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Basecamp vs Plane
Short answer: Pick Basecamp if you want straightforward project management and communication; pick Plane if you want unified PM, wiki and AI agents in one workspace. Basecamp has a free plan, paid from $29/month; Plane has a free plan, paid from $6/month per user.
BasecampProject management and team communication
PlaneOpen-source project management, a Jira and Linear alternativeWhich to pick
Pick Basecamp if you want…
- Straightforward project management and communication
- Integrations with ChatGPT, Claude or Google Calendar (on Basecamp's list, not Plane's)
Pick Plane if you want…
- Unified PM, wiki and AI agents in one workspace
- Self-hosted project management
- Open-source code (makeplane/plane on GitHub, AGPL-3.0 license)
- Integrations with GitHub, GitHub Enterprise or GitLab (on Plane's list, not Basecamp's)
Side by side
- What it is
- Basecamp:Basecamp is an all-in-one project management and team communication platform.
- Plane:Plane is an open-source project and knowledge-management platform with AI-powered workflows, available cloud, self-hosted or air-gapped.
- Best for
- Basecamp:Straightforward project management and communication
- Plane:Unified PM, wiki and AI agents in one workspace
- Who it’s for
- Basecamp:Teams, freelancers, and small businesses that need simple, reliable project collaboration.
- Plane:Product, engineering and ops teams that need integrated project, docs and AI automation.
- Pricing
- Basecamp:Freemium
- Plane:Freemium
- Starting price
- Basecamp:$29/month (Freelancer)
- Plane:$6/month per user (Pro)
- Free plan or trial
- Basecamp:Free plan (Free) · Free trial
- Plane:Free plan (Free) · Free trial
- Plans
- Basecamp:Free $0 · Freelancer $29/mo per month · Pro $79/mo per month · Pro Plus $99/mo per month · Pro Unlimited $199/mo billed annually
- Plane:Free $0 per seat per month · Pro $6 per seat per month per month · Business $13 per seat per month per month
- Open source
- Basecamp:—
- Plane:Yes, 60,370 GitHub stars
- Works with
- Basecamp:ChatGPT, Claude, Google Calendar, Outlook, HEY Calendar, Figma, Dropbox, Google Docs
- Plane:GitHub, GitHub Enterprise, GitLab, GitLab Enterprise, Slack, Sentry, Jira, Linear
Basecamp features
- Message Boards. Central place for announcements and threaded discussions, replacing email.
- To-do Lists. Create, assign, and track tasks with due dates, subtasks and file attachments.
- Card Tables. Kanban-style boards for visual workflow tracking across stages.
- Hill Charts. Visual progress indicator that shows how far work is from completion.
- Campfire Chats. Built-in group chat for quick conversations without external apps.
- Calendar & Scheduling. Project-level calendar for deadlines, milestones and meetings, syncable with Outlook, Google Calendar and others.
- Docs & Files. Store and organize documents, images, PDFs and cloud files within projects.
- Automatic Check-ins. Scheduled prompts that collect status updates from the team automatically.
Plane features
- Projects & Work Items. Create projects, epics, cycles and custom work items with properties and templates.
- Built-in Wiki. Rich documentation lives alongside work items, with real-time collaboration and versioning.
- Plane AI Agents. AI agents can triage requests, assign owners, summarize status and act on workspace context.
- Multiple Views & Dashboards. Board, List, Spreadsheet, Gantt and real-time dashboards with automatic metrics.
- Self-hosted Deployments. Docker, Kubernetes, CLI and Helm charts let you run Plane on-premise, air-gapped or in your cloud.
- Integrations & Marketplace. Sync with GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Sentry and import from Jira, Linear, Asana, ClickUp, Monday, etc.
- Security & Compliance. SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, CCPA, SSO/SAML/LDAP and audit logs for enterprise control.
- Automation & Workflows. Triggers, actions, approvals and time-tracking automate repetitive processes.
Basecamp vs Plane FAQ
What is the difference between Basecamp and Plane?+
Open-source and self-hosted, targeting developers; Basecamp is hosted SaaS with a free tier.
Should I use Basecamp or Plane?+
Pick Basecamp if you want straightforward project management and communication or integrations with ChatGPT, Claude or Google Calendar (on Basecamp's list, not Plane's). Pick Plane if you want unified PM, wiki and AI agents in one workspace, self-hosted project management or open-source code (makeplane/plane on GitHub, AGPL-3.0 license).
Is Basecamp or Plane free?+
Basecamp has a free plan; paid plans start at $29/month (Freelancer). Plane has a free plan; paid plans start at $6/month per user (Pro).
Which is cheaper, Basecamp or Plane?+
Basecamp starts at $29/month (Freelancer) and Plane starts at $6/month per user (Pro); the plans are billed differently, so compare what's included.
Is Basecamp or Plane open source?+
Plane is open source (makeplane/plane on GitHub, AGPL-3.0 license). DevHunt has no public source repository on record for Basecamp.
Do Basecamp and Plane integrate with the same tools?+
Partly. Both list Figma. Basecamp also lists ChatGPT, Claude, Google Calendar, Outlook and 3 more; Plane also lists GitHub, GitHub Enterprise, GitLab, GitLab Enterprise and 7 more.
On DevHunt
Based on each tool's website and DevHunt data. Details may change; check the official sites.