Basecamp is the agency-adjacent opinionated tool we respect most. The reason to leave is the same reason agencies leave Notion or Asana — visibility is project-level, not per-task. Workhouse takes Basecamp's philosophy of opinionated simplicity and pushes the boundary down to the data layer.
Free during beta · Migration help included · 30-second setup
Basecamp is one of the rare tools that respects the difference between internal and client work. Per-project client access, native message boards, and a focused product surface — there's a lot to like, and many agencies have been happy on Basecamp for years.
The reason agencies move on is the same shape in every case: the visibility unit is the project, not the task. Inside a single client engagement, you'll have internal-only conversations and client-visible deliverables that need to coexist on the same task. Basecamp's answer is a separate internal project, which means the same drift problem as Notion or Asana — two task lists, one engagement.
We like Basecamp's philosophy. Workhouse is what happens when you push that philosophy down one more level — visibility becomes a flag on every task, not a project setting.
The dimensions that matter when an agency is the audience.
| Basecamp | Workhouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Per-task visibility for clients | Project-level only | Per-task flag, enforced in SQL |
| Client portal | Per-project client access (clients see whole project) | Scoped per-client, branded as yours |
| Approvals workflow | Manual via to-do lists + comments | Native — on the deliverable, tracked in the activity feed |
| Audit log | Activity history per project; nothing immutable workspace-wide | Immutable, included on every workspace |
| Weekly status reports | Manual; Basecamp has 'check-in' questions but doesn't draft reports | AI-drafted from the week's actual activity |
| Internal vs. client work in one project | Separate projects | One project, per-task flag |
| Pricing model | Flat per-user or fixed-fee Basecamp Pro Unlimited | Free during beta |
We're built for agencies. Basecamp is excellent for everything else.
Beta migration is hands-on. We do the first one for you.
Basecamp's export covers to-dos, message boards, schedules, documents, and comments per project.
Send to migrate@workhouse.app. We'll map projects to Workhouse clients/projects and identify your internal/client convention.
Paired internal/client Basecamp projects collapse into one Workhouse project per client. To-dos become tasks. Message-board threads come over as task comments where they're scoped to specific work; standalone threads become messages in the client space.
Each client gets a portal invite. The visibility flag does what your separate projects used to do — but now they're on the same task.
“We ran Conversion Factory in Notion for years. Two databases, hundreds of dollars a month in Zapier glue, copy-pasting client comments into Slack to discuss them. At some point we realized we were building a whole new app on top of Notion — badly, with duct tape. So we built the app instead.”
Same philosophy (opinionated, focused, agency-friendly), different visibility unit. Basecamp's unit is the project — you decide which projects a client sees. Workhouse's unit is the task — you decide which tasks a client sees, even inside the same project. The result is fewer projects, less drift, and one place for every conversation about a deliverable.
Yes. Export each project's data, email us, we'll handle the migration during beta. Paired internal/client Basecamp projects typically collapse into one Workhouse project per client.
Workhouse has per-client messaging that maps closely to message boards (and respects the same visibility model). For team chat that isn't tied to a client, most teams pair Workhouse with Slack or Discord.
No. The closest equivalent is the per-project status report, which is AI-drafted weekly from real activity. Different philosophy of progress communication — Basecamp says 'show the curve,' Workhouse says 'send the writeup.' Both honest.
Workhouse is free during beta. At paid pricing, the comparison depends on team size — Basecamp's flat fee favors larger teams; per-seat pricing favors smaller. We'll publish numbers when paid plans launch.
Basecamp gives clients full visibility into the projects they're invited to. Workhouse gives clients per-task visibility within a project — including tasks they can see and tasks they can't, on the same project. That's the structural difference.