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Basecamp vs Microsoft Project comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Basecamp
Ranking in Project Management Software
25th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Project
Ranking in Project Management Software
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Project Management Software category, the mindshare of Basecamp is 1.4%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Project is 2.2%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Project Management Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Project2.2%
Basecamp1.4%
Other96.4%
Project Management Software
 

Featured Reviews

Abenazzer Tadesse - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Operations Officer at BeOnline ICT
An easy-to-use project management solution with good stability and scalability
The recent update on the solution has made it a little bit complex. For example, to create a team and a project, there is a separate button that you need to click. Recently they updated it with only one button making it difficult for us to create teams or supply teams other than a project. Hence the solution could be more user-friendly. Additionally, some additional features need to be integrated so it'll be easy for other companies or project managers to manage software projects.
Jacob-George - PeerSpot reviewer
Domain Consultant at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
Improved project scheduling has maximized resource utilization and has reduced delays
I think the licensing structure presents a significant area for improvement. The full features are not offered on the standard E4 license. This becomes problematic when distributing the project plan. I can export the plan as Excel and CSV files, but then I lose all the rich features, including dependency mapping. To recreate all that functionality without proper licensing is challenging. Microsoft Project offers a light version available for free, but when I try to distribute a project plan, it requires separate licensing. Microsoft Project Central used to be more of an enterprise product. Microsoft Project currently focuses on very low-level task management, and it could do much more. I do not see significant advancement happening because there is confusion about where Microsoft Project is heading. I believe Microsoft should bundle the license with Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This approach would result in more people using Microsoft Project. That is my opinion on how to improve adoption and the product offering.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The ease of use is valuable."
"The app functionality and ease of seeing the different functionalities parsed equally on the screen with consistent menu access to shift between areas."
"The ability to network informally is great for communicating with colleagues."
"The ability to network informally is great for communicating with colleagues."
"Microsoft Project is primarily for tracking your team, observing team activity, and tracking time for tasks."
"Combined with a project management methodology such as PMI for example, it is effective for monitoring and control."
"The solution is well established and runs very accurately."
"It is easy to use and pretty intuitive. User interfaces have stayed the same for the most part for the last 20 years. So, there is a familiarity."
"The most valuable feature is probably the Kanban diagram. People are familiar with the Kanban tools. When they do their scrum meetings, they have that Kanban board where you can see the different tiles for all the queries and move them from left to right. IT is familiar with that because, for development, most of the tools have that capability. It could also be more graphical, like Asana."
"It is easy to define timelines with Microsoft Project."
"The reporting and national resource capacity planning are the most valuable features."
"The solution is very complete. It makes it a great option for project managers and they can use it extensively in almost any organizational setup."
 

Cons

"The product isn't easy to use. It's not very intuitive."
"The solution could be more user-friendly."
"Formalized area to store contact information indexed in a way that can pre-populate other areas would be helpful."
"The product isn't easy to use. It's not very intuitive."
"I find the setup a little bit cumbersome."
"Project is not as easy to scale. It isn't a cloud-based solution where everybody can utilize it at the same time without version issues when you save your file."
"The online version of Microsoft Project lacks some functionality compared to the on-premises version."
"What could have been better is the integration with Office 365 so that if you're discussing a project on Teams or there's an email related to the project, it can be tagged to the project in Microsoft Project. That functionality is currently not there."
"It is positioned at the more high end. Sometimes it's more complicated than we need."
"The pricing is pretty high."
"The product or service could be more user-friendly, and forecasting could be better."
"The new version has made it a bit more complicated."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The product is not expensive. My company has opted for an annual subscription."
"It was a three-year license deal that was reconciled on a quarterly basis. It is a reasonably priced product, and I consider that we got good value for money."
"You do not have to invest much in terms of configuring this solution to suit your needs."
"We have to pay for a yearly license for Microsoft Project."
"The licensing model is somewhat complex."
"The license fees for the professional version, which is estimated to be approximately $1,600, and the standard version, which is approximately $1,200, may be considered expensive by some users. This is something that could be improved to make the platform more accessible to a wider audience."
"The solution has a decent annual license subscription cost, which is not high."
"I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
22%
Security Firm
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Aerospace/Defense Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise42
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
Has anyone moved from Microsoft Project to Smartsheet? How has your experience been with Smartsheet?
Hi @Eire Zimmermann, I helped an organization evaluate both MS-Project and Smartsheet when they were conducting their PM tool RFP. The short of it is this, MS Project is not caught up with the mo...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Project?
I would say Microsoft Project is affordable, but the standalone Project license should be included in the Office price to increase adoption.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Project?
I think the licensing structure presents a significant area for improvement. The full features are not offered on the standard E4 license. This becomes problematic when distributing the project pla...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Project Pro, MS Project
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ashland Addison Florist Co., Victory Auto Wreckers, Ideal Box Co., Hollymatic Corp.
Aston Martin, ABANCA, Airbus Group, Capita, Cardiff University, City of Saskatoon, Intel, Pegasus Airlines, South Australia Power Network (SAPN), Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing
Find out what your peers are saying about Basecamp vs. Microsoft Project and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.