Basecamp
Ranked 2 of 8 project management software by recommenders
People recommend it for one price at any company size and for being bootstrapped and profitable. Critics often call its design poor and its mobile apps weak.
People recommend it for one price at any company size and for being bootstrapped and profitable. Critics often call its design poor and its mobile apps weak.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 50%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fair flat price, worth the time
“Do what Basecamp does. They have one price for any size of customer and more importantly do not let any one customer, no matter how big, pay more”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “Halvar's Guide to Entrepreneurship” “The problem has been solved and the $15/mo. is well worth the time I will save”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “The bespoke software revolution? I'm not buying it” Bootstrapped, profitable, successful business
“One of the things I admire most about Basecamp is that they are a bootstrapped, profitable business.”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Rails World 2026 Opening Keynote [video]” “every once in a while, there's a huge success … like Rails, Basecamp, Hey”
Comment from 24 May 2026 in “Your Dotfiles Are Not a Distro”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poorly designed, weak search and apps
“Basic features like search barely work, the iOS and Android apps are embarrassingly bad”
Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “Omarchy development practices lead to predictable security issues” “I'm forced to use Basecamp, and I find it an unpleasant, poorly designed tool.”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: Advice on Migrating from 1Password?” Losing mindshare, getting worse
“They have been losing relative mindshare and possibly marketshare more recently.”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Basecamp's Shape Up is a Michelin restaurant brigade system for software” “nothing from their sides has changed, and it's worse than before”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “Why We're Dropping Basecamp (2023)” Criticism of founders' work and posts
“I've never been particularly impressed by anything he's built, from Basecamp to HEY”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M” “I don't understand why anyone still works at Basecamp with posts like this”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Canceling "Hey"”
Other project management software people recommend
The four most recommended other project management software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Projects | 9 | 9 | 50% | 7 | — | — |
| BasecampThis page | 8 | 8 | 50% | 6 | — | — |
| OpenProject | 7 | 2 | 78% | 7 | — | — |
| ClickUp | 7 | 23 | 23% | 6 | — | — |
| Redmine | 7 | 1 | 88% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
15 of the 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“One of the things I admire most about Basecamp is that they are a bootstrapped, profitable business.”
“I'm forced to use Basecamp, and I find it an unpleasant, poorly designed tool.”
“Basic features like search barely work, the iOS and Android apps are embarrassingly bad”
“I've never been particularly impressed by anything he's built, from Basecamp to HEY”
“nothing from their sides has changed, and it's worse than before”
“I don't understand why anyone still works at Basecamp with posts like this”
“Do what Basecamp does. They have one price for any size of customer and more importantly do not let any one customer, no matter how big, pay more”
“every once in a while, there's a huge success … like Rails, Basecamp, Hey”
“The problem has been solved and the $15/mo. is well worth the time I will save”
“Basecamp is a good example of this.”
“Basecamp has strict limits and a per-user paid model”
“it was solid UX at the time so it was fine”
“small teams - less than 5 product programmers in a company e.g basecamp”
“They have been losing relative mindshare and possibly marketshare more recently.”
“Don't forget the pre-installed Basecamp and Hey!”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.