Launch: Basecamp Gets Personal

Since the beginning, Basecamp has been marketed as a project management and collaboration tool for small businesses (or small teams inside larger businesses).

However, over the years we’ve also heard from thousands of people who use Basecamp outside of work. They’ve gone off-label and turned to Basecamp to help them manage all sorts of personal projects too. No surprise there – it really works!

But one complaint we’ve heard is that Basecamp is priced for businesses, not for personal side projects. We felt it was finally time to do something about that.

So today we’re formally introducing Basecamp Personal – a completely free Basecamp plan designed specifically for freelancers, students, families, and personal projects. Why should businesses be the only ones who get to use Basecamp to manage projects? We The People deserve a Basecamp for us, too!

  • You deserve a Basecamp for home improvement projects
  • You deserve a Basecamp to manage your girl/boy scout troops.
  • You deserve a Basecamp to manage your weddings.
  • You deserve a Basecamp to manage your hobbies.
  • You deserve a Basecamp to manage your volunteer projects.
  • You deserve a Basecamp to manage your family events.
  • You deserve a Basecamp to manage your sports teams.
  • You deserve a Basecamp to manage your neighborhood association.
  • You deserve a Basecamp for small freelance gigs.
  • You deserve a Basecamp for personal side projects.
  • You deserve a Basecamp to manage all sorts of personal stuff!

And you want it for free! You got it.

What do I get?
Basecamp Personal includes 3 projects, 20 users, and a gig of storage space. So kick off a couple projects, invite some friends, family, teammates, or volunteers. Stretch your wings a little, and discover the benefits of organizing your personal projects the Basecamp way.

No credit card required. No justification required. No obligation required. No ads. No selling your personal information. It’s Small Tech at its best. It’s The Basecamp Way. Basecamp Personal is on us, for you. Check it out and claim your free account today. We’d love to hear what you end up using it for.

BTW, if Basecamp Personal sounds familiar, it’s because we used to have a Personal plan way back when. It was $25 per-project. This new one is completely free, so it’s better in every way.

38 thoughts on “Launch: Basecamp Gets Personal

    1. Hmm, timestamps aren’t localized—shows I left it at 1:45pm (Chicago time, I imagine), while it’s 11:45am for me over here on the west coast.

  1. Hey, this is great news! I tried Basecamp at work in the early oughts, and would love to take the latest release for a spin for personal projects.

    1. To add clarity, when you click on the Signup for the Personal plan using an iPhone – the first thing you see on the Step 1 signup page is that the free version costs $99.

      Why are you even showing me the business plan on the signup page when coming from the Free Pwrsonal plan page.

      It’s confusing.

  2. This is a very good news, thank you!

    And while I am here… Do you have any plans to make Basecamp’s design responsive? And no, I don’t mean the mobile-phones-resolution-type-of-responsive-version (even though that clearly needs improvement), but the version for just normal desktops.

    It’s a bit ridiculous that even with such a wide-spread and not-overly-large monitor resolution as 1080p, the usable area is about 1/3 of the whole screen width. On bigger monitors and with bigger resolutions? Basecamp utilization of the screen real estate looks even more wasteful!

    And it’s not like “MVP” changes would be that difficult – just increasing the width of the sub-categories and filling the space with projects (if there is enough of them) and other types of information would be a great improvement.

    I would love to say that I am your fan and a very happy user of Basecamp (“and would be an even happier if you would improve the aspect I mentioned above”). Unfortunately only half of that is true.

    I am a total supporter of the things you say and produce. I an avid reader of your blog, I listen to your podcast, I read you guys on twitter, I bought your book, I loved Jason’s practical youtube videos, I love ruby and program in Rails, I think that Singer’s “Shape up” book is beyond amazing and I have been sharing the information about it since it was released, etc, etc…

    I am a supporter of the things you produce, less the Basecamp software itself. I have been trying to use it (the Hill Chart feature sounds like a total killer!) several times over these years, but just can’t force myself. I go there, see the 90s look and just turn away; the (lack of) utilization of the valuable screen space is just killing me.

    Even now, the company I work in, is undergoing process improvements. Basecamp could well be a part of that equation. I even registered (once again) to try and see if Basecamp is a fit for the company’s needs. Unfortunately half of the trial is already gone and nothing has been done – every time I sign in, I just run away… Alas, I am not joking…

    I can’t even force myself to use it, let alone be an internal promoter and persuade other people to use it.

    This is a really sad situation! Basecamp seems like a great “cultural fit” for me, but…

    I hope that you take my opinion into consideration. Maybe while designing Basecamp4, or perhaps there is even hope to get some quick fixes in Basecamp3 already?

  3. New marketing director Andy and boom : carefully crafted and branded freemium plan launched ! Smart and spot on as usual.

    Wonder what support you’ll be offering on the personal plan.

  4. I am happy to hear this as I currently subscribe for my wife and I for $50 per month which is steep for our budget. It would be difficult to limit our projects after having had access to unlimited. I would personally welcome an option to pay for a family account (maybe 4 users) with unlimited projects for an amount less than the $50/month rate. I am also a huge fan of the podcasts, books, and other insights offered so I’ve justified the cost that way. Regardless, thank you for all of your work and the content you deliver.

  5. THANKS!!!! This is so good. We have been using Basecamp to plan and organise our family for a while

  6. Wait a second. So you talk about how people deserve Basecamp for like 20 different things but then you provide only 3 projects for them to use it? Isn’t it just a try to get freelancers to try your product and eventually switch to business plan once they see the value?

  7. Guess I was wrong above – Basecamp Personal is really to give back and offer a free product, not a marketing strategy. Anyway, still love the paying version of BC, may try the personal version at home!

    Bravo Basecamp.

  8. @Jason

    Why free and not charge something nominal like $19/mo?

    You’ve advocated for years to be a business that charges for your service. Why the change in mindset now?

  9. Great news! I’ve always been curious about basecamp for personal projects, but the business rate was too steep compared to what I could get from (otherwise less appealing) competitors.

    One suggestion: the step function from three to four projects is pretty steep, it would be nice if there was a more incremental option.

    Thanks so much for this!

  10. Better late than never. Maybe some might think this is just a small marketing strategy, but freemium model bring equal access to anyone around the globe, and Basecamp deserve more users who could really benefit from the Personal Plan. Thank you very much.

  11. As if I didn’t love this company so much already and day dreaming about working there one day now they go and share their amazing product for free. Great tool, Genuine, authentic and generous. I’m swooning!

  12. Incredibly awesome, I was waiting for this for a long-long time!

    I’ve accidentally ended up on Basecamp’s site today and found this out!

    Thanks guys, you are the best!

    P.s. I’m going to spread word about this on every platform I can.

  13. Using Basecamp with a group of 130 people scattered around the world for joint projects, it saved my life! will let them know about Personal, thanks!

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