Basecamp vs Jira: A Complete Comparison

Working on a project alone is tough itself, and when there is a team involved, you can never have desired results if you don’t know how to work together efficiently. This is why there are project management tools that allow users to work in a shared space and allocate tasks to different team members. Basecamp and Jira are the leading project management tools that have changed the game completely. In this basecamp vs. Jira comparison, you’ll know what makes these tools different from each other and which one is best suited for you.

Part 1.  Basecamp vs Jira: Comparison Overview

Part 2.  Jira vs Basecamp: Main Features

Based on the primary functions of Basecamp vs Jira, Basecamp is a comprehensive project management tool that focuses on the collaborative workspace. On the other hand, Jira is primarily a bug and issue tracking tool that focuses on software development and agile project management.

Basecamp is a cloud-based platform that gives companies a place to organize their teams and projects in one central workspace. The software has a number of tools that can be turned on or off for each project. You can make a list of tasks and give each one to a team member. You can also put important dates on a shared calendar, organize files and documents, and choose from different ways to talk to each other. Basecamp lets you work in your browser and on different devices with apps for desktops and mobile devices.

Jira targets software teams that work on Scrum and Kanban boards to track project or task issues. Its major feature is to track issues. It includes information like the date the problem was first noticed, a description of the problem, its priority, and the person or team in charge of fixing it. This is why Jira is now gaining popularity in non-IT companies as well as those companies that need project management tools for tracking issues.

Let’s have a look at some top differences and similarities in features of these two tools.

• Task Management

Task management is the top priority of users that use a project management tool. Both Basecamp and Jira have efficient task management that makes it easy for users to assign and track tasks shared between multiple users.

• Discussions Forum

Basecamp has a discussion forum that allows users to brainstorm ideas and inquire about different issues. Jira lacks this feature, which restricts the user from interacting with other users of the platform.

• Customer support

Basecamp users have access to 24/7 support, whereas Jira only offers full-time support to premium members. For free account users, there is community support, and standard account users can avail of customer support from 9 am to 5 pm on weekdays.

Part 3. Basecamp vs Jira: Pros and Cons

Like every other incredible tool out there on the market, Basecamp and Jira have some great features that come with some drawbacks as well. Let’s have a look at the pros and cons of Jira vs Basecamp to better analyze which tool is the right fit for you.

Jira

Pros

• Jira has a roadmap planner that lets users see the bigger picture of their project and makes it easy to plan and organize tasks.
• There are many tools to integrate to help your team work better. With so many external app integrations like Hipchat and Slack, it makes it easy to talk to each other and answer messages.
• Jira users can change workflows to fit the needs of any business. Users can make different things, like tables, forms, timelines, reports, fields, and more, and change how they look.
• Fit for people from different fields, like project managers, engineers, and other business professionals who aren’t tech-savvy.

Cons

• The mobile application of Jira is not user-friendly, which is the biggest hurdle in its use.
• There is no option to save reports in image format.
• Jira has a maximum capacity of 10 MB for file sharing. Users cannot send or receive bigger file sizes.
• There are often server issues, and it lags sometimes, which makes it difficult to work steadily.

Basecamp

Pros

• Their solution lets virtual teams store files in different ways. This makes it easier to find old files and keeps everyone on the team on the same page.
• Basecamp has a simple way of charging for its services. The free plan has limits on how many projects and members you can have, but the paid plan lets you have as many projects and members as you want. 
• Basecamp lets you decide when you want to be told about something. You can turn off notifications so they don’t bother you, and you can change the settings for each project.
• It is easy to share documents, files, and images in your conversations. You can also connect to Google Docs, which makes it easy to attach documents by dragging and dropping them. 

Cons

• There is no way to track time on the app. This is a very important part of project management, and Basecamp will need to add this in the future.
• You can’t save old threads. Basecamp doesn’t let you save old topics, which can get in the way of important ones. Archiving topics can tidy things up without having to delete ones that might be useful later.
• The interface is quite confusing and it may take some time for a new user to fully understand its functionality.

Part 4. Basecamp vs Jira: Pricing

Pricing plays a huge role in determining whether you choose a tool and stick to it for a long time or not. Also, some pricing options help in deciding which tool is right for you.  The pricing structure of both of these tools is completely different from each other.

Both of them have a free version. Jira is free for 10 users and 3 GB of file storage while Basecamp is free for 20 users, 1 GB storage, and 3 projects.

Basecamp offers monthly and annual pricing, along with a different price for non-profits. The monthly price starts at $99 while the annual price is $999. The monthly price is reduced to $89 for non-profit organizations.

Jira doesn’t have a flat monthly rate. It changes based on the number of users and starts from $7 to $14 per user per month.

If we do a simple Jira vs Basecamp comparison on pricing, Jira is suitable for small-scale teams that have few members because the pricing on Jira is flexible. On the other hand, Basecamp has a flat rate of $99 no matter how many users there are, which makes it a good fit for bigger teams.

Part 5. Basecamp vs Jira: Customer Rating

Basecamp

19492 reviews

85% of people recommend Basecamp

• FinancesOnline: 5.0/5(35 reviews)
• GetApp: 4.3/5(13386 reviews)
• TrustRadius: 4.2/5(1121 reviews)
• G2.com: 4.1/5(4950 reviews)

Jira

20309 reviews

86% of people recommend Jira

• FinancesOnline：5.0/5(32 reviews)
• Gartner： 4.4/5(2316 reviews)
• GetApp：4.4/5(11242 reviews)
• G2.com: 4.2/5(4480 reviews)
• TrustRadius: 4.1/5(2239 reviews)

Part 6. Basecamp vs Jira: Platforms Supported

Made up your mind yet? If you have decided which project management tool is best for you and your team, it’s time to give it a go. You can download Basecamp or Jira on your Mac or PC as well as on your iOS and Android devices. Check out the links below:

Basecamp: https://basecamp.com/

Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

Part 7. Basecamp vs Jira: Customer Support

Basecamp customer support

Email: Users can email [email protected] for customer service.

Guidelines: For inquiries, customers can go to the support page and watch tutorials or read the help guides. Help documentation has a variety of ways to learn, depending on the software version of the user. It also has blogs, a Basecamp Live Q&A class, and YouTube videos that can be used to learn.

Tickets: The software’s homepage provides a section “Have questions? Holler” for customers to submit support requests. Users can expect a reply on Monday — Friday from 8 a.m. — 6:30 p.m. (CST).

Jira Customer support

Email: After logging in, users can send questions to Jira technicians for them to look into and answer. Responses depend on how hard the problem is to solve and how much information the user can give.

Guidelines: Jira offers courses for interested individuals or teams, and those who finish the courses can get a certificate. There are also public training courses, videos, and courses that you can take on your own time.

Tickets: Users can send requests for help through their website. As soon as possible, a support engineer will get back to you.

Part 8. Basecamp VS Jira: Which One is better?

There is no easy way of deciding when comparing Basecamp vs Jira. They both have unique sets of features and can be used for a variety of different functions. Based on the overall functionality, ease of usage, and customer reviews and ratings, Basecamp could be a winner here. Even though Jira is a great tool, Basecamp leads the race for being a pure project management tool focused on all the aspects of shared working and mutual task sharing.

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