects.
    Read full review
    Pros
    37signals
    • Task management - It is very easy to add, organize and discuss tasks within Basecamp's interface.
    • The "Campfire" function is great for communicating when you just have a quick question for someone on the team.
    • Notifications - Basecamp lets you decide how often and about what you'd like to be notified. The ability to respond to messages in Basecamp directly via email saves a lot of time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    BQE Software Inc.
    • Invoice Collections within Billing is a great tool because of the ability to take notes and track contact.
    • Invoices are professional looking and easy for our clients to understand the overall progress within each phase of their project.
    • Dashboards are the best tool EVER!
    • The Contact List feature within Clients setup is the perfect way to track multiple project managers within a large company that also has multiple contracts with us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    37signals
    • High Learning Curve. It's true that it can be easy to use, but to use well and effectively takes some time to learn. It's recommended to have an agreed-upon system in your team of what tools to use and when.
    • Notification Overload. If people aren't careful they could send a notification to everyone when only a couple people were meant to be prompted. And since emails are sent by default, you could have your mailbox overloaded with unnecessary updates. This is where it takes a bit of training in your team to have an agreed-upon system.
    • Lack of organization with Archived Projects. I will often need to reference an archived project to make a new one, but there is only a list of archived projects in alphabetical order, with no way to organize by archive date, or even search.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    BQE Software Inc.
    • Customizable Reporting
    • Linking Project to Payment all together
    • Assigning contacts to particular roles - such as Invoicing, Contracts, etc.
    • Accounting Functionality - they are basically a project management accounting software, so in my opinion, they could learn some things from other accounting software such as QuickBooks etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    37signals
    When I bring new people onto a project, it's immediately obvious how to use Basecamp. I don't have to worry about teaching them the features or walking them through it, it's just incredibly user-friendly. For this reason, I'll continue to renew my subscription even as new people are brought onto production jobs or the client changes.
    Read full review
    BQE Software Inc.
    We have been using Core for a few years now, and honestly started to look at other software systems to see what was out there. What we chose was a nightmare for migration so we never left Core. Now we have added invoicing and payments from Core instead of double entry with QBO. Still only a few cycles in but looks like it will be up to speed soon and working smoothly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    37signals
    It is easy to use, even for clients who have no experience with the platform. It can only get a little cumbersome to ensure that a client can't see certain documents you might want to keep in the Docs & Files folders. And sometimes, getting a client to actually use an unfamiliar platform can be a challenge.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    BQE Software Inc.
    The foundation is awesome, like I have said before, however the house being built on it, the educational resources being provided to us (more of sales pitches that don't work), and flexible workflow opportunities, is making us look elsewhere for how much we will be spending on per user. It's crazy to think how flexible they are not when it comes to user settings. Lack of integration with other sources is awful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    37signals
    I've never experienced downtime while using Basecamp, or been unable to access it when I needed it. That's not to say they've never had downtime, but I've been lucky enough not to encounter any, and I work odd hours, including late nights when maintenance is often undertaken.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    BQE Software Inc.
    I can only remember a couple of times in 4 years that Core has been unavailable.
    Read full review
    Performance
    37signals
    No answers on this topic
    BQE Software Inc.
    This is one area that does need some improvement. It can be slow at time, so we had our IT look at it from our side and we had no issues, so it has to be some slowness on their side.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    37signals
    For the many reasons I've given, Basecamp is a very strong program. There are a few features I can imagine that might make it even better, but I don't have a basis for comparison to be able to say that there is definitely a better one out there. I've noticed that Basecamp has evolved a bit from the time I started using it until now, so that makes me think that the producer of this program values it and believes in continuous improvement. If you could use the features offered by Basecamp, I would think you could use it with confidence.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    BQE Software Inc.
    As a new employee and CORE user, I talk to support on a weekly basis. I have never had to wait for more than 3 min to get connect with a support rep, and all my questions have been answered. The support representatives are polite and eager to help no matter how simple your question is.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    37signals
    No answers on this topic
    BQE Software Inc.
    Make sure you have someone training you that fits your style of learning.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    37signals
    Decide the process before implementation - i.e. when it's due 8/9 does that mean 8am, noon, 5pm, 11:59pm? Check your to-do list frequently Set-up templates - just not with the dates (they can be funky)
    Read full review
    BQE Software Inc.
    It does take some time to understand the options and to find the best invoice template.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    37signals
    Pretty good, but [Basecamp] has its drawbacks. Honestly I find the interface non-intuitive and sometimes have trouble figuring out how to change the status of a task. Perhaps it has something to do with the way it was originally set up by the admin, but I'm not sure. I liked Jira's drag and drop obvious functionality, but the project management side of the software was lacking. Smartsheet has excellent project management functionality, but the task management isn't as good.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    BQE Software Inc.
    Deltek Vision is far more advanced, more encompassing and offers more flexibility with what you want to do. However, it's also quite difficult to use, whereas BQE CORE is intuitive and user friendly. The trade off is worth it in some arenas but overall it's not suited for a larger fast paced company. Great for smaller companies.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    37signals
    No answers on this topic
    BQE Software Inc.
    This software works on a small and large scale.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    37signals
    • It has saved me time when having to get the same message out to multiple restaurants
    • It has helped us make smarter operational decisions because we can all collaborate on an answer in a shorter amount of time (instead of calling a meeting!!!)
    • The calendar function allows us to plot out our marketing agenda for the month and add/change it together as needed. The chef will post his recipe, the managers will cost it out, the social media manager will post pictures on it, and ultimately we will get that information out on an info sheet to the staff by printing the page.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    BQE Software Inc.
    • Quick setup of new tasks under a parent project, with immediate hourly billing to it.
    • Monitoring of details of non-chargeable efforts in appropriate detail
    • Validation of hourly cost, billing cost, benefit cost, profitability by person and role
    • Company tracking of write-off's included in corporate and project reporting, no data is "lost"
    • Can track excessive work time as +PTO in lieu of pay for use as future vacation
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    BQE CORE Screenshots

    Screenshot of Core powered by BQE SoftwareScreenshot of BQE CORE Project Dashboard ViewScreenshot of BQE CORE 360* Firm Performance ViewScreenshot of BQE CORE Reporting & AnalyticsScreenshot of BQE CORE Project Time EntryScreenshot of BQE CORE Project Expense Tracking