Basecamp vs. Whimsical

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
Whimsical
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Whimsical is a visual workspace application from the company of the same name in Denver, allowing users to create collaborative wireframes, mindmaps, flowcharts, and sticky notes.
$12
per month per editor
Pricing
BasecampWhimsical
Editions & Modules
Basecamp Plus
$15
per month per user
Basecamp Pro Unlimited
$299
per month (billed annually)
Basecamp Free
Free
Limited Capabilities
Pro
$12
per month per editor
Business
$18
per month per editor
Enterprise
$240
per year per editor
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BasecampWhimsical
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details17% discount for annual billing on Pro and Business plans.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BasecampWhimsical
Features
BasecampWhimsical
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
8.7
124 Ratings
12% above category average
Whimsical
8.0
2 Ratings
4% above category average
Task Management9.3123 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Resource Management8.9103 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Gantt Charts6.143 Ratings7.52 Ratings
Scheduling8.199 Ratings6.02 Ratings
Workflow Automation8.072 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Team Collaboration9.8123 Ratings8.52 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology8.851 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology8.548 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Document Management9.6115 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Email integration8.3101 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Mobile Access9.0100 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking9.448 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Change request and Case Management9.358 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management8.142 Ratings9.01 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
Whimsical
8.3
1 Ratings
7% above category average
Quotes/estimates10.030 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Invoicing10.026 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Project & financial reporting8.034 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Integration with accounting software4.028 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BasecampWhimsical
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
InEight
InEight
Score 9.5 out of 10
InEight
InEight
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
InEight
InEight
Score 9.5 out of 10
InEight
InEight
Score 9.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BasecampWhimsical
Likelihood to Recommend
9.7
(150 ratings)
9.5
(10 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(26 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.2
(20 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(28 ratings)
5.7
(3 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
BasecampWhimsical
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
Whimsical
It's extremely well-suited for rapid wire-framing of concepts, as product teams can quickly collaborate on any idea and create a visual blueprint of it. Whimsical could provide more intuitive feature prioritization templates. The current templates lack the necessary detail and could be further enhanced from a UI/UX standpoint.
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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.
Read full review
Whimsical
  • Simple to use
  • Tons of uses
  • Can be customized with themeing
  • Can organize all your boards pretty much however you want
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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Whimsical
  • It can be a little frustrating trying to line things up exactly right but that's probably more user error than anything
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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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Whimsical
No answers on this topic
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.
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Whimsical
It's fairly intuitive, I rarely have any problems using the app. The layout is pretty user-friendly and easy to adapt to. There's a lot of tooltips to help with the various features and functions, so it's very easy to get self-help for the most part. Overally, I'm pretty happy and satisfied with the usage of Whimsical for mind-mapping.
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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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Whimsical
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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Whimsical
I reached out to support, as I was interested in possibly investing in the organization, and they quickly and happily informed me they are a bootstrap organization and do not take on investors at this time. The swift response and information readily available for my consumption was extremely helpful and shows how solid the team behind it is.
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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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Whimsical
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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Whimsical
Whimsical is so much easier and has a better interface, so I think it's more suited to our workflow if compared to other tools like Google Charts. I really love this tool and I'm looking to learn and use it even more, as it helps us optimize our time, planning, and delivering more efficiently.
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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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Whimsical
  • No hard numbers I can quote. Other than the free plan has been adequate for my needs.
  • It's my go to mind mapping tool.
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ScreenShots