Basecamp's HTML export: who can run it, and what it holds

1. What does a Basecamp export actually give you?

A browsable copy of your account. In Basecamp's words, "account owners can export a full HTML copy of Basecamp data at any time", and "they can export individual projects, a selection, or the entire account".

Two things about that are worth knowing before you start.

It is owner-only. Basecamp is blunt: "only account owners have access to this feature", and if the export option is not visible in Adminland, that is the reason. There is no admin tier below owner that can run it, so on a client account or an agency account the export is somebody else's job.

It reaches further than your own projects. When you open the export page you see "a list of all active and archived projects on the account, including projects you haven't been added to". Archived work is included, which is unusual: most tools in this category quietly leave archived projects out. It also means an owner running a full export is taking a copy of work they may never have had access to inside the app, which is worth a moment's thought on a shared or client-facing account.

2. How do you export your Basecamp data?

1. From the Home page, click the Adminland button on the left.
2. Select Export data from this account.
3. Check off the projects you want.
4. Click Export my data.

Then you wait. Basecamp says "exports can take a while to compile depending on the size of your account" and that "you'll receive an email when it's ready to download". There is no progress bar to watch and no published time estimate.

Read this before you cancel a subscription. Basecamp's own warning is explicit: "Planning to cancel? Export your data first, and let the download finish completely before canceling. If you cancel mid-download, the export won't complete and you'll need to contact support to retrieve it."

That is the single most useful sentence on this page. The failure it describes is easy to walk into, because cancelling and exporting feel like parts of the same afternoon: you request the export, the email takes longer than expected, you cancel to avoid another month's charge, and the download you were waiting for never completes. Leave the subscription running until the file is on your disk and you have opened it.

3. Should you export Ping conversations?

Pings are exported separately from projects, through their own option on the same page, and you can take all of them or select specific conversations.

Basecamp attaches guidance to this that is worth reproducing rather than paraphrasing, because it is unusual for a vendor to argue against a feature it ships:

"Pings are private, one-on-one and group conversations. Exporting them means reading correspondence that people reasonably expected to stay private. The account owner legally owns all content in a Basecamp account, including Pings, but ownership doesn't make exporting those conversations appropriate in every situation."

Basecamp recommends exporting Pings "only when there's a clear, legitimate reason: an active legal matter, a formal HR investigation, or a court order requiring it", and says that using a Ping export to monitor employees or read personal conversations outside those circumstances "is a serious breach of trust".

The practical reading, if you are exporting because you are leaving Basecamp: you almost certainly do not need the Pings. Take the projects, leave the private conversations, and you avoid carrying a copy of your colleagues' private messages into your next tool by accident.

4. What is an HTML export good for?

More than its reputation suggests. An HTML archive is the right answer to three real problems.

Keeping a record you can actually read. The export preserves what a project looked like: the messages in order, the to-do lists with who checked what off, the comment threads with their replies attached. A CSV of the same project would give you rows and lose the conversation. If the point is that somebody can open this in five years and understand what happened, HTML is a better format than a spreadsheet, not a worse one.

Client handover. Agencies finishing an engagement can hand over a folder that opens in any browser, with no account, no licence and no software. That is a genuinely clean way to close out a project.

Legal and compliance retention. It is complete, it includes archived projects, and it does not depend on anyone keeping a subscription alive.

And what it cannot do

It is not a migration file. A CSV maps onto rows and columns that another tool understands; a folder of HTML pages does not, and importers are not built to read one. If you find a tool that claims otherwise, test it on a single project before trusting it with the account.

So the export answers "can I keep a copy" and not "can I move my work". Those are different questions, and Basecamp only has a built-in answer to the first.

5. How do you move Basecamp projects to ClickUp, Nifty or Jira?

Every route on this list connects to your Basecamp account. None of them reads the HTML export, because there is nothing in a folder of web pages for an importer to parse. That makes Basecamp unusual: the file you are entitled to download and the file a destination needs are not the same file, and only one of them exists.

Basecamp to ClickUp or Nifty

Both connect to your account and both are genuine first-party importers. ClickUp's is worth reading the small print on: it is documented as compatible with Basecamp 3, and it imports your to-dos, with Basecamp lists arriving as ClickUp Lists. Work that lives in a card table, on the Message Board or in Docs is outside what it takes.

Nifty offers its Basecamp import during signup as well as afterwards, which makes it the smoother option if you are starting a fresh account rather than merging into an existing one.

Basecamp to Jira or Asana

Jira has first-party importers for Trello, Asana, ClickUp, monday and a dozen others, and not for Basecamp. The route is a third-party app from the Atlassian Marketplace, which is a different proposition: another vendor, another permission grant, and no guarantee it tracks Basecamp's changes.

Asana imports from CSV, and Basecamp does not produce one. Unless you are willing to retype or script something against the API, this is not a supported path in either direction.

The general shape: Basecamp's data is easy to read and hard to move, and the tools that make it easy are the ones that built a connector rather than the ones that read files.

Destination importers were checked against each vendor's documentation on August 13, 2026.

6. How do you move Basecamp projects into Breeze?

By connecting the two accounts rather than producing a file. Breeze reads your Basecamp account through the API, so the HTML export is not involved at all, and neither is the owner-only gate on it.

In Breeze, open the menu in the top-right corner, select Settings, open the Import tab and select Import next to Basecamp. The wizard runs in four steps: connect, choose the projects, match people, and review before anything is written.

What comes across, and what does not

Basecamp projects can be organised two ways, and Breeze reads both: a card table becomes a board with its columns as your lists, and to-do lists become the lists instead, with each to-do as a task. Steps inside either one become subtasks. Comments come across, and attachments arrive as links back to Basecamp.

Being straight about the rest, because Basecamp gives an importer less to work with than any other tool Breeze reads:

• No tags and no custom fields, because Basecamp has neither. There is nothing missing here, there is nothing to bring.
• No time tracking, unless you pay for Basecamp's Timesheet add-on, which sits outside what the importer reads.
• A project with neither a card table nor a to-do list has nothing to import. Both tools are optional in Basecamp and a new project starts with an empty dock, so a project that lives entirely in Message Board posts and Docs will arrive empty. Check the review step before you run it.
• Triage, Not now and Done columns lose their special status. Basecamp does not let you rename or delete those three; in Breeze they arrive as ordinary lists you can do what you like with, which is a gain or a loss depending on your taste.

The sensible order if you are leaving: run the Basecamp HTML export and keep it as your archive, connect Breeze and import the projects you intend to keep working on, and only then cancel, once the download has finished. The two do different jobs and you want both.

Still deciding? Breeze vs Basecamp covers the practical differences, and the best Basecamp alternatives for task tracking looks at the wider field.

Common questions about exporting Basecamp data

Can you export Basecamp to Excel or CSV?

No. Basecamp's export produces a full HTML copy and offers no spreadsheet format. If you need your to-dos as rows, the routes are copying them out by hand or reading the account through the API.

Why can't you see the export option in Basecamp?

Because you are not an account owner. Basecamp restricts the export to owners, and it does not appear in Adminland for anyone else. Ask whoever owns the account to run it.

Does a Basecamp export include archived projects?

Yes. The export list covers all active and archived projects on the account, including ones you were never added to. That is more generous than most tools, which leave archived work out of exports entirely.

Export to keep it, connect to move it

Basecamp's export is a good archive and not a migration path, and treating it as both is where people come unstuck. Run it before you cancel, let the download finish, skip the Pings unless you have a reason you could defend, and keep the folder somewhere you will find it.

Then, if the work is continuing somewhere else, connect the accounts instead of feeding a file to an importer that cannot read it. See exactly what Breeze imports from Basecamp, then try it with one project before you move the rest.