Basecamp vs. Chatter (discontinued)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Basecamp
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Basecamp 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
Chatter (discontinued)
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Chatter was a collaboration platform with integration into the business process and the ability to conduct actions like approving expense reports and creating support cases from the activity feed itself. It was acquired by Salesforce and is currently discontinued.N/A
Pricing
BasecampChatter (discontinued)
Editions & Modules
Basecamp Business
$99
Per Month [Unlimited Users]
Basecamp Personal
Free
Limited Capabilities
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BasecampChatter (discontinued)
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BasecampChatter (discontinued)
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Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BasecampChatter (discontinued)
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
3.9
118 Ratings
63% below category average
Chatter (discontinued)
8.3
52 Ratings
6% above category average
Task Management5.0117 Ratings8.836 Ratings
Resource Management3.898 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts2.840 Ratings8.019 Ratings
Scheduling3.893 Ratings7.930 Ratings
Workflow Automation2.968 Ratings8.932 Ratings
Team Collaboration4.3117 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology3.749 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology3.245 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management3.8109 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration3.996 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access4.195 Ratings8.049 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking3.144 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management3.355 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management7.139 Ratings00 Ratings
Search00 Ratings7.944 Ratings
Visual planning tools00 Ratings8.833 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
7.8
40 Ratings
5% above category average
Chatter (discontinued)
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates8.329 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing6.925 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting8.034 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software7.927 Ratings00 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
-
Ratings
Chatter (discontinued)
8.4
54 Ratings
5% above category average
Chat00 Ratings9.050 Ratings
Notifications00 Ratings7.153 Ratings
Discussions00 Ratings8.151 Ratings
Surveys00 Ratings8.034 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings8.036 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting00 Ratings9.013 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings8.920 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings9.023 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
-
Ratings
Chatter (discontinued)
8.5
48 Ratings
5% above category average
Versioning00 Ratings8.828 Ratings
Video files00 Ratings8.833 Ratings
Audio files00 Ratings7.930 Ratings
Document collaboration00 Ratings8.941 Ratings
Access control00 Ratings8.034 Ratings
Advanced security features00 Ratings8.929 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings9.018 Ratings
Device sync00 Ratings8.027 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BasecampChatter (discontinued)
Small Businesses
FunctionFox
FunctionFox
Score 8.3 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BasecampChatter (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
6.5
(144 ratings)
9.0
(56 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(26 ratings)
8.1
(2 ratings)
Usability
7.8
(15 ratings)
7.3
(7 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(28 ratings)
7.6
(27 ratings)
Online Training
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BasecampChatter (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
37 Signals
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.
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Discontinued Products
[Chatter] is the tool that makes our relations
stronger. It provides advanced ways of communication. I have trained my many
team members because of the easy features and functions of this tool, It is very user-friendly. Give it a try if you want to improve your relations with your
customers. It will surely enhance the productivity of your organization.
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Pros
37 Signals
  • 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.
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Discontinued Products
  • Chatter provides us with a live internal conversation for all to see without the noise that other mediums have i.e. e-mail.
  • One of the main features that really works well is the 'Groups' that you can join. We have multiple groups set up to not only distribute procedural changes and communicate news etc, but also have conversations around upcoming tasks in the months ahead.
  • Chatter works really well in instances where we need to look over historical conversations that have been had and the sentiment of those conversations with our shareholders, often using hashtags.
Read full review
Cons
37 Signals
  • 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.
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Discontinued Products
  • Groups does not have the private messaging functionality. Since most collaboration takes place in Groups, private messaging would allow for relevant conversations to be contained and not reside separately.
  • On a Group index page, there are two boxes for Information and Description. These content types seem redundant. You could replace both with a content type called About the Group. There could also be another box listing the Owners for quick reference.
  • On the main index page, the newsfeed has the same look and feel of most social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Jive, IBM Connections, SharePoint. There could be an alternate display of tiles that shows People you interact with most frequently, Files you access most often, most recent Topics, etc. The display could be something like Delve in Microsoft Office 365.
  • On the main index page in the right rail, it would be useful to have the ability to incorporate RSS feeds to gather outside content. Many departments heavily leverage RSS feeds to compile competitive intelligence and cultivate general awareness.
  • For user profiles, can we combine Feed and Overview into one consolidated view? It would save users a click to find relevant information about the person. Also, the Contact module should also have the person's phone number for convenience.
  • The Files feature does not allow for real-time, concurrent document editing. You have to download the document, make your edits, save, and then upload a new version, which only allows for one editor at a time.
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Likelihood to Renew
37 Signals
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.
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Discontinued Products
Chatter can fulfill at least 85-90% of our business requirements in an easy-to-use platform. Usability is a key requirement and we have had our share of bad usability experiences. In our experience, even the most novice users were able to pick up Chatter in a relatively short amount of time with little/no assistance.
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Usability
37 Signals
Basecamp is a little tricky to learn. I've used it for quite a while but I feel like there's still so much I don't know. It took me a while to learn but having used it in college definitely helped me integrate it into my work career.
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Discontinued Products
It is easy to use but the impact of it feels like it is a bit antiquated. It does not feel collaborative and real time. Chatter is more akin to email versus Slack or Hangouts where it feels like problems are being solved as you are communicating.
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Reliability and Availability
37 Signals
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.
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Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
37 Signals
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.
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Discontinued Products
If I ever came to a situation where i needed help they do a very good job of getting back to us quickly to explain our error or why we are not seeing something. The support is quick to help provide groups or teams if you seek. Fortunately it is user friendly so I rarely need support
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Implementation Rating
37 Signals
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)
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Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
37 Signals
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.
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Discontinued Products
Skype is used more for audio calls. Chatter is used to track updates on items of interest in Salesforce. Chatter is deeply integrated with other Salesforce products. No other competing products come close. Slack is a traditional project management tool. So it does not compete with Chatter. Because of its close integration with Salesforce, it is a unique tool for Salesforce users.
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Return on Investment
37 Signals
  • 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.
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Discontinued Products
  • Chatter has closed deals faster, and brought us in revenue at a quicker rate in turn.
  • Chatter has left some things undone simply because people didn't see it and it has cost us a few deals.
  • Overall, Chatter has brought us a cleaner, more efficient Salesforce process and brought in revenue because of organization.
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ScreenShots