Put your whole project on one page
GroundStation holds the work, the files, the schedule and the decisions in one place. Your team stops the search for information that it already has.
The free plan gives you 2 projects. Clients are always free. You do not need a credit card.
- Nine tools in each project
- Unlimited free clients
- Export everything at any time
- No credit card
How this started
The sentence I could not find
There's a particular kind of panic that only comes with running an agency.
A client pushes back on a change. They don't want to pay for it. And you know they agreed to it. You remember the conversation. You remember writing it down.
You just can't remember where.
So you start looking. Google Docs first, because that's probably where it was. Then Drive, in case it was a file and not a doc. Then Slack, scrolling back through a channel with three months of daily chatter in it. Then ClickUp, because maybe you dropped it in a task comment. Then back to Docs, because now you're second-guessing yourself.
I found it in the end. I remember the relief, and then, almost immediately after it, something worse. Frustration.
Not at the client. At the fact that finding one sentence I'd written myself, about my own business, for my own project, had turned into an archaeology dig.
The quiet problem
The thing nobody warns you about
The lost agreement was the loud problem. The quiet one was worse, because it happened every single day.
A client wants an update, so I open ClickUp and log it there. A subcontractor pings me, so I switch to Slack and answer there. A file needs sharing, so that's Drive. A decision gets made on a call, so it lives in someone's notes, or in nobody's.
- Chat app
- Task tracker
- Docs tool
- Shared drive
- Calendar
Six places to look. No single answer.
None of that takes long on its own. That's the trap. Each switch costs a few minutes and a bit of attention, and you never notice the bill until the end of the day, when you've been busy for nine hours and can't point at a single thing you actually finished.
Now multiply that across a handful of clients and a team of contractors.
You're not running an agency. You're running a search engine for your own work.
The list
What I actually wanted
I wasn't looking for anything exotic. I wanted one place where a project could live.
- One place where a project could live.
- Somewhere to talk to the team, right next to the work.
- Announcements that stay put instead of scrolling away.
- The docs and the files where the work is, not three tabs away.
- People and tasks I could actually keep track of.
- The client in the room too, not cc’d on an email thread.
That was the whole list. Six lines. It didn't feel like a lot to ask.
The near miss
Close, but not it. So I built it.
So I went looking.
- ClickUp and AsanaTurned up first, as they always do. Powerful. Not what I was after.
- BasecampGot close. Genuinely close. Clearly built by people who had felt the same thing I had.
But Basecamp is heavily opinionated. I like opinionated software, right up until I'm working across different businesses that genuinely need to run differently, and the software says no. And the price is fair for what it is. It just wasn't something I could justify for a team my size, for what is ultimately project management software.
I sat with that for a while. Close, but not it.
So I built my own. GroundStation is what came out of that frustration. Basecamp inspired a lot of it, and I'm happy to say so. Plenty of it will look familiar. The pricing is not the same, and neither is where we're taking it.
Six lines. This is where each one ended up.
- Done. One place where a project could live.The project page
- Done. Somewhere to talk to the team, right next to the work.Campfire
- Done. Announcements that stay put instead of scrolling away.Message Board
- Done. The docs and the files where the work is, not three tabs away.Docs and Files
- Done. People and tasks I could actually keep track of.To-dos and Card Table
- Done. The client in the room too, not cc’d on an email thread.Client access, free
And where it goes next: workflow automations, configured per project rather than forced across everything you run, so a rule one client needs doesn't land on all of them. That one is being built now. It is not shipped yet, and I'd rather say so here than let you find out after you sign up.
Set up your first project in a few minutes.
2 projects, and unlimited free clients. No credit card.
The fix
Every project gets one page and nine tools
The message board holds the decisions. The to-dos hold the work. Campfire holds the quick messages. Docs and Files hold everything else. It is all on one page.
Switch off the tools that you do not want. Most projects do not need all nine, and a tool that you switch off leaves the page.
Message Board
Post announcements and decisions. Your team comments on each post.
To-dos
Make lists with sections, subtasks, assignees, due dates and repeat rules.
Schedule
See all dated work in a calendar. Subscribe to it from your own calendar.
Docs and Files
Write documents with version history. Upload files or link to cloud files.
Campfire
Use one chat room for each project. Keep quick messages out of the board.
Card Table
Move cards from Triage to In Progress to Done. Add colour tags.
Hill Chart
See if a task is still unknown, or ready to finish.
Doors
Add quick links to the outside tools that this project uses.
Automatic Check-ins
Ask your team the same question on a schedule. Read the answers in one thread.
Hill Chart
See the true status of each task
A percentage hides the truth. "It is 90 percent done" has meant three more weeks since the first status report.
A hill chart asks a better question. Does your team still solve problems, or does it now only do the work? Drag each task up the hill while questions remain. Drag it over the top when only the work is left.
Snapshots record the position of every task last week. A task that does not move is easy to see, and you see it two weeks before a percentage admits to it.
Automatic check-ins
Replace the status meeting with a question
Ask your team "What did you work on today?" every weekday at 4pm. Or ask "Is anything blocked?" every Monday morning. The answers go into one thread.
Everyone reads the thread when it suits them. Nobody books a meeting. Nobody sits in a call and waits for a turn to speak.
Hey!
Get all your notifications in one place
One place, not nine. A mention, a new to-do for you, a comment on your document, a check-in question: they all go to Hey!. Read them, clear them, and get on with your day.
Project chatter does not email you until you ask for it. On a project with twenty people, one file upload would send nineteen emails. So GroundStation does not send them.
Clients and guests
Clients and guests are always free
Invite as many clients and guests as you want. They never count against your plan. This is true on every plan, and it includes the free one.
A client gets a read only view of the items that you share, and nothing else. Nobody has to export a PDF for the client. Nobody has to decide if one more login is worth the money.
An agency with 3 staff and 40 clients pays for 3 people.
Invite your clients today. They cost nothing.
2 projects, and unlimited free clients. No credit card.
Bring your own assistant
Your AI assistant can work here too
GroundStation speaks MCP. Claude, or the client that you prefer, works in your projects as you do. It reads the board, writes a document, adds to-dos, moves cards and plots the hill.
Make a token in your profile and point your client at it. The assistant then acts as you, with exactly your access. Every action appears under your name in the activity feed. The assistant cannot reach billing, your private notes, or a project that you cannot open.
On purpose
Some things are missing on purpose
- Clients and guests cost nothing. They are free on every plan. The free plan includes them.
- There are no activity scores. Reports show you the work. They do not show you who typed late at night.
- Email notifications start off. Project chatter does not email you until you ask for it.
- There is no chat widget. You get a help link instead. The link does not follow you down the page.
- The site works without JavaScript. Every button is a real form. The page stays fast on a slow connection.
Your data
You can take your data with you
Export every record and every file as a zip at any time. The export also works when your account is past due, because that is the moment when you need it. We do not hold your work to keep your business.
Two-factor authentication
Use an authenticator app or a security key. You also get single use recovery codes. An owner can require this for everyone.
We never see your card
Stripe hosts the checkout and the customer portal. Your card details do not reach our servers.
Deleted items come back
The trash holds deleted items for 30 days. Each item shows the days that remain. Put an item back at any time.
Where I am now
What actually changed
The honest answer to "was it worth building" is small and unglamorous.
I log in. I see what happened. I see where things stand. I know what needs me today and what doesn't.
No archaeology. No five tabs. No sinking feeling that the thing I need is somewhere in a tool I haven't checked yet.
I just hit the ground running.
That's the name. That's the whole reason it exists.
Pricing
Simple prices, and the clients are free
Free
Free
- Projects
- 2 projects
- Storage
- 10 GB
Clients and guests: free, and as many as you like
Start freeTeam
£19per month
- Projects
- 20 projects
- Storage
- 500 GB
Clients and guests: free, and as many as you like
Start freeAgency
£49per month
- Projects
- Unlimited
- Storage
- Unlimited
Clients and guests: free, and as many as you like
Start free
Every plan includes all nine tools. Clients and guests are always free and never count towards your team. Reach a limit and we tell you and offer the upgrade. Nothing is deleted and nothing is hidden. Stop paying and your account becomes read only. You can still sign in, still read everything, and still export it all.
The free plan gives you 2 projects. Clients are always free. You do not need a credit card.
Questions
The questions people ask first
Do we have to move everything at once?
No. Start with one project on the free plan. Most teams move one project first, not the whole company.
What happens when we reach the free plan limits?
GroundStation refuses the action and offers you an upgrade. It does not delete or hide the work that you made.
Can clients see everything in a project?
No. First you give a client access. Then you share the specific items. The client gets a read only view of those items.
What happens if we stop payment?
Your account becomes read only. Everyone can sign in, read everything and export all of it. A payment or a downgrade unlocks the account.
Can we use an AI assistant?
Yes. GroundStation includes an MCP server. You make a token in your profile. The assistant then works with your access, under your name.
Is there a mobile app?
No. GroundStation is a website. It works correctly on a phone.
Can we export our data?
Yes. You can export every record and every file as a zip at any time. The export also works while your account is read only.
Start with one project
Move one project this week. Keep it if it works. The free plan does not expire.
2 projects, and unlimited free clients. No credit card.