Basecamp vs Zoom Comparison 2026
Both cover project management. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
At a glance
- Basecamp starts cheaper, at $15.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Basecamp | Zoom | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $15 | From $20 |
| 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 | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on |
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
Zoom
The call everyone can already join
Zoom is the video call most guests will not have to install anything to attend, which is the whole argument for using it over something better. For a creator it is the interview, the client call and the coaching session, and the local recording it writes for each participant is what makes it usable as a source for an edit. The free plan caps a group meeting at forty minutes. Paid plans are per host, and the add-ons for large webinars and cloud storage are priced separately from the seat.
Only on this side
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.