Project management software- comparison analysis between Binfire & Basecamphq

Basecamhq is well established as leading online project management software in the market today. It is easy to uses and it is not very expensive.  The conventional wisdom says when shopping for online project management you need to compare the available options. I have evaluated basecamphq against another service which I use offered by binfire.

Basecamphq provides simple to-do list, a text based whiteboard and a chat service called Campfire. The app is easy to use and the interface is simple and basic. For large projects, the tools are too simplified. For example there is not relationship between tasks like which one should finish before others can start etc.  Also there is no way to use top down task design methodology. This is especially important in larger projects when you want to break down a project to high level tasks and then break down each task to smaller tasks and so.

Binfire on the other hand is a more robust project management application and delivers more value for the money. It provides complete task management including WBS and the ability to tie tasks together (task dependency), plus supporting top down design for breaking tasks to smaller tasks. It has built in status reporting mechanism which basecamp does not, plus a host of other features like interactive whiteboard supporting text, drawing and images, group chat with chat history, content  management  to enable collaboration, collaborative markup tools and more. But what really sets Binfire apart is the use of social features throughout the application. These features make managing and collaborating on a project much simpler. As an example if you are interested in the status of a file or a task, by one click you can “star” it. When you do so, you will get notification every time the status of the object you starred is changed. For example if you are waiting for the latest version of a document which is being worked on by you colleague, just star that document. Every time your colleague updates the file, you get notified. The collaborative features enhanced by social media set Binfire apart from other project management applications. Binfire covers the 3C’s of project management applications namely to coordinate, communicate and collaborate.

In terms of pricing, for $99 / month you get 100 projects and 30GB storage in Basecamphq. For the same Dollar amount, you get 100 projects with more advanced features and 100GB storage in Binfire.

Conclusion- Binfire is a better value when compared to basecamphq when it comes to project management software. It is more sophisticated and provides tools needs for managing a project. The use of social tools in the application makes it an even more attractive option.