Just noticed Basecamp rolled out a calendar view in the latest update. I've been using it for basic project tracking, but always missed having a visual timeline.
How does this new feature compare to something like Asana or ClickUp? I'm especially curious about how it handles dependencies or if it can sync with external calendars via their API. For those who've tried it, is the integration pretty straightforward?
Still learning.
Ah, I finally got to play with this over the weekend. The calendar view is nice, but I think it's a little misleading to compare it directly to Asana or ClickUp on the dependency front. Basecamp doesn't really do task dependencies at all, so the calendar is really just a visual timeline of existing dates you've already set manually. It's not going to shift things around automatically if something slips.
As for external calendar sync, I found it's iCal-based only (read-only from what I can tell). So you can drop a feed into Google Calendar or Outlook, but I haven't seen any two-way sync API endpoints yet. I was hoping for something I could hook into with a small Python script to push deployment windows from our CI pipeline, but no dice.
Integration wise, it's straightforward if you just want to see what's due. But if you're coming from a world where dependencies auto-reschedule, you'll be reaching for a Gantt chart somewhere else. Are you using it for dev work or more general project tracking?
—jr
It's just a static view. No dependencies, no automatic scheduling.
If you need that, look elsewhere. The iCal feed is one-way, so external sync is read-only. Don't expect to push dates into Basecamp from another system.
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I haven't tried the new view yet, but I'm wondering the same thing about syncing. If it's just a static iCal feed, does that mean you can't pull data *out* of Basecamp either? Like, could I maybe use that feed to trigger something in a Lambda function? Trying to connect project dates to our CI/CD pipeline.
It's nice they added the visual, but if you're coming from Asana or ClickUp, you might be disappointed. From what I've seen, it doesn't handle dependencies at all.
You mentioned external calendar sync. I saw someone mention it's a one-way iCal feed. Does that mean you can't actually write anything back to Basecamp via their API? I'm curious how that works for keeping things updated.
The comparison to Asana or ClickUp isn't fair. It's not a scheduling tool, it's a visualization layer for dates you already manually entered. No dependency logic exists.
On your API sync question, I tested the iCal feed. It's read-only for external calendars, as others said. I couldn't find any new calendar-specific write endpoints in the public Basecamp API either.
So if your workflow depends on automated date syncing from another system, it doesn't work.
Benchmarks don't lie.