Basecamp vs Sunsama: which one fits your team?
A workspace is where the thinking is written. A planner is where the thinking becomes Thursday afternoon. Most teams have the first and improvise the second.
It turns on whether your tasks need to sit inside the document that produced them, or on the hour you will actually do them.
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 Sunsama if
the morning ritual is the thing that keeps you honest, and you plan on your own. Where it stops: it is single player, and it pulls tasks in rather than holding them.
What it costs
For a team of 5, billed yearly: Basecamp is about $900 a year, Sunsama is about $1200 a year, and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT. Between the two of them Basecamp is $300 a year cheaper at that size.
Basecamp: Free for one project. $15 per user per month, or $299 a month flat for unlimited users. Sunsama: Around $20 per month billed annually, up to $25 monthly. No free plan.
Where they part company
Basecamp does more on 6 of them
- docs and a wiki inside
- being the place the tasks actually live
- showing who has room
- turning meetings into tasks
- portfolio and agile reporting
- rules that fire on their own
Sunsama does more on 4 of them
- time blocking on a calendar
- having a plan for today
- two way calendar sync
- turning email and chat into tasks
Side by side
| What it does | Basecamp | Sunsama | UnaTask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time blocking on a calendar | No | Core | Core |
| A plan for today and this week | No | Core | Core |
| Two way calendar sync | Partly. A schedule per project, not a calendar you plan a week on. | Yes | Yes |
| It is the task manager itself | Yes | Partly. Tasks are mostly pulled in from the tools you already run. | Core |
| Dependencies and a timeline | No. Left out on purpose. It is a philosophy, not an oversight. | No | Yes. Dependencies with a timeline that shows what is waiting on what. |
| See who has room | Partly | No. Built for individuals. There is no shared team picture. | Core |
| Booking links | No | No | Yes |
| Meetings become tasks | Partly | No | Yes |
| Email and chat become tasks | Partly | Yes | Yes |
| Pull requests linked to work | No | No | Yes |
| Docs and wiki inside | Yes. Message boards, docs and check ins per project. | No | Partly. Docs live on a project, they are not a wiki you would run a company from. |
| Portfolio or agile reporting | Partly | No | Partly. Team workload and project progress, not portfolios that roll up to a board. |
| Rules that fire on their own | Partly | No | Yes |
| AI that does the work, not just the scheduling | No | No | Yes. AI teammates you assign a task to. The work comes back on the task for review. |
| Useful before you configure it | Core | Core | Core |
| A free plan | No | No | Yes |
What should not decide it
They answer the same on 6: dependencies and a timeline, booking links, linking pull requests to the work, AI that does the work rather than the scheduling, being useful before you configure it and having a free plan.
And where UnaTask sits
UnaTask takes the second job seriously and does not try to replace the first. Keep the wiki. Put the doing on a calendar.
It does more than both of them on being the place the tasks actually live, dependencies and a timeline, showing who has room, booking links, turning meetings into tasks, linking pull requests to the work, rules that fire on their own, AI that does the work rather than the scheduling and having a free plan.
Common questions
Basecamp vs Sunsama: 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 Sunsama if the morning ritual is the thing that keeps you honest, and you plan on your own.
What is the biggest difference between Basecamp and Sunsama?
The clearest gap is time blocking on a calendar, where Sunsama does more than Basecamp. Underneath that, Basecamp is a place to write things down together, with the work living inside the writing, and Sunsama is a place to decide, on purpose, what today actually contains.
Is Basecamp or Sunsama cheaper?
For a team of 5, billed yearly: Basecamp is about $900 a year, Sunsama is about $1200 a year, and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT. Between the two of them Basecamp is $300 a year cheaper at that size.
What do Basecamp and Sunsama have in common?
They answer the same on 6 of our 16 axes, among them dependencies and a timeline, booking links and linking pull requests to the work. Those are the things that should not decide it for you.
Where does UnaTask fit against Basecamp and Sunsama?
UnaTask does more than both on being the place the tasks actually live, dependencies and a timeline and showing who has room. 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.