Basecamp's pricing is unusual in project management: you pay one monthly price for a tier, not a price per person. That is simpler to budget, and for a large company it can be much cheaper. But each tier below the top one caps both users and active projects, and Basecamp counts everyone you add, clients included. This post sets out every plan from Basecamp's pricing page as it reads today, then works out where a per-seat tool costs less and where it costs more.
1. The Five Tiers
Free is one project, 1 GB of storage and up to 3 users. Freelancer is $29 a month for 3 active projects, 10 GB and up to 5 users. Pro is $79 a month for 8 active projects, 25 GB and up to 10 users. Pro Plus is $99 a month for 12 active projects, 100 GB and up to 15 users. Pro Unlimited is $199 a month billed annually, or $329 billed monthly, for unlimited projects and users and 1 TB of storage, with an extra 1 TB available for $50 a month. Basecamp's page shows an annual price only for Pro Unlimited.
2. What the Tiers Include
Every plan, Free included, lists support for ChatGPT, Claude and AI agents with full MCP support, and command-line access for agents you run yourself. Freelancer's card says multiple tools per project, templates and time tracking are not included; Pro Plus says it also includes time tracking. Paid plans come with a 30-day free trial with no credit card, registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits get 10% off, and K-12 and university classes can use Basecamp free for class work.
3. Clients Count
Basecamp's FAQ answers the question directly: every person you add is counted, including clients, contractors and guests, and Pro Unlimited includes unlimited users. So a 12-person agency with four client contacts in its projects is 16 people, past Pro Plus's cap of 15, and on Pro Unlimited. In Kavanah, clients you invite through the client portal are not charged as seats, so the same agency pays for 12: $36 a month on Basic, or $72 on Pro.
4. The Break-Even
Kavanah Basic is $3 a seat a month, or $2 billed yearly. Against Basecamp Pro Unlimited at $199 a month billed annually, Kavanah Basic billed monthly costs less up to 66 seats and more above that. Against Pro Unlimited billed monthly at $329, the line is 109 seats. Kavanah also has a flat option: Scale is $1,500 a month with unlimited seats and 200,000 AI credits, priced for workspaces where AI employees do much of the work. And Pay as you go has no seat fee at all; you buy AI credits in packs from $10 per 1,000.
5. Who Should Pay Flat
Basecamp's model rewards a large team that is happy with its tools: at 100 or 200 people, $199 a month is very hard to match. It is least kind to a small team with many clients, or a team that sits just over one cap and must jump a tier. Price your real headcount, clients included, and the number of active projects you run at once, before you compare.
Flat pricing is predictable, but the caps decide which flat price you pay. For the full dated comparison of Kavanah, Basecamp, Asana and ClickUp, see our Basecamp alternative page.
