Basecamp vs. Slack

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

Well suited to on the fly questions and project notifications from other systems. Also well suited to keeping a record of discussions and ensuring those who aren't available in the moment can still see everything in the channels so they keep apprised of project details/discussions. It's not really great for when you need to sit down and demo something and brainstorm, but it can be used to note a summary for everyone on the project with the results of brainstorming sessions.

Incentivized

• 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

• Can create channels for small, medium, or even bigger team to relay important information/updates and whatnots.
• You can do one-on-one (huddle feature) if you're on-boarding a member.
• A platform that can be collaborated with other platform. Example a CRM to be linked with Slack for easier comms relay.
• The best feature for me so far is that you can mention a team member so he/she won't missed an important message you sent.
• You can directly message about anyone within the company.

Incentivized

• 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

• Undoubtedly Slack’s search function is powerful but sometimes it is difficult to find specific messages or files in very active channels with high message volumes. This needs an improvement.
• I have experienced notification issues on my phone. I am not receiving notifications and have missed important updates as a result. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, but the problem still persists.
• The Business Plus plan does not include support for data loss prevention or offline backup providers.

Incentivized

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.

Slack is wonderful, it is a tool that changed our perspective and our way to work. We used to use another one, which was purely and sorely designed to messages. Slack provides us that possibility and more, all the other functions that we daily use in our work routine, not to mention the fact that Slack has a wonderful design and it's really easy to use and adapt.

Incentivized

I would give it a ten but we have some very minor issues. Those have all been easy to work around and I still really like Basecamp. We also have trouble with some clients who can only handle email—but those are rare cases when technology is just not their thing.

Applications can cause slowdown when onboarding because of the learning curve. Slack is user friendly and very easy to teach new users how to navigate the app. Installation is fairly quick, which also saves a lot of time when setting up new computers and users

Incentivized

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

Yes, the app works 24/7. I don't even recall having any period that we could not use since the implementation. Even the maintenance periods are barely noticeable and our work is not impacted by it when it happens.

Incentivized

Slack is a soft app, we don't have many issues with it. I recall one or two people complaining about something during our usage period, but I didn't have a bad experience. When the app is slow, usually the problem is with my computer or my internet. The app works just fine.

Incentivized

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

I've never had to contact support for Slack which is a great testament to its ease and use. Adding people outside of the organization takes a little getting used to, but ultimately allows for greater collaboration between FTE and contractors. There is no clear alternative to this software, so it's the best we can do for now.

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)

It always helps if you communicate to everyone in the organization how important it is to drop whatever other chat tools they are using and jump quickly to Slack. They will all fall in love with it.

Incentivized

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

It was too email centric - you get too many emails telling you to go there, so it seemed inefficient. There wasn't enough non-project functionality so it was never really "always open" for people the way Slack is, it just felt like an extra thing to do, rather than a tool that was truly integrated into our workday.

Incentivized

• 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

• When looking at whether to invest in Slack vs. Microsoft Teams, I always recommend Slack. Slack's interface is a lot easier to learn and is more user-friendly.
• I would recommend Slack, no matter the price tag, the ease of communication and making announcements for our team is priceless. From little things to "there's pizza in the break room!" to important updates for the whole team, it truly makes communication very easy and frequent.
• If you have a lot of team members who are remote, Slack is invaluable. It's more personal and lighthearted than emailing and quicker.

Incentivized