Weekend Quickie: Alternatives to Basecamp For Project Management

by Walter Naeslund on December 5, 2009

At Honesty we use Basecamp from 37Signals for project management. In many ways this is an amazing system, and we also kind of like it because we subscribe to the small, simple, and entrepreneurial philosophy of 37Signals. But the system also has weaknesses.

  1. For one, we use Google Apps for everything. And we love it. But basecamp doesn’t. We need killer integration between Google Apps and our project management system. Otherwise we’ll hate it. Basically, I want to throw out Writeboard and replace it with Docs, Spreadsheets, and Presentations from Apps (and perhaps eventually Wave). We all hate Writeboard more than bad coffee.
  2. Integration between Calendar and Basecamp works so-so. This needs to be fully and transparently integrated.
  3. Google Tasks and Basecamp ToDo’s should also be integrated like cream and coffee (all coffee metaphors attributed to this being a saturday morning).
  4. Get a Friend Connect login to solve permission issues with all of the above.
  5. Gantt-charts wouldn’t hurt. At least as an option. What’s so hard about having an optional start date to milestones?

So. This is the issues that have me looking for options. But what options are there? (Real options please. No bullshit non-cloud crap). Has anyone of you managed to set anything good up with Google Sites for instance? Let me know! Basecamp still seems like the best option, even if it keeps me constantly frustrated.

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  • Tom
    +1 for 5pm (www.5pmweb.com).
  • Don't like the look and feel of 5pm. Feels cluttered.

    I do however think that Manymoon looks very promising! So if anyone of you have a similar situation as I do, I would highly recommend trying it out and returning here for follow up discussion. This could be it!
  • I don't know of any offhand that fully integrate with Google Apps. Though it may be possible to install an open source app like OpenAtrium and build those utilities into it. But perhaps Google Wave might be what you need?

    Anyways, another web-based app worth looking into is Intervals. It doesn't do all the Google stuff but it does have more comprehensive milestones.
  • chr
    gdocs/cal integration etc:

    https://www.manymoon.com
  • Hey,

    Of all the suggestions I've gotten, Manymoon definitely looks like the most interesting. Will try it out!
  • Erica
    Check 5pm (www.5pmweb.com.
    A great project management tool with a very slick UI. They have been around for a while, but are much newer than BC. There is Google Docs import support, Google Calendar (through iCalendar). And a great Gantt chart (called Timeline). And it looks like they are constantly adding more.

    It's a good new alternative to Basecamp and they even support the data import from BC and the trial does not require a credit card - means you can easily port your existing data and give it a quick try.

    The support also seams prompt and friendly (important to us).

    Hope this info helps.

  • Weekend Quickie: Alternatives to Basecamp For Project Management … http://bit.ly/93fBA3


    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • Totally agree on everything in this post. Been using Basecamp for the past 3 years, and just had a meeting with a client last week, where I said "Writeboards are so worthless so lets use Google Docs for document sharing". Still, I really like the strong things about basecamp: Consolidated message posting, good place to collect all files related to projects, creating milestones with attached todo lists, and so on. Actually there is one more thing I do miss in Basecamp: Better user management. I would like to be able to use a single project and limit access to different posts/uploads/etc. on company and user level.

    Gonna check out Collabtive and Smartsheets mentioned above.

  • Interesting post on Alternatives to Basecamp that I use a lot. I would love Google Docs integration… http://tinyurl.com/yz6n9qf


    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • Also, Gantt charts are coming in the next month.
  • Walter,

    Try our solution to your question. Particularly given your interest in integration with Google Apps. www.smartsheet.com .

    We have a very tight integration with the google tools. Here's a partial description of some of the integration points: http://www.smartsheet.com/blog/work-management/...

    Enjoy,
    Brent
  • I've been in the same situation, Basecamp is really frustrating at times and I don't get why it's so popular with all the weaknesses. Anyway it's not a big help but when I was in your situation I found Collabtive which is a open source alternative to Basecamp. It's decent and has got no real disadvantages to basecamp and it's free :)

    http://collabtive.o-dyn.de/

    They are also working on a plugin system so that might make it take off.

    I went with Basecamp btw so if you're already on that I wouldnt suggest a change.
  • Thanks. Will check. Can't believe 37Signals don't just implement these things. I mean, why use Writeboards when there is Docs? Somebody should just make a Mash-up clone of Basecamp...
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