And you caught us, the blank sidebar shows contextual information (like notifications for chat activity) that isn’t showing on the screenshots because we were messing with the layouts at the time of capturing them. Updated screengrabs will be up soon.

We were motivated to build Goplan because as software developers and consultants there were many details we were unhappy about in the current solutions for online collaborative work, like (wait for it) Basecamp. This being said, there is going to be people for whom Basecamp provides the best set of features, and people for whom Goplan does. It’s really a matter of using a package that makes you (and your team) productive.

There are always going to be obvious comparisons to basecamp, because both the teams at 37 Signals and ourselves saw the need for better online collaboration – but we took different approaches.

(And I’m saying this knowing Jason and David at 37 Signals personally)

Personally, I believe we will never have lost time building Goplan because we’ve become more productive in our work because of it, as it suits our purposes like a glove. If it manages to help other people in the same way, it will have reached our view of success.

My big question is, is it still going to be open-source or has the rewrite been to package it as a product?

And I knew the Basecamp comparison would be coming. I’d use Goplan over Basecamp based solely on the look if they were exactly the same. Although, as mentioned, Goplan allows you to turn features on and off, which is nice for when you don’t need the whole package. Overall it appears to be cleaner, which I like a lot. If it is indeed still open-source, that would be a major difference.

And I assume that the blank “sidebar” will have context-sensitive help (not that it’s needed) or other useful information.

Do you think you will outsell Basecamp? If not, then whats the point putting energies into a product that won’t compete. If so, how is it better than Basecamp.