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
Tableau Desktop
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Tableau Desktop is a data visualization product from Tableau. It connects to a variety of data sources for combining disparate data sources without coding. It provides tools for discovering patterns and insights, data calculations, forecasts, and statistical summaries and visual storytelling.
$1,380
per year (purchased via a Creator license)
Pricing
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectTableau Desktop
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
Tableau Creator License
$115
per month (billed annually) per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectTableau Desktop
Free Trial
YesYesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPlans are billed annually.All pricing plans are billed annually. A Creator license includes Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep Builder, and Tableau Pulse. Discounts sometimes available for volume.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectTableau Desktop
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 …
Tableau Desktop

No answer on this topic

Features
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectTableau Desktop
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
Tableau Desktop
-
Ratings
Task Management9.3123 Ratings8.2110 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management9.1103 Ratings7.7107 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts6.843 Ratings9.0107 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling8.599 Ratings8.5109 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation8.672 Ratings10.083 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration9.7123 Ratings7.398 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology9.351 Ratings4.883 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology8.748 Ratings7.783 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management9.6115 Ratings9.077 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration8.4101 Ratings5.082 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access8.8100 Ratings10.067 Ratings00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking9.248 Ratings10.073 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management9.458 Ratings7.864 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management8.342 Ratings7.686 Ratings00 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
Tableau Desktop
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates10.030 Ratings7.855 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
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.4
175 Ratings
2% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings00 Ratings8.0145 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings00 Ratings9.1174 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings00 Ratings8.1151 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.3
172 Ratings
3% above category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings00 Ratings8.5167 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings00 Ratings8.4170 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings00 Ratings8.0126 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings00 Ratings8.5165 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.3
166 Ratings
1% above category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings00 Ratings8.0155 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings00 Ratings8.0154 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings00 Ratings8.3120 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings00 Ratings8.5128 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings00 Ratings8.878 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.3
164 Ratings
4% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings00 Ratings8.5162 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings00 Ratings8.5156 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings00 Ratings8.6131 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings00 Ratings7.57 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
9.0
149 Ratings
6% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings00 Ratings9.0145 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings00 Ratings9.0125 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings00 Ratings8.7136 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings00 Ratings9.283 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
7.9
141 Ratings
2% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings00 Ratings8.7130 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings00 Ratings7.3101 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings00 Ratings7.4122 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
7.7
67 Ratings
0% below category average
REST API00 Ratings00 Ratings8.259 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings00 Ratings7.653 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings00 Ratings6.851 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings00 Ratings8.248 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings00 Ratings7.354 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings00 Ratings8.148 Ratings
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BasecampMicrosoft ProjectTableau Desktop
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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
Reveal
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Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
InEight
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Score 8.4 out of 10
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User Ratings
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectTableau Desktop
Likelihood to Recommend
9.8
(150 ratings)
8.1
(111 ratings)
8.8
(203 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(26 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
7.5
(41 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(20 ratings)
8.7
(9 ratings)
8.3
(73 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(11 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(28 ratings)
8.2
(34 ratings)
1.0
(57 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(4 ratings)
Online Training
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.7
(4 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(34 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
BasecampMicrosoft ProjectTableau Desktop
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
Tableau
The best scenario is definitely to collect data from several sources and create dedicated dashboards for specific recipients. However, I miss the possibility of explaining these reports in more detail. Sometimes, we order a report, and after half a year, we don't remember the meaning of some data (I know it's our fault as an organization, but the tool could force better practices).
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
Tableau
  • An excellent tool for data visualization, it presents information in an appealing visual format—an exceptional platform for storing and analyzing data in any size organization.
  • Through interactive parameters, it enables real-time interaction with the user and is easy to learn and get support from the community.
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
Tableau
  • Pricing should be more user-friendly and usage-driven
  • Making edits to the production reports is fairly tough and has a vast scope of additional capabilities
  • Tableau Desktop should be able to differentiate itself from the Tableau server else there is no major meaning of two different products being offered
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
Tableau
Our use of Tableau Desktop is still fairly low, and will continue over time. The only real concern is around cost of the licenses, and I have mentioned this to Tableau and fully expect the development of more sensible models for our industry. This will remove any impediment to expansion of our use.
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
Tableau
Tableau Desktop has proven to be a lifesaver in many situations. Once we've completed the initial setup, it's simple to use. It has all of the features we need to quickly and efficiently synthesize our data. Tableau Desktop has advanced capabilities to improve our company's data structure and enable self-service for our employees.
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
Tableau
When used as a stand-alone tool, Tableau Desktop has unlimited uptime, which is always nice. When used in conjunction with Tableau Server, this tool has as much uptime as your server admins are willing to give it. All in all, I've never had an issue with Tableau's availability.
Read full review
Performance
37 Signals
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Tableau
Tableau Desktop's performance is solid. You can really dig into a large dataset in the form of a spreadsheet, and it exhibits similarly good performance when accessing a moderately sized Oracle database. I noticed that with Tableau Desktop 9.3, the performance using a spreadsheet started to slow around 75K rows by about 60 columns. This was easily remedied by creating an extract and pushing it to Tableau Server, where performance went to lightning fast
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Tableau
Tableau support has been extremely responsive and willing to help with all of our requests. They have assisted with creating advanced analysis and many different types of custom icons, data formatting, formulas, and actions embedded into graphs. Tableau offers a weekly presentation of features and assists with internal company projects.
Read full review
In-Person Training
37 Signals
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Tableau
It is admittedly hard to train a group of people with disparate levels of ability coming in, but the software is so easy to use that this is not a huge problem; anyone who can follow simple instructions can catch up pretty quickly.
Read full review
Online Training
37 Signals
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Tableau
I think the training was good overall, but it was maybe stating the obvious things that a tech savvy young engineer would be able to pick up themselves too. However, the example work books were good and Tableau web community has helped me with many problems
Read full review
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
Read full review
Tableau
Again, training is the key and the company provides a lot of example videos that will help users discover use cases that will greatly assist their creation of original visualizations. As with any new software tool, productivity will decline for a period. In the case of Tableau, the decline period is short and the later gains are well worth it.
Read full review
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
Tableau
I have used Power BI as well, the pricing is better, and also training costs or certifications are not that high. Since there is python integration in Power BI where I can use data cleaning and visualizing libraries and also some machine learning models. I can import my python scripts and create a visualization on processed data.
Read full review
Scalability
37 Signals
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Tableau
Tableau Desktop's scaleability is really limited to the scale of your back-end data systems. If you want to pull down an extract and work quickly in-memory, in my application it scaled to a few tens of millions of rows using the in-memory engine. But it's really only limited by your back-end data store if you have or are willing to invest in an optimized SQL store or purpose-built query engine like Veritca or Netezza or something similar.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Tableau
  • Tableau was acquired years ago, and has provided good value with the content created.
  • Ongoing maintenance costs for the platform, both to maintain desktop and server licensing has made the continuing value questionable when compared to other offerings in the marketplace.
  • Users have largely been satisfied with the content, but not with the overall performance. This is due to a combination of factors including the performance of the Tableau engines as well as development deficiencies.
Read full review
ScreenShots