Basecamp vs. Asana Vs. Trello vs. Insightly

Best Project Management Software

Ease of use

Trello is one of the easiest project management apps to use. The design is very simple, like an online whiteboard. There’s a single “main” page and it just takes one click to start drawing out a new project. Your projects line up side-by-side, so it’s easy to see everything you have going on.

Trello Home Screen

Adding a project takes to Basecamp taks a few extra steps. Once created, however, the project menu gives you a detailed overview. The first thing you see are the latest updates and discussions. To-do lists are located at the bottom. Basecamp also has several tabs on the top menu that give you different “views” of your project(s).

Basecamp Home Screen

A simple, easy to navigate system. The project tab is fairly simple, though a little convoluted. “Milestones” and “tasks” are separated. Also, there’s no easy way to add or reorder the steps of your project.

Insightly Project Page

Asana is designed like a desktop. There’s a series of windows you can open, close or switch between. Like Trello, the details of each project are hidden until you click on a task. This keeps the layout simple when you first open it, but finding a specific file or discussion can be difficult.

Asana Home Screen

Task management/to-do lists

You can create lists of tasks, define who is responsible for which tasks, and set due dates. They differ, however, in their advanced features and ease of use.

Each of these packages have basic task management tools

To-do lists are at the core of the system. You can instantly draw out projects step-by-step and edit or rearrange them with a single click. This makes it great for planning projects. It is not great, however, at managing tasks. There’s no simple way to view your assigned tasks.

Basecamp isn’t as great as Trello for quickly drawing and visualizing projects, but the task management is very strong. When team members are assigned tasks, they’ll show up on a personalized dashboard, so they don’t have to sort through the clutter to find what they should be working on.

There’s no quick way to draw out projects in Insightly. It’s also not very easy to edit or re-order project steps. It does, however, have fairly strong task management. You can set up a project so that once a stage is finished, all the tasks of the next stage are automatically sent out to employees.

Like Trello, Asana is centered around the to-do list. When you open a project, it appears at the center of the screen where you can quickly add, edit or re-order tasks. But unlike Trello, it also has pretty strong task management.

Collaboration (Communication Tools and File Management)

Some also have tools for team members to chat or discuss project details. We found that Basecamp has the best way of organizing files and discussions.

All of these programs allow you to attach

files to projects

Each card (task) has an activity stream of recent changes, text comments, files and subtasks. If you have a lot of steps in your project, however, it could be tough to track down a particular file or conversation.

Basecamp takes a different approach and places the activity stream on the project home page. This makes it much easier to view recent changes, open files or add to a discussion. You can start multiple discussions and give each a unique title.

Insightly doesn’t have any built-in communication tools, however every project has a unique email address you can cc to add the email to the project. Also, you can attach files to projects or tasks.

Asana is very similar to Trello in how each task has an activity stream of recent changes, comments, files and subtasks. Likewise, if you have lots of tasks, it could be tough to track down a particular file or conversation.

calendars

Or personal to-dos, can be very helpful for team collaboration. Some applications also give you other ways to visualize deadlines and to-dos.

A calendar that shows upcoming project deadlines

No Calendars.

Each project has its own calendar with due dates and events. You can also view a team-wide calendar that shows the schedule for every member and every project. You can also create custom calendars, which can be helpful for personal planning.

Insightly provides a team-wide calendar, which you can filter for individual team members.

Asana creates calendars for projects as well as a personal calendar.

Advanced features

Also, all them except Insightly allow you to create guest accounts for people like clients to view projects, but not edit them. Here’s the other advanced features each package offers:

Each one gives the ability to add permissions or admin accounts

No advanced features.

If you include 3rd party add-ons, then Bandcamp has many advanced features. You can integrate tools for time-tracking, accounting, bug tracking and Gantt charts, just to name a few. You can check out the full list here.

Insightly is also a CRM, so you can link projects to clients, organizations or opportunities. Also, it’s not exactly an advanced feature but Insightly’s project menu has excellent tools for sorting through projects.

Like Basecamp, you can integrate 3rd party tools for things like time-tracking, bug tracking, Gantt charts, and more. Here’s the full list of add-ons.

Customer service options

All except Trello, however, have support tickets you can fill out and submit to the staff. Basecamp also has twitter support for short questions.

None of them have phone or email support

Trello has a help resource web page with articles separated by category. You can also type in a question and search for relevant articles.

A very detailed help resource center with FAQs, articles, videos and a search bar to sort through all of it.

Insightly has a pretty simple help center. There’s searchable FAQs and

video tutorials.

Searchable help resource center with articles and videos. The articles are very in depth and well made.

Mobile app

For Android or iOS. They generally let you view all task and project details but give you limited editing abilities. None of the apps have offline support, meaning that you need internet to use most of the features.

Each of the software reviewed have an app

Free options

Trello has a free option for an unlimited number of users with an unlimited number of projects. It has most of the same features as the paid version except admin positions and permission levels.

No, but there’s a fully functional 60 day free trial.

The free version of Insightly has most of the same features as the paid version but you can only add 3 users. You can have an unlimited number of projects, but but only 2,500 records, which includes things like contacts, tasks, projects, organizations notes and emails.

You can have up to 15 users on the free version with unlimited projects, but like Trello, there’s no permission levels. You can’t control what users can view and edit.

paid options

If you have more than 7 or 8 team members, you’ll probably want to update Trello for the permission levels. The cost is $45/user/year, or about $360/year for a team of 8.

Basecamp gives you an unlimited number of users and instead charges you based on your number of projects and storage space: • $20/month for 10 active projects and 3 GB storage

• $50/month for 40 active projects and 15 GB storage

Basecamp is the most cost effective, at $240/year.

Upgrading Insightly gets you past the 3-user limit. It costs $7 per user per month. That’s about $670/year for a team of 8.

Like Trello, you can add administrator privileges and permission levels once you upgrade. This costs $50/month for up to 15 members, or $600/year.

The Bottom Line

Is if the software will be more efficient than your old methods. If it isn’t, then there’s no point in making the switch. If you’re still not sure which one fits you best, then Click here to read the full article and have a better idea.

The most important question to ask

Why we choose basecamp For small teams

Good project management software should be able to replace email completely as a collaborative tool. This is why we choose basecamp as the best project management software for small teams. It has all the features essential for small teams, and the tools are very strong.

Email is how most small groups collaborate

When basecamp is not the best software

However, because of the time it takes to set up a project, it may feel inefficient for drawing or visualizing small projects.

Basecamp excels at task management and collaboration for teams

Who want a tool for planning projects. Trello is not good at managing tasks or monitoring progress on a team level, but it’s flexible design makes it great for visualizing project steps.

Trello is great for very small teams (2-3 people)

And is great for small teams who work on a lot of projects at once (more than 10 or 15). Unlike Basecamp, there’s no hard limit on the number of projects you can have at one time.

Insightly combines CRM with Project Management

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