Comments on: Zoho Projects vs. 37 Signals Basecamp: Simplifying Web Project Management

By: John B

John B — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:26:03 +0000

I just spent two weeks looking learning and comparing Manymoon, Zoho Projects, Dooster, and BaseCamp, as I needed project management for a 5-person team working on product development. Google searches led me to try a few others (based on discussions such as this one), and I ended up settling on a lesser-know solution called TeamworkPM. Its the one we have settled on (based on messaging/forum, calendar, to-do/tasks/milestones, document sharing, pricing, support, and intuitive ease-of-use).

If you are evaluating a solution, I highly recommend you include this one on your list!

By: Gordon Montgomery (@

Gordon Montgomery (@ — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:12:12 +0000

Really good review. The issue for me is never will I or my tech folks use this but will the checkbook wielding non-tech client use it…? for that rason I am going basecamp…plus plugins, of course.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:22:26 +0000

That is some comparison. It must have taken many hours of research. Many thanks. Even though we had heard of and took a look at both softwares before getting Dooster.net it would have been nice to have had this information. We are a comparatively small organisation and Dooster does everything that Basecamp does that we need. It's been very good so far but we were quite nervous as we made the decision to go with it because everyone has to go Dooster or Basecamp or Zoho or whichever software you have chosen and you can't research them all for too long if you have business to deal with. We are relieved we got Dooster but this review would have helped a lot at the time.

By: Allyn

Allyn — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 14:29:49 +0000

Just wondering where the free version of BaseCamp is? I see a trial, but no free version. Perhaps that ended?

By: Trevor

Trevor — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:17:35 +0000

Interesting read. I thought I would add another online pm tool into the mix. I use Dooster which both myself and my clients find really straightforward to use. I recommend taking a look. http://www.dooster.net

By: Jeremy Reither

Jeremy Reither — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:48:28 +0000

@Kathy, though you might like to know that (as a follow-up to my previous comment), I have come a full 180 degrees, and am now a big believer in Basecamp. It has proved to be a great tool for us, primarily because it has been well adopted by my clients…which has ended up being more valuable for us than Zoho's extra bells and whistles. Zoho was just a little too complex for my non-techy clients.

By: Tiffany Lymon

Tiffany Lymon — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 06:39:01 +0000

Thanks for the comparison! Great timesaver for my team!

By: Promote | R3R Internet Marketing & Consulting

Promote | R3R Internet Marketing & Consulting — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:06:08 +0000

[...] Task Tracking: The monthly invoices they send me just consist of a total amount due for the month. This is because I’ve signed up for a flat number of hours to be billed per month…so I can certainly understand why they do it that way. But it would be really nice to be able to – just like any other service bill – see an itemized breakdown of what work was performed during the billing period. With my current VA this isn’t a big deal, but if I had an under-performing VA, I’d definitely like to cross-check how many hours were being spent on each task. Update (6/30/2008): I created a time tracking spreadsheet in eXpresso (update: I have since switched to Google Docs (see a sample time tracking worksheet)) and my VA now updates this sheet daily with tasks worked. The spreadsheet is online, so we don’t have to e-mail it back and forth. Depending on your needs, you could also use a light project management tool like Basecamp (or Zoho Projects). [...]

By: Jeremy Reither

Jeremy Reither — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:43:20 +0000

@Kathy – well it’s been a few more months and we’re still with Zoho Projects if that tells you anything (ie: we haven’t grown out of it). I suppose at the time I wrote that last comment I was wishing for a couple features that Zoho didn’t offer. If you ask me now, though, none are jumping out at me. We’ve settled into using Zoho regularly…it really does meet our needs well.

On a side note: per a client’s request we’re using Basecamp to manage their project, and I have to reiterate the usability of that program is very intuitive, and feature-set has improved quite a bit since my initial review. Zoho is still more robust than Basecamp, and offers a broader set of features (like Timesheet, Forums, and Chat), but from an aesthetics and usability perspective Basecamp is really well done.

By: Kathy L.

Kathy L. — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:28:30 +0000

J. Reither:

Thanks for your comparison post. I'm curious, in what way are you outgrowing Zoho Projects? Is it user capacity? Need for more/different functionality? I'm wondering what the signs are for outgrowing Zoho? Thanks. Kathy.