Basecamp vs Granola
Pricing
Basecamp: Free tier (1 project), paid from $25/mo, Unlimited $299/mo
Granola: Free tier (30 days of history), Business $14 per user/mo
Description
Basecamp: The OG project management tool
Granola: AI meeting notepad that captures your computer's audio without a bot joining the call and turns your rough notes into full ones
Pros
- All-in-one (chat, docs, tasks, schedule)
- Flat monthly pricing by number of projects, not per user
- 20 years of refinement
- No bot joins the call: it records the audio on your own device
- Apps for desktop, iOS, Android and Apple Watch
- Audio is deleted after transcription, and you can opt out of model training
Cons
- Opinionated (their way or highway)
- Free plan allows only one project and five users
- The free plan only shows the last 30 days of meeting history
- Integrations with Notion, HubSpot, Attio and Zapier, and API access, need the $14 Business plan
Details
Basecamp is project management from the people who wrote the book on bootstrapping (literally: REWORK, Shape Up). Built by Jason Fried and DHH at 37signals. Over 100k paying customers, profitable from day one, famously bootstrapped (except a small Bezos investment in 2006). They also make HEY email.
Plans are priced by active projects. Free covers one project for up to five users. Freelancer costs $25/mo for 3 active projects and up to 20 users, Studio $59/mo for 10 projects, Pro $99/mo for 25 projects with time tracking, and Unlimited $299/mo billed annually for unlimited projects. Studio and above allow unlimited users.
Granola is a notepad for meetings. You jot rough notes during the call while Granola transcribes the audio from your computer, and afterwards it enhances your notes with what was said. Because it records device audio, nobody else in the meeting sees a bot.
It suits founders with back-to-back calls who want usable notes without an assistant in the room. You can chat with your notes across meetings, share folders and connect your notes to Claude or ChatGPT through MCP.
The free Basic plan has the core features but keeps only 30 days of history. Business, at $14 per user a month, adds unlimited history, follow-up emails, pre-meeting briefs and the integrations.
Verified
