Client work is one of the main reasons teams choose Basecamp. Its client mode lets you decide, project by project, what clients can see, and clients join the same project the team works in. The cost is in the counting: below Pro Unlimited, every client you add uses one of your tier's user slots. This post looks at the three things a client-facing team needs, a place for clients, a way to get sign-off, and hours you can bill, and how each works in Basecamp and in Kavanah.
1. A Place for Clients
Basecamp's features page describes client mode as controlling what clients can see, project by project, and its pricing FAQ says clients, contractors and guests all count toward the user cap unless you are on Pro Unlimited. Kavanah keeps clients in a separate client portal. A client you invite sees only the projects shared with them, can follow their tasks, upload files and post in the project's discussions, and is not charged as a seat on any plan. Private projects are never reachable from the portal.
2. Sign-Off That Leaves a Record
Approval is where client work usually leaks into email. In Kavanah's portal, a client can approve or reject a task, a project, a file or a discussion, with a comment, and the decision is recorded in the audit log. Clients can also download an export of their project. Basecamp's features page does not describe a client approval step, so check how your team handles sign-off today before you decide it matters.
3. Hours You Can Bill
Basecamp's pricing page lists time tracking from Pro Plus, and its integrations page lists dedicated time trackers such as Harvest, Clockify and Everhour. Kavanah tracks time natively on every plan. Time can be marked billable and tied to a client, rates can be set per entry, per project or per client, and an admin can turn on rounding to a billing increment such as six minutes; it is off by default because it changes what clients are charged. If you connect ClearBooks, an admin can create a draft invoice from a client's unbilled time. It is created as a draft and never sent automatically.
4. A Worked Example
Take an agency of 8 people running 10 client projects with one contact per client. In Basecamp that is 18 people and 10 active projects, within Pro Plus's 12 projects but past its 15 users, so it is Pro Unlimited at $199 a month billed annually. In Kavanah it is 8 seats: $24 a month on Basic or $48 on Pro, with the 10 clients in the portal at no seat cost. If the agency grows past about 66 people, Basecamp's flat fee becomes the cheaper of the two.
5. Where Basecamp Still Wins
Basecamp puts clients inside the same calm tools the team uses, message boards and to-dos included, and many clients find that simpler than a separate portal. If your client relationships run on conversation more than on approvals and billed hours, and you are already on Pro Unlimited, the case for moving is weak. If you are paying for client seats, chasing sign-off by email and tracking hours in a separate tool, it is strong.
Client work needs a place for clients, a record of their sign-off, and hours you can bill, ideally without paying a seat for every client. For the full comparison of Kavanah, Basecamp, Asana and ClickUp, see our Basecamp alternative page.
