After years of using tools packed with automations, dashboards, custom views, and endless configuration options, I ended up trying Basecamp with a fair amount of skepticism. I expected it to feel too basic, but that wasn’t really the case. What won me over first was the user experience. I honestly can’t remember the last time I introduced someone to a project management platform and didn’t have to explain where everything was. With Basecamp, most people understood the structure in just a few minutes. Projects, tasks, messages, files, and schedules are all right there, without layers of menus or hidden settings to figure out. I’ve also liked the new Basecamp 5 experience quite a bit. The Everything views let me see activity, tasks, and conversations across multiple projects from one place, which saves me from constantly jumping between projects just to get a general picture of what’s going on. Hill Charts also ended up becoming something I use regularly. At first, I completely ignored them, but over time I realized they show real progress much better than a simple completion percentage. More than once, they helped me spot tasks that looked like they were moving forward but were actually still blocked by decisions that hadn’t been made yet.

It provides a central location to see past communication versus sifting through emails.

I appreciate the most in Basecamp its simplicity and organization of work and teamwork. With all the necessary information being in one platform, it becomes possible to eliminate the necessity of having too many applications at hand for performing your task and stay concentrated on work.