How does Goplan compare to 37Signals' Basecamp?
What are the major differences? What are the key selling points?
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Create a customer community for your own organization
Plans starting at $19/month
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Inappropriate?Good question. I'd say the feature set (we have issue tracking which is particularly important in software development projects), the user interface (I'm naturally biased, but I disagree with some of basecamp's UI inconsistencies) and the fact that we're passionate about making people happy - we've actually been called by one of our very first paying users "37signals but without the as*holes", which we found funny.
We're just glad people find our product helpful in managing their projects and collaborating with their peers.
I’m happy
2 people say
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?i use both but neither fulfill my needs completely. i wish goplan had better blog (photo enabled) and messaging capabilities. but generally, i like the UI much better with GP.
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Inappropriate?I was using Basecamp before but got tired of its UI. I needed something more streamlined, thus Goplan came up as good choice.
I also wish for better blog and messaging capabilities.
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Inappropriate?Basecamp Pros:
- Company-centric: you can setup client companies and users under those companies as well as your company with users under your company and manage the permissions of each. You can also have your company logo on there if that's a big deal to you. The ability to use this within my company and with my clients is SO much better than the current GoPlan. With GoPlan, just to begin assigning tasks to one of my employees I have to invite them to the project and then until they accept the invitation. With Basecamp you can create your project and right way setup the users and permissions and begin assigning tasks etc.
- You have a specific URL for your login/space (ex. yourcompany.projectpath.com)
- Writeboards: these are organized better and have better features than the goplan notes (GoPlan you have to view the full notes all on a huge page and can't just select by title)
- Task Lists: the way they handle task organization is nice, but it lacks the nested tasks and due dates for tasks like GoPlan has
- messaging: the way you can interact with messages (works well for project notes/comments) via email is great and you can upload files by attaching them to messages.
- AJAX: they limit page reloads as much as possible which is nice
GoPlan Pros:
- tickets: they've at least got a tickets feature
- nested tasks: this is really nice, but it could be way better if you could simply assign a parent task when creating a task
- the much talked about GoPlan 2 sounds like it will be MUCH better and I will prefer it over basecamp if it ever comes out.
All this said, I've still decided to begin using GoPlan recently, but haven't cancelled my basecamp account, mostly hoping GoPlan 2 is coming soon, but I've been increasingly frustrated that it seems now like that's a total unknown in terms of when it's happening and am wondering whether I need to switch back until GoPlan 2 is actually live. It would be nice if they would at least commit to a release SEASON or something (ex. first quarter 2009). GoPlan 2 SOUNDS like it's basically basecamp PLUS all the things I've always wanted basecamp to have.
I’m impatient
1 person says
this answers the question
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Awesome comment - your comparison is spot on. One of the good things about Goplan 2 is that it will tackle most of the things you've noted as superior on Basecamp. The bad thing about it is that it is a full rewrite which is the main reason why it's taking so long to actually be released. Here's what I can tell you about those Basecamp pros and how Goplan 2 compares:
- Goplan 2 is company centric as well. We've streamlined the company process so Goplan doens't feel like an application for people adapted to groups. It now feels like an actual service that you "plug" into your existing infrastructure.
- URLs will be customizable as well (this was one of the very first things we implemented, and our current alpha already has URL customization). We're also planning (although it's not on the top of our priority list) to allow people to point their own domains to Goplan and we do the rest (i.e. intranet.mycompany.com would be mycompany's Goplan instance).
- Writeboards we wont have for now. We're planning for a system where a company can maintain a knowledge base but we're not releasing it with the first iteration of Goplan 2. It'll probably arrive at a later date.
- Ajax and page reloads: all the screens on GP2 are being redesigned with this in mind. One of the things we don't like about Goplan as it is today is that most things need full page reloads. We're done with that story.
Goplan 2 is on the way. We have been avoiding talking about dates because there's so many things we want to think about and do before we commit to a date. I can tell you it's definitely coming during or before the first quarter 2009 - we're betting on the latter. We're going as fast as we can, but we also want to make sure we don't do a shitty job. I think you'll be happy when we're done, and rest assured we'll let you test it out before it is released officially. -
Inappropriate?I'm waiting for either to offer some basic support for non-English speakers. It's crippling when you have 1 team member who isn't a native English speaker.
This is the obvious issue for online project management! Hey Basecamp and GoPlan - do you know how to integrate Google Translate?
I’m frustrated
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David, we *absolutely* get your frustration, and while we're lanching Goplan2 in English only, we'll be rolling out more languages later for sure. We feel like this is in fact an impediment for some people, and we don't want it to be. Out of curiosity, what extra languages would you be looking for? -
Inappropriate?Thanks for your response GoPlan. I have a Spanish team member who won't use it. I think I will want to add a Chinese team member soon. I hope you'll discuss the idea in your team.
I’m como cualquier and 不为所动
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Inappropriate?Tickets.
What I'd like to see is an easier way to create and link tasks to tickets. Tasks can be steps to accomplish to complete a ticket. Tickets are requests/requirements (internal or external) and are the core item of planning requirements.
Perhaps don't have a tasks section. You can only access tasks by viewing a ticket and seeing the tasks you've created for it.
Or, have reverse/reciprocal linking: I link a task to a ticket (using a tag) and the ticket automatically links to the task. Same for events.
Basecamp does this reverse linking well.
I think GoPlan is better value for money. It's a pain having to recycle projects all the time.
I do like how you can view archived projects in Basecamp whereas GoPlan doesn't let you view them. Might as well delete them :)
I’m trying to use GoPlan like Basecamp
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Ditto! -
This is the address for GoPlan2 http://goplanapp.com/ -
Inappropriate?The current version of goplan is indeed version "2", it can be found at: http://goplanapp.com
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