Basecamp is the subscription-based, hosted 100 pound gorilla – everyone’s heard of him and he’s a crowd favorite. ActiveCollab is the one-time fee, open source, server-side, up-and-coming contender.
Distinct but balanced pros and cons make this battle too close to call in advance. It will depend on what fits the needs of your organization as one isn’t clearly better than the other.
We’ve been using Basecamp since 2007. From the beginning, Basecamp wasn’t a perfect solution for us. In our line of work as virtual assistants, clients want frequent updates on their time usage. Basecamp doesn’t allow clients to see time entries in a project – the option just doesn’t exist. So, we are forced to use a script to generate these reports for each client every evening. This is a $250/month fee in addition to what we already pay for Basecamp.
That’s frustrating in itself, but we started running into a lot of problems with Timepost which posts time entries into Basecamp. This is the only solution available for Mac OS X (we are 100% mac) so this is a major problem.
The combination of spending more than I felt we should have to and being inconvenienced by manually entering hundreds of time entries onto projects each day got me looking into other solutions. I stumbled into ActiveCollab, tried out the demo, and ended up becoming enamored with it. We are in the process of (slowly) switching our entire organization over.
Here’s a pro – con comparison to explain why:
ActiveCollab by A51 d.o.o:
- CON: You run the risk of hosting it. Your server goes down for some reason, your clients get upset.
- CON: Those clients who are already familiar with Basecamp may be annoyed with having to learn the (minor) differences between the two.
- PRO: You pay for it and you have it. No subscription fees.
- PRO: Much greater control over permissions and roles. Basecamp is extremely limited by comparison.
- PRO: “Modules” allow you to extend functionality versus more closed, Basecamp.
- Billing
- PRO: Very similar functionality is going to make it easy to switch.
- PRO: “Tickets” functionality is useful and a definite advantage over Basecamp – though not yet robust enough for larger organizations.
- PRO: Clients can access time entries and run their own reports (unlike Basecamp)
- PRO: Mobile/iPhone version means clients on the go can easily access their Client Area (project). Do note that the iPhone version allows you to access project information but not add or edit tasks, pages, tickets, etc. I was disappointed by this. It’s nice that they have it but the mobile version is crippled in terms of functionality.
- PRO: “Themes” allow you to match the look and feel of ActiveCollab to your website (Basecamp only allows you to change colors).
- PRO: Invoicing module for service based businesses and Subversion module for programmers.
Basecamp by 37signals:
- CON: No modules means you are limited to what they deem “necessary” and “unnecessary” in terms of features and functionality. Their minimalist approach means you can expect them to error on the side of “less functionality and features” in favor of “ease of use and simplicity.”
- PRO: OpenID log in and your login can be linked to other offerings in the 37signals ecosystem.
- PRO: iPhone apps can interact with it.
- PRO: Some clients are already familiar with it and so can “get up and go” with us right away.
- PRO: They host it so I don’t have to worry about getting SSL, backing it up, etc.
For our company, I like knowing that we can modify ActiveCollab’s code if needed and add new modules to extend functionality. If the functionality of Basecamp perfectly meets your needs, and you don’t mind paying a monthly subscription, the hassle of self-hosting may not be worth it.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a nice comparison of the two solutions. When I first read the title I wasn’t sure how you were going to go about writing a review comparing an open source solution with a closed one. But you’ve done it well and it helps clarify the fundamental reasons everyone should consider when trying to decide between open source or an online web-based solution. The hosting variable is a big one that many small businesses may get hung up on, especially without systems administration skills.
May I also suggest Intervals as an in between solution to these two? It’s great for those looking for an alternative to the Basecamp experience.
I used BASECAMP…and it’s a great software..but it is too rigid and lack of some really needed functionalities. Beyond price convenience, ActiveCollab give you more freedom and it brings you the possibility to add some real great modules, like planning and reports modules from appsmagnet.com (an indian developer that is great!).
Conclusion for me: AC, definitively is great.
My PRO is to activeCollab.
Great advantage of activeCollab is that it is flexible and can easily be customized to meet needs of companies in almost all spheres.
Our company works in sphere of IT, and as activeCollab is open source we have developed several modules for aC that helped us to make our work more productive:
http://www.uswebstyle.com/ac_modules.html