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
Plutio
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Plutio is a project management application from the UK company of the same name, featuring configurable shareable task lists, task notifications and alerts, and a client portal.
Plutio is a great combination of many of the popular PM systems available, such as Trello, Asana, and Basecamp. Plutio really stands out by offering multiple tools that integrate directly with its project management system. For example, invoicing and time tracking integrate …
Basecamp threads discussions by task, which is fine but in practice we found that it functioned more as a message board than as a task or project management option. Trello is good for a single user, it felt messy when we tried to use it for our whole team. Trello also lacked …
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.
Plutio is great for the individual who is constantly on the go, managing a wealth of online information and projects. I can see those who work in education, such as administration, or technology coaches/teacher coaches using a platform like this to stay organized. Freelance or consultants would also benefit as it can manage your digital self.
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.
Task management is excellent. It can be broken down into so many levels and makes it easy to keep track of what needs to be done.
The ability to customize your method of using it is key. Setting it up to both look and work in a way that fits your company and employees is very important and Plutio does this very well.
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.
The design of the invoices, when I used it, was not as sleek as I would have wanted it to be. There wasn't a proper template that I could use.
Similar to the design of the invoice, there wasn't a proper email template I could use.
The app itself didn't seem to be very secure, when I used it, it seemed to be buggy/clunky in some areas, not updating properly, etc.
When I used this, there wasn't a professional-looking contract, and there was no auto sending of the contract once an action was taken by a client, such as payment. It didn't make for a smooth enough workflow for me.
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.
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.
The GUI is not always so intuitive for non IT people, like some customers. The GUI is still being developed constantly. Leo is very committed to taking this platform forward and making it more and more professional
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.
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.
I have only needed to reach out for support once and got a quick response. There was an issue with the Mac app, but I knew it was in beta. Leo, the owner, was quick to reply thanking me for letting him know about the issue, that the Mac app is still in beta, and that I can use the web version in the meantime until the bug was fixed.
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)
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.
I have tried Suite Dash, Agiled, FlowLu throughout the process of finding a tool that fits our business the best. Plutio was the easiest to deploy and use by far. The other systems had more features and capability but was pretty difficult to learn how to use and set up. We were up and running with Plutio in a matter of hours with a business process, rather than a spreadsheet and an independent proposal and invoicing process.
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.
