Basecamp vs Milanote Comparison 2026
Both cover project management. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Flat pricing that stops caring how big you get
A board for the vague part of a project
At a glance
- Milanote starts cheaper, at $9.99.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Basecamp | Milanote | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $15 | From $9.99 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 30 days | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on | Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Basecamp
Flat pricing that stops caring how big you get
Basecamp organises work as projects containing message boards, to-do lists, files and a chat room, and it has stayed close to that shape for twenty years. The reason to choose it is the pricing rather than the features: above a certain team size it is one flat monthly fee for everybody, and clients and guests are never billed at all. That makes it unusually easy to reason about for a studio that grows and shrinks. The free package runs a single project, which is a real way to test it rather than a demo.
Only on this side
- Covers hiring & freelancers
Milanote
A board for the vague part of a project
Milanote is a freeform board for notes, images, links and files, which is what planning looks like before it is a task list. Moodboards, story outlines and channel plans all sit better here than in a document. The free account has no time limit and stops at a hundred items, which is a real project rather than a demo. Anybody who wants deadlines, assignees and a burndown should buy a project tool instead, because this deliberately has none of that.
Our note
The hundred-item limit counts everything on every board, so it arrives faster than it reads and usually mid-project, which is the worst moment to be asked for a card. If you plan visually at all, budget for the paid tier from the start rather than treating the free one as a trial.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.