Think Projects as a Basecamp alternative
Basecamp's straightforward collaboration, with dependencies and a forecast finish date.
Who this suits
Teams who like Basecamp's calm and its way with clients, and now need to answer "when will this be done?" with something better than a spreadsheet kept beside it: studios with delivery dates, agencies whose clients ask for them. If a to-do with a due date is all the planning you want, Basecamp will keep suiting you.
What your week would look like
Much of it will feel familiar: message threads per project with files, @mentions, reactions and replies by email; to-dos — here task lists — with subtasks, tags, priorities and assignments; a home page that shows what needs you today; free clients and guests who see only their own projects; a Kanban-style board (Basecamp has Card Table, its take on Kanban; in Think Projects the board shows the same tasks as the task lists, in columns); and time tracking with a timer and a billable flag.
What Basecamp leaves out on purpose, Think Projects does:
- Dates, dependencies and a forecast. A task can have an estimate, a start date and things it waits for, and the timeline forecasts when each task, milestone and project will finish, around your working week and people's holidays. When something slips, the forecast moves and a fixed milestone the plan can no longer reach turns red.
- A calendar of the same tasks, with a feed for Google, Apple or Outlook.
- Custom fields — six kinds, up to eight per project.
- A weekly status update drafted from the week's activity for someone to send.
- Unlimited projects on Team and Studio.
What it costs
Basecamp's current plans are flat prices by number of active projects, with no per-user fees.
| Feature | Think Projects | Basecamp |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid plan | Starter, $15 a month, up to 5 people, 10 projects | Freelancer, $25 a month ("$25/mo"), up to 3 active projects, up to 20 users |
| Eight people, ten projects | $32.50 a month (monthly equivalent, billed annually; Team: unlimited projects, up to 15 people); $39 billed monthly | Studio, $59 a month (the page shows "$59/mo"; annual billing is offered, with no separate annual price published), up to 10 active projects, unlimited users |
| Eight people, more than ten projects | Team, as above | Pro, $99 a month ("$99/mo"), up to 25 active projects; or Unlimited, $299 a month (monthly equivalent, billed annually) |
| Clients and guests | Free, unlimited, not counted, invited to individual projects | Every person added is counted as a user; Freelancer allows 20 users in total, Studio and above have unlimited users with no per-user fee |
| Time tracking | Every plan | Studio and above |
| Timeline with dependencies and a forecast finish | Yes | No |
| Custom fields | 6 kinds, up to 8 per project | No |
| Kanban-style board | Yes — the same tasks as the task lists, shown in columns | Card Table, on every plan |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card | 30 days on Freelancer, Studio and Pro; 45 on Unlimited |
Basecamp figures from basecamp.com/pricing, read 7 and 8 September 2026, in US dollars, as the page shows them: Freelancer, Studio and Pro carry a single "/mo" price and list "Annual billing" as available without a separate annual price; only Unlimited is marked "billed annually". Think Projects in US dollars; pounds and euros.
Bringing your work with you
There is no Basecamp importer: Basecamp exports to HTML, which the wizard cannot read. Copy a to-do list and use paste a list in any task list, or put the to-dos in a spreadsheet and import that. Messages and files stay in Basecamp; keep an export of anything you will need. Details on the switching page.
Where Basecamp is the better choice
Campfire chat; Hill Charts (we have a burn-up and a health score, which answer a related question with numbers); a flat price for a very large team; native phone apps. If your planning is a to-do with a due date, Basecamp does that well.
Try it with one project
Paste one to-do list into a trial workspace, give the tasks estimates, and see what the timeline forecasts.
Want to try it on your own work? Every feature on every plan, a 14-day trial, no card needed — and guests are always free.
Create a workspace