Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Basecamp
Score 8.7 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
Microsoft Project
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Project is a project management software. It provides core PM functionality, including agile workflow support and resource management. Project can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise.
$120
per year per user
Rally Software
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Rally Software headquartered in Boulder, Colorado developed the Rally agile software development / ALM platform which was acquired by CA Technologies and rebranded as CA Agile Central. After CA's acquisition by Broadcom the software was once again rebranded as Rally.N/A
Pricing
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectRally Software
Editions & Modules
Basecamp Plus
$15
per month per user
Basecamp Pro Unlimited
$299
per month (billed annually)
Basecamp Free
Free
Limited Capabilities
Project Server
$0
Planner Plan 1
$10
per month per user
Planner and Project Plan 3
$30
per month per user
Planner and Project Plan 5
$55
per month per user
Project Standard 2024
$679.99
one-time fee per installation
Project Professional 2024
$1,129.99
one-time fee per installation
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectRally Software
Free Trial
YesYesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPlans are billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectRally Software
Considered Multiple Products
Basecamp
Chose Basecamp
The overall monthly fee/subscription is cheaper than a Microsoft Project (or Project Server). It has a better user experience and online ability to collaborate is what customers expect now.
Chose Basecamp
Samepage and Slack are just a few steps ahead with its messenger and communication platforms and is leagues behind when it comes to integration with other systems. However, most systems can be redundant when attempting to accomplish something that caters to a non-technical …
Chose Basecamp
Basecamp is a feature-rich and user-friendly platform that outpaces other solutions we've explored. The vast number of integrations available, as well as the years of dedicated developers as well as the natively available mobile apps, really make Basecamp a leader in this …
Chose Basecamp
[Basecamp is] simpler to use less ramp-up. It's cheaper per user and allows for a better mobile experience.
Chose Basecamp
Basecamp is more entry level and has a much easier set up than most of the competitors. I greatly prefer Trello, but when I am working with new marketers they always suggest Basecamp. Basecamp is good, but it is just so easy to get the multiple pieces of a project jumbled …
Chose Basecamp
I have found Basecamp to be a much easier to use project management software. The setup is much easier too, you can have a project up and running quicker with Basecamp. It seems more intuitive to uses when they receive a Basecamp invite, on logging in and figuring out what …
Chose Basecamp
Looked at
  • Microsoft Project - too cumbersome for our agile projects.
  • Liquid Planner - too costly.
  • Tom's Planner - just a scheduling program and difficult to update.
Microsoft Project
Chose Microsoft Project
We picked Microsoft Project instead of ProofHub due to us already using Office 365. Microsoft Project was the cheaper of the two options and seemed to fit our needs better than ProofHub. It seemed to be easier to use on the front end since some of our less technology-savvy …
Chose Microsoft Project
We chose Microsoft Projects as we have an ongoing relationship with Microsoft and we use their other tools. Most people in our office are familiar with Microsoft Projects and our customers are use Microsoft Projects too. It integrates well with other tools we use in our office. …
Chose Microsoft Project
Smartsheet came from behind covering some of the gaps in Microsoft Project and started to become more and more popular. And for good reason, it combines the main features of project management from both Project and Project Server. It provides good user experience and it is …
Chose Microsoft Project
While many of the above tools are extremely well-versed, Microsoft Project's largest advantage comes from it being related to the largest business productivity company in the world. Project does have its sharing limitations - but regardless, offers one of the most robust tools …
Chose Microsoft Project
Project is much more robust compared to other products on the market. I haven't evaluated them all, but I'm pretty happy with what project has been able to do for me and a Project manager. There is a lot of functionality if you don't many paying for it. Overall, I think Project …
Chose Microsoft Project
After using other web-based project management tools, Project would not be my first choice.
Rally Software
Chose Rally Software
The process we used to select a tool was to create a scorecard of IT and Business stakeholder needs. We then reviewed seven tools and graded them against the scorecard requirements. We took the top two products and had a one day hands on demonstration with selected IT and …
Features
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectRally Software
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
8.9
124 Ratings
14% above category average
Microsoft Project
8.0
111 Ratings
3% above category average
Rally Software
7.8
4 Ratings
4% above category average
Task Management9.3123 Ratings8.2110 Ratings8.84 Ratings
Resource Management9.2103 Ratings7.7107 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Gantt Charts6.843 Ratings9.0107 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Scheduling8.599 Ratings8.4109 Ratings8.84 Ratings
Workflow Automation8.672 Ratings10.083 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration9.7123 Ratings7.398 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology9.451 Ratings4.883 Ratings8.84 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology8.748 Ratings7.783 Ratings7.84 Ratings
Document Management9.6115 Ratings9.077 Ratings7.34 Ratings
Email integration8.4101 Ratings5.082 Ratings8.54 Ratings
Mobile Access8.8100 Ratings10.067 Ratings7.03 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking9.248 Ratings10.073 Ratings7.33 Ratings
Change request and Case Management9.458 Ratings7.764 Ratings6.73 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management8.342 Ratings7.686 Ratings8.33 Ratings
Search00 Ratings00 Ratings7.34 Ratings
Visual planning tools00 Ratings00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
8.0
42 Ratings
3% above category average
Microsoft Project
8.8
79 Ratings
13% above category average
Rally Software
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates10.030 Ratings7.755 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing10.026 Ratings10.045 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting8.034 Ratings7.576 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software4.028 Ratings10.050 Ratings00 Ratings
Agile Development
Comparison of Agile Development features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Rally Software
7.3
4 Ratings
8% below category average
DevOps Tool Integrations00 Ratings00 Ratings6.33 Ratings
Code Review00 Ratings00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Code Collaboration00 Ratings00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Velocity Calculation00 Ratings00 Ratings7.84 Ratings
Dependencies and Blockers00 Ratings00 Ratings8.34 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectRally Software
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 8.9 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 8.9 out of 10
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
InEight
InEight
Score 8.4 out of 10
InEight
InEight
Score 8.4 out of 10
Planview AgilePlace
Planview AgilePlace
Score 8.5 out of 10
Enterprises
InEight
InEight
Score 8.4 out of 10
InEight
InEight
Score 8.4 out of 10
Planview AgilePlace
Planview AgilePlace
Score 8.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectRally Software
Likelihood to Recommend
9.8
(150 ratings)
8.1
(111 ratings)
8.7
(20 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(26 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(20 ratings)
8.7
(9 ratings)
8.0
(8 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(28 ratings)
8.2
(34 ratings)
5.7
(5 ratings)
Online Training
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.7
(4 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectRally Software
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.
Read full review
Microsoft
Microsoft Project Online is suited to Turnkey Projects where more Collaboration is required in Project Progress monitoring, risk assessment and conveying, issue recording and tracking. It is less appropriate when ERP Suites other than MS Dynamics are used, i.e when Enterprises need to integrate Finance / Accounting with It and having straight project management workflow
Read full review
Broadcom
Rally Software is well suited for large Agile or scrum teams who do sprints and it helps managing sprints and backlogs. It is well suited for organizations who want visibility into work being done and progress. Suitable for tracking is user stories, defects and release planning. Works well with CI CD too. It would not be suitable for small teams or startups. For teams that don't use agile. Teams who want lightweight tools like Jira. Companies with a limited budget.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • I love the Gantt Chart that Microsoft Project offers me, because it provides me with a view from various aspects, it provides me with exact details about the fulfillment of tasks over a period of time, it also allows me to make comparisons with the necessary data and the fulfilled data. by the employees, in order to know exactly if the project's expectations have been met.
  • I love the Gantt Chart that Microsoft Project offers me, because it provides me with a view from various aspects, it provides me with exact details about the fulfillment of tasks over a period of time, it also allows me to make comparisons with the necessary data and the fulfilled data by the employees, in order to know exactly if the project's expectations have been met.
  • The alert system for the fulfillment and delay of assignments is perfect. Microsoft Project allows me to configure the task system, I can assign the necessary tasks to fulfill the project, and the software alerts me immediately if the managers are fulfilling the assignments.
Read full review
Broadcom
  • There are dashboards that provide friendly and useful metrics at the team, program and portfolio levels which help get an easy and quick visual representation of what's going on.
  • Story management made easier, It offers a quick way of quickly entering a number of user stories without losing the overview, by just typing the title and selecting a few attributes directly in the overview screen.
  • Sprint management is seamless in CA Agile Central . It allows you to drag stories from the backlog to the sprints and back again. When a story is dragged into an sprint, it automatically checks the velocity for that sprint and indicates how many more story points can be chipped in. No more manual checking needed by scrum master with respect to allocation and team velocity.
  • Though CA Agile Central has many inbuilt apps, but it also has an App-SDK that allows you to build free app extensions using JavaScript and HTML. So, as per their needs, teams can customize & build various apps & dashboards.
  • Dashboard is an awesome feature which allows you to select and drag panels with all kinds of graphical information about the current sprints and releases.
  • It offers tremendous support for scaled Agile & almost all scaling frameworks are supported specifically tuned to SAFe .
  • CA Agile Central includes several applications but it also integrates well with Jira, Confluence, Jenkins, Eclipse, Subversion, IBM, HP, Salesforce.com and many other products to allow users to organize projects to their specifications. So you can still use Jira at a team level & CA Agile Central at the program & portfolio level for efficient tracking & management.
  • The custom tags are very helpful in segregating the user stories based on the project needs. Even though it's a very small feature, it is very effective ( you will realize why specifically if you are using Jira).
  • CA Central Agile enables agile delivery with ease and provides comprehensive features to track time-boxes, Work In Progress items of the forecast increments.
  • Backlog management is hassle free since you can either drag and drop your user stories to the desired position on the backlog, or change a setting and manually enter priorities as a number.
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.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Seems overly complicated for users sometimes in using Project and its functionalities
  • Hard to share files for those folks who do not have MS Project, and then have to print out for them
  • Can be confusing since it looks and feels like MS Excel
Read full review
Broadcom
  • User management is pretty basic and could be better. For example more filters and reports and more ability to do mass updates.
  • The report generator is very, very basic and is not WYSIWYG. It has limited filters to generate reports. Often a Scrum master will need to export data to Excel or a tool like Crystal Reports to get enhanced reporting capability.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Microsoft
I like using Microsoft Project. It simplifies building a schedule
Read full review
Broadcom
  • To keep connecting my people, platform, and process for faster, smarter, better results.
  • Making the right contribution to the community. Use Agile and Lean processes to manage the work of your team.
  • Once you have tasted the positive result with Rally Software, you don't want to give up and come back to the old school of development pain any more.
Read full review
Usability
37 Signals
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.
Read full review
Microsoft
Microsoft
Project is easy to operate because data could be inserted, changed and
deleted like you are in an Excel timesheet. Besides, it provides a great
level of automation beween his fields allowing few data changes. Also, its
funcionalities are well defined and grouped in upper menus, so you can find a
funcionality quickly
Read full review
Broadcom
Great UI, recent refresh was terrific. Great graphs and metrics, inline editing for updates, and a multitude of views on sprint progress make for a great team collaboration experience. There is also an active community and forums so that if you do need help, it is readily available
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Broadcom
Don’t recall ever being unavailable.
Read full review
Performance
37 Signals
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Broadcom
The screens render relatively quickly but many actions that you would expect to require a single click require multiple clicks and pop-up windows. The extra windows and clicks make the product feel ponderous.
Read full review
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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Microsoft
Microsoft in recent years has transformed itself and gives a positive feeling when one interacts with the company. The company is focusing on its customers and willing to go extra mile to make customers happy.The company continues to invest in its products and bringing new features from time to time. Overall it is a positive feeling to be associated with such an iconic company.
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Broadcom
I've had to use support only one time and my issue was eventually resolved but not because of my ticket--because others complained about the functionality taken away so they brought it back. My ticket was never answered or addressed. So I can't really say much for the support factor for Rally.
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Online Training
37 Signals
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Broadcom
It more or less confirmed that we are using it the way they had in mind. We were hoping for a epiphany in terms of how we could use it better.

They also want to be a go to source for agile processes and have an online resource center. It’s not that great but had a couple of nuggets. It hasn’t really helped us too much and we are not too far off from the classical interpretation of agile.

I would recommend training, in particular for organizations that multiple on-going projects. The product seems optimized for larger, more complex teams and getting proper training on how to configure, administer and use the system would be beneficial
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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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Microsoft
I wasn't part of it so I don't know
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Broadcom
Implementation of RALLY services and program satisfaction among various group,... 1) Dev Outcomes: How were our resiliencies, development, learning & practitioners “make them do the work,” but that they ask you to do it “in a way like before. 2) The Ops group: Just wish to make sure any change won't break current production envirements All the stake holders has to be on the same page
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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.
Read full review
Microsoft
While many of the above tools are extremely well-versed, Microsoft Project's largest advantage comes from it being related to the largest business productivity company in the world. Project does have its sharing limitations - but regardless, offers one of the most robust tools in the market today. Microsoft Project is built with large-scale projects in mind but is more than up to the task for smaller projects as well. However, there are options available (especially cloud-based options) that may be more fitting for higher-level projects that do not require going into the weeds.
Read full review
Broadcom
Rally and Asana have comparable features and are both valuable project management tools, but Asana's user interface is well-organized and highly intuitive. It's easy to add tasks and collaborators, edit due dates, indicate progress on tasks, close out projects, etc. However, Rally's interface is somewhat cluttered and difficult to navigate. My team ended up choosing Asana over Rally due to these concerns.
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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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Microsoft
  • Project saved me, as the project manager, countless hours of digging through tickets and schedules to plan everything out. It also saved me time in adjusting the project triangle as needed, since it does so much automatically.
  • It is costly, and since it requires extensive training to master, it's not just the high licensing cost that you need to take into account.
  • The reporting features - even just printing out Gantt charts - makes it far easier to communicate with stakeholders. That means less time for PMs doing all of this manually, and it means less follow-up questions and delays moving forward.
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Broadcom
  • it helped organizing many of the processes management use to communicate tasks with engineers, and provided detailed charts on the speed/blockage during any iteration
  • with time Rally became the main tool we used to track and report tasks/defects in our projects, but frequent service outages made it very hard to continue consider as a reliable solution
  • too much features is good, but for engineers a few features (User Stories section, iterations, defects, and Kanban boards) are necessary and the rest is just noise
  • Kanban board support is lacking
Read full review
ScreenShots