Freedcamp Review

Freedcamp promises free, effortless collaboration for teams and offers its users many tools to help them work together on projects. It originates in California and is a fresh, modern-looking platform. Read what we thought of it in this Freedcamp review.

It is user-friendly and geared toward respecting its clients. If you don’t like the hard sell and appreciate having your email clear of product offers and spam, it is a great choice. Its website feels warm and pleasant — more like being in a cafe than the high-pressure business atmosphere some tools try to recreate.

If you prefer something more business-focused, take a look at our LeanKit review for a platform that takes an alternative approach.

Though this is the first time we’ve looked at Freedcamp, it is popular and has heavyweights on its books, including Google, Apple, PayPal and Airbnb, so if you sign up, you’ll be in good company.

We were impressed with it and found it to be cheap and easy to use, despite the occasional interface flaw. It is well worth checking out, especially if you’re watching the pennies. Educators and nonprofits get special deals, so they have even more reason to give it a try. If you’re not too sure about it, check out our selection of the best project management software.

Alternatives for Freedcamp

Strengths & Weaknesses

Features

You get unlimited storage with Freedcamp, which is excellent, but the file size limit for free users is just 10MB. That is going to be quite limiting. Video is out, for example and software project files and even large images can potentially be too big. The limit increases with subscription levels, up to a maximum of 250MB on the Enterprise plan.

That’s a lot better, but you’ll still need more if you’re working with larger file types. If you need to get external file storage, read our best online storage for teams article for a roundup of the options.

Freedcamp has an app marketplace for expanding its functionality. The most popular free apps claim over 2 million installs and some of the paid apps hit 20,000 or so. Its configuration pages, accessed via the “manage system” button on its dashboard, allow you to switch modules on and off, easily adding them to your projects.

Tuning what’s available like that lets you keep things as simple as possible while including the functionality you need.

Basic views are selected via icons in the light horizontal toolbar.

Components are added to a dark sidebar on the left of the screen. The left-hand toolbar wasn’t visible in many areas, depriving us of easy links to components we’d added, but you can use the bookmarking system to get around that.

There’s an API for developers if they want to expand on Freedcamp. You can also work with Zapier to give Freedcamp access to data in a huge number of platforms. Read about a few examples in our Google Drive review, Evernote review and Asana review.

The widgets view shows you the widgets you have included, but the items it shows don’t always link to the screens themselves, which is confusing. We added an issue tracker. It tracked issues separately from those we’d added in the task view, which took us a while to figure out.

Freedcamp Wikis

Freedcamp has wikis, which you can use to build a knowledgebase around your project, which is a handy feature. Users can also make discussion threads for their teams to communicate in. You can generate reports showing what tasks have been done, but there aren’t too many customization options for them.

There’s also an invoicing feature, allowing you to create quick invoices and estimates and store client details. If you’re interested in seeing more options when it comes to automating your invoices, take a look at our accounting software services for ideas.

Most of the widgets look good, but they sometimes feel undercooked in terms of functionality. Some of them seemed self-contained, using their own data with no obvious way to integrate them with the wider project. We’re sure many will find them useful, though, and recommend experimenting to find those that can be of use.

In addition to running in the browser, Freedcamp has apps for Android and iOS, so you can plan your projects on the train as well as the office. There’s a desktop version for Windows tucked away on its website, as well as an even better hidden macOS version, which we only found linked in its knowledgebase.

The Windows version page includes a warning that you’ll need to click through an “unrecognized app” screen to install it, though, which is somewhat concerning. We appreciate that getting certification for desktop applications is a messy process, but we still expect a business with millions of customers to be able to do it.

We like Freedcamp’s unlimited storage. It has a lot of widgets and expansions, too, but we felt some of them could be improved. It ticks a lot of boxes, but it also has a few rough edges. Freedcamp is highly configurable, though, with a lot available, so it gets a decent score here.

Freedcamp Features Overview

User-Friendliness

From its website to its applications, everything in Freedcamp takes a user-centric approach. The application goes out of its way to do things right.

Signing up is easy and, once you do so, you are invited to create your first project. Freedcamp uses a simple two-panel approach, with the left panel containing fields for you to update and the right panel showing how your project should be arranged. The example text will be replaced by what you type.

We liked that and thought it was a neat approach to a problem we find in many tools where the introduction pushes us to set things up before we know what to do.

You get an email with links to a couple of introductory videos shortly after signing up. They are an excellent way to get to know the tool. We were pleased to see them get straight to showing you how things work, without making you watch filler at the start, and recommend watching them for a quick overview of everything.

From there, you go to the dashboard, where you can see your assigned tasks, updates, projects and a weekly overview. There are various controls and menus around the screen, too. It’s a strong design that is attractive and appealing, giving you plenty of options without looking overwhelming.

Tasks can be created easily and assigned properties, such as a priority and start and due dates, and they can be assigned to a team member. They are displayed in a list by default and can be filtered and ordered.

Freedcamp Subtasks

Subtasks can be created, as well as dependencies, which shows you what needs to be done first and what is waiting for other things to finish.

In addition to the well-designed new task form, there are tags on the right that can be assigned to existing tasks. You can’t drag these onto the new task form, though, which is confusing at first.

You can comment on each task and attach files to them. This can be done directly or via services such as Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or Dropbox. You might want to take a look at our Dropbox review if you’re one of the few who haven’t tried it.

Beyond the task view, you can use the calendar view to see what’s coming up over the next few weeks. Handily, Freedcamp allows you to move tasks around by dragging and dropping.

The calendar has view options, such as a dark mode and various contrast levels. You can change the first day of the week to Sunday or Monday, as well as adjust your work hours based on how you operate.

Its kanban view splits your tasks into three columns, showing you which you’ve started, which you’ve finished and which are still waiting to be done. That’s a simple and effective way to organize things. You can’t customize the columns like you can with some tools, though.

Another good tool that is based around a kanban view is Trello. We use it here at Cloudwards and recommend that you look at our Trello beginner’s guide if you’re curious to learn more about it.

Its Gantt view shows you how tasks fit together and you can easily create dependencies with it by dragging between different items. It is a great way to organize your projects and help ensure everything can get done on time.

Freedcamp Bookmarks

One quality of life feature we appreciate is Freedcamp’s bookmark list. It lets you add any page or view to a drop-down list, which is helpful when navigating. We’d like to see it implemented in all project management tools because it makes finding your way around much easier.

We saw a few errors on its website, such as gaps, spelling mistakes and inaccurate information. For example, some text says its Android app is almost ready, despite it being available in the Play Store. None of these are major things, but they show that Freedcamp has plenty of rough edges, despite looking polished and being intuitive to use.

The navigation is good looking and slick and it responds fast. It lacks flow at times and getting to particular screens is often trickier than it should be because navigation panels sometimes go missing. The bookmarks make a difference, though, and mitigate the problem.

Using Freedcamp is a pleasant experience. There are many nice touches, but it has its fair share of minor issues, too. It gets a good score overall.

Cost

True to its name, Freedcamp is free for unlimited users and lets you have as many files and projects as you like. Its pricing page promises “simple and honest” pricing, and that’s what you get.

Free 1 User Details	FREE
Minimalist 1 User Details	$ 1.49/ month
Freelancer 1 User Details	$ 3.49/ month
Business 1 User Details	$ 7.49/ month
Enterprise 1 User Details	$ 16.99/ month

Freedcamp only bills for active users. You can invite as many people as you want to view your projects at no extra cost.

There’s a 14-day free trial for its paid plans, with the exception of the Enterprise tier. You can contact Freedcamp directly if you want to try that, though.

Nonprofit organizations and educators can get even deeper discounts. If they have less than 30 users, they can use the Minimalist tier for free and there are significant discounts on the other plans. Freedcamp has a list of exclusions for nonprofits, so you might want to take a look at its website for details.

Its terms and conditions are something of an epic read, too, so if you’re the type of person who likes to read the small print, you’ll need a fair bit of time to get through them.

Payment is by credit card only.

For its acceptable free offering, rock-bottom prices on most of its plans and discounts for educators and nonprofits, we give Freedcamp high marks.

Security & Privacy

Freedcamp doesn’t provide much information about security on the sales section of its website and is unusual in that respect. It has a privacy policy, but it is more of a legal compliance document than a customer-friendly explanation of what it does to protect your data.

Once you sign up, though, there’s a useful article in its knowledgebase that gives you more details.

It is committed to not viewing your user data unless necessary, which is something we wish we could take for granted, so it’s good to see Freedcamp making the pledge. If you’re concerned about who else might be snooping on you, read our how to protect your privacy article for pointers.

It complies with the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. privacy shield frameworks. It also mentions the General Data Protection Regulation, but doesn’t go into detail, unlike us in our GDPR article, which will help you get your head around it.

It says it supports the “latest secure cipher suites and protocols,” but doesn’t specify which encryption it uses for data in-transit or at-rest. Perhaps sparing us the details makes life harder for the bad guys, too. Read our cybercrime article for more about the subject.

In addition to performing regular backups, it is externally audited and has an automatic intrusion detection system to spot would-be hackers.

If security and privacy are priorities for you, take a look at our Smartsheet review. Smartsheet is strong in both areas, as well as easy to use.

Two-factor authentication is only offered on its Enterprise plan. We’d prefer to see it available to everyone, but that’s better than not having it at all. Read our what is two-factor authentication article to learn more about why we value it.

We didn’t find much in the way of security options in the application, but there is an add-on that lets you manage group passwords.

Freedcamp offers what you’d expect in terms of security and privacy, with high standards in place, as well as two-factor authentication for those on its most expensive plan. We’d prefer to see more options, but aren’t unhappy with what’s there, so Freedcamp gets a good score.

Service & Support

Freedcamp promises different response speeds depending on your plan. Free users get standard support, while those on the Enterprise tier can expect a lightning fast response.

Click the “get support” button in the bottom right of the screen and a contact form will pop up. It is quick, functional and efficient and doesn’t force you to wade through its support materials before sending a message. We like its no-nonsense approach.

We asked a question about adding custom columns to its kanban view and received a response in a little over half an hour, which is excellent. The response was detailed and suggested a couple of workarounds for the issue we had, along with providing a diagram, so top marks to Freedcamp’s support team.

Select the “tutorials & support” option in its main menu and you will be sent to a well-designed knowledgebase page. It includes links to a few YouTube videos. There are 20 or so on Freedcamp’s channel.

The knowledgebase articles are clear, with lots of labeled illustrations to show you how to do things. There are a few gaps, though, and the page could use a search field. We couldn’t find an article on how to add columns to its kanban view, for example, or anything about the kanban view at all.

Cleverly, there’s a “restore all hints” button. That’s yet another good idea. Many tools include plenty of useful hints and pop-ups for new users, but only display them once, so they can easily be missed if you’re busy getting things done or forgotten. Having a button to bring them back makes a lot of sense.

Unfortunately, the execution isn’t quite as good, as we didn’t get hints and pop-ups, even after clicking the button. It’s a great idea, though, and is something we’d like to see other platforms do.

We were impressed with Freedcamp’s support. Its team got back to us quickly when we asked a question and it has a good selection of support material, but its knowledgebase could do with more articles. It gets a good score.

Final Thoughts

We were impressed with what we saw when using Freedcamp. In addition to getting the basics right, it is full of good ideas. It is easy to use and cheap, too.

This was the first time we looked at it, but it might well be included when we compile our next roundup of the best project management software. It has a few minor errors scattered around its interface and website, but things work well overall.

If you’ve given Freedcamp a try, please share your experience with it in the comments below. Thanks for reading.