Jira vs Basecamp

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Our analysts compared Jira vs Basecamp based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Project Management Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Jira Software Tool

Product Basics

Jira is an all-in-one solution suite that helps organizations manage projects with agile methodologies, customization and collaboration. It helps teams track, plan and release projects and supports Kanban, Scrum or hybrid workflows. Managers can plan and prioritize their team’s assignments in a fully-visible environment that tracks performance as progress is made.

It’s supported by over 3,000 modules that can be customized to enhance user experience. It’s accessible via internet-connected mobile devices and helps manage projects on-the-go. It integrates with tools like Azure, GitHub and Bamboo while remaining scalable for operations of any size.

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Basecamp is a cloud-based solution for team collaboration and management. It allows users to create to-dos, assign them to one or more people, add shared and searchable file attachments and more. It makes it easier to stay organized when there are multiple concurrent projects, each with its own team and needs. Streamline project communication by keeping specific teams together, with all project-related files in one location. It gives each project its own separate space, avoiding clutter and other confusion between projects.

It is suitable for all sizes of teams like SMBs to groups in large companies. Subscriptions are scalable, with levels for different storage amounts and number of users. It also offers a free tier and application for iPad/iPhone and Android.
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$10/User, Monthly
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$15/User, Monthly
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Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
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Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Use Agile Project Management: Adopt the best of agile methodologies with a platform designed to optimize Kanban and Scrum boards along with mixed methodologies of your own. While their agile boards shine, we also liked that you’re not strictly bound by, say, using only Scrums with a board view and can use lists and custom fields to manage any type of project really, not just bug tracking or product development.
  • Optimize Sprint Planning: Race to the finish line one issue at a time with the Scrum feature. Set up sprints across projects with automations, custom boards and stories. Check out our dummy sprint below, but TLDR: we appreciated the drag-and-drop functionality to build sprints, advance sprint planning and the sprint report.
  • Build Custom Workspaces with Programming: Make your workspace fit the specific needs of teams and projects by adapting templates, building automations and modifying issues with code and logic-based modifications. It was quite simple to set up basic projects and create automations with our limited tech expertise even with some programming language thrown in here and there, but a full-fledged coder could really shine.
  • Customize Pre-Built Templates: Create projects suited to the task at hand (pardon the pun) with dozens of pre-built templates ranging from recruitment to customer service to web design and grant management. We checked out the different statuses for multiple templates and enjoyed how simple it was to customize issue types, workflows and automations when you’re not working from scratch.
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  • Organized Projects: Divide work into separate projects, and each project is organized by default. It includes everything related to the project; all the individuals involved, each discussion, document, file, assignment, significant date and more. 
  • Inbuilt Chat Features: Avoid wasting money on external communication platforms with its built-in chat features. Gather around Campfire, a group chat for casual conversations, fast Q&As, sharing links, quick riffs or work discussions. Pings allow private chat with one or multiple people. 
  • Add Team Members: Add assigned team members and their details to a project. Client team members can also be added to help keep them in the loop and increase the project’s transparency. 
  • Centralized Notification: Its Hey! Menu feature centralizes notifications from new messages and assigned tasks to minimize notification interruptions. Helps users focus on work and access all notifications from one box. 
  • Streamline Work Process: Integrate the system with third-party tools to increase efficiency and effectiveness of work processes. 
  • Any Device: Available on iOS, Android, iPad, Mac, Windows and browser, users can access the system from anywhere at any time to send messages, share and collaborate on files and documents, define deadlines and provide feedback. 
  • Solve Problems: Users can use hill charts to sequence work and decide which problems to solve in which order; it also shows where the work stands and how it is moving. 
  • Basecamp Personal: The free tier provides space for up to three projects with one-gigabyte of data storage and access to 20 users. Freelancers can use it to organize their work and collaborate, or small businesses can use it on projects that involve few people. 
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  • Agile Boards: Manage your tasks, or issues using Scrum and Kanban boards with custom statuses, fields and transitions. Create new issues using the button below each status. You can view projects using a list, board or timeline view.
  • Reports and Insights: Get insights into where your team is at throughout every stage of the project by generating custom reports like the average age report, created vs. resolved issues report and sprint report. Manage workloads with the time tracking report, user workload report and version workload report. Use the summary view to monitor activity, status overview, priority breakdown and related projects.
  • Collaboration Features: Communicate with team members and assignees directly on the issue card with comments and mentions. Attach files, view card activity and add descriptions for additional instructions. Integrate with Outlook, Slack and other communication tools.
  • Custom Automations: Build custom automation rules by setting a trigger with the option to add an action, a condition or a branch. Get a helping hand by searching for triggers related to what you want to automate and selecting recommended actions and conditions.
  • Sprint Management: Use the Scrum option to run sprints. Fill in project details like name, duration and scope and add tasks and drag and drop them to your sprint using the backlog. Complete your sprints and auto-add pending tasks to the backlog or to a new sprint and run a sprint report for insights.
  • Task Management: Manage tasks by creating customizable issue cards under each status or by importing issues from CSV files. Add assignees, due dates, time tracking, comments, descriptions, teams, labels, status and priority to issues. Move tasks from status to status using transitions and workflow automation.
  • Customizable Workflows: Create custom workflows for your tasks and subtasks by going to project settings and clicking on issue types. Set statuses based on the type of task you’re completing or from the project template you select. Automate actions by setting rules for transitions from one status to another.
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  • To-Do Lists: Assign to-dos to one or more people, add notes and file attachments for all work or projects. It automatically follows up with team members if tasks are overdue. 
  • Hey! Menu: Supports a single inbox for notifications, mentions, to-do assignments, new messages and project completion. Set working hours to keep notifications on hold until the user is back on the clock. 
  • Client Access: Share and get feedback with customers about information and files. Communications can be kept private, and email correspondence is maintained to keep project data and communication organized in one place. 
  • Pings: Direct messages or private conversations can be held with other users on the same account. Users can ping an individual or a group of people, and the conversation is visible to only selected people. 
  • Schedules: Each project includes a schedule showing any dated to-dos and events for that project. Sync schedules with Google Calendar, iCal and Outlook to get reminders in the project and personal calendars. 
  • Activity: The Activity button will display any to-dos, late assignments, upcoming deadlines and other assignment information and reports. 
  • File Storage: A space for sharing documents, files and images is included in every project. Use drag-and-drop functionality to upload files from Google Docs or a computer. Each file contains a complete version history, reorder and color code files to keep it organized. 
  • Message Boards: Post messages or announcements, embed pictures or files and share with everyone or selected individuals. Viewers can applaud and comment on these messages for instant feedback. 
  • Search and Bookmarking: Enter a keyword or name using the search feature to locate a project, ping history or find pictures, files or individuals without rummaging through the entire program. Important data can also be bookmarked. 
  • Automated Check-In: Setup customized questions throughout the day or a chosen time instead of holding a status meeting. Meetings can help remote teams collaborate and share work updates or what they were up to on the weekend.  
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Product Ranking

#3

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Project Management Software

#16

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Project Management Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

76
65
86
30
90
60
75
75
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Platform Security
Dashboards and Reporting
Customizations
Task Management
Team Collaboration
Integrations and Extensibility

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Jira
Basecamp
+ Add Product + Add Product
Customizations Dashboards And Reporting Mobile Capabilities Platform Features Project Planning And Scheduling Project Tracking Task Management Team Collaboration Time Tracking And Management 86 90 75 64 78 63 85 77 54 30 60 75 62 49 27 66 99 43 0 25 50 75 100
86%
0%
14%
14%
14%
72%
80%
0%
20%
40%
0%
60%
57%
0%
43%
57%
0%
43%
46%
21%
33%
50%
4%
46%
67%
8%
25%
25%
8%
67%
43%
0%
57%
0%
14%
86%
75%
17%
8%
58%
8%
34%
58%
17%
25%
92%
8%
0%
29%
29%
42%
0%
0%
100%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

61%
0%
39%
89%
0%
11%
88%
0%
12%
63%
0%
37%

User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 26427 reviews
Great User Sentiment 19492 reviews
87%
of users recommend this product

Jira has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 87% when considering 26427 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

85%
of users recommend this product

Basecamp has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 85% when considering 19492 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

5.0 (32)
5.0 (35)
4.3 (5956)
4.1 (4950)
4.4 (14556)
4.3 (13386)
4.4 (2528)
n/a
4.1 (3355)
4.2 (1121)

Awards

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SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Basecamp and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Team Collaboration.

Team Collaboration Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Functionality: Users appreciated the ability to customize workflows, issue types and fields and the flexibility to navigate complex projects and problem-solve.
Collaborative: The system helps users collaborate with other teams, projects, and stakeholders and efficiently bridges gaps between remote teams, noted reviewers.
Integrations: Reviewers liked the extensive integrations with most third-party modules like Slack, Bitbucket and more to complete workflows and processes.
What Users Like
Customization: “We were able to tailor the workflow to fit our specific needs, which greatly enhanced our efficiency. For instance, we created custom issue types that aligned with our unique project phases, making it easier for team members to understand their tasks at a glance.” - Balázs Keszthelyi, Founder and CEO at TechnoLynx
Project Visualization: “[Jira’s robust roadmapping and dependency tracking capabilities are] invaluable for coordinating multiple product launches. Also, the premium version's Advanced Roadmaps feature lets us visualize our entire product pipeline so that's from sourcing to launch, but you've got to invest time in learning the system, and I think for smaller operations, it might be overkill.” - Dennis Sanders, Founder and CEO of Burning Daily
Task Management: “Jira has given us the structure to break down our complex workflows into clear, manageable steps, which was exactly what we needed as we expanded our customer base. With Jira, we can create specific 'boards' for each client’s SEO campaign, where every task is detailed and assigned to the right team member. Each board has phases, like keyword research, content writing, and on-page optimization, with clear deadlines. Having this setup has helped us catch any bottlenecks early. If the content team takes longer to deliver, for instance, we can adjust the timeline for the next steps right away instead of rushing it.” - Mushfiq Sarker, CEO of LaGrande Marketing
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General Accessibility: It is intuitive and user-friendly, as observed by 70% of users who referred to its general accessibility.
Project Management: Provides robust functionality for planning, progress tracking, managing and organizing projects, as noted by nearly 100% of users who mentioned project management.
Communication: Its built-in chat features for sending important messages to members, direct messages, sharing data and updates ease communication across departments and teams, as stated by nearly 98% of users who refer to communication.
Scheduling: Nearly 100% of users who specified scheduling said that the scheduling project module has led to increased operational efficiency.
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Lags: Reviewers noted that the system sometimes lags and takes time to load, especially for multiple projects and large data sets.
Learning Curve: Its UX can feel complex, and it takes time to set up, customize and use to its full ability. An internal Jira expert may be required, according to some users.
Administration: Users mentioned that the system is difficult to administer, and its back-end is hard to manage.
What Users Dislike
Slow Loading Time: “Its interface moves like molasses.” - Dennis Sanders, Founder and CEO of Burning Daily
Learning Curve: “We had some initial challenges with team members who were not familiar with the platform, which required additional training sessions to ensure everyone was on the same page. However, once they became accustomed to the interface, the benefits outweighed the initial hurdles.” - Balázs Keszthelyi, Founder and CEO at TechnoLynx
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Administrator Navigation: Over 91% of users who mentioned administrator navigation reported that it is not easy for task managers to add tasks, move them around or control access.
Integration: Around 90% of the reviewers who specified integration said that its software integrations are limited, and some are slow to adapt.
Notification: The system has limited notifications that can be delayed, as noted by 77% of reviewers who mention notifications.
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Jira is an agile-based project management platform that caters to a vast range of industries thanks to its all-in-one functionality, customization and flexibility. It allows users to fully customize workflows, issue types, fields and automations.After watching a few tutorials, I personally found it quite simple to create my own projects using the templates and modifying it to meet my needs. Although some of the automation actions and issues have some programming language involved, it’s not a huge roadblock and I created and tested multiple automations successfully.Task (or issue) management was on point, with multiple views, custom workflows, task assignment, in-card collaboration and time tracking and custom fields. It offered comprehensive (but not overly advanced) reports and a helpful summary dashboard.Sprints were intuitive and easy to execute, and I especially appreciated the drag-and-drop feature for planning. Some users mentioned a learning curve, and I would agree, as I relied on videos to guide me through some parts of the setup lest this test take weeks not days.Overall, Jira is a match made in heaven for agile enthusiasts and users who want a flexible, customizable project management platform and don’t mind getting into the weeds with learning courses and tutorials.

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Basecamp provides members with access to the same project, even if they are in different time zones. Team members can share their ideas via the platform through its connectivity functions, including a forum. Suggestions can be worked out, and conversations can be saved to ensure that all members are on the same page. Reviewers noted that there are limited ways to activate notifications and integrate software. Overall, it is an efficient tool for managing projects, tracking progress, monitoring schedules and sharing updates among team members.

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