Basecamp vs Linear: which one fits your team?
One is the record of what shipped, the other the record of what was decided. Together they cover almost everything except the hours in between.
It turns on whether your bottleneck is tracking the build or capturing the thinking.
Pick Basecamp if
your work is client shaped and full of discussion, and you want fewer meetings and less chat. Where it stops: it deliberately will not tell you when the work happens.
Pick Linear if
you ship software and you want the sharpest place there is to track issues and cycles. Where it stops: there is no calendar, so it never says when the work happens.
What it costs
For a team of 5, billed yearly: Basecamp is about $900 a year, Linear is about $480 a year, and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT. Between the two of them Linear is $420 a year cheaper at that size.
Basecamp: Free for one project. $15 per user per month, or $299 a month flat for unlimited users. Linear: Free tier, then around $8 to $14 per seat per month.
Where they part company
Linear does more on 9 of them
- linking pull requests to the work
- dependencies and a timeline
- having a free plan
- having a plan for today
- being the place the tasks actually live
- showing who has room
- portfolio and agile reporting
- rules that fire on their own
- AI that does the work rather than the scheduling
Basecamp does more on 4 of them
- two way calendar sync
- turning meetings into tasks
- docs and a wiki inside
- being useful before you configure it
Side by side
| What it does | Basecamp | Linear | UnaTask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time blocking on a calendar | No | No | Core |
| A plan for today and this week | No | Partly. Cycles and lists, not a day laid out against hours. | Core |
| Two way calendar sync | Partly. A schedule per project, not a calendar you plan a week on. | No | Yes |
| It is the task manager itself | Yes | Core | Core |
| Dependencies and a timeline | No. Left out on purpose. It is a philosophy, not an oversight. | Yes | Yes. Dependencies with a timeline that shows what is waiting on what. |
| See who has room | Partly | Yes | Core |
| Booking links | No | No | Yes |
| Meetings become tasks | Partly | No | Yes |
| Email and chat become tasks | Partly | Partly | Yes |
| Pull requests linked to work | No | Core. Strong native pull request linking, with status driven from branches. | Yes |
| Docs and wiki inside | Yes. Message boards, docs and check ins per project. | Partly | Partly. Docs live on a project, they are not a wiki you would run a company from. |
| Portfolio or agile reporting | Partly | Yes | Partly. Team workload and project progress, not portfolios that roll up to a board. |
| Rules that fire on their own | Partly | Yes | Yes |
| AI that does the work, not just the scheduling | No | Partly | Yes. AI teammates you assign a task to. The work comes back on the task for review. |
| Useful before you configure it | Core | Yes | Core |
| A free plan | No | Yes | Yes |
What should not decide it
They answer the same on 3: time blocking on a calendar, booking links and turning email and chat into tasks.
And where UnaTask sits
UnaTask is the hours in between, and it links back to the build so the plan and the code stay in step.
It does more than both of them on time blocking on a calendar, having a plan for today, two way calendar sync, showing who has room, booking links, turning meetings into tasks, turning email and chat into tasks and AI that does the work rather than the scheduling.
Common questions
Basecamp vs Linear: which should I pick?
Pick Basecamp if your work is client shaped and full of discussion, and you want fewer meetings and less chat. Pick Linear if you ship software and you want the sharpest place there is to track issues and cycles.
What is the biggest difference between Basecamp and Linear?
The clearest gap is linking pull requests to the work, where Linear does more than Basecamp. Underneath that, Basecamp is a place to write things down together, with the work living inside the writing, and Linear is a system of record for software work, built around issues and cycles.
Is Basecamp or Linear cheaper?
For a team of 5, billed yearly: Basecamp is about $900 a year, Linear is about $480 a year, and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT. Between the two of them Linear is $420 a year cheaper at that size.
What do Basecamp and Linear have in common?
They answer the same on 3 of our 16 axes: time blocking on a calendar, booking links and turning email and chat into tasks. Those are the things that should not decide it for you.
Where does UnaTask fit against Basecamp and Linear?
UnaTask does more than both on time blocking on a calendar, having a plan for today and two way calendar sync. It is free on your own and €10 per seat for a team, with every feature included. Where it does less: it is not an issue tracker with sprints and burndown, and it is not a documentation workspace.
Details checked 2 August 2026 and June 2026.